Jesus brings to our recollection what at one time happened to Lot’s wife. Lot, his wife, and their two daughters were instructed by God (through the angels) to depart quickly from Sodom, which was corrupt due to its sins. In Genesis 19:17 it says, Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.
They had to leave everything
behind. But in Luke 17:26 we read that Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
It became clear that she was still too attached to her past and pleasant life in Sodom.
This story was, when Jesus told it, very well known to his disciples. Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian, and writer who lived in the first century, reports in his Antiquities of the Jews: "As they fled, the wife of Lot turned around repeatedly. She was curious as to what was happening to Sodom, even though God had forbidden her to do that. Therefore, God changed her into a pillar of salt. I have seen the pillar with my own eyes, and it still stands there."1
Also, in the apocryphal book Wisdom (10:7) one is reminded of this: And still lies there…a pillar of salt, in remembrance of the woman who did not believe.
The shocking event with Lot’s wife must remain a warning sign for ever.
32 Remember Lot’s wife.