‘Halted, faulted, salted’. It is not entirely clear when and where the three point tradition describing the story of Lot’s wife began. The story of Lot’s wife in Genesis 19 and especially the reference made to it in Luke 17:32, has long been a favourite with preachers down the years.
Four notable preachers who addressed the subject, and whose sermons are still in print today, are considered below.
Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758)
In May 1735 the great Jonathan Edwards preached two sermons declaring that ‘we ought not to look back when we are fleeing out of Sodom.’ He gives eight reasons not to look back. First, reasons to do with Sodom’s nature—it was full of filthiness and abominations and appointed to destruction. Then there is the destruction itself, which is exceedingly dreadful, a destruction that was utter—Sodom was consumed whole and entire; universal—none that stayed would escape; everlasting and swift and sudden too. Finally, he reminds us that there is nothing in Sodom worth looking back to and how messengers sent by God warn us to make haste in our flight from Sodom and not look behind. By way of application, he says that the destruction of which we are in danger is
- infinitely more dreadful than the destruction of literal Sodom from which Lot fled
- not only greater than Sodom’s temporal destruction but greater than the eternal destruction of Sodom’s inhabitants
- Multitudes, while looking back, have been suddenly overtaken and seized by the storm of wrath
- If you look back, and live long after it, there is great danger that you will never get further.
- The only way to seek salvation is to press forward with all your might and still to look and press forward, never to stand still or slacken your pace
- It may well stir you up to flee for your lives and not look behind you when you consider how many have lately fled to the mountains, while you yet remain in Sodom.
He adds that,
- Backsliding after such a time as this will have a vastly greater tendency to seal one’s damnation than at another time. The greater means we have, the louder calls and greater advantages we are under, the more dangerous backsliding is, the greater its tendency to exacerbate guilt, provoke God and harden the heart.
- It may be that a great part of the wicked world are today in the situation Sodom was when Lot fled from it. Some outward, temporal destruction hangs over it
- To enforce this warning against looking back, he pleads with his hearers to consider how very prone to it our hearts are. We have backsliding hearts.
Robert Murray M‘Cheyne (1813–1843)
In the 1830s the saintly Robert Murray M‘Cheyne preached on Genesis 19:26, but having in mind Luke 17:32. He draws out the fact that ‘many souls who have been awakened to flee from wrath, look behind, and are lost.’
He gives three examples of people wakened up to flee - those under terror of natural conscience or influenced by friends who flee or are laid hold of by God and made to flee. In each case, he asserts, if such turn back, like Lot’s wife, they will be lost.
Under his first head he makes the point that being awakened by mere natural conscience is very different to being awakened by God’s Spirit. Such people are not really near the kingdom. Even in cases of genuine awakening there is a threefold danger to beware of - despairing of being saved, presuming one is saved, or failing to make every effort to be saved. Lot’s wife reminds us that being awakened is not the same as being saved. God is under no obligation to save you just because you have begun to flee. It is too easy to lose our fears and go back to the old ways and neglect the Bible and prayer. Don’t look back! If you do, you may well never be awakened again.
C. H. Spurgeon (1834–1892)
Preaching in 1879, C. H. Spurgeon declared that this passage in Luke teaches that love for the world is death.
If you cling to sin you must perish, no matter who you are. Jesus teaches us to hold the world with a loose hand, always ready to leave it all. Hearts glued to the world, he warns, will perish with it. Separation is the only way of escape. Either flee from the world or perish with it.
The things to remember about Lot’s wife are that she was Lot’s wife, that she went some way to being saved but was not saved in the end and perished, and that her doom was terrible.
He notes that rebellion is as much seen in the breach of what appears to be a little command as it is in the violation of a great precept. The fall itself came about when one piece of forbidden fruit was eaten. So here a woman died for just a look! We ought to take care over little things. There is life in a look and there can be death in a look too. Faith, he says, may be as well exhibited by not looking as by looking.
Faith is a look at Christ but it is also not looking at the things which are behind. There are plenty of people who call themselves Christians but who are immersed in the world as much as any worldly person. This is not how it should be. What a thing - to be slain by justice on the verge of mercy, to be the victim of eternal wrath on the brink of salvation!
Towards the end he says that a person who walks with God and imitates him gets to be a great character like Abraham. If he walks with a holy man like Abraham and imitates him he may rise to be a good character, though weak, like Lot. If someone walks with a character like Lot and only copies him, the result is failure, as was Lot’s wife. He uses a picture more familiar in his own day than ours - that of a boy copying handwriting. If he copies the top line, he writes an Abraham-line but if he then only copies the second line, he writes a Lot-line, far short of the first. If he then copies the third line, the Lot-line, the result will be a poor affair indeed. That is Lot’s wife.
J. C. Ryle (1816–1900)
In Holiness, first published in 1877, Ryle makes three points - the religious privileges Lot’s wife enjoyed; the particular sin she committed; the judgement God inflicted on her. Firstly, his burden is to show that mere possession of religious privilege cannot save you. Under the second head he says that though it was a little thing the look revealed the true character of Lot’s wife - it revealed her disobedience, proud unbelief and secret love of the world. He gives five examples of people who start well in religion but then it all comes to nothing.
- Children from religious families who start well but end ill.
- Married people who do well in religion but as their children begin to grow, they fall away.
- Young women who seem to love decided religion until they are 20 or 21 but then lose all!
- Church members once zealous, earnest professors but who are now torpid, formal and cold.
- Clergy who work hard in their calling a few years but grow lazy, loving this present world. ‘Beware of a half-hearted religion!’ is his warning.
The third head talks of a fearful and hopeless end. He urges all to settle firmly in their minds
- That the same Bible that teaches that God in mercy and compassion sent Christ to die for sinners teaches that God hates sin and must, from his very nature, punish all who cling to sin or refuse the salvation he provides.
- The Bible gives proof upon proof that God will punish the hardened and unbelieving and will be avenged on his enemies, as well as showing mercy to penitents.
- The Lord Jesus Christ himself has spoken most plainly about the reality and eternity of Hell.
The comforting ideas that the Bible gives us of Heaven are at an end the moment we deny the reality or eternity of Hell. He closes with searching questions prompted by the text - Are you careless about Christ’s second coming? Lukewarm and cold in your Christianity? Halting between two opinions and disposed to go back to the world? Secretly cherishing some besetting sin? Trifling with little sins? Resting on religious privileges? Trusting to your religious knowledge? Making some profession of religion yet clinging to the world? Trusting that you will have a deathbed repentance? The last question is about belonging to an evangelical church. Many do belong to such a church, he says,
… and, alas, go no further! They hear the truth Sunday after Sunday - and remain as hard as the nether millstone. Sermon after sermon sounds in their ears. Month after month they are invited to repent, to believe, to come to Christ and to be saved. Year after year passes away - and they are not changed. They keep their seat under the teaching of a favourite minister, and they also keep their favourite sins. If you are such a one, I say to you this day, ‘Take heed! Remember Lot’s wife.’
[The sermons are The Folly of looking back in fleeing out of Sodom in Edwards’ Works Vol. 2; ‘Lot’s Wife’ in M‘Cheyne’s ‘Additional Remains’; ‘Remember Lot’s Wife’ in Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Vol. 25, #1491; ‘A Woman to be Remembered’ in Ryle’s Holiness.]
This article appeared in the Banner of Truth Magazine
