06 - Chapter 6

CHAPTER VI. The Angels force Lot out of Sodom -- He entreats that Bela or Zoar may be spared, and that he may stop there -- His Request granted -- Disobedience of his Wife -- Her punishment -- Reflections. The night, by this time, was considerably spent. The celestial messengers had perhaps retired; as if to rest. But I do not think there was much sleeping, with Lot, and his wife, and his two daughters. Such worldly minded people as they were, would be very likely to make what effort they could to collect together some of their property, such as they could carry with them, for what they could not carry, they knew would inevitably destroyed. Besides, there would be too much fear in their minds to permit them to sleep. The morning had no sooner dawned, than the angels pressed Lot to make all possible haste, or he would be consumed with the rest! They were even compelled to lay hold of him, and of his wife and daughters, and drag them forth from the city, as it were, by main strength; so reluctant and slow were they to leave their homes, their friends, and their neighbors, though they knew they were doomed to speedy destruction, with the rest, if they remained. But the angels having led them out of the city as speedily as possible, and put them on the road that led to the mountains, they bade them make all possible haste to reach them, and not to stop or linger a moment by the way, or even look behind them, on penalty of being destroyed with the rest of the inhabitants of the plain. -- For we must not forget that not Sodom and the other cities alone, but the whole plain, was doomed to the ravages of the fire.

Lot, however, hesitated a moment, for he had one request to make, which was, that he need not be compelled to go so far as to the mountain, but might be permitted to stop in Bela. Bela was the smallest, and most southern of the five cities of the plain; and Lot, after much pleading that it might be spared, because it was a LITTLE city, at last obtained his request, and Bela was spared; and from henceforth obtained the name Zoar. The angels having promised to spare Zoar, now hastened Lot on towards it, who as it appears, still lingered; assuring him that the destruction in the plain could not, or rather would not be commenced till he had arrived there. -- It was now broad day-light; and the rising sun was rapidly approaching from behind the Arabian hills. But now a most painful circumstance took place. With all the efforts of the angellic messengers to hurry on this little family, and in spite of the threatenings of destruction, if they lingered, the wife of Lot looked back.

It was indeed a sad trial. She was undoubtedly a worldly woman. She probably had little faith in God. There, in Sodom, was her home; there her friends, there her property, there her all. Here she and her husband and daughters, on the strength of the statements of strangers, were fleeing their country in great haste, and leaving all they loved behind them. But wherefore? Whence the danger? The morning was fine. Nothing in the sky appeared threatening. The inhabitants of Siddim’s populous vale were generally sleeping quietly in their beds after late hours, no doubt, of dissipation and drunken revelry, not dreaming of harm. And was there any dnager, after all? Every thing depended on the credibility of the strangers. True, they spoke with authority; but might they not have been impostors? So Lot’s wife might perhaps have reasoned; so probably she did reason. And reasoning thus, she looked back, as I have before said. Some think she began to meditate a return, or had actually commenced it. But she paid dearly for her temerity. She became, say the sacred Scriptures, "a pillar of salt!" There she stood, a monument, to all after ages, of the danger of disobeying, or even lingering, when God, by the mouth of his celestial messengers, or in any other manner, has commanded us to go forward.

What is meant by the expression, "she became a pillar of salt," is not exactly known. Some suppose one thing; some another. " Some are of opinion," says Calmet, in his Dictionary, "that, being surprised and suffocated with fire and smoke, she continued in the same place as immovable as a rock of salt; others that a column or monument of salt stone was placed over her grave; others that she was stifled in the flame, and became a monument of salt to posterity; that is, a permanent and durable monument of her inprudence. The common opinion," he adds, "is, that she was suddenly petrified and changed into a statue of rock salt, which is hard as the hardest rocks." In conformity with the last mentioned opinion, is the testimony of Josephus; who though he relates strange stories of things which he learned from tradition, or was told by others, is never the less generally deemed correct in regard to things which he witnessed himself. And yet he says expressly that Lot’s wife "was changed into a pillar of salt;" and adds, "for I have seen it, and it remains at this day;" that is, at the time of his writing. Clement, of Rome, also says it was standing there to his time, which was about the time of Josephus; and Irenaeus says it was there a century still later. Some modern travelers even state that it remains there still; but of this I have very strong doubts. Be this as it may, however, I am of opinion that the simple account given in the Bible, is true in the most literal sense; and that she was actually changed by the mighty power of God, into a pillar or column of rock salt. So tremendous are the consequences of disobeying God. And yet, were this all the punishment of those who continue to sin till they die, how slight it would be! Lot’s wife must have died at some time or other, had nothing happened. And why not now, as well as at any other future time? It is true that the idea of being held up to all ages as a monument of the Almighty’s displeasure is not very agreeable; but this, I suppose, was not thought of, by the wife of Lot. She probably died instantly, and without a pang. -- Why, then, should the punishment of sin be regarded as so very severe?

Alas! there is a punishment to come. To those who go out of the world sinning and not repenting, there is something beyond this life to be dreaded. It is misery unending. It is torment for ever; -- yes, for ever and ever! It is this which should move us. But there is one thing more to move us, besides the infliction of punishment; there is the loss of happiness, -- of HEAVEN: there is eternal banishment from the presence of God and all the holy and happy.