Genesis 19:26

III. LOOKING BACK.

26. But his wife looked back from behind him.

The whole family had been commanded not to look behind them. To do so was disobedience to God. Instead of pressing forward with. steady aim in the way that Lot was leading, she vacillated, longed to return, and finally disobeyed the command. It is implied that she paused, turned around, tarried and looked back. As all disobedience springs from. want of faith, her conduct was evidently due to unbelief and to. lingering desire for. home in Sodom. Her unbelief sealed her fate. She disobeyed and died. Her salvation was conditional upon her obedience to the word of the Lord.

She became. pillar of salt.

Her delay sealed her fate. The storm came down upon her while she waited. "The dashing spray of the salt sulphurous rain seems to have suffocated her and then encrusted her whole body. She is. memorable example of the indignation and wrath that overtakes the halting and the backsliding."-- Murphy. Columns of salt are formed around the southern shores of the lake, which have been associated with this event. Lynch's Dead Sea expedition discovered on the east of Usdum. pillar of massive salt cylindrical in front, about 40 feet high, resting on an oval pedestal from 40 to 60 feet above the sea level. Josephus says that he saw. pillar which tradition, handed down from generation to generation, declared to be the pillar into which Lot's wife was changed. She has been pointed out by the Savior as. signal example of the peril of "looking back" after one has started on the way of life. He bids us "remember Lot's wife." The pillar of salt is nowhere else mentioned in the Bible, but "Lot's wife" stands as. pillar of warning to the disobedient, the delaying, the backsliding. See Luke 17:32. About the time Lot entered Zoar Abraham at Mamre had gone to the place where he had had the remarkable interview with the divine messenger described in the last lesson. He had full warning of the catastrophe that might happen, and, filled with anxiety, he was early at the height from whence he commanded. view of the Dead Sea and the plain. Travelers note the fact that from the summit of. hill near Hebron the Dead Sea and plain are overlooked. The sight that greeted his eyes from the mountain height was not calculated to calm his apprehension. The whole plain was buried under the smoke of the burning cities and the conflagration that consumed even the ground.

PRACTICAL AND SUGGESTIVE.

When God gives warning that danger is at hand it is perilous to delay. single moment. He says, "To-day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."

LOOK NOT. EHIND THEE.--When once one has put his hand to the plow he should not look back upon the furrow. To look back is. sign of. double mind and of unbelief.

Kitto quotes the testimony of Arentinus that in Corinthia about fifty people with their cows were destroyed by suffocating vapors of salt after the earthquake of 1348, and were by this means converted into statues or pillars of salt.

DIVINE JUDGMENTS.--We speak in soft ways of God-"love," and as if love and justice had to be reconciled, whereas love is justice applied to different objects; just as the electric spark is different to different senses; to the ear. sound, to the tongue. sulphurous taste, to the eyes. blinding flash. So God, speaking by one apostle of his character as. whole, says, "God is love;" by another, also as. whole, "God is. consuming fire." Was not this love? Could love save Sodom? Would it have been love to let such. city go on seeding the world with iniquity? No! God is just.-- H. W. Robertson.

LOT'S WIFE.--She stands as an everlasting monument of admonition and caution to all backsliders. She ran well--she permitted Satan to hinder, she died in her provocation. While we lament her fate we may profit by her example. To begin the good way is well; to continue in the path is better; to persevere to the end is best of all. The exhortation of our blessed Lord on this subject should awaken our caution, and strongly exults our diligence.-- Clarke.

A hill is still pointed out among the many summits near Hebron, as that from which Abraham looked into the deep gulf which parts the mountains of Judea from those vast, unknown, unvisited ranges, which with their caves and wide table-lands, invited the fugitives from the plain below.

POINTS FOR TEACHERS.

1. Note the exceeding wickedness of Sodom. The depravity shown the night before its destruction. Its cup was full. 2. Observe that God's judgments against it was founded in love, love of the race.. pest must be removed for the good of all. 3. Remark the warning to Lot and his household; an answer to prayer;. proof of God's care of his saints. 4. Note the hurry. No time for delay. Always danger in delays. Thousands lose their souls through delays. 5. Behold the awful fate of Sodom. Its own sins have kindled the fires that consume it. Sin will bring destruction. 6. Remember Lot's wife. There must be no looking back in the Christian life. When the Israelites in the wilderness longed for the leeks, onions and flesh-pots of Egypt, they were doomed to die; when Lot's wife looked back she died. We must not be of those who "draw back unto perdition." 7. Interest the class by. general description of the Dead Sea, the probable site of the cities of the plain, and the nature of the catastrophe.