 The
Proclaimer
"Remember Lot's Wife"
Jesus said,
“Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32). I’m not sure many folks do that, even
among God’s people. Certainly we all know the story of Lot and his family
and how he chose to settle in the city of Sodom only to narrowly escape
God’s judgment and destruction of that wicked city. As you recall, God told
Lot and his family not to look back on the destruction of Sodom as they
left. Lot’s wife disobeyed and was immediately turned to a pillar of salt
(read Genesis 18-19). What is the lesson here? Why did Jesus tell us to
remember her?
This statement
about Lot’s wife is found in the midst of instruction that Jesus gives
concerning the destruction of the earth and the preparation that His
disciples are to make for that day. Notice the statement that follows the
appeal to remember Lot’s wife: “Whosoever shall seek to gain his life shall
lose it: but whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it” (Luke 17:33).
This rather paradoxical statement is at the heart of why we are to remember
Lot’s wife.
Lenski says the
word “life” (psucheen) in this passage refers to that which makes our
physical bodies alive. Therefore, “to seek to gain (preserve) one’s life,”
means to devote all one’s thought, time, and effort to getting everything
for our physical body only. It is the absence of concern for things
spiritual that is the problem as most people in the world concern themselves
with satisfying the flesh. Hence no preparation for the end of the world is
made.
The Christian, on
the other hand, should know better. Having overcome the dominion and
destruction of sin through faith in Christ our perspective is changed. Like
Paul, we “count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ” (Phil. 3:8), and are no longer primarily concerned with physical
provisions, but rather spiritual. Our concern is not earthly treasure, but
heavenly (Matt. 6:19-21). To us, the most important thing in life is going
to heaven.
Lot’s wife is an
example of one who was delivered by God from destruction only to lose her
life and be destroyed. Some might consider her sin to be rather trivial,
after all she did come out of the city. But we must understand that to have
the heart set on earthly valuables is fatal. We simply cannot look back and
long for the sinful world from which we have been delivered and reach
heaven. “Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that
are upon the earth” (Col. 3:2). “Know ye not that the friendship of the
world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the
world maketh himself and enemy of God” (James 4:4).
It
seems to me this is a special challenge for us today. Regardless of how
prosperous many are, they still long for more. Why is this so? Because
they, like Lot’s wife, are looking back to the things of the world instead
of looking forward to the glory of heaven. We must remember we are but
“strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Once a part of the world, “now
they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not
ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a
city” (Heb. 11:15).
-- Clark Dugger
The Proclaimer
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