Remember Lot's Wife

Luke 17:26-32(NIV):

"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife!"

The stories of Noah and Lot are actually opposites. And I will ask some questions in order to highlight this statement.

FIRST question. When God destroyed the world in Noah’s day, what agency did he use to bring about the destruction? Water, isn’t that right?

- When God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, what was the agency that God used to bring about the destruction? It was fire.

We are in the presence of a direct contrast in God’s dealing with those two time periods. One is uses Water and the other is uses Fire.

SECOND question. I like you to also consider with me for a moment – how long before the flood did God tell Noah of the coming of the destruction? How much time? How long before? 120 long years.

Now, how long before the coming of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah did God tell Lot and his family about the destruction? How long before? The Bible says in Genesis 19 that the angels of God arrived at Sodom in the evening; Lot invited them in his home, and immediately the story with the wicked men of the city that night… And it was the next morning when the angels took Lot and his wife and their daughters by the hand and they left the city. How long is that? It’s about 12 hours.

Notice the contrast again. Because in Noah’s day God warned the world 120 years. In Lot’s time, how long before? Almost 12 hours.

THIRD question. Now something else. I want you to think about how much those two men lost. When the flood came, how much did Noah lose in the destruction that God send? How much did he lose when the flood came? … Nothing. We have good Bible students here… In the book “Patriarch and Prophets” Ellen White told us that all that Noah possessed, all, everything, he invested in the building of the ark.

“While Noah was giving his warning message to the world, his works testified of his sincerity. It was thus that his faith was perfected and made evident. He gave the world an example of believing just what God says. All that he possessed, he invested in the ark”. (PP 95)

How much did he invest? ALL. He lost nothing… Friends, do you realize what that means? That means that came a time when Noah sold his last horse of his farm, his home furniture, his house, everything he owned, and he invested everything into building of the ark. Which means that when the flood came, Noah lost nothing! Why? The money was… where? How much did Lot lose when the fire came from above to destroy the wicked cities? Lot lost everything.

Let’s talk about their families. How much of Noah’s family was saved when the destruction came? All of them. It was he, his wife, their sons and the sons’ wifes, all of them were saved.

When the destruction came, how much of Lot’s family was saved?... Was Lot’s wife saved? No. And when you read about the account of Lot’s daughters – although Lot’s daughters have made it out of the city of Sodom, Sodom had not made it out of the daughters. We can follow the history of the people known by the name of Moabites who latter on became quite a plague and a bother for God’s people, the Israelites, throughout the history.

I shared these things with you because these two stories are presented in Scriptures to gave us an idea of two classes of people that will be saved before Jesus comes. Now, I’m sure you recognize that both of these men, Noah and Lot, are given to us in the Bible as righteous men. Bible says that “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation” (Gen.6:9).

And how about Lot? The Bible gives us a brief description of him in 2 Peter 2: 7-8 “And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds”… The Bible says that Lot was a righteous man.