As we begin our story today, God has just rescued Lot and his daughters from the destruction in Sodom and Gomorrah. If you recall from last time, the angel warned Lot to flee to the mountains, but what did Lot do? He begged to be allowed to flee to a small town call Zoar, which was right in the midst of the plains being destroyed by God. In their patience, the angels allowed this. The Bible doesn’t tell us what happened when he arrived in Zoar, but, in the very first verse of today’s passage, verse 30, we see that Lot is afraid to stay there and flees to the mountains like he was told. He and his daughters then live in the mountains in a cave.
Lot has a choice to make here. He can continue to live his life alone in a cave apart from other humans, by all means. But we also know that he is not that far from the tents of his uncle Abraham, a man who lives by faith. In addition, he has two unmarried daughters who have just lost their fiancés. What he decides to do will affect them also. And we don’t really know whether he has decided to stay in this cave indefinitely or just hasn’t yet taken any action at this point in the story. What we do know is that his daughters have been raised in an ungodly culture where sexual sin is accepted as everyday practice and not even worried about.
Read verses 31-32. What shocking plan does one of the daughters come up with? You can see here that, as a result of being raised in Sodom, sexual sin is not a worry to these women. They even justify it to themselves by saying that they need to continue their father’s line. Living far from civilization in a cave, they didn’t think God could or would provide husbands for them. Have you ever felt desperate for something you believed you were entitled to have? So desperate that you began to look for crazy ways to make it happen? In life, it can be hard to trust God about the good things that He wants us to have or not have.
Read verse 33. Which daughter went in first? These women had Lot so drunk he didn’t even know it happened. Can you imagine? Rather than trust God, they took matters into their own hands in a very sinful way.
Read verses 34-35. The next night, the older daughter gets the younger daughter to do the same thing. Again, they get Lot so drunk that he didn’t even know it happened. Now, it’s easy to lay blame on the daughters, but Lot was also to blame allowing himself to drink to such a level of drunkenness that he must take some of the responsibility here. But what a horrible thing to do to one’s father without his knowledge. This would be considered sexual assault in our culture today.
Finally, read verses 36-38. We see the results of these actions. Both daughters end up pregnant, which was, of course, their intention. The older daughter had a son named Moab, which means 'from father', who was the father of the Moabites. The younger daughter had a son named Ben-Ammi, which means 'son of my father's people', who was the father of the Ammonites. The children's very names tell us that their mothers were not ashamed of their sin. These two fathered nations that were some of Israel’s greatest enemies and only existed because of these daughters’ sin of incest. The Moabites lived just east of the Jordan River, and even though they were dreaded enemies of Israel, Israel was never allowed to attack them and drive them from the land due to their family connection to Lot (Deut 2:9). Sin never results in good things. Read this later prophecy concerning Moab and Ammon (Zeph 2:8-9).
We know from the Bible that Lot was a man who had received God’s forgiveness for sin, yet he lived a worldly life in one of the most sinful places ever. He did not set a Godly example for his children and alcoholism may have been a problem in his family. How did this affect the adults that his children became? Are you making this mistake in your life? "Do as I say, not as I do" is never the way to raise our children. We must be the people that we want our children to become. We must live Godly lives if we want them to do the same and we must teach them the ways of God (Deut 6:6-7).
Responding to God: Praise God for His wisdom and guidance in your life. Ask Him to guide you in choosing appropriate environments for raising your children. Pray about the example you are setting for your family and commit to changing those things He brings to your attention. Pray and ask God’s forgiveness for any sexual sins or alcoholism you may be struggling with personally. Ask God, in prayer, to show you a path for healing concerning any sexual traumas which may have affected your life.
Further Research: To learn what the Bible has to say about incest, read the following scriptures:
- Leviticus 18:6-18
- Leviticus 20:11-12, 17, 19-21
- Deuteronomy 22:30
- Deuteronomy 27:20-23
- Ezekiel 22:11
- I Corinthians 5:1
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