Salt of the Earth

The other day, as I was doing a Bible study on the Women of the Bible (Spangler and Syswerda, Zondervan Press, 2007), I was reading about Lot’s wife. The story is found in Genesis 19. Lot and his family were living in the wicked city of Sodom, which the Lord was getting ready to destroy. Abraham, knowing his nephew and family could face destruction, had pleaded with the Lord. God had promised that if He found even 10 righteous people in the city, He would not destroy it. But the men of the city came in a mob and tried to rape the angels of God. Only Lot tried to prevent this crime, and even offered his daughters as a substitute for the angels! No other righteous people were found. The doom of Sodom was at hand.

The Angels led Lot, his wife, and his two daughters out of the city toward the small town of Zoar. In fact, they had to take them by the hands and physically drag them away from the coming disaster. They warned the entire family to flee– take nothing with them, and don’t look back! But Lot’s wife did look back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt. In one split-second of weakness, she lost her life and her future, and left her family to unravel (see later chapters in Genesis).

I remember hearing this story as a child, and one question has always nagged at me. Why a pillar of salt?

Have you ever wondered about it? What is it about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah that would cause anyone to become a pillar of salt? God never does anything without a reason or a lesson to learn. So what can we learn from this?

Interestingly, the authors of the Bible study spent an entire lesson on “Salt.” They told of its importance in the Ancient World, its abundance in the Middle East, and how Jesus spoke of His disciples being the “Salt of the Earth.” (see Matthew 5:13). We are commanded to have qualities similar to salt– to cleanse, purify, and season the world around us. 

And then, yesterday, we experienced some freakish winter weather. It rained. And it sleeted. And it rained some more. And the temperature hovered just at the freezing point, causing a layer of ice to form over the roads, sidewalks, trees, power lines, cars, etc. Ice was everywhere, and I was out spreading –you guessed it– salt. Salt melts the ice that covers walkways and roads, making it safer to walk or drive.

But here’s the thing about salt. It only works when it is spread around and used. It does no good to put a pillar of salt in the middle of a highway, or on the kitchen table. A pillar of salt can make an interesting decoration, but it’s real worth is in its usefulness, and in its interaction with other elements. We don’t eat salt by itself. We use it to flavor other foods– we sprinkle it, we rub it in, we dissolve it– we don’t appreciate salt unless it works WITH something else. We use it WITH ice, to melt it off of the sidewalk. We use it ON raw meat to cure it and preserve it. We use it IN water to clean or soften items.

Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt. She had worth and value; she had a family that was being preserved to be a witness of God’s Grace and Redemption. But she turned away from God’s protection and His provision. Her value was trapped by her moment of rebellion, or curiosity– whatever caused her to look back.

How are we being salt in the world today? Are we being used to season the world around us? To help spread health, and purity, and life? Are we helping to melt icy hearts and soften hard hearts we meet? Are we willing to be spilled and spread and rubbed in to situations not of our choosing? Or are we standing as pillars of useless potential?

I pray that I will learn from the story of Lot’s wife. A new lesson. A new sense of purpose today. I hope you will be encouraged, as well. Let’s go out and “shake” things up in our world today!