Pillar of Salt

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Lot’s wife was turned into a Pillar of Salt, which I suppose is supposed to be a bad thing. However, I thought “salt” was good, it was a preservative, we are to be “Salt of the Earth”. So what does it mean to be turned INTO a Pillar of Salt?
 
StLouisMission said:
Lot’s wife was turned into a Pillar of Salt, which I suppose is supposed to be a bad thing. However, I thought “salt” was good, it was a preservative, we are to be “Salt of the Earth”. So what does it mean to be turned INTO a Pillar of Salt?
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In some areas of the Dead Sea there are huge piles of salt, some resembling shapes, even a human shape. Although salt was good and a commodity the reference may be that Lots wife became non existent like a pillar of salt that inhabits the region which would have been understandable to the people of the time especially.
 
I wouldn’t have wanted to be turned into a pillar of salt
 
Jesus also said he is the vine and we are the branches. That doesn’t mean I want to literally be turned into a branch. 😉
 
Salt IS good and valuable, but human beings are made in the image of God. Being a person is much more preferable to being salt.
 
StLouisMission said:
Lot’s wife was turned into a Pillar of Salt, which I suppose is supposed to be a bad thing. However, I thought “salt” was good, it was a preservative, we are to be “Salt of the Earth”. So what does it mean to be turned INTO a Pillar of Salt?
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I recently finished writing a book titled the Theology of the Salt. I am currently in discussions with a publisher so, until there is a signed contract, I don’t think it wise to get too specific with my answer to your question. I can tell you this, understanding the deeper meaning of the story of Lot’s wife is a key that opens up a more complete understanding of Scripture. Salt, per se, in Scripture is neither good nor bad. A gun by it’s nature is neither good nor bad; it’s how the gun is used that is good or bad. Furthermore, understanding the deeper meaning of salt resolves the seeming contradictions that it’s usage in Scripture implies. Through this theology, it will become much clearer why the Son of God became incarnate and why we must eat his flesh and drink his blood in the Eucharist in order to have life.
 
If Lot’s wife raised up and looked back at the devastation of a volcanic eruption, she would have been coated with ash barreling across the land. “Salt” in the Bible can be natron, bicarbonate of soda possibly having sodium chloride contaminants. This is like baking powder that looses its fizz with exposure to moisture.
 
=StLouisMission;9530404]Lot’s wife was turned into a Pillar of Salt, which I suppose is supposed to be a bad thing. However, I thought “salt” was good, it was a preservative, we are to be “Salt of the Earth”. So what does it mean to be turned INTO a Pillar of Salt?
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Does not Christ point out that “salt is useless when it loses its flavor; good ONLY to be trampled on”?

That is the message we are to understand about LOTS wife and disobedience.

God Bless,
Pat/PJM
 
StLouisMission said:
Lot’s wife was turned into a Pillar of Salt, which I suppose is supposed to be a bad thing. However, I thought “salt” was good, it was a preservative, we are to be “Salt of the Earth”. So what does it mean to be turned INTO a Pillar of Salt?
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Well from the immediate context it is the punishment for her disobedience to keep going and never looking back. I think that’s pretty much it, really. 😉
 
Salt sown on soil renders the soil useless. Nothing can grow in soil contaminated with salt. Armies used to sow the fields of their enemies with salt. The earth, when contaminated with salt, does not bear fruit.

Remember that Lot’s wife looked back, to see what she was missing.

And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” To him Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:61-62)

The person who holds something back from God, who doesn’t trust God, who always tries to have a “Plan B” in case God’s plan doesn’t pan out, will always by unable to bear fruit, will be unable to be productive in God’s kingdom, and Jesus says that there is no place for them in His kingdom.

Abrham is a good example.

The LORD said to Abram: Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. (Genesis 12:1)

God calls Abraham out of his homeland, but many don’t notice that God told him to go alone. God called Abraham to leave his relatives, to leave his father’s house, and to go alone.

Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. (Genesis 12:4)

But Abraham brought his nephew lot Lot as an insurance policy. Things didn’t work out well for him until he seperated from Lot. There was famine, the Egyptians get angry with him because of his wife, and a whole bunch of trouble comes upon him because he “looked back”, he didn’t trust God.

If we hold the past in reserve, hold something back from God to preserve our status or to protect our way of life, we will be unproductive, like salted earth, not fit for God’s kingdom.

-Tim-
 
Could it be that when Lot’s wife looked back at the destruction of the two cities, in actuallity lingered at the sight too long in one place when the others moved on.
In doing this, the erruption of tar and salt in that area flying in the air caught her off guard, the tar hitting her and the salt sticking to the tar on her, making her a pillar of salt.

Just a thought.
 
Hebrew NaTZiV MeLakH (Pillar of Salt) is an idiom that refers to a stroke or thrombosis. The words “looked back from behind (him)” are a not-so-subtle hint hat we must look at this phrase backwards to understand it.

Gen 19:17 "Escape [Heb: MaLaT] for thy life, do not look behind thee
Gen 19:26 “But [Lot’s] wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”

This phrase reverses to BoTZen + kHaLeM = mud + (over)whelm(ed by) = thrombosis, i.e., trauma + mud, mud-struck, unable to move, paralyzed.

Compare modern Hebrew SHaBeTZ = paralysis, thrombosis, a stroke < shin = due to, caused by + BoTZ = mud (in a vein or artery).

MeLakH = SaLT → kHaLaM = DReaM; health (salut), strength. She became the opposite of “pillar of health/strength”. Giving the schwa-less het its ancient W-sound, WaLeM = whelm, as in overwhelmed by mud, mud-struck.
In IE languages, SaLuT = health. DRM dream/throm is a near homonym of Latin dormire = to sleep. Compare English dormant = inactive, motionless ~ unable to move.
 
One possibility is that looking back doesn’t just mean physically looking back over her shoulder; it means that she missed what she had just left and regretted leaving. So, because her heart was longing to be back in Sodom, the Lord delivered to her the same punishment as He delivered to Sodom - total destruction.

But why she was reduced to a pillar of salt is a mystery to me.
 
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