Lot’s wife is famous for being the first and only woman in the Bible to become a pillar of salt. After Lot separated from Abraham, he dwelt in Sodom and Gomorrah. This was a big mistake because the men of Sodom were wicked, and it wasn’t long before God decided to destroy the city.
Prior to the destruction of the city, God sent angels to bring Lot and his family out. The angels could not destroy the city until Lot, and his family departed. Unfortunately, Lot could not leave the city with all his family members. He had daughters who were married to men of Sodom, and their husbands did not believe that the land was about to be destroyed therefore they did not leave.
Lot left with his wife and two unmarried daughters. As they departed, they were given a clear instruction not to look back. Lot’s wife disobeyed this instruction and became a pillar of salt. Her destruction caused her family to enter chaos. When Lot and his surviving daughters reached the new land where they were to dwell, both girls decided to sleep with their father to procreate. This incestuous relationship and the effect it had on the generations to come would have been avoided if Lot’s wife had kept her back turned on the past and marched on confidently to the future.
The Leadership Lessons from Lot’s Wife are;
- Who the leader is on the inside is many times different from who the leader is on the outside. Many people appear to have it all together, but that is most times, not the case. Lot’s wife appeared to be a woman of God, but inside she was connected to Sodom.
- In a time of crisis, who we are on the inside is revealed. Whatever a person is on the inside, a crisis will reveal. No one can pretend through a crisis. Lot’s wife may have appeared to be the godly wife, but a crisis soon revealed who she really was.
- Every time we look back, we move back. There is no such reality as stagnation. Whoever is not moving forward has engaged the reverse gear and is moving backward. Every time you turn to look at where you are coming from, you are rooted to the spot and are not making progress. When Lot’s wife looked backward, she was unable to move forward, and everyone else moved on without her.
- You must understand that you cannot save what is lost but you can preserve what is left from destruction. Lot’s wife looked back towards Sodom, possibly because her heart was still there, and she was concerned about her daughters who had been unable to escape. But she could not save them; they were lost. The wise thing would have been to preserve what was left. She failed to do this and so what was left was destroyed too. Her daughters who remained had children with their own father!
- Leaders must step out of their comfort zone. Lot’s wife had become so comfortable in Sodom that leaving the city posed serious challenges and she looked back to her own destruction.
- Fear keeps us from wanting to make progress. Fear was no doubt a contributing factor to Lot’s wife’s decision to look back. When people fear to move forward into the unknown, they will step back into what is familiar, even if it destroys them.
- Disobedience always carries grave consequences. Instructions are vital to success and vision When leaders fail to follow instructions, they set themselves up for destruction.
- Change will not always give us time to prepare. In other words, we will not always be ready for change, but we must embrace it nonetheless. Lot’s wife obviously was not ready for change, but that wasn’t the problem, the problem was that she failed to embrace it.
- We must see beyond adversity to the blessing it carries. Lot’s wife failed to see beyond the current adversity in her life to the blessing it carried.
- The choices we make today will affect us tomorrow. We are never completely free from our choices. Lot and his wife chose to give their daughters to men of Sodom. They chose to blend with the wicked and Lot’s wife was unable to leave the city and looked back to her destruction.
- We can’t count on anyone to make the journey with us. Sometimes, the people we want to travel with us will be unable to. They will let us down. They will not be part of our vision, or they will set out with us and then leave us. We need to make provision for such occurrences, or they will impact on us so that we are unable to pursue our vision.
- Our actions and choices have far-reaching The things we do will not only affect us they will also affect those around us. When Lot’s wife chose to look back and became a pillar of salt, that decision affected her husband, daughters, and descendants who were conceived in incest.
