Remembering Lot’s Wife

For the young, life stretches ahead of them like a long sandy beach. The older I get the more life is like the sand rapidly dropping through an ever-widening neck in an hour glass.

An older Christian friend told me that she was ready for heaven, but not yet, because she still had too many things she wanted to do. I thought of her remarks when I read Luke 17:32-33 this morning. Jesus is talking about His return and the suddenness of it. Then He says, “Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”

Yesterday I read how “righteous Lot” was oppressed and troubled by the sin in Sodom. God sent judgment on that city and on Gomorrah, but before He destroyed these places, He sent angels to rescue Lot and his family. The sons-in-law laughed at him — and perished. His wife and daughter fled with the angels too, but the wife perhaps had a strong attachment to Sodom. Even thought they were warned not to look back, she did — and she perished.

Jesus says His return will be like that day. He warns that “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. Remember Lot’s wife. . . .”

The warning seems to mean that I am not to be too attached to this life; a day will come when He calls me to leave it. Faith in Christ means that my eternal destiny is secure, so if I looked back, I’m not worried that I would be turned into a pillar of salt and perish, yet nevertheless, if I’m attached to this life, I will suffer loss.

If I want to hang on to the temporal things, I will spend most of this life occupied with those things. They will not last. I cannot take my quilts, good books, colorful art, or anything else that “thieves can steal, moths can eat, or air can rust” to heaven with me.

I remember reading about a man who insisted before he died that he would be buried in his new Cadillac, with all his money and his favorite possessions along with him. Aside from preventing his relatives from getting this stuff, wherever he went after death, all that stuff is still in a rather large grave somewhere. We cannot take it with us.

Jesus did suggest a way to preserve “this life” though. To keep what is important, I must lose or give up or not hold onto that which is transient. The stuff of life that perishes could have a hold on me to the point that I’d rather be busy with it than obey God. Sorry, I cannot help you right now; I’ve a manuscript deadline. Sorry, I cannot go to Bible study tonight because I’m making a quilt. Sorry, I cannot give that money to you because I need to buy myself a special book.

I’m learning that God has plans for me and listening to Him is very important. He could ask me to give up a work of charity to finish a manuscript because that was more important to Him than the charity. He could ask me to forsake a study to finish a quilt because He plans to use that to bless someone’s heart. He could also ask me to get that special book because there is something in it I need to read so He can better equip me to glorify Him.

The point is, the life I am to “lose” is not so much about the stuff I can’t take with me as it is making my own choices. No matter how good my wants and wishes appear to me, I’m to listen to His still, small voice and do what He says. The results of my obedience will then be preserved forever.

Maybe Lot’s wife wasn’t looking back to Sodom with longing in her heart to remain in that place. Maybe she looked back just to see how God was finally going to deal with that sin, or to see all those evil people get theirs. The point is not why she looked back, but that He told her not to and she didn’t listen and obey.