Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ephesus

Paul got around. Ephesus is right on the Aegean Sea, on the coast of present-day Turkey. Yesterday he was in Galatia, which was much more towards the middle of Turkey. And when he actually wrote these letters, he was in Rome... So the man could travel. He probably walked. Today's item of interest comes from chapter one in Ephesians. Verses 18 and 19 are particularly interesting: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power This is not the first time Paul talks about an inheritance. In Galatians he talks about the inheritance that comes of being part of the Abrahamic Covenant. He notes that we are joint-heirs through and with Christ. In Ephesians, he uses the word "adoption" - that we are adopted as the Children of Jesus Chris...
7 comments
Read more

Engaged

Three Dog Night got it wrong.  One is not the loneliest number. They were more accurate when they said Two can be as bad as one.  I really wonder how people can survive Without being fully engaged. How they live through each day Without the intimacy I so very much crave... Maybe I am unusual in my desire  To have this intimacy, To want to feel that soul So close to my own Sharing light and warmth, Sharing love and passion, Sharing life. Alas! Alas! Alas! For when I do seek to share It is often only to be rebuffed Denied Or used up, Sucked dry, And left an empty husk.  I want SO MUCH to share And all I have is the cold, digital world Of typing out a blog.
12 comments
Read more

The Other Art

I'm not sure we appreciate photography as much as we do other art forms. Part of this comes from the reality that surrounds and permeates a photograph - it's very, very real, and the photographer strives for clarity and crispness in the representations. Perhaps this is why black and white images continue to be relevant - they strip away extraneous information (color) and leave us with something that is at once familiar and also non-existent - for nothing exists in black and white. Nothing. I also think that pictures are becoming too common-place... Everyone has a camera in their pocket, and while that's a very democratic thing (everyone can express themselves in a picture easily and readily, and can find an audience for these images, which are casually taken and casually viewed, and perhaps just as casually forgotten) I think that we embrace that casual attitude, and it spills over to all aspects of the media, making it impotent. So I read this article this morning: h...
Post a Comment
Read more