In yesterday's passage Lot bargained with the angels who instructed him to flee up into the mountains. Instead he wanted to go to a nearby city named Zoar, which means "small, little, insignificant". We discussed some possible reasons why he may have wanted to persuade the angels to let him go to Zoar, and they did allow it, but like so many of Lot's decisions in life, it's a bad decision. Zoar was one of the five cities of the plain along with Sodom and Gomorrah. The atmosphere was likely quite similar, since the angels appeared to indicate they had intended to destroy it as well. But Lot is an example of a man who thinks "small" instances of disobedience don't really matter. The problem with each act of disobedience is that it takes us further and further outside of God's best plan for our lives. It hardens our hearts. It decreases our faith. I think all the things Lot does from the time he learned his town would be destroyed stem from a crisis of faith. His lack of faithfulness to the Lord has affected not only his own life, but the lives of his family members as well. His daughters make a shocking and sinful decision in today's portion of Scripture.
"Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar." (Genesis 19:30a) The Bible doesn't tell us how long he stayed in Zoar or why he was afraid to remain. Some scholars believe he never actually settled in Zoar but that he was overcome with fright and dread when, from Zoar, he observed the terrible destruction that rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah. This may have led him to doubt that the angels would spare Zoar for his sake as they had promised. Other scholars think he actually lived in Zoar for a time but was not accepted very well by its citizens. Either way, Lot is in no condition to set a godly example for his daughters because he is not in the right frame of mind. We might expect that after two angels saved his life, he would put more trust in God, but I think he has spent so many years living in comfort and ease in Sodom that he never got into the habit of trusting in the Lord. Instead he trusted in his great wealth and in his position as an elected official. He must have thought these things made him untouchable by calamity. But no one is untouchable by calamity. There is nothing we posses in this world that we can't lose in the blink of an eye---except our salvation and our relationship with the Lord. Nothing can take Him away from us, and this is our true source of security. He is the bedrock underneath our feet when it feels like the world is falling down around us. Lot had to flee Sodom with nothing but the clothes on his back and he doesn't know how to cope with a circumstance like this because he's never understood that the Lord (and not his wealth) is the source of his security.
"He and his two daughters lived in a cave. One day the older daughter said to the younger, 'Our father is old, and there is no man around to give us children---as is the custom all over the earth. Let's get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.'" (Genesis 19:30b-32) Our modern society has become immune to a lot of shocking things, but even in our day what these women plan to do is detestable. This thing goes against nature. It goes against common decency. It's hard for us to wrap our minds around what could possibly have caused these women to think their plan makes sense.
Why does such an idea even enter their minds? Do they believe the Lord is going to destroy everything and everyone around them, leaving only them and their father alive? Or do they believe it will never be safe for them to come down out of the mountains again due to whatever caused them to fear living in Zoar? If this is the case, then their idea seems to them to be the only way to keep their family from dying out.
But why do they not find this idea thoroughly repulsive? I think we have to consider their background. They were raised in a godless society where anything goes. They have witnessed levels of perversion we can't even imagine. After all, it seemed reasonable to the men of Sodom to break down a man's door in order to drag his guests out of the house to gang rape them. These two young women aren't repulsed by anything. They've seen it all. They've heard it all. Nothing is out of bounds, sexually speaking, not even perpetrating what amounts to a sexual assault upon their own father.
Where did they get wine? Have they had time to make it or did they obtain it in Zoar? We don't know, but the devil has a way of placing harmful substances into the hands of human beings. Perhaps they've been using wine to deal with their mental distress. Or perhaps they were already in the habit of doing heavy drinking while they lived in Sodom. But it's the instrument they are going to use to carry out their wicked scheme. "That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. The next day the older daughter said to the younger, 'Last night I slept with my father. Let's get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.'" (Genesis 19:33-34) The oldest daughter is more jaded by the sins she witnessed in Sodom than her younger sister is. We don't know the difference in their ages, but she's been more affected by her culture than her sister. She has to persuade her younger sibling to commit this despicable deed. She knows she will never persuade her father to commit this deed, so her only option is to get him so intoxicated that he has no idea what he's doing. She has been successful at this once, so now she talks her sister into doing the same thing.
"So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up." (Genesis 19:35) Alcohol is a substance capable of lowering our inhibitions. It has caused many a man and woman to do things they wouldn't have done while sober. It has caused many a person to do things they don't even remember doing. The fact that Lot doesn't know he's sleeping with his daughters doesn't absolve him of the sin of not having brought them up in the fear of the Lord in the first place. It doesn't excuse him for raising his children in a godless society where nothing was considered going too far sexually. Lot made many mistakes before he ended up in a cave in the mountains. One small compromise after another led to the sad tale we're reading today.
Lot doesn't even know he's committed the sin of incest with each of his daughters until they both fall pregnant. Then there is no doubt he is the father of their babies, for no other man has been around them. The Bible doesn't tell us how Lot reacts to this news. In fact, the Bible doesn't tell us anything else about Lot's life because he fades into obscurity after Chapter 19. The man who thought it would be fine to argue against the instructions of angels and who begged them to be allowed to dwell in a town whose name meant "small, little, insignificant" became small, little, and insignificant himself. He made a series of disobedient choices in his life that seemed "small" to him, but they added up to a life that made no godly influence on his family and that did nothing to advance the kingdom of God.
"So both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father. The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today." (Genesis 19:36-38) The Moabites and the Ammonites later became enemies of the nation of Israel. They were both pagan tribes and the children of Israel were forbidden to intermarry with them because of their idolatrous beliefs and sinful lifestyles. They did, however, mix with them in spite of God's orders. The Moabites led some of the people of Israel into Baal worship. The Ammonites went so far in their worship of the detestable false god Molech that they practiced child sacrifice. King Manasseh, of the tribe of Judah, fell so hard into the idolatry of the Ammonites that he sacrificed one of his sons to Molech,
None of these things had to happen, but we can see how a "small" sin grows over time. If Lot had been so shocked by the sin of Sodom when he arrived there that he had decided to live elsewhere, things would have turned out differently. If he had still settled in Sodom but had set a godly example for its citizens and for his own family, perhaps his family would have had faith in the Lord and many of his friends and neighbors might have turned to the Lord. Let's say he still made all the mistakes he made in Sodom but decided to devote his life to the Lord after being rescued by the angels, then he and both his daughters would have made better choices. If he'd only trusted that the Lord would provide for him and protect him, he could have taken his daughters and settled somewhere else instead of hiding in a cave due to lack of faith. He could have gone to his uncle Abraham's for a while and Abraham could have arranged marriages for Lot's daughters with godly men. Abraham could have helped Lot get back on his feet spiritually and financially. A lot of different choices could have been made so as not to end up where we are now, with Lot being the father of his own grandsons.
Lot walks off the pages of Scripture at this point without even receiving the honor of having his place of death or his age at death recorded. The Lord could not use Lot for His kingdom work because Lot evidently never made himself available for the Lord's work, so we don't know what happened during the rest of his life. If he'd accomplished something for the Lord I think it would appear here on the pages of the Bible. We can use Lot as an example of what not to do. We don't want to ever reach the point where God cannot use us for the glory of His kingdom.
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