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GOD SAID to Lot, the nephew of faithful Abraham, to gather his wife and loved ones and leave the city of Sodom immediately. Angels sent by God informed Lot of God's plan to utterly destroy the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with brimstone and fire from heaven. The angels gave explicit instructions. Two of the instructions were, "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee." Lot gathered his family as instructed and, with his wife and daughters, fled the city of Sodom. Unfortunately for Lot's wife, she disobeyed God's instructions. She looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. Genesis, the first book of the Bible, chapter 19, verses 15-26 reads:
15 And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
16 And while he lingered, the men 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.
17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
18 And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord:
19 Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die:
20 Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.
21 And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken.
22 Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
23 The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.
24 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;
25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
GOD SAID: Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt.
MAN SAID: Impossible!
Now, THE RECORD. Moses, the great prophet and leader of Israel, fully believed the record of Lot's wife: due to her disobedience, she was turned into a pillar of salt. Moses, as he was inspired and directed by God, wrote the first five books of the Bible, where the account of Lot's wife is written. It must be noted here that God Himself, therefore, certifies the authenticity of this event.
Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, believes in the story of Lot's wife. He validates the written record of the Genesis account with His statement in the gospel of Luke 17:32, "Remember Lot's wife." Could God the Father, Jesus Christ, and Moses have missed the mark in such dramatic fashion? The world's unbelievers would like you to believe so.
One of the ancient world's most noted and quoted historians, Joseph ben Matthias—more commonly known as Flavius Josephus—was a Jew born at the approximate time of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Josephus was the son of a priestly family and could lay claim to the lineage of King David through his mother's heritage. He was a Jewish General in the Jewish revolt against Rome where he was also taken prisoner. He was later commissioned by Rome to write a history of the Jewish people. This is his record of Lot's wife:
But Lot's wife continually turning back to view the city as she went from it, and being too nicely inquisitive what would become of it, although God had forbidden her to do so, was changed into a pillar of salt; for I have seen it, and it remains at this day.
Well recorded in history was Clement, a Roman general and contemporary of Jesephus, who said that he also saw Lot's wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt. In the next century, the Roman orator Irenaeus attested to the existence of Lot's wife and commented with awe on how it had endured so long with all its members intact.
Today, on the Jordan Valley Road, on the way to Eilat, you can look and see a large, ominous pillar of salt that resembles a cloaked woman looking back to where Sodom and Gomorrah once thrived—a place called the Vale of Siddim. The ancient Phoenician priest, Sanchuniathon, wrote of this place and said, "The Vale of Sidimus sank and became a lake, always evaporating and containing no fish, a symbol of vengeance and of death for the transgressor." This "cloaked lady" overlooking the Vale of Siddim is known by the Bedouins of today as Lot's Wife.
Whether the common knowledge of the indigenous people of the land is accurate or not, we still have the proof of credible eyewitnesses, of the honored historian Josephus, of the great prophet Moses, and the ultimate endorsement of the Holy Lord Jesus Christ and His Father, the Creator of all things—God.
GOD SAID.
MAN SAID.
YOU HAVE THE RECORD.
References:
Authorized King James Bible
Keller, W., The Bible as History.
Complete Works of Josephus
"Dispatch from Jerusalem," Sept.-Oct. 1994
Illustrated Dictionary and Concordance of the Bible, printed by the Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd.
