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Lot's Wife




Salt...

A pillar of salt...

If you've never been to the area west of the Great Salt Lake (and unless you're REALLY bored there's no reason to head out there) there's a place called the Bonneville Salt Flats. It's amazing - truly. Try to imagine a vast sheet of salt, perfectly flat and blindingly white. If you go in the spring time, when the ground is a little damp, it's possible to scoop out an enormous ball of salt - like a snowball. The salt is very fine-grained and the taste is a little less salty than normal table salt, although salty enough that you do not want to eat it.

So there's Lot, evacuating Sodom, with his wife and daughters in tow. They're headed out to the hills, seeking refuge from the storm of fire and brimstone. They are told specifically not to look back on the destruction of their home and city, but Lot's wife cannot resist the temptation. She looks back and is turned into a pillar of salt.

It is unclear (at least to me) if this is a literal thing - her flesh was somehow transmogrified into a literal column of sodium chloride - or if this means she turned back and when they looked back to find her all they found was a column of salt, such as is found in Mono Lake...


Lot's wife is used by the Savior as an analogy or warning against leaving the world behind physically, but not mentally or spiritually. It seems that at times we may be desirous to please God without offending the world. Whether Lot's wife was actually turned into salt or not, if she turned back to consider what was forbidden - no matter how desirable - she certainly suffered for her act.

I also think that maybe the reason why she looked back is that she was hanging on to a former life or past transgression, unable to put it down. This is a hard one for all of us. We sometimes like to wallow in the guilt, enjoying the feeling of suffering and/or persecution, even when there is none. We like to feel the martyr, bringing on ourselves the unnecessary hardship and attention. While this may be effective, it is also quite damaging to our self-image and self-esteem. We should work to eliminate such things from our lives, instead becoming independent, strong, and faithful. We believe in the atonement of Christ; we must also believe that it is effective for each of us. I believe it is effective for me.

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