I love studying women in the Bible, and Lot’s wife is no exception. I actually think more women today relate to her than any other woman in the Bible…which is rather sad. Her testimony is found in Genesis 19, and here are a few of the questions that came to my mind while reading and studying.
1. She had to have observed her husband going out to confront the gay men in their community and see the angels pull her husband back into their home for safety. What did she feel? What were her thoughts on what was going on?
2. When she heard the angels say they were going to destroy their city, did she start packing anything? Was she confused?
3. Had she become blind to Yahweh’s values and accepted the sin going on in her city? Overlooked it? Did she accept it because she thought it didn’t affect her?
4. Was she ever burdened for the lost in her city or had she acclimated to living in the city and being of the city?
5. When the angel grabbed her hand and the hands of her family members and walked them outside the city walls, was it an uncomfortable grip because they had hesitated to be obedient to God?
6. When she was told to run for her life, what were her first thoughts? Mine would be, “I am so out of shape, and you want me to run?”
7. “Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop anywhere on the plain!” Instructions are important. We already have seen how Lot hesitates in obedience. Was she wondering what was going to happen to all her things she left behind? Was she thinking about the lost friends she was leaving behind?
What was she thinking?
8. “Run to the mountains you will be swept away?” How did she process that? Be swept away by what? Did she want to know details?
9. Was she relieved when her husband negotiated terms with the angels to run somewhere closer?
10. They had been forced to leave early in the morning. Had she grabbed anything to take with her? OR did she think she would be home in a couple of days? What would I have grabbed?
11. We know Lot’s wife turned around, but let’s think about why. It was raining sulfur, so the smell of rotten eggs had to have been overwhelming to the point of gagging her. There were asphalt pits all around and could have been ignited by the sulfur. Everyone and every living thing being burned alive. The sounds of their screams could have reached her ears. Ash would have risen worse than what was produced by the chimneys of Auschwitz. Then there were her thoughts. What was the first thing to penetrate her senses? What was the one thing that drove to make the decision to look back?
12. In the split second she turned around and saw Sodom and Gomorrah, what did she see?
13. The judgment for her disobedience was being turned into a pillar of salt, but in this judgment maybe there was also grace. What if the sight of what she saw would have haunted her for the rest of her life? She would have had no peace, no rest.
Do you see how doing a little research can change how you experience God’s Word?
Do you see how putting on the sandals of a woman in the Bible and walking in them might actually change the way you think about her?
So here are some questions, so you can apply this Scripture to your life.
1. How blind are you to the sin going on in your community? Have you bought into the idea of “acceptance?”
2. How concerned are you with those who are lost and going to burn in a sulfur based fire in hell?
3. How absorbed are you with the materialistic things in this world? Does it override your desire to tell others about Yahweh?
4. When God speaks to you, do you take Him at His Word or are you resistant and try to negotiate so you can be in your comfort zone? God has a way of making our comfort zone an unpleasant place.
5. What would you have done if you had been Lot’s wife hearing the screams of burning people and animals, smelling rotten eggs, seeing the ash fall from the sky like snow? Do you have the discipline to stay focused on what is ahead or would you look to what was behind?
One of my favorite verses is
“I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on paths they have not known. I will turn darkness to light in front of them and rough places into level ground. This is what I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.”
Leading, guiding is done from in front which is why there is light in front of you not behind you. If you want to go back to where you once were, then you will be going without God’s leadership. God was leading Lot and his family forward and the cost of looking back was her life. Are you like Lot’s wife living in the past or are you being obedient and moving forward?