The previous message was on Lot, who was a defeated righteous man. In this message we come to Lot’s wife, who became a pillar of salt (19:26). Genesis 19 might be the only record in human history regarding a pillar of salt, and we need to consider it very carefully. This pillar of salt was not created by God. Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt. It is very meaningful that in His heavy word recorded in Luke 17, spoken at a time when people were inquiring about the coming of the kingdom, the Lord Jesus said, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32). In a sense, the Lord seemed to be saying to His disciples, “Don’t talk about the kingdom. Rather, you must recognize what the age will be like when the kingdom comes. It will be like the days of Noah and the days of Lot. Both are prefigures of the days of My coming.” Thus, in the Lord’s heavy, solemn, and sobering word, three ages are mentioned: the age of Noah, the age of Lot, and the age at the time of the Lord’s coming back.
When we covered Noah in some of the foregoing messages in this life-study, we pointed out that he lived in a befuddled age, and that the people of his age were befuddled, drugged, and doped by their lusts and evil pleasures. However, in Luke 17:27, when the Lord spoke of the days of Noah, marriage was mentioned. But when He spoke of the days of Lot, there was no mention of marriage, because in Sodom marriage had been completely degraded, and the people indulged in their sodomitical lust. In Luke 17:28 and 30 the Lord said, “Likewise, even as it happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building....It will be in the same way on the day in which the Son of Man is revealed.” After saying this and immediately before telling us to remember Lot’s wife, the Lord said, “In that day, he who shall be on the housetop and his goods in the house, let him not come down to take them away; and he who is in the field, likewise, let him not turn back to the things behind” (Luke 17:31). In Palestine the houses had flat roofs. The Lord was saying, “If you are on your housetop at the time of My coming, do not come down into your house to take away your stuff. If you do, you will be left. If you are working in the field, do not return home. You must forget everything except Me.” Immediately after this word, the Lord said, “Remember Lot’s wife.”
Today, like the people in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot, many Christians are doped and befuddled, having lost the proper sense of the things of God. Some even teach that believers may be raptured while they are playing football. But according to the revelation of the Holy Word, when the Lord comes back, He would not take any of His saints who are still participating in worldly entertainments. We Christians are the crop of God growing with Christ as the life seed (Matt. 13:3-8, 18-23). No Christian who is mature in the growth of life still participates in any worldly entertainments. Since the Christians who continue to participate in worldly entertainments are not ripe, but are green and raw, the Lord would not reap them from the field. The befuddled Christians of today need to hear such a sobering word.
The record of Lot’s wife becoming a pillar of salt is found in the section on living in fellowship with God. Although this section in Genesis covering chapters eighteen through twenty-four is the record of a life that was in fellowship with God, it includes the black record of a defeated saved man, his wife, and his two daughters. Lot had more than these two daughters, but when the angels came to Sodom, they could not find the others. Genesis 19:15 says, “When the morning arose, the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are found; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city” (Heb.). The angels seemed to be saying, “Lot, we can only find two of your children. We were sent here by God to rescue you and all your family, but only these have been found. Our commission is to destroy the city. Now you, your wife, and your daughters must escape.” The next verse says that Lot lingered. According to the original, Lot not only lingered; he hesitated, being unwilling to leave the city. Since he was hesitating, the angels “laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.” When the angels had brought the four of them outside the city, they said, “Escape for thy soul; look not behind thee” (v. 17, Heb.). But verse 26 says that Lot’s wife “looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” Lot’s wife was saved, for she was pulled out of the city and saved from its destruction. But although she was saved, she nevertheless became a pillar of salt. It is certain that becoming a pillar of salt is not a good thing; it is a shame.
As I have said many times, the book of Genesis contains the seeds of nearly all the divine truths. The pillar of salt in 19:26 may also be considered as a seed. The growth of this seed is in Luke 17:32, where the Lord tells us to remember Lot’s wife, and in 1 John 2:28, where we are told that we might be put to shame at the Lord’s appearing. The harvest is in Revelation 16:15, where the Lord says, “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, that he may not walk naked and they see his shame.” The Lord will come as a thief, not giving any prior notification. If at that time our nakedness is exposed, we shall be put to shame. Thus, the seed of being put to shame was sown in Genesis 19, grows in Luke 17 and 1 John 2, and is reaped in Revelation 16. My burden in this message is to impress you that the book of Genesis not only has the seed of Abraham, but also the seed of Lot and of his wife, who became a pillar of salt, a sign of shame.
The basic concept of this message is that a genuine saved person faces the definite possibility of being put to shame. Do not listen to the befuddling teachings of this age. Many teachings in Christianity today drug people, and those who absorb such teachings are neither sober in their mind nor living in their spirit. In this message we need to hear a sobering word from the Lord, a word that will sober our mind and quicken our spirit.
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