Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

LOT’S LAST DAYS ~ 1’9 : l-i8
“Evidently her heait ?Pias in the city. She appreciated but
1idk what the deliveijng angels had done for her. Almost
escaped, she alldwed her vigilance to relax. ’ So she became
a :warning example io’ all who do not make a ‘clear-cut
break witji the life of wickedness, as Jesus’ remarkable
warning designates her’ (Luke 17: 32). ’ God’s punishment
overtook her on the ‘spot, apparently through the agents
already operative he destruction” (EG, 571). It is
most iizterestiiig te here that Lot’s wife’is the oizly
woivaii-of the irtaizy who appear iq Biblical story-whonz
we arc exhoded to “reiizeiizber,’: ‘ and that. ( 1
by’ our Loid
Himself. (Cf. Matt. 26:13). ’
The woman became “a pillar. of salt.” ’ At the, ’time,
Lot and his daughters could qot have seen this: th’ey did
have sense enough (and some faith, it . seems) to. ’have
realized that looking back would have meant their destruc-,
tion. We see no reason for assuming that Lot’s wife was
instantaneously transformed into a pillar of salt: a more
probable interpretation would be that she was overcome by
the sulphurous vapors and afterward became encrusted
with salt. It would be most unreasonable for us in this
twentieth century to assume that this tragic-one might
say, mummif ied-f igure could have survived the elements
for any great length of time, much less for a time-span
of four milleniums. It is a matter of common sense to
hold that attempts at identification, either past or present,
must be fruitless. (Cf. the apocryphal book of Wisdom
[l.0:7, ?a pillar of salt , , , a memorial of the unbelieving
soul”] ). We would agree, however, with Leupold (EG,
572), that “in the days shortl.Ji after the catastrophe the‘
salt-encrustkd, ‘crudely p rFmainh bf the uuhappy
woqiiai &re to’be seen.”
‘ 8 L I
. I
Abrakain’s Last Vie ev‘idenkes ‘of the’ kitas‘tro-‘
r r P , t
pGe ‘is portrayed iri i ’f fit sentehces. Veif ’ early’
in :t$e -:morning he’ rkturned :to ?the* spot whithdr ,he ‘had
ac.companied his celestial’ tisitors ‘the day ’before ’ (1 8 !22),
3 61