I. What we are to remember concerning her. We may comprehend the whole under two heads :
1. Her sin —
[She, as the history informs us, looked back towards Sodom after she had been delivered from it by the angels a.
Is it asked, What harm there was in this ? we answer, it was in many points of view exceeding sinful. It was (to speak of it in the most favourable light) a curious look. Curiosity may indeed be innocent in respect to some things ; but in reference to others, it may be highly criminal. Who can doubt the criminality of those Bethshemites who looked into the ark; when above fifty thousand of them were struck dead upon the spot for their transgression13? Or who that knows any thing of his own heart can doubt, whether he has not often contracted guilt by indulging an unhallowed curiosity to see, or hear, or read, things which he had no proper call to inquire into, and the knowledge of which tended only to inflame his imagina- tion, and defile his soul ? And surely the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha was not a fit subject for curiosity, at a time too that she was rescued from it by the ministry of angels : her mind ought to have been very differently occupied on so awful an occasion.
But it was also an unbelieving look. She had been told that fire and brimstone should come clown from heaven to destroy those wicked cities ; and she was desirous to know whether the threatening were indeed true, or whether she was fleeing from only imaginary clangers. And was this no sin? Was not Sarah reproved for doubting an almost incredible promise c? Was not Zacharias struck deaf and dumb for a similar fault d? Yea, were not all the nation of Israel doomed to perish in the wilderness on account of their unbeliefe ? Who then will say, What harm was there in her conduct ?
Moreover, it was a loishful look. She had left a part of her family behind, together with (what she seemed more anxious about) the whole of her possessions ; and, instead of being thankful for the preservation of her life, she was filled with regret about what she had lost. That this was a very essen- tial part of her fault, is certain : because she is proposed as a warning to us in this particular view f. Her treasure was more in Sodom than in heaven ; and she shewed by her look, that " where her treasure was, there was her heart also." Was there then no crime in "setting her affections on things below, instead of on things above ? "
Lastly, it was a disobedient look. However innocent it
a Gen. xix. 26. b 1 Sam. vi. 19. c Gen. xviii. 12, 13.
d Luke i. 18, 20. e Heb. iii. 18, 19. f ver. 31.