The pithy reminder in Luke 17:32 catches my attention – “Remember Lot’s wife“.

We know who Lot was, right?  He was Abraham’s nephew, and when Abraham gave him the choice of lands where his animals would graze, he set his sight toward Sodom. Genesis 13:10-11 puts it like this:

 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. ¹¹ Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.

He chose the better looking section, the one where life could be easier, when Abraham gave him the choice.

Later events in Genesis 19 tell us of Lot’s life in Sodom and Gomorrah, of the pervasive wickedness, the compromise of his family, and finally how God removed him, his wife, and his daughters from Sodom with the command to not look back.  Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Now, in the New Testament, as He gives His disciples warnings and instructions about the last days, Jesus calls them to remember Lot’s wife. The Scripture does not enlighten us on her personality, but I am going to make some inferences from the story.

Lot’s wife –

• a woman who made a home in the midst of wickedness;
• a woman who had become comfortable with the proximity of sin;
• a woman preoccupied with her family, her home, her schedule, her activities, her possessions;
• a woman who desired comfort (status quo) over obedience to God;
• a woman who held onto what she possessed rather than what God promised;
• a woman who looked back on a city of sin, turning her back on her future with God.

We could disagree about these descriptive statements or say that it was all Lot’s fault, but I make them because I believe these are areas of challenge for us in our world today.  I believe that Jesus is reminding us to not get too comfortable in this world, to not set our affections here (Colossians 3:1-2).

So, as I remember and think about Lot’s wife, I wonder if my heart resembles hers and I ask myself:

• On what do I gaze with longing?
• To what or whom am I clinging?
• How comfortable am I in the sin of this world?
• What do I place ahead of obedience to God?

My answers to these questions give insight into how I am living life for God.

Father, Let my heart be fully settled in Your will and in Your way.  Align my heart with Yours. Amen.