Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #42 of Genesis, chapter 19. We are going to read Genesis 19:25-28:

And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before JEHOVAH: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.

I will stop reading there. In our last study, we were looking at the word “remember.” We saw it has to do with coming to understand or learn the deeper spiritual meaning of what God has said in His Word. Christ said, “Remember Lot’s wife,” and that is what is happening now. We see in the Bible that it fits perfectly with our time period of living on the earth in the days after the Tribulation in Judgment Day.

We will look at just one more place at the word “remember.” We will look at this and then we will move on. It says in 2Thessalonians 2:3-5:

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

The Apostle Paul was moved by God to record these things in the first century A.D. regarding the man of sin or son of perdition taking his seat in the temple. We are to “remember” that He told us these things. But when did we remember? It was at the time of the end when the Lord opened our eyes to the understanding that Satan was the “man of sin” that would take his seat (rule) in the churches and congregations. In our coming to learn this truth, we “remembered” the Scriptures. That is the idea.

Going back to Genesis 19, we find that God had rained down fire and brimstone out of heaven. He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground. Then it said, “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” Again, this happened after the fire and brimstone was falling. We could say it was at the point after May 21, 2011 had come and God brought the world into the time of the final judgment – that is where we are now. We should accept this and know this fully. We should not try to run away from this fact. The Bible has locked in that date of May 21, 2011 as the beginning of Judgment Day. We are finding much agreement in our search of the Scriptures confirming that truth as God continues to open our eyes to many things in His Word. In other words, we are growing in knowledge, which happens when we are going down the right path. Now other Scriptures are becoming understandable, including many verses that speak of God is judging both the righteous and the wicked; there is one event unto all. He is judging the quick and the dead or the living and the dead. Many verses that we did not have a proper understanding of now fit in.

So, at this time many are looking from behind Him or the Lord Jesus and, in doing so, they are looking to Satan and failing this severe testing program by going in a backward direction. They are showing they are not “gold, silver, precious stones,” but “wood, hay stubble.”

Here, Lot’s wife did look from behind him and she became a pillar of salt. I am not sure why God described it this way. It does not say that God turned her into a pillar of salt, but it just says that Lot’s wife looked back from behind him and “she became a pillar of salt.” Obviously, for her to become a pillar of salt is not a natural occurrence. It is not something that happens to just anyone. It never happened to anyone before Lot’s wife and, as far as we can tell, it has never happened to anyone since Lot’s wife. Therefore, it is obvious that God is the one who judged her in this way and He did turn her into a pillar of salt. We do not read anything here that indicates that it did not happen historically. Every indication the Bible gives reveals that it did happen as we read that “she became a pillar of salt.” People are made of flesh and bone and blood and whatever else a human body consists of, but God transformed her or changed her body and she became “salt.” We will look at some verses that may indicate why God turned her into a pillar of salt. Why did He not turn her into a pillar of dirt or a pillar of hay? It could have been anything, but God intentionally, according to His will, turned her body into salt. So, this terrible event was taking place and the fire and brimstone had fallen upon Sodom and Gomorrah. We know that Abraham arose early in the morning and looking upon the plain, there was tremendous smoke like a furnace and this event would have been as bad as any nightmare could be. There was total destruction of these four cities and the plain. It would have been just awful.

But Lot’s wife looked “behind him.” Historically, she more than likely looked back toward Sodom. Of course, God is speaking spiritually of what many people did in their hearts at the end of the world and it is a historic event that God is using to teach a spiritual principal. But it is such a major principal that God is demonstrating it by taking this woman’s life. This woman was married to an elect child of God because God had saved Lot, and it is just like many women are married to God’s elect in our time. She was a living, breathing person. She was married to an elect child of God. She followed her husband when he told her of the need to get out of Sodom. She never had a true understanding of what it was all about because she was not born again. This is obvious because if she had been one of God’s elect, He would not have turned her into a pillar of salt. She would not have died in this way. God does not use His people in this kind of example when God brings a judgment. We must remember that when Abraham interceded on behalf of any righteous in the city of Sodom, saying, “That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked,” God said He would not destroy the righteous. That confirms that Lot’s wife was not a righteous woman. The only way that Lot or anyone could become righteous was through the righteousness of One, the Lord Jesus Christ. That righteousness was counted for Lot’s sake. So, we know that his wife was unsaved, and this means that she was still in her sins and the wrath of God was upon her. God can take a person that is under his wrath in death at any time He determines, and He does so in a just manner, because they have already broken His Law by transgression and are guilty: “The wages of sin is death.”

In this case, Lot’s wife broke the Law that was given to them at the point of fleeing out of the city of Sodom. They had been told to escape to the mountain and to look not behind them. Yes – God can give a commandment like not eating of the fruit of a certain tree and when Adam and Eve disobeyed and ate of that tree, they died: “…for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” And what happened to Lot’s wife? She disobeyed God’s commandment not to look back and she died. It is the same thing with the man who picked up a few sticks. What was God’s judgment? He was to be stoned to death. This is typical of what the Law of God decrees regarding the breaking of any Law. It is a sentence of death. Lot’s wife looked from behind him and she died. It was an unusual death, as God caused her death by changing her into a pillar of salt. God has the power and ability to do this. Jesus changed water into wine, so God can take the chemical compound of one thing and turn it into another and, here, He took a woman of flesh and blood and transformed her body into salt. This is not the type of transformation that anyone would want. The Bible talks of our bodies being changed on the last day when God will give us new resurrected bodies and we will be transformed or changed to new creatures. God will do the changing. He is able to turn a body of flesh into a spiritual body (whatever that is), so He can certainly turn a body of flesh into salt. He did so and “she became a pillar of salt.”

The word “pillar” is an unusual word here and it is strange that God used this word to describe what happened to Lot’s wife, because the Hebrew word translated as “pillar” is only translated as “pillar” in this verse. It is used a few other times, but it is most often translated as “garrison,” like when an enemy would place an outpost or fort in an occupied land. The Philistines placed their garrisons in the land of Israel. When Saul was king, Jonathan went up with his armour bearer against a garrison of the Philistine and defeated them. The word “garrison” is translated in our verse as “pillar” and we can see why the translators would not use the word. It would say that “she became a garrison of salt.” It does not make sense. This word can also be translated as “officer,” and it also does not make sense to say that “she became an officer of salt.” The translators reverted to a related word. This word “pillar” is Strong’s #5333, but it comes from another word, Strong’s #5324, a word that is translated as “stand up” or “erected” or “established” or “set.” It can also be translated as “pillar” or “officer.”

I am still not sure of the spiritual meaning, but I think the translators realized that Lot’s wife became a “pillar” of salt. Perhaps, she was 5’ tall and her body was changed to salt and it would have been standing, just as she was standing, so there would have been this image of a “pillar.” I think this is the idea. The translators got the word “pillar” from the word it was derived from, Strong’s #5324. If we were to use one of those words, it would state that she was a “standing” of salt or “erected of salt,” almost like an altar of some kind. An altar is made to be long lasting, as it would bring something to remembrance when people would see the altar. Israel would gather stones and build an altar so that when people would see it, it would signify something. I think that is the point.

Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt to signify the danger of ignoring the dire warning at the time of the end of the world, as she would be called in remembrance by the people of God; we would realize what Christ meant when He said, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Do not return back if you are in the field. Do not go down into the house if you are on the housetop. “Remember Lot’s wife.” There is the record of it and we still have it today over 4,000 years since it happened and over 3,400 years since it was recorded in the Word of God. We still have her before us as a pillar standing there, as it were, warning us not to look back from behind Him, the Lord Jesus. Press on! Press on, my friend, as the song says. “Press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” When you are at the point of crossing the Red Sea to enter into the Promised Land (and we are not far from entering into the eternal kingdom of God), go forward. Go forward, not backward, as God admonished Israel in Jeremiah, chapter 7, when He said they went backward, and not forward. We are not to do that. And Lot’s wife is there to remind us all.

Lord willing, when we get together in our Bible study we will move on and discuss Abraham rising up early in the morning and seeing the smoke rising up as the smoke of a furnace. We will see what the Bible is teaching us about these things.