JANUARY 11, 2024
“Remember Lot’s wife.” (Luke 17:32)
Few warnings in Scripture are more solemn than this, “Remember Lot’s Wife.” This is so first of all because of the person that Jesus names: “Lot’s wife.” She must have been a person of small consideration since her name is never given. The little that we know about her comes from the nineteenth chapter of Genesis where two angels that were sent to deliver Lot’s family from the destruction of Sodom took her by the hand and pulled her out to safety. Her marriage to Lot is not even mentioned, we must assume that Lot’s decision to make Sodom his home (Gen. 13:10-13) also included taking a wife from there. Yet, Jesus says, “Remember Lot’s wife.”
This warning is also solemn because of the context in which it is given. Jesus had just said, “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” He was speaking about His Second Coming. “Likewise also,” He continues, “as it was in the days of Lot…” (Vs. 26, 28) It was all just life as usual in the wicked city, but the same day that Lot went out, there rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. One day, perhaps very soon, our Lord will descend from heaven“with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel…” (II Thess. 1:7, 8) Just as Lot was spared, so shall all believers be saved. But Lot’s wife, in disobedience, looked back, and even after being removed from the devastation, ended up perishing with the wicked.
A third reason why this warning is so solemn is because of the persons being warned. Jesus is not speaking to proud, unbelieving Pharisees, but to His own disciples. Is it needful for professing Christians to hear such a warning? When we consider who this woman was, and the privileges she enjoyed, we have sufficient reason not to presume. Not all to whom Jesus spoke were true believers, for Judas was there among them.
Let us hear what Jesus asks of His disciples, and then do as He asks. He bids us to remember, i.e. keep her case constantly before our minds. Remember the privileges she enjoyed. She was married to a righteous man whose soul was vexed over the great wickedness of the city where they lived (II Peter 2:7, 8). Perhaps she pretended to share his vexation. She had a knowledge of God, and of Divine revelation, and the Gospel (the Abrahamic Covenant). She, no doubt, was well acquainted with choice saints – Abraham, Sarah, and others. But Jesus would have us to remember her and be warned that knowledge, mental acceptance, and holy associations are not enough. Such privileges unimproved will only aggravate condemnation. The sunlight that makes living plants grow will only dry up dead ones for the burning.
Jesus would have us to remember the sin that she committed. It is plainly stated in Genesis 19:26: “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” The sin seems so slight, but it reveals a desperately wicked heart. Not only was it a deliberate act of disobedience to the plain command of God (Gen. 19:17), it revealed her real character by showing where her heart was. She loved that world, and was loath to let it go, and ended up perishing with it.
Jesus would have all of His followers to “Remember Lot’s wife,” and let her serve as a reminder that regardless of one’s knowledge, profession, or religious affiliations, if the heart still loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (I John 2:15) Those who love the world will perish with the world.
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