paravanes:meditations

Lot's wife became a pillar of salt. Did this really happen, and what does it mean? Let's assume this did really happen, as we can trust the teaching of Scriptural truths. Certainly God doesn't need to use made up stories to instruct us. Truth is always a better teacher than fantasy. Fantasy has its place, but not when we are looking for basic truths and guidance for life. I have written elsewhere in this blog about the destruction of Sodom.  Lot's wife, unnamed here, physically left the boundaries of Sodom and it would seem, based on that fact, her safety is guaranteed and she will not experience the destruction overwhelming the city. It didn't happen that way. The others (her husband and daughters) with the woman we can call "Mrs. Lot" escaped immediate destruction. Other problems surfaced later, but they did not die with the population of Sodom. At the very least, these escapees had a chance for life. Why did Mrs. Lot experience the same destr...

Sodom. This is not a name we generally associate with mercy. In Genesis 18:23-33, one reads a conversation between Abraham and God. God decides to share with Abraham the divine plan to destroy the city of Sodom because extreme wickedness has been attributed to the inhabitants of that place. In response, Abraham wonders aloud if God would destroy the good and honest people who just happen to live in Sodom.  In the conversation, Abraham asks the question: "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?" As the conversation progresses, God tells Abraham if fifty righteous people can be found in Sodom, the city will not be destroyed. Abraham, knowing his nephew Lot lives there, bargains God down to ten. That was an expression of God's mercy. In other words, if ten righteous people could be found in the city (historians estimate the population of the city was between 600 and 1200), God  would not destroy it. For the sake of ten righteous people, God would a...