Articles
“Remember Lot's Wife”
Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 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. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.
Luke 17:28-33
In the passage above, Jesus explains the coming of “one of the days of the Son of Man” (Lk. 17:22). This is his way of describing a day of judgment that would come upon Jerusalem as a result of their wickedness, a day which was fulfilled a generation later in AD 70 when general Titus led his Roman troops to destroy the city. When Jesus speaks of his coming in judgment against Jerusalem we are not to shrug it off as something meaningful only to those living in the first century. No, these limited, earthly judgments are meant to stir us to repentance and faithful preparation for the final, universal Day of judgment to come described in such places as Matthew 25, 1 Thessalonians 4-5 and 2 Thessalonians 1.
This is precisely what Jesus is doing in Luke 17. He’s drawing lessons from previous judgments—the suddenness of Noah’s flood (Lk. 17:26-27; cf. Gen. 6-9) and the total destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Lk. 17:28-32; cf. Gen. 19)—to prepare his generation for the judgment coming upon them.
Do you remember the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? In Genesis 18:20-21, God told Abraham that the “outcry against” the cities was “great and their sin [was] very grave.” He investigated the cities himself along with two angels and found the cries against them were true; they were utterly evil. The angels had to literally seize Lot and his family and drag them out of town to save them from being swept away in the destruction. Lot foolishly delayed and whined that the distance he was expected to travel was too far (Gen. 19:19-20). God graciously stalled his wrath long enough for them to get away “but Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” (Gen. 19:26)
I’ve always pictured Lot’s wife looking back over her shoulder wistfully at the city—and the life—she was leaving behind. But the words of Jesus in Luke 17 indicate she “looked back” with the intention of returning to the city. Jesus is telling his disciples that when they see the army approaching Jerusalem they are to run for the hills, not even stopping in the house to get their things. “Remember Lot’s wife.” She wasn’t turning around simply to take one last look back for nostalgia’s sake; she was refusing to go further and attempting to go back perhaps thinking she was, in the words of Jesus, preserving her life. But in the end, she lost it. Instead of surrendering to God and finding salvation by moving forward according to his word, she was frozen in the act of turning away from him. So it will be with us if we turn away from God’s word.
God has promised to bring this world to justice and save those who live by faith. “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” (1 Jn. 5:19) Therefore, we must “not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (1 Jn. 2:16-17) By “the world” here, John means the world in rebellion against God. The “world” is to us what Sodom and Gomorrah were to Lot’s wife. God help us look forward to the world to come and not back, “in love with this present world.” (2 Tim. 4:10)
