I don't think anyone is worthy of knowing who went to heaven and who didn't but I have always wondered if Lot's wife went to heaven. Having heard the same that you mentioned above - that they probably had daughters still in the city, any mother could understand the need to look back - that's heartbreaking. Did that sin cost her an eternity in heaven? Thoughts? From reading this article ... sadly, it doesn’t sound like Lot’s wife made heaven. From “Bad Girls of the Bible: Lot’s Wife” A camera slowly pans the darkening skies above Sodom and Gomorrah. Night is falling. Thrumming beneath it all, a soundtrack. Low, rhythmic, in a minor key, the music makes the hair on our arms stand up. A swift and terrible judgment is coming. A disaster of truly biblical proportions. Chapter 3: Pillar of the Community Earlier that same day, Abraham had bargained with the Lord to spare sinful Sodom and Gomorrah, if just ten righteous men could be found there. When two angelic messengers arrived in Sodom at nightfall, it seemed the only man worth saving was Abraham’s nephew, Lot. Working through these two angels, God rescued Lot and his family seven times, by my count. Here’s what the angels did: 1. Pulled Lot back into the house when the men of Sodom threatened him (Genesis 19:10) Though she remained unnamed from first verse to last, Lot’s wife was present each of those seven times. She saw and heard it all, and was included in God’s salvation efforts: “Hurry! Take your wife…” (Genesis 19:15). One of the angels grasped her hand (Genesis 19:16). Her hand. Held on tight. Led her away from the sins of her past. Pointed her toward a whole new future. This way, Mrs. Lot. Go, and sin no more. It’s been said that, on average, people hear God’s message of salvation seven times before responding. Interesting number. Lot, Mrs. Lot, and the two little Lots, were given a clear choice seven times. Stay behind and be destroyed. Go forward and be saved. Why so many chances? “Because of the Lord’s compassion” (Genesis 19:16 HCSB). Because “the Lord was merciful”. He saves us, he forgives us, he has compassion on us, not because of our goodness, but because of his grace. The Lord asked just one thing of Mrs. Lot and company: “Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain!” (Genesis 19:17). Mrs. Lot didn’t say a word. Didn’t reveal her thoughts. Didn’t confess her fears. She walked when her family walked. Listened when her husband talked. Heard him ask if he might hide in Zoar, rather than flee all the way to the distant mountains. “Then my life will be spared” (Genesis 19:20), “my soul shall live”, “my life shall be saved” , Lot said. For Lot, everything was in the key of “Me, Me, Me.” That’s why this story demonstrates the wideness of God’s mercy. I would never have saved this man. But God would. And did. The very moment that Lot, Mrs. Lot, and their daughters were safely in Zoar, all heaven broke loose. “Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah” (Genesis 19:24). “Brimstone and fire”, if you will. “A river of lava from God out of the sky!” Even the wildfires in Colorado and the EF5 tornadoes in Oklahoma, horrific as they were, didn’t approach this supernatural level of destruction. Every living, growing thing in Sodom and Gomorrah was utterly decimated. Because they were in a safe place, Lot and his two daughters were spared. This is her one-line biography. This is the single verse that says it all. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Genesis 19:26 “A pillar of salt!” Yes, really. The Hebrew word, melach,literally means “salt,” the same kind used for seasoning food or making an offering before the Lord. However could such a travesty happen? Let’s find out. But Lot’s wife… Genesis 19:26 In the original Hebrew, not only does her name not appear in this verse; his name doesn’t either. Only the word ishshah, meaning “woman, wife, female.” Everywoman, then. This cautionary tale is for all of us. Don’t look back. But she did. …looked back,… Genesis 19:26 The order of the Hebrew words is reversed, suggesting “she lagged behind her husband” (VOICE) or was “following behind him”. Indeed, the custom of the time required the wife to walk a few steps behind her husband. No doubt her daughters walked in front of her as well, so she could keep her eye on them. Typical mom move. So far, so good. Then she did the unthinkable. The impermissible. Like Eve, who broke God’s single decree, “Don’t eat,” Mrs. Lot broke the one command given her, “Don’t look.” She “looked toward the cities”, instead of focusing on her future. She “looketh expectingly” but in the wrong direction entirely. Oh, this truth cuts way too close for comfort. The Bible doesn’t tell us she stopped, the other part of the angelic warning. Maybe she merely glanced over her shoulder and kept walking. But a little sin or a lot of sin, it was still sin. “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10). Tempting to say, “Not much grace in this story.” Oh, but there was. Seven times. Instead of reflecting on the mercies of God, she looked back on her old life, remembering all the people, places, and things she’d loved and left behind. Is it just me, or are you hearing the ominous drumbeats of that soundtrack running all through this story? Warning! Warning! Warning! A day will come when we must chose. Forward or backward. Life or death. …and she became… Genesis 19:26 Just as A leads to B, disobedience leads to death. God made that clear in the Garden of Eden, and demonstrated it here in a dramatic way. Mrs. Lot was “changed”, she was “turned into” something other than a woman. The last thing she saw—a swirling inferno of ash and sand—wrapped her in its deadly embrace. …a pillar of salt. Genesis 19:26 She turned into a “column”, a “statue”, a “block”. Hard. Immovable. Stuck. Stuck? Yes, we get that. Can’t move forward, can’t move backward. That’s not where God wants us to be, beloved. There’s no life in such a place. The Hebrew word, netsib, is translated “pillar” here, though elsewhere the same word is rendered “garrison” or “deputy.” Until I saw Mrs. Lot on the western shore of the Dead Sea, I didn’t realize how well the word suited her. There she stands (well, at least the sign says it’s her), arms folded, chin jutted out, looking in the wrong direction for eternity. If we leap forward fifteen hundred years, give or take a century, we’ll find Jesus teaching his disciples about the coming Kingdom of God. Guess which story he used to illustrate his point? Jesus told them, “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:28-29). Right. We just watched it happen. Terrible. Jesus continued, “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it” (Luke 17:30-33). There it is, the takeaway from this story, spelled out for us by our own Rabbi Jesus. Let go. Follow God. Don’t hang on. Don’t look back. -Fair Use- Because God knows our hearts He also knew her heart and where her allegiance was. Yet she had to follow her husband even if she left her heart behind. Her looking back could have been just due to her daughters remaining in the city and she was concerned for them but it could also have been because she really didn't want to leave. The physical act of looking may not have been the reason for her demise as much as the condition of an unyielding heart, which caused the action to take place and hence her demise. Remember, Abraham was looking down on the city inflamed yet he did not turn to salt because his allegiance and heart was with God. Very interesting - thanks for the info Geri7 and Yohanan! That's something I've wondered for a long time and that makes sense. Especially the possibly that she really didn't want to leave. So often we say we want to be saved, healed, happy... (fill in the blank) but do we really want to let go of what's keeping us stuck? I wonder if that is why they continued to live there amongst all the sin. Indeed Tammie, we can all work our way into so many emotional corners. That said, she was seeing God work in so many ways on her husbands behalf, and for her immediate family! Not to mention having two angels present! Also seeing the possibility of angels escorting us outta here! TR Not my comment TR! Sorry, just been reading them, my only comment is that the event of Sodom & Gomorrah has multiple layers of learning. Not just the finality and surety of God’s wrath poured out then and at the second coming; but also the people individually involved and lessons learned, warnings given from Abraham to the aftermath that occurred between Lot and His two daughters and the future kingdoms that created. Psalms 83:6-8 “...the tents of Edom and the Ish'maelites, Moab and the Hagrites, 7 Gebal and Ammon and Am'alek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; 8 Assyria also has joined them; they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. (Moab was the son of the oldest daughter and Ammon from the younger). This alliance in the Last Days is a union aimed at the destruction of Israel and it will not succeed but rather bring about the unification of the children of Abraham and the destruction of those who oppose the people of God. Fair use..... :prayer-hands: It says Lot was sitting at the Gateway of city of Sodom ... not sure if this means he was working as a gate keeper or was he just so vexed of what the civilization had become and he just preferred to sit there to avoid seeing the revelry in the streets, gay pride parades, etc. Perhaps his wife could of had the opposite attitude like a lot of unsaved today with accepting the homosexual lifestyle and saying they must be born that way? Or perhaps she just enjoyed living in the city for easy access to a variety of food, clothing, etc. or was it she was sad to leave most of her family behind? Looks like we have to wait for heaven to get all the answers ... My bad, forgive me Sis! TR Oh ... here is another scenario as to “why” Mrs. Lot probably turned her head ... in Genesis 13:1-12 it shows Lot was filthy rich just like Abraham with all their cattle, silver, gold, etc. So chances are they had a mansion inside of Sodom and Mrs. Lot resented leaving her comfortable place of easy living and was probably mad she couldn’t pack and take all of her treasures with her ... Genesis 13:1-12 2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai; 4 Unto the place of the altar, which he had make there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. 5 And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. 6 And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. 7 And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. 8 And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. 9 Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. 11 Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. 12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. "... and pitched his tent toward Sodom." Imagine a 7,000 square foot tent with six bedrooms, four pot chambers, family room, master suite, maids' quarters, food prep, woolen gazebo out back with firepit, ... Like you said, it might be really hard to leave that, Geri. :yes: :whistle: :wacko: :scratch:
By Liz Curtis Higgs
Genesis 18:16-19:29
2. Blinded the men of Sodom, so Lot could not be found (Genesis 19:11)
3. Gave Lot a chance to warn his future sons-in-law (Genesis 19:12)
4. Urged Lot to hurry and flee from the city at dawn (Genesis 19:15), telling him “Arise” , “Get up”, “Go!”, “Quick!”
5. Took Lot by the hand and led him out of Sodom (Genesis 19:16)
6. Warned Lot to flee to the mountains (Genesis 19:17)
7. Allowed Lot to instead seek shelter in a nearby town (Genesis 19:22)
Because she ignored so great a salvation, Mrs. Lot was not.
And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.
