Lot, Abraham’s nephew, lived with his wife and daughters in the city of Sodom, a notoriously evil place.  God decided to destroy the city, telling Lot of his intentions. through two visiting angels. The men of the city threatened the angels by demanding that they come out of the house so that they could have intercourse with them. The angels blinded the men and escorted Lot and his family out of the city.  With his family Lot flees before the destruction of Sodom by fire and sulfur.  God warned Lot not to look back as he fled; but, Lot’s wife did anyhow.  When she did, she turned into a pillar of salt.

The city was notoriously evil so God punished its inhabitants with destruction.  Despite the evil in that place, Lot’s wife looks back yearning for it.

What can we take from this story?  We must flee every evil of the world in order to serve God.  Of Babylon (Rome) the prophet John in the Book of Revelation quotes a voice from heaven, “Come out of her, my people,  lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”  (Revelation 18: 4 ESV)

We are to shun the evil of the world.  We must not be enamored of it so that we can serve faithfully as witnesses and apologists.  Augustine tells us of the City of God and the city of the world.  We belong to the City of God.

We can engage the world without becoming enthralled by it.  We must do this as examples to the wider society.  Yes, we sin; but, we have the recourse of repentance.  No Christian is perfect.  As we show forth virtue, we must also practice repentance.

We must not look back at the burning city, the evil found in the many dark places of the world, in fact, in all places of the world. We must look forward to the coming of the City of God that we defend and proclaim before the people.

Michael G. Tavella

October 28, 2024