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Your comments warm my heart on this VERY cold (here - upper 40's) morning, dear, dear LQ (peace to you!). That Lot lingered is important, yes, but WHY could be JUST as important... if WE are lingering, too, yes, as it MIGHT help US see why WE might be doing so? Indeed, THAT we are doing so?
It could be that Lot was hoping to convince his sons in law to come with, yes. But... they didn't. And so the lesson there COULD be that SOME... of those we love/our loved ones love... WON'T leave. Never were gonna. Because they never saw a REASON to. To THEM, nothing was/is REALLY wrong there!
Perhaps it's was Lot's daughters not wanting to leave... for whatever reason, including their fiancées.
I will share the understanding I was given with you dear ones, though, and that is thar Lot hesitated... because he loved his wife... who didn't want to leave. HER heart... and longing... was still for Sodom... because SHE didn't grasp the SERIOUSNESS of its error. She demonstrated that her heart and longing was still there... when she LOOKED BACK. She looked back... because she HOPED Sodom would change and/or be spared.
In looking back, though, she not only ignored the warning as TO doing so but also, in essence, that she really DIDN'T have FAITH in the MOST HOLY One of Israel, JAH, of Armies. Because she didn't really BELIEVE Him: that the outcry was SO loud, it MUST be done away with! She didn't care about the great harms done IN Sodom. She cared about HER "love" for it. And so she put her desire over JAH's.
And Lot feared... that he was going to lose her if he left; that she wouldn't come with him. He also knew, though, ultimately, that if HE stayed... they ALL would die: he, her, and their daughters. And so he finally gave in and left. And she came with!! But, although she went with him in body, she did not go in spirit.
And so, when she died, he did not mourn her long.
[NOTE: He did mourn her briefly (briefly, because he STILL needed to get himself and his daughters to safety)... after which he simply covered her body with wet salt (from the VERY salty earth there)... which when dried formed a kind of preserving "crust". And then he stood her body up... BOTH, the salt and standing her up... to keep the wild dogs and other scavengers from decimating her [body].
Which was the PRACTICE back then when someone died out there and their body couldn't be carried away. They were SUPPOSED to bury the dead; however, that could not always happen because in SOME places, and that specific area... arid as it was during certain seasons, was one of them... the ground was too hard. Having to leave with virtually nothing, Lot wouldn't have had the tool(s) to dig a proper grave... not were they near any caves that could used as a tomb YET.
A shallow grave, however, would have been dug up by the wild dogs as soon as Lot had left the area. ESPECIALLY if his wife's body hasn't been properly preserved. Since he also didn't have any to the PROPER preserving/embalming spices, salt was the next best thing the people used. Back then, they made a paste out of the salt and a little water (less was better) and covered the bodies to preserve them - to keep them from stinking and DRAWING wild animals, particularly during transport (because there would be danger to any other animals, small children, disabled, or even elderly among them.
And if for some reason they couldn't take the body with, they stood it up. Why? Because the wild dogs (African wild dogs, hyenas, etc.)... won't attack anything HIGHER than ITS head! Their necks can only lift so high... and so their prey is whatever is in their range of sight. A prone body would be in that range. An upright body would not... as they lift their heads high enough to see the eyes. I digress.]
The MOST HOLY One of Israel, JAH of Armies, did NOT turn the wife of Lot into a "pillar" of salt. She APPEARED as if a pillar [of salt] due to how Lot prepared and situated her body. That she was turned so by JAH... is a lie. A lie designed to scare folks and paint the MOST HOLY One of Israel as an exacting and vengeful "master." Both Lot and wife had the CHOICE to stay or leave. Lot could have refused to leave, as his wife could have. Yes, they would have died had they stayed.
But JAH did not KILL Lot's wife for looking back. No, just as He did not kill Adham/Eve for eating from the Tree OKGB - in both cases He merely WARNED such ones NOT to eat/look back... and in one case, what would happen if they DID. What happened, though, did not come from HIM, but from their OWN actions. Lot's wife' heart... could not bear the "loss." And so, it gave out when she looked back... and SAW what was happening.
And I can put my faith I what my Lord, the HOLY One of Israel and Holy Spirit TOLD me about it... because he SHOWED me, at the same time. I saw it. And the Father did NOT kill Lots wife OR turn her into a pillar. Of salt or anything else. It is a lie.
I hope this helps. To understand what occurred with those people, as well as why it might be bebeficial to YOU, any who are listening, to OBEY... when they hear the call to:
"Get OUT of her, MY people... if you DON'T want to SHARE in HER sins... and so receive part of HER plagues!"
Because her plagues WILL come. And those still in her, that great harlot, those toiching her... even by touching her "daughters", those "women" who "defile" men... WILL receive part of them. Will.
Question is: where does one GO after coming out (of her)? As many here know, there is no "where." There is only a Whom.
Peace to you ALL!
Your servant and a slave of Christ,
Shellamar
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