Lot's wife, the woman who looked back...

       Fifteen words in the Old Testament tell the story of Lot's wife. This one brief, dramatic record has placed her among the well-known women of the world. The fifteen words are, "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." (Gen. 19:26).
       In the New Testament there are three other words about Lot's wife. Jesus held her up as an example, saying, "Remember Lot's wife,'' (Luke 17:32). This is the second shortest verse in the Bible. It's terseness probably best explains its urgency. In a previous passage Jesus had been speaking of those in the days of Lot, who "did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded,'' but "out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.'' (Luke 17:28, 29).
       The impression is conveyed that Lot's wife was a woman who ate and drank and lived for the things of the world. We do have a scriptural record that her husband was a rich and influential man (Gen. 13:10, ii). We can easily assume that Lot's wife was a worldly, selfish woman, one who spent lavishly and entertained elaborately. Max Eastman, in his movingly realistic poem Lot's Wife says, "Herself, like Sodom's towers, shone blazingly.'' Here, we imagine, was a woman who wore many jewels and dressed in the richest and most gleaming fabrics.

The Flight of Lot and His Family from Sodom by Rubens.

       Rubens, in his "Flight of Lot,'' painted in 1625 and now in the Louvre, pictures Lot's wife, followed by her daughters; to her one of the angels is speaking a solemn warning. One of the daughters leads an ass loaded with splendid vessels of gold and silver, while the second bears a basket of grapes and other fruit's on her head. The wife clasps her hands and looks beseechingly in the face of the angel who warns her of her fate if she should be disobedient. The family procession, accompanied by a spirited little dog, steps forth from the handsome gates of Sodom. Above the towers of the city wails fly frightful demons preparatory to their work of destruction. The air seems full of imps, while an evil spirit, hovering above Lot's wife, glowers at the angel who is trying to save her from destruction.
       The fate of Lot's wife has inspired other painters, among them Gozzoli and Lucas Cranach. All depict a woman who had lived under the law, knew its penalties to be swift and immutable, and yet so loved the city on which God was raining fire from heaven that she willingly gave her life for one more look at it.
       Can we not conjecture that the fifteen-word Old Testament biography of Lot's wife was written for those who love the things of the world more than the things of the spirit, those who do not possess the pioneering courage to leave a life of ease and comfort and position for a life of sacrifice, hardship, and loneliness? Does not her biography also speak a message to those who are unwilling to flee from iniquity when all efforts to redeem iniquity have failed?
       Dr. William B. Riley, in his book on Wives of the Bible, makes the apt comment that "When we have read Lot's history we have uncovered Mrs. Lot's character; and when we have studied his affluence, we have seen her influence. . . . The character and conduct of children reflect the mother. The marriage of her daughters to Sodomitish men indicated low ethical ideals and low moral standards.'' Their later relations with their father were a blot on their mother's character (Gen. 19:32-35). Lot's earlier actions toward Abraham indicated the type of wife he had. When he and his uncle Abraham had become prosperous in herds and flocks, Abraham offered Lot a choice of territory. And what did he choose? He chose the most fertile plain of the Jordan. Though we have no record of his wife in this transaction, we again can visualize her as a woman sharing in his selfishness, without dissent, and prodding her husband to greater wealth at any cost to others.
       Goethe has said, "Tell me with whom thou dost company and I will tell thee what thou art.'' Our best way of describing Lot's wife is through her husband and her children and her disobedience to the warning of angels. The latter could have saved her, but she had nothing in common with angels.
       When her husband had first come into this fertile plain of Jordan, he had pitched his tent "toward Sodom,'' a phrase which indicates that Lot was not then a part of the wicked Sodom and Gomorrah. But again, is't it easy to imagine that his wife wanted a big stone house in keeping with her husband's great wealth? Was a tent on the outskirts enough? Wasn't she hopelessly bound up with all the materialities of Sodom?
       When she had to flee, she had to look back. In this she reminds us of a woman who, after leaving her burning house, rushes back for treasured material possessions and is burned with the possessions.
       Certainly Lot's wife bears none of the qualities of greatness that we find in the noble women in history- those, for example, who left England on the Mayflower and landed on a desolate coast in the dead of winter to carve new homes in the wilderness. These women, too, had to leave all behind, but they were willing to make the sacrifice in order that they and their families might have religious freedom.
       Even though Lot's wife was well out of Sodom with her daughters and husband before the destruction came, she could not be influenced either by the warnings of the angels or by the pleadings of her husband. And as she looked back, she was turned to a pillar of salt.
       Tradition has pointed out, however, that a mountain of salt, it the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, was the spot where the event took place. The text described it as a rain of "brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven - by which the whole district was overthrown.
       Geologists explain that at the south end of the Dead Sea is a burned-out region of oil and asphalt. A great stratum of rock salt lies underneath the Mountain of Sodom on the west shore of the sea. This stratum of salt, they say, is overlaid with a stratum of marl, mingled with free sulphur in a very pure state. Something kindled the gases which accumulate with oil and asphalt, and there was an explosion. Salt and sulphur were carried up into the heavens red hot. Literally it could have rained fire and brimstone. The cities and the whole plain and everything that grew out of the ground were utterly destroyed. This may explain the incrustation of Lot's wife with salt when she turned back.
       The differences of opinion regarding the story and the literal aspect of Lot's wife do not change the great truths of the account. She still stands as a permanent symbol of the woman who looks back and refuses to move forward, the woman who, faced toward salvation, still turns to look longingly on material things she has left behind.
       One thing is certain. The story of Lot's wife has not lost its savor in all the thousands of years since Old Testament writers recorded it.