Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky. He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. The city was called Zoar. The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.”
(Genesis 19:24-26)

It was only after Lot had gotten far enough away from the danger that the Lord released judgment. There were not ten righteous individuals in any of the cities, so they all came under judgment. Everything was scoured. Completely. Everything that had been infected with the intentional rebellion and the turning away from God was eliminated. This area had been a lush and bountiful valley (Genesis 13:10). After this the area was destitute. It’s possible that through this tumultuous event, the valley sank into the ground and became lower in elevation than the Dead Sea, which was nearby. Certainly there is no lush plain around the Dead Sea now and little evidence it ever was. The climate was permanently altered.

God sent fire and brimstone down. We know that the plains of this valley were dotted with bitumen pits (Genesis 14:10). No doubt they added fuel to this fire.

God is forward thinking. It is when we look backward with longing that we start giving ourselves permission to devalue what the Lord has done for us. God warned them NOT to look back (Genesis 19:17). When God gives us a clear instruction, it is meant for us to obey. We don’t need to know the whys. We don’t need an explanation. We need to do what it is that He said to do, the way He said to do it, and when He told us to do it. Period. He is Sovereign Lord and God. His commands are NOT optional. They are NOT suggestions. You will see in scripture that God is VERY PARTICULAR about what He tells us to do because of the weight of the authority of His words.

Lot’s wife rebelled. She did not do what they had been told to do by the angel they clearly knew was an angel on the outskirts of Sodom. There was no excuse. She was there. She heard the words. She chose to look back. Her heart was with the city and her previous life. She had to see what she was losing one last time instead of focusing on the place of safety she was moving toward. This was a tragedy since it was (a) easily avoidable and (b) deprived the family of someone who could have restrained their daughters (Genesis 19:31-35). We never know the effect of our disobedience.

No one else looked back. Not even to see what had happened to their mother/wife.

By the time the sun rose and the division between night and day had been crossed. Their idols of the moon and their idols of the sun had not helped them. They were powerless against the Lord.

It took until sunrise for Lot to get from the outskirts of Zoar (city limits) to the gates of the city itself.

The sage Sforno writes: ‘מאת ה’ מן השמים, this was not a natural event such as a volcanic eruption, the ash, brimstone and lava afterwards descending on the surrounding earth. The source of this destruction did not originate in the bowels of the earth. ויהפוך, the earth as well as its inhabitants underwent a total chemical transformation being turned into brimstone and fire, similar to what David means in Psalms 105,29 “He turned their waters into blood.” The dew that rose from the earth prior to sunrise turned into salt. Compare Deut. 29,22 גפרית ומלח שרפה כל ארצה, meaning that the moisture descended back onto earth but this time mixed with solid burned particles.’

The sage Chizkuni writes: ‘ותהיא נציב מלח, “she was turned into a pillar of salt;” her punishment fitted her crime, as Rashi has explained. Rashi claims that when her husband asked his wife to give some salt to his guests so that their food would taste better, she absolutely refused by challenging his right to violate the laws of Sodom concerning the entertaining of any guests. (based on B’reshit Rabbah,50,4) *Alternatively, “his wife gazed behind him and it became… – “it” referring to the entire land becoming filled with salt as it says “all its soil devastated by sulfur and salt.” (Deuteronomy 29:22)’

The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 24. מאת ה׳ מן השמים. After it has said וה׳ המטיר וגו׳ this seems completely superfluous. But this repeated addition is of the greatest significance. People who visit the region of the Dead Sea and see the sulphur wells and the whole volcanic nature of the district, explain the destruction of these cities as a completely natural occurrence. The volcanic nature of the district explains the foundation of the Dead Sea. The causes are quite natural and earthly and need not be referred specially to God and heaven. Against this erroneous view the Word of God proclaims מאת ה׳ מן השמים “It was from God, from the heaven” that it came. You are confusing cause and effect. What you take to be cause is in reality effect. The present geological nature by which you explain the catastrophe is only the effect of the catastrophe which was not brought about by terrestial conditions but by God from heaven. Probably in quite a similar manner the geological theories err as to the creation of the world. The facts of what they see and on which they base their theories are true enough but the deductions which they make from them are false. They quite similarly, confuse cause and effect. What they view as the causes of the evolution and revolutions of the world are only the results of revolutions which God brought about for the formation of the world. V. 26. As she stood still she was overtaken by the form of death which was following close behind them.’