I now know why Lot's wife looked back when running away
In the Bible verses about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, God made provision for Lot and his family's safety. This was because God was happy with Lot: he was the only good man in the city.
When God decided to destroy these cities, he sent 2 angels to do this. They appeared as normal men, and Lot invited them to stay in his house with him. The angels explained of the destruction that was about to happen, and that Lot's family was to be spared. Here is the Bible passage:
With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”
When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.)
By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Genesis 19: 18 - 26
In the last verse, Lot's wife looked back. Why? Why would anyone risk losing their life while looking back? For a long time, I wished that Lot's wife would have explained why she looked back.
Then, a few months ago, I had a dream. I dreamed of a large object, similar to an office building, in the sky. It was clearly falling in an uncontrolled and unpredictable manner. In the dream, I ran away from it as quickly as I could. I was very tempted to look back to see where it was going to land, but realized that doing so would slow me down.
In that moment, I felt as if I suddenly understood why Lot's wife acted the way she did.
In Lot's wife's situation, looking back slowed her down, and the disaster overtook her and killed her. But why did she look back? She felt the need to look back because she must not have completely believed the angels. God had spoken through the angels that were helping them and had told them quite clearly (seen in the Bible passage above) not to look back. If she had truly believed them, she wouldn't have given into curiosity and looked back, she would have hurried forwards. If she truly believed them she would have realized that there was no need for her to figure out how close behind them the disaster was. Heading forwards was all they needed to do, their safety had been assured if they just hurried and didn't look back.
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