Luke 17:32:
“Remember Lot’s wife”

(See also Genesis 19:12-29)

Question: Why did Jesus tell them to remember Lot’s wife? What is the lesson there?

Where is the sin?

In Genesis 19 the punishment for Lot’s wife is graphic and memorable, but where is the sin that brought this on?
In my older years, I am nostalgic and look back with fondness over many things.

But the crucial choice Jesus is pointing to is the whether our love of worldly things is greater than our love of God; whether we love and worship God as the giver and provider of all that is good in our lives, or whether we are more firmly attached to those gifts, which like the manna in the wilderness, is sufficient for today but sours tomorrow.

Mankind tends to be blind to the toxic nature of the love of worldly things. Like Lot’s sons-in-law, we find it hard to believe this world is not all there is, and that our physical world is not the ultimate reality. They thought Lot was joking when he warned them of what was to happen (Genesis 19:14).

God warns us about the love and bondage to worldly things. 1 John 2:15–16 reads, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”

The angels instructed Lot, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.” But in Genesis 19:26 we read, “his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”

Other examples

Likewise, after being freed by God from slavery in Egypt, the Israelites also looked back – with longing for the food they ate there, although they were enslaved, and they spurned what God provided in their freedom.

Numbers 11:4–6: “The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!'” Also Exodus 16:2–3, and Numbers 20:5:

And Jesus warns us here in Luke 17, “31 In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”

Jesus is referring to those who seek to save their life by attaching themselves to worldly things which decay and drag them into death. Instead we need to lose our life of worldly attachments, and bind ourselves instead to heavenly things, to God’s gift of freedom from sin and his righteousness through Jesus.

Personal response

I have reached the age where, like the writer of Ecclesiastes, I can see how so much of our worldly aspirations and worldly treasures just leave us dry, withered and lifeless, like salt. It is only in the life given by God through His Spirit that we can be set on a path of joy, and see our ultimate purpose and real life, through Jesus.

May I joyfully receive all of God’s blessings, but use them as He intends for His good purpose, and may my response be to worship Him rather than those gifts.