Lot’s wife

Conflict is something we are all well aware of between families. Conflict also brings out some of our errant behavior and permits us to make excuses for our behavior because of what we have been through. Lot’s wife was tossed in a big bowl of family salad!  Lot and Abram had issues, Genesis calls it, strife with the herdsmen of Abram and Lot. Wisely, Abram develops a plan and allows Lot to choose where he wants to go. Lot looked around and saw abundant water and said, I will pitch my tent toward Sodom.

Vs. 13 prepares us for what Sodom meant: “Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.”

But Lot’s wife’s life didn’t begin in Genesis 13. Her introduction to the family would have been long before that. Genesis 12 tells us that when Abram went out from Haran and Lot was with him, he was 75 years old. That’s family history. That’s seeing God move, seeing the famines, seeing the issues with Abram, and his lying about Sarai to Pharoah; Lot’s wife would have had a front-row seat to a rodeo in the desert. She would have also been on the receiving end of Chapter 14 when the group of Kings came and overtook the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 14, took Lot and all his possessions, who were living in Sodom, and Abram had to come to rescue them.

I am not trying to paint a picture of a victim; I am just setting the stage that we could understand. Lot’s wife’s life wasn’t a walk in the park. Who was she? We don’t know. In Jewish history, the Midrash refers to her as Ado or Edith.  I will refer to her as Edith, so she is more than a nameless wife.

Edith is also there in Genesis 19, when her husband offered her daughters up to be given to the men of Sodom, wanting to act inappropriately with the angels who came to see Lot.  She had to have heard how God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. She also would have heard how

Lot wasn’t taking seriously the angel who said, “Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, and bring them out of this place.” What would it be like to have you magically taken by the hand and moved outside the city by an angel?

Let’s go back and sit and mull over what Lot’s wife has seen and experienced. Trauma, strife, moving a few times, being a part of an evil community, having your daughters offered for paganism, and then being told to move it, and you don’t, and magically, you are. I am not defending Lot’s wife, but I do understand trauma, and when life goes crazy, it’s easy to get caught up in indecision. Before we throw Lot’s wife under the bus, when have we dragged our feet, stood quietly in the corner rather than speaking up, or made compromises that put our families at risk?  When have we felt like we had no control over the situation, so stay out of the line of fire? When have we blamed strife and family conflict on our hiding till the last guest left at Christmas?

There have been times when I have wondered or wanted to step back for another glance. I know I have delayed for a bit what God is asking of us.  Or the question is, do I use delaying tactics when I am just disobeying in a subtle passive manner?

Lot’s wife, Edith, was “looking back,” a phrase that, according to the New International Commentary on the Old Testament, meant not just seeing but a longing for or a reluctance to leave.

How often do we waver like Edith?  The directions were, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back.”  That is pretty much straightforward! And yet, our hearts use excuses, our past, and circumstances for why we don’t obey or don’t obey when God asks.

Obeying from the heart is so much different than forced obedience. Lot and his family were removed from the city. They were warned but didn’t run for the hills. Obedience calls for the heart to move the feet. Edith’s feet weren’t moving forward willingly. Her eyes followed her hesitant feet. She may have been forced to go forward, but her heart had already turned around. Where the heart is, the rest will soon follow.

Edith was caught up in a world not pleasing to God. She just turned around for another look at where her heart had lingered.

Where is our heart as women of God? Regardless of the trauma, the past, the chaos, and the disappointment of how other people have treated us or the situations they have thrown us into, we can choose to turn our hearts to God. Edith had been thrown into the pot and stirred. She was a victim, but she had a choice. Choosing to obey is a choice. Obedience isn’t based on what we understand but on how well we know the one asking us to obey.  We may all feel like Edith at times. Everything has gone wrong, and everyone is pulling the rug out from under our feet.  When God asks us to obey, we may feel like someone picked us up and moved us outside our homes and comfort zones and into a foreign land. The important thing is faith in God’s driving us. As Godly women, we must keep our hearts and heads moving forward and resist all temptation to look back through the lists of ‘what ifs.’ We must choose not to use excuses, the past or the present, to determine how quickly or completely we obey.

Luke 11:28 reminds us, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Let us be known as women who see God working in all our circumstances, listen to the wise counsel of those God sends to us, and when God moves our feet and tells us to go and not to look back, let us move quickly in obedience, not simply because it’s the right thing to do, but for those following our example.