I truncate the sermon a tad to focus in on the meat of the issue in order to share via a conversation with a couple brothers about our sinful nature and them sharing their previous “pre-Christian” lives. The original [full] sermon by Rev. Jermin can be found here. The “Billy Paul – Me and Mrs. Jones” insert can be found here in full.
Here is an excerpt of J. Vernon McGee’s thoughts on Lot’s wife’s disobedience. Longing for the life before God promised her redemption:
But his wife looked back from behind him,
and she became a pillar of salt
[Gen. 19:26]
I think this verse has been greatly misunderstood. Why in the world did Mrs. Lot turn and look back? I think that the reason is twofold. First of all, she turned and looked back because she did not want to leave Sodom. She loved Sodom. She loved Lot, too, but it was a lot of Sodom that she loved. And she didn’t want to leave it. She was probably a member of the country club, the sewing club, and the Shakespeare club. In fact, there wasn’t a club in town that she was not a member of. She just loved these little get–togethers in the afternoon. I’m not sure but what they met and studied religion in a nice little religious club also. She was right in the thick of it all, my friend, and she didn’t want to leave. Her heart was in Sodom. Her body walked out, but she surely left her heart there.
This is a tremendous lesson for us today. I hear a great many Christians talking about how they want to see the Lord come, but they are not living as if they mean it. On Sunday morning, it is difficult to get them to leave their lovely home. And on Sunday night, they are not going to leave their lovely home because they love television, too. They have a color television, and they are going to look at the programs on Sunday night because there are some good ones then. But when the Lord comes, my friend, you are going to leave the television; you are going to leave that lovely home; you are going to leave everything. I have just one question to ask you: Will it break your heart to leave all of this down here?
I have asked myself that question many times. To be honest with you, I am not anxious to leave. I would love to stay. I have my friends and loved ones whom I want to be with. And I have the radio ministry that I want to continue. I’ll be frank with you, I hope the Lord will just let me stay here awhile longer. But I also want to be able to say that when He does call, I will not have a thing down here which will break my heart to leave—not a thing. I love my home too, but I would just as soon go off and leave it. How do you feel about that today? Mrs. Lot turned and looked back, and this is one of the explanations.
The other reason that she looked back is simply that she did not believe God. God had said, “Leave the city, and don’t look back.” Lot didn’t look back; he believed God. But Mrs. Lot did not believe God. She was not a believer, and so she didn’t really make it out of the city. She was turned to a pillar of salt.
I am not going to go into the story of Lot’s two daughters in verses 31–38. It is as sordid as it can be. Frankly, Lot did not do well in moving down to the city of Sodom. He lost everything except his own soul. His life is a picture of a great many people who will not judge the sins of their lives. They are saved, “yet so as by fire.” The Lord has said in a very definite way to these folk who have put all their eggs in a basket like this that if they will not judge their sin down here, He will judge it. Apparently, that was the case in Lot’s story.
Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary: The Law (Genesis 16-33), electronic ed., vol. 2 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), 51–52.