Lot and His Wife

One case in point was that of Lot and his wife, some 3,900 years ago. Lot and his uncle Abram were nomadic alien residents in the land of Canaan. Crowded pasturage caused conflicts between their respective herdsmen. To avoid further problems Abram and Lot agreed to go their separate ways. Unselfishly Abram gave Lot the first choice of land. His nephew chose the well-watered region of the lower Jordan and Salt Sea. He finally settled his tents near the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. From a material standpoint it seemed a wise choice. From the spiritual one it could hardly have been worse.

Lot’s neighbors in Sodom “were gross sinners against Jehovah.” They were depraved homosexuals, “from boy to old man.” (Genesis 13:13; 19:4) How did Lot view the situation? The apostle Peter answers: “That righteous man by what he saw and heard while dwelling among them from day to day was tormenting his righteous soul by reason of their lawless deeds.” Their depravity, however, was not to go unpunished. The Bible account explains: “Consequently Jehovah said: ‘The cry of complaint about Sodom and Gomorrah, yes, it is loud, and their sin, yes, it is very heavy.’” So heavy in fact that Jehovah determined to destroy those cities together with their perverted inhabitants. Lot’s well-watered region was no longer such a rosy prospect.​—2 Peter 2:6-8; Genesis 18:20, 21.

How were Lot and his family to escape the impending destruction? The very angels who were to act as executioners of the cities’ inhabitants were sent to Lot to give him life-saving instructions. What were he and his family to do? Abandon the city without delay!

Indecision Does Not Pay

How did Lot and his family react to those clear instructions? After being rebuffed by his sons-in-law, who considered the threat of destruction to be a joke, Lot kept lingering around the place. Rather than obeying immediately God’s command to flee, he delayed. But the angels did not. They had their instructions and obeyed them. “In the compassion of Jehovah upon him, the men [materialized angels] seized hold of his hand and of the hand of his wife and of the hands of his two daughters and they proceeded to bring him out and to station him outside the city.”​—Genesis 19:15, 16.

Did Lot and his family then flee to the mountainous region as instructed? Not at once. Whether he was influenced by his wife or not we do not know, but he implored Jehovah’s angel to let him seek refuge in a nearby city. This was granted and they fled to Zoar. (Genesis 19:18-22) How did Lot’s wife react to this uprooting and sudden change of home? Apparently she did not trust Jehovah’s judgment in the matter. Like her husband, she was indecisive, but with the difference that he eventually obeyed. She did not. She “began to look around from behind him [Lot], and she became a pillar of salt.” (Genesis 19:26) She hesitated and lost.

What can we learn from these vivid pictures of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and of Jerusalem? Jesus Christ used the annihilation of those cities as a parallel for the time “when the Son of man is to be revealed.” (Luke 17:28-30; 21:5-36)