Remember Lot’s Wife!
“Remember Lot’s wife!” Jesus exhorts us in Luke 17:32. We don’t know this woman’s name, but in Genesis 19 we can read her story. And she stands as a perpetual reminder of what not to do.
God had decided to completely destroy Sodom, the city where Lot and his family lived (see Ezekiel 16:49). God sent two angels, disguised as men, to take Lot’s family to safety. After three dire warnings, then being physically dragged out of town and warned not to look back, does Lot’s wife follow these instructions? Nope.
Apparently, there was something in Sodom that Lot’s wife was willing to risk her life for. We don’t know what it was, but she chose to gaze back at the city. And she was turned into a pillar of salt.
When Jesus says, “Remember Lot’s wife!” He is warning us about the state of our lives when He returns.
It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed . . . Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. (Luke 17:28-30,32-33, NASB)
When Jesus returns, we will be busy. We will be making a living. We will be satisfying our appetites and desires—eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building . . . There’s nothing wrong with any of those things; they’re a normal part of life—as long as they haven’t crowded out love for Jesus and His call to follow Him.
Our theme in Alliance Women this year is “Set Free, Live Free.” We have been set free. Like He freed Lot’s wife, God has graciously released us from the bondage of sin patterns and disordered loves that cause destruction in our lives. Yet to continue to live free, we must let go of the things that pull us away from following God with all our hearts; this really is a heart issue.
Is there anything we’re holding to above our love for Jesus, who longs to be our first love? Nothing can compare with Christ Jesus our Lord. Let’s “Remember Lot’s wife!”