Why Was Lots Wife Turned Into A Pillar Of Salt
Jewish teachings suggest Lots wife was turned into a pillar of salt because Lot requested salt from his wife to be offered to the traveling two angels. His wife told Lot it was bad custom to offer the salt from their household, so she went house to house in the neighborhood informing the men of the houses of the two travelers while she looked for salt. This idea is not expressed in the Bible, only in Jewish teachings.
According to Bible commentaries like the NIV Zondervan Study Bible, Lots wife was turned into a pillar of salt as she looked back, for disobeying the instruction not to look back. Her action suggests that she identified with the people of Sodom. Her failure to flee Gods punishment becomes a vivid warning to others .
The Lord Always Leads
Lots wife assisted in entertaining the angels when they visited the house, warning the family of Sodoms impending destruction. Often, we dont receive such a blatant warning of judgment, but the Holy Spirit is merciful enough to draw sinful behaviors or conditions to our attention.
In Romans 12:2, the believer is strengthened by the promises of His guidance. Paul wrote, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Passages That Mention Sodom But Do Not Identify Its Sin
Genesis 13:13
This passage says that the people of Sodom were wicked, but gives no details.
Deuteronomy 32:32
The enemies of God, in general terms, are likened to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. This passage does not state Sodoms sin or cite what Gods enemies have in common with Sodom and Gomorrah. We still have no legitimate clue to Sodoms sin.
Isaiah 1:9-10 and 13:19
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is used as an example of total annihilation. They do not identify Sodoms sin.
Jeremiah 23:14
Israel is likened to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. This passage does not state Sodoms sin or cite what Israel has in common with and Sodom and Gomorrah. We still have no legitimate clue to Sodoms sin.
Jeremiah 49:18 and 50:40
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is used as an example of total annihilation. They do not identify Sodoms sin.
Romans 9:29
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is used as an example of total annihilation. They do not identify Sodoms sin.
2 Peter 2:6
The story of the rescue of Lot is given as an example of how God rescues the righteous from the punishment of the wicked, but does not state what the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were.
Revelation 11:8
Ezekiel 16
Don’t Miss: Southwest Baptist Church Live Stream
Faith Requires Both Feet And No Straddling
Lots wife was so associated and entangled with the world, she could not exit without at least a glance back to what she was leaving behind. In Luke 17:31, we are warned concerning Gods judgment, On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back.
Similarly, many who are killed or injured by house fires are those who go back into the blaze to save valuables. When we make the decision to follow Christ, we must fully repent from the past behaviors which drew us into a realization of our sinful state.
Consider the teaching in Zephaniah 1:12 which warns of a time when I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, the Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill. The man who believes, yet physically allows the flesh to be satisfied by the world, denies Gods righteousness.
Jesus, in Revelation 3:15, rebuked the Laodicean church for its lukewarm condition. He declared, I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!
The Difficulties Of Persisting In Error
However, if we persist in interpreting the men of Sodom as desiring to rape the men
who visited Lot, we have serious difficulties in the next few verses:
Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him, and said,
I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known man let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please only do nothing to these men for they have come under the shelter of my roof.Genesis 19:6-8, RSV
If the popular interpretation were valid, then we are puzzled as to why Lot would address an angry rapacious homosexual mob as brothers
especially considering the usage of this word in the Old Testament.
We also come up against a very uncomfortable moral problem: we can only construe Lots offer of his virgin daughters as permission for the mob to gang-rape them!
Besides, Lots action in allegedly volunteering his daughters as a substitute for the men in the gang rape is irrational: how could anyone who lived in an exclusively homosexual community, as Lot is reputed to have done, be so naïve as to offer girls to homosexuals intent upon raping men? Lots offer is not only immoral, it is demented!
The popular interpretation presupposes that Lot came from a culture that severely deprecates homosexuality and exacts spectacular, even cruel penalties for it yet in his attempt to avoid it, he betrays total ignorance on the most superficial level of the nature of the offense.
Recommended Reading: Self Righteous In The Bible
Do As I Say Not As I Do
In my secular job a few years ago, I had a co-worker who frequently asked my advice about things, including religious matters. He attended an independent, fundamentalist church. He was divorced and remarried, but he had custody of his children from his first marriage. One day he came into my office and started railing against homosexuals, for no reason I could discern. Perhaps his pastor decided to get everyone riled up the previous Sunday. If so, he certainly succeeded in my coworkers case. My coworker ended his impromptu diatribe by saying, My church preaches biblical sexual morality.
I chuckled when he said that. I told him with some amusement that the fact that he is a member in good standing of this church is proof positive that it does not preach biblical sexual morality.
He looked at me with a hurt expression and asked in a small voice, Why do you say that?
I reminded him that he had been divorced for reasons other than adultery.
I cited these Bible passages:
It has been said,
Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.
Luke 16:18, NIV
Apparently the gospel writers were so struck by the importance of this teaching that they recorded it no less than four times!
Incidentally, this isnt Jesus talking to Pharisees, this is Paul talking to Christians in the church.
Midrashic Perspective Of The Daughters
Lots daughters, in contrast, are treated sympathetically. The midrash observes that, by strict law, the daughters deserve to be burnt by fire for having lain with their father , but the Holy One, blessed be He, who knows mans thoughts, judges them by their thoughts and not their deed. The daughters true intent was not to lie with their father, on whom they had no sexual designs, but to save the world from total devastation. The daughters thought that the entire world had been laid waste, as had happened during the Flood, since they saw no living souls wherever they went they did not know that only Sodom had been destroyed. They said: The Holy One, blessed be He, has rescued us so that the world will exist through us, so that the human race shall continue. The Holy One, blessed be He, knew their honest minds and good thoughts and rewarded them for their actions. Accordingly, when he commanded no Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted into the congregation of the Lord , this prohibition against intermarriage applies only to the males, and not to the females .
Kara-Ivanov Kaniel, Ruth. “Seed from another place: Transformation of the account of Lots daughters . Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 22 : 91-119.
Malkiel, David. “Manipulating Virginity: Digital Defloration in Midrash and History.” Jewish Studies Quarterly 13, no. 2 : 105-127.
Polhemus, Robert M. Lot’s Daughters: Sex, Redemption, and Women’s Quest for Authority. Stanford University Press, 2005.
Don’t Miss: Does The Bible Prohibit Tattoos
The Authors Explicit Statement Of Purpose
Here, at the end of the story, we find a summary of what it was about: the Rescue of Lot. In rescuing Lot, God remembered Abrahams desire that the innocent not perish in the punishment of the wicked. It is true that some innocent people did perish, but only because they took matters into their own hands and disobeyed. The story itself sums up its topic and message in Genesis 18:19 at the beginning of the story and in Genesis 19:29 at the end of the story. The message is that God demonstrated His righteousness and justice by rescuing Lot. Nothing more, nothing less.
Sodom And Gomorrah Destroyed
19 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.2 My lords, he said, please turn aside to your servants house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.
No, they answered, we will spend the night in the square.
3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate.4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodomboth young and oldsurrounded the house.5 They called to Lot, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him7 and said, No, my friends. Dont do this wicked thing.8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But dont do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.
9 Get out of our way, they replied. This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! Well treat you worse than them. They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
Read Also: Where To Buy Bibles In Bulk
Midrashic Perspective Of Lot
According to the A type of non-halakhic literary activitiy of the Rabbis for interpreting non-legal material according to special principles of interpretation .Midrash , Lot, from the outset, decided to dwell in Sodom because he wanted to engage in the licentious behavior of its inhabitants. His negative behavior comes to the fore when the townspeople mill about his door, demanding that he hand over the angels, and he instead offers his daughters to the mob. The Rabbis observe that a man usually allows himself to be killed in order to save his wife and children, while Lot was willing to allow the townspeople to abuse his daughters. In response to this, the Holy One, blessed be He, says to Lot: By your life, the improper act that you intended to be done to your daughters will indeed be committed, but to you.
This midrash sharply focuses the reversal between these two episodes. In the first event, in Sodom, Lot was ready to force his daughters, against their will, to engage in sexual relations with the townspeople. In contrast, in the second episode, which takes place after the upheaval of Sodom, Lots daughters engage in relations with their unwitting father. Consequently, these acts of incest are Lots punishment for his unseemly behavior.
The Joy & Cost Of Serving Jesus
Episode 5 gives us several more snapshots that highlight the joy of serving Jesus. We see the joyful response of the disciples to Veronica’s healing and the joyful response of Jairus, his wife, and the three Apostles to the healing of his daughter. We also see Jesus’ own joy in response to the faith of Veronica and Jairus. Most significantly, the episode lingers on the disciples joyfully celebrating in the Sea of Galilee on account of what they’ve seen Jesus do.
The topic of joy also comes up several times in conversation. Early in the episode, Zebedee expresses his joy that James and John have found their true calling and that he too can pursue a new calling in service to Jesus. When the disciples ask Jesus why he doesn’t ask them to fast regularly, he uses the Parable of the Bridegroom to explain how the coming of salvation in him is a time of joy and fasting is not a time for fasting and mourning. This parable sets us up for later on when Jesus dismisses the professional mourners who have come to grieve over Jairus’ daughter, Miriam. The topic of celebration also comes up as Simon and Gaius work on the cistern although Gaius insists that Roman parties are better , Simon insists that the Jews know how to celebrate in their own way.
Don’t Miss: Bible Verses About Staying Positive
The Importance Of Correct Interpretation According To Jesus
There is no biblical basis for interpreting the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as having anything to do with homosexuality, except because of a fairly recent tradition. And about such religious traditions which obscure the Word of God, Jesus has the following to say:
…Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written,
This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men. Mark 7:6-8, RSV
Lesson : Choose Faith Fear God Not Your Circumstances
Lots daughters were not entirely without knowledge of God. Surely Lot had told them stories about their great uncle Abraham and how God had led them out of Ur and into Canaan. According to 2 Peter 2:7-8, Lot knew God he was a righteous man oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men and felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds.
We can conclude that Lot was weak in his faith he chose not to leave the wicked cities, yet he retained in his heart a knowledge and respect for God. No doubt he told his daughters what was wrong in the city but lacked the courage to lead them out of it.
Lots daughters also had seen God act on their behalf, personally and immediately. They knew the men who visited were angels they saw their supernatural power to blind the wicked men and save them from their fathers foolish offer. They knew God had protected them by removing them before the city was destroyed, even while their father hesitated. They certainly knew the city was destroyed because of its wickedness, and understood God meant what He said as they watched their mother turn to salt. They had enough knowledge of God to make a choice: faith, or fear.
Faith waits on God to act on our behalf. Fear of circumstances leads us to make decisions according to our own abilities, decisions which often result in more pain and suffering and drive us farther away from God. A proper fear and respect for God leads to what is right and good.
Read Also: Does The Bible Mention Aliens
Was Lot Even That Righteous
Chabad.org suggests that Abraham’s plea that the Lord spare Sodom and Gomorrah if even 10 righteous people could be found was not an arbitrary number. The 10 people Abraham is thought to have had in mind were Lot, his wife, their four daughters, and the daughters’ husbands and fiancés. These sons-in-law, however, natives of Sodom, were just as wicked as the rest of the people of the city and would not have counted toward salvation anyway.
But this raises the question, just how righteous was Lot anyway? He is thought to have been spared due to his virtue, but as Got Questions points out, he and his family were firmly entrenched in the wicked and materialistic life of Sodom, and Lot was very quick to offer up his virgin daughters to the slavering mob. The Jewish Encyclopedia says that Lot is generally interpreted in an unfavorable manner. He was greedy and primarily concerned for his own wealth, allowing his herdsmen to pasture in others’ lands, and his hesitation to leave Sodom before its destruction shows his attachment to material things. As such, most rabbis believed that any favors shown to Lot by God were in deference to his connection to Abraham, and in fact, Lot would have been destroyed along with Sodom were it not for his faithfulness to Abraham during their time in Egypt.