Genesis 19:20, 26 Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let us escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live….But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Fleeing the world entirely is tricky business. Jesus has saved us from the world and the coming judgment upon it. The world has the death sentence upon it and if we remain of the world we die with it. About Babylon (the world) Jesus says, ”Come out of her, my people.” Sodom is the world. The Lord rescues us from its judgment. Once we believe in Jesus’ salvation we escape the world. It is tricky because it is hard to know where to draw the line between in the world but not of the world. How do we enjoy the comforts and conveniences of life in the world and yet not be captured by worldly temptations?
We are called to a different life, to another world, to the eternal, spiritual kingdom. Lot recognized the dangers of Sodom and went along with the rescuing angels, but he wanted ”a foot in both worlds.” He didn’t want to completely leave city life and head for the hills. He asked to stay in a ”little city,” called Zoar. As it turned out, he later left Zoar anyway for he feared to dwell there, and he went to the mountains to dwell in a cave with his two daughters. But even then you could not take the world out of Lot, for he got drunk and had incestuous relations with his daughters.
Lot’s wife had the same yearning for the old worldly life; however she did not fare so well. In disobedience to the angels’ command, she stopped, turned around, and looked back. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. It may have just been curiosity; nevertheless, she looked back to the old evil way of life in the ”world.” We who have been saved from the world will still wistfully “look back” to worldly wealth and pleasures. The Holy Spirit in us struggles against the flesh that doesn’t want to entirely, completely, and forever leave the world behind.