If Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back, what happened to the witness who saw it?
When I read my Bible sometimes stuff really comes alive and I’m right there in the situation. In this particular case, in Genesis 19, I was running away from Sodom and Gomorrah just before fireballs from heaven rained down on the city and utterly destroyed it and its sick, twisted inhabitants. [Note: the sick twisted inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah live very similarly to many inhabitants of Vancouver, BC. Just sayin’ …]. Angels had just said that their wicked (specifically sexually deviant) ways were about to be paid up in full and yanked them by the hand out of the city since they were too cemented to their urban roots to move by themselves.
They were told by the angels to run and not look back. Just run. And don’t look back. Two simple commands. Get out of Dodge and break off your rear view mirror.
But Lot’s wife looked back and boom: she became a salt stick which I envision to be like one of those blocks of salt that cows lick out in the pastures – but a human size.
But then I thought to myself – what happened to the witness who saw her become a block of salt? Is he/she also a block of salt now? Or, maybe Lot’s wife was wearing patented sports sneakers and was a few steps ahead of the witness so he just saw it happen in front of him. Or, maybe at the point when everyone looked back to see the fire and brimstone raining from heaven on the city that they also saw Lot’s wife way back in the field as a block of salt and at that point, it was deemed acceptable to look back that direction?
In either case, the take away points from this episode in history are as follows:
- don’t be a wicked sinner
- if you are a wicked sinner, and all humans are (so that means you are), Jesus can save you via the cross, hallelujah.
- if you move forward into righteousness, don’t look back at your sinful roots – or you’ll end up in permanent paralysis unable to do anything of value for God.
- the fresh Living Water always dissolves salt if you failed step #3
- Jesus is the answer to everything