Why was Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt?

There are two points, I believe, come out about Lot's wife: she was unbelieving and she was disobedient; and, dear unsaved reader, is not this what you are? Have you believed God? Have you obeyed the Gospel? You know you have not! "Remember Lot's wife."

Because of her indifference, because of her coldheartedness, she was turned into a pillar of salt. She was a hypocrite, she appeared to leave the city, she appeared to be going to the mountain, but her heart was in the city; she did not really believe in the judgment coming; she said in her heart, "I see no sign of judgment coming; I will look back and see if what those men said is true:" she looks back, and is turned into a pillar of salt.

Let us now look at the way in which he gets at length delivered out of Sodom. The Lord Jesus bids you and me look at and learn from this scene, otherwise He would not have said so emphatically: "As it was in the days of Lot … thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed;" and, lest there should be among His followers any lingering in sin or procrastinating, He adds that sharp, short, trite sentence, that I would to God were burned deeply into the conscience of every lingerer here tonight — "Remember Lot's wife!" She was a person who was almost saved, but was not. She was within sight of the place of safety, but failed to reach it. She was on the verge of getting divinely appointed security, but missed it. Two things worked in her heart to her ruin. Unbelief and disobedience. She did not in her heart believe that God would judge Sodom, and spite of His plain command to the contrary, she would look back, and in that moment she was cut off, and she stands an everlasting beacon of the awful folly of disobeying the Lord.

Ah! my unconverted, world-loving friend, you think you can have your own way. You can; I admit it; but you will repent it for eternity, unless God bring you to deep repentance here. Lot's wife may well warn you. She stands an everlasting beacon, I repeat, to this world of the insensate folly of a soul that might have been saved, but was not, through unbelief and disobedience. Therefore our Lord cries, with the most emphatic language possible — "Remember Lot's wife!" God help you to remember Lot's wife; for if you do not receive Jesus as your blessed Saviour now, you may never have another opportunity; and you will repent in eternity the awful folly of not simply obeying the gospel.

And now one word about Lot's wife. We read that she "looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." Half-hearted soul! "Remember Lot's wife." Nearly saved, but not quite! Near to the place of safety; but not in it. Are you almost converted, but not quite? To be "almost persuaded" is of no avail. "Remember Lot's wife!" if such be your state.

It is quite possible that you may have been impressed, and been made somewhat anxious, before today. Possibly you have been brought under the sound of the gospel by some Christian friend against your will. Do you believe its tale? It is true. But you say, I cannot believe that God will judge a scene like this. "Remember Lot's wife." That was the thought, I believe, that Lot's wife indulged in as she walked along. She lingered a bit behind her husband, and then came up this thought — I do not think the Lord will judge the place after all. Although her body was outside Sodom, her heart was within it. Thus thinking she determined — spite of the word, "Look not behind thee" — to have a little bit of a look, and just at the moment she was entering Zoar, the place of safety, she disobeyed God, and judgment overtook her. This foolish woman disobeys the plain command of the Lord, "Look not behind thee." Unbelief led to disobedience. She evidently did not believe that God would judge Sodom, and harbouring the thought, Was it true? she turned, and "she became a pillar of salt."

Friend, have you learned the lesson of the pillar of salt? A stranger travelling through that scene afterwards, and looking over the blackened country as he journeyed, would, with surprise, be attracted by the bright and shining pillar, untouched by smoke, which met his view. Small wonder if he said, "What means this?" Lot's wife did not fall in the judgment of Sodom. It was a distinct judgment by the hand of God on unbelief, which He always judges sooner or later. Disobedience, too, He always judges.

As he lingered, unwilling to leave the city himself, the two angels had to take him, his wife and two daughters by the hand and practically drag them out of Sodom, then urge them to escape for their lives without even looking, behind them. But Lot's wife did look back, and was turned into a pillar of salt, a preserved memorial to the folly of preferring Sodom to deliverance by the grace of God. Of course, she may have been concerned about her sons, but it was too late now. It was time rather for her to be concerned about her sins! Why had the parents not prepared their sons for such an occasion?

By the time Lot entered Zoar the sun had risen (v.23). The people of Sodom and Gomorrah, seeing the bright sunshine, would be happily prepared for another day of sinful pleasure. But what a shock! Judgment from God suddenly falls in the form of brimstone and fire such as a volcanic eruption might produce (v.24), though we are not told the means of this terrible catastrophe. Some would be killed immediately, no doubt others would have time to realize that God was punishing them for their gross wickedness. But it was too late to escape. The judgment and desolation was total. Every inhabitant of the cities and all the vegetation was destroyed. But this is a picture of a greater judgment still: "As it was in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed" (Luke 17:28-30). 1 Thessalonians 5:3 comments on this, "When they say, Peace and safety, "then sudden destruction comes upon them -- and they shall not escape."

Lot had entered Zoar, but not his wife: she, from behind him, "looked back; and she became a pillar of salt" (v.26). She apparently lagged behind. Her heart was evidently still in Sodom. It seems that Lot had obtained her in Sodom, for we do not read of her before he went there. Such an unequal yoke in marriage might explain why Lot remained there as long as he did when he was continually trouble by "the filthy conversation of the wicked." They had been told not to look back, but the fear of God had not really laid hold of her soul. "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32). Salt is a preserving agent, but this is only a preserved testimony to the folly of unbelief.

"And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law." (Gen. 19:12-14) . They did not believe, nor leave Sodom. They thought Lot was jesting.

In the morning, the angels hurried Lot and told him to get up, take his wife and two daughters or they would be destroyed in the city. And while he was slow, these two angels took their hands, for God was kind to him, and led them outside the city, and said, "Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain." But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. "Remember Lot's wife." (Luke 17:32)

Lot having been withdrawn, the judgment fell from heaven. Those who have examined that region, in the light of modern discoveries as to oil and bitumen-bearing sites, tell us it is quite easy to visualize what happened. Perhaps so, but the miracle consisted in fire from the Lord out of heaven starting the mighty conflagration and eruptions that blasted these four cities out of existence, and left their sites to this day as "an example to those that after should live ungodly." (2 Peter 2:6). The thought of the evil and its judgment has persisted, for the word "sodomy" is found in our language as designating sin of a specially vile and unnatural sort. This judgment, moreover, was a sample of what is yet to come on a much greater scale in "the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (2 Peter 3:7)

Four persons came out of Sodom, practically dragged out by the angels, as we saw in verse 16, but only three entered Zoar. Lot's wife evidently left her heart in Sodom, and her eyes following her heart, she looked back, became involved in the disaster and perished under a deluge of salt. One of the shortest verses in the Bible records our Lord's words, "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32). We may well remember and let the lessons of her end sink into our hearts. She was married to a true saint, she was prayed for by an eminent saint, Abraham, she came under the constraint of angels from heaven; yet she was lost. She had the unclean nature that loved the filthy garbage of Sodom. What vexed Lot evidently had attractions for her.

When the angels brought forth Lot from Sodom, their command was, "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee," but Lot's "wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." Although delivered out of Sodom, she had left her heart there, and she was more concerned with Sodom than with the word of God spoken by the angels. Are we not reminded of this in Hebrews 2:2? "If the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward." In Luke 17, where the Lord speaks of the day when the Son of man shall be revealed, He says, "He that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife." Was it in the heart of Lot's wife to return back to Sodom? To the disciples, the Lord Jesus said, "Ye are the salt of the earth;" and Lot and his wife should have been "salt" after this fashion in Sodom. What she should have been morally in Sodom, she becomes physically outside of Sodom, as a memorial of "the goodness and the severity of God."

A. Genesis 19:26 is clearly not the consecrating principle but judicial infliction. For Lot's wife disobeying at such a time became an abiding monument of divine judgment. So too, if Israel rebelled and fell under the curse, Jehovah declared that their whole ground should be brimstone and salt, like the overthrow of Sodom (Deuteronomy 29:23). The N.T. adds the awful figure of salt losing its savour, and hence, as proper neither for land nor for dung, to be cast out. Grace does effect not only love but separateness to God in the believer. Easy-going unbelief destroys all savour in those that bear the Lord's name without self-judgment. What must the end of this be? Not only unrighteousness but apostasy.

The 32nd verse of Luke 17 "Remember Lot's wife," is the Lord's solemn comment on Genesis 19; and there is something weirdly strange about this word of the Lord.

"Remember Lot's wife." What about Lot's wife? She stands the everlasting witness of the folly of not obeying the word of the Lord, the folly of a sort of middle path, when God's word has declared what is coming on the scene. Lot's wife is the picture of many souls: they would like to be saved, but they have not reached the point of safety, have not reached the spot where there is safety. The Lord says to such, "Remember Lot's wife." Did she not want to be saved? Yes. Did she not wish to escape destruction? Yes. Did she not make a show of escaping it? Yes. Did she escape it? No! "Remember Lot's wife." She might have been saved, but she was not saved, and yet she was not overtaken by the judgment of the cities; not one drop of that liquid fire fell on Lot's wife: no, she was cut off, but not by the judgment which fell on the cities.