Remember Lot's Wife

by Xylia Sparks-Davis on 09/20/12

How many times have I been snatched out of danger by God only to run back in the fray myself?  I am so caught up in the drama of the moment that I cannot let go and move on.  I cannot see the big picture.  I have sabotaged my freedom and become frozen in place by the circumstances that have overtaken me.  I am a like a pillar of hardened salt – unyielding and unmovable.  I am trapped in the middle of a crisis where my presence was not necessary.

Remember Lot’s wife (Genesis 19)

Most of us know her as the woman captured forever as a pillar of salt near the coast of the Dead Sea.  She was the wife of Lot, the nephew of Abraham and Sarah.  When Abraham left homeland for promised one, they followed.  Abraham had initially chosen Lot as his heir, as Sarah wasinfertile.   Mr. and Mrs. Lot were to carry on the family line.  Once Lot became head of the tribe, his wife would have had the same prominence and importance that Sarah held.  This future was dashed when Abraham and Lot parted company over grazing rights and Lot moved his family near the five cities of the plain, particularly the fields near Sodom.

Sodom - a new place that brought with it new challenges and opportunities.  Mrs. Lot who was once one woman among many in the camp of Abraham, was now the lead woman in a household of her own.  Sarah was the “queen of the tribe” in Mrs. Lot’s old home – the authority among the women.  Mrs. Lot now had autonomy in her new life and no longer had to submit to a matriarch as to how her home should be run.  We don’t know what Mrs. Lot’s life was like in her new home.  She could have thrived in her new environment; climbed the social ladder; made killer deals in the food and textile markets; led the PTA; became a member of the Junior League or Jack and Jill.  However, she learned how to fit in; she appeared to be enjoying the changes that Sodom brought to her life.

The night the angels came to warn her family of the sudden destruction aimed for her town altered Mrs. Lot’s life on numerous levels.   Sodom had a crisis.  They had pained the heart of God with their actions and would be destroyed.  However, God had not lumped Lot’s family in with rest of the town. They were in Sodom but not of Sodom. God had provided a way out for them and sent an angelic escort for them to leave town.  They had just one key instruction “Do not look back.” 

I often wonder what was swirling around in Mrs. Lot’s mind as she walked away from Sodom and as she turned back. 

Sure, I’m alive, but is merely living enough?  I had finally carved a niche out for myself.   I’m walking out of Sodom and leaving behind, my circle, my status, and my friends.  All the work I have put into this new life is gone in a moment.  I have grown accustomed to my life and did not want to change again.  Now I have to go back. Go back to where?  Crawling back to Abraham as a failure from our destroyed town asking for a place his table? Go back to Sarah and submit to her leadership over the women of the tribe?  Maybe Lot won’t go to Abraham for help.  Maybe we’ll start afresh in a new town instead….Starting from scratch with limited resources and no name of importance in a new place?  This…this is too much…I have to get back to what I know…to what feels comfortable...I don’t want to move…I don’t want to change…I don’t want to grow…I…have…to …get…back…… (turn)

…And then she was salt.  Mrs. Lot was hardened in her resolve not to change and refused to fully release her fears to the God who rescued her.  She had just been snatched from a horrible fate. Sodom would have been a smoldering pile of rubble in just a few hours. She had escaped the crisis. However, she did not trust that the same God that had pulled her out of the drama would also have a bigger and better plan for her life.  Instead, her heart clung to what it was leaving - no matter how high the cost.  She became monument to the price of being unwilling to change.

When crisis comes and you think you don’t have the strength or the courage to change, remember Lot’s wife, release your fears and move forward.

Until next time,

Xylia

Luke 17:32, 33: Remember Lot’s wife. “Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 

Comments (1)

1.Antannia Aguilar said on 9/20/12 - 04:02PMThis was very good. Never thought about her story in detail like that. Very eye opening.