19-9: Lot’s daughters give birth to Israel’s future arch enemies

“Lot went up from Tzo‘ar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, because he was afraid to stay in Tzo‘ar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave.  The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there isn’t a man on earth to come in to us in the manner customary in the world. Come, let’s have our father drink wine; then we’ll sleep with him, and that way we’ll enable our father to have descendants.”-Genesis 19:30-32

When God rained down sulphur and brimstone on Sodom, Lot’s wife didn’t make it.

We are told that she “turned back” and was turned into a pillar of salt.

There is a powerful spiritual lesson to be learned from this event which is that half-hearted commitment is no better than zero commitment. 

The phrase “turned back” is a Hebrew idiom meaning to hesitate or dilly-dally.

Yeshua echoed the same notion: “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”-Luke 9:62

Unfortunately, the repercussions of Lot’s wife’s actions didn’t end with her death.

The now wife-less Lot ends up escaping to a cave with his two daughters.

We then witness an interesting turn of justice as the drunken Lot unwittingly takes the virginity of his daughters, the very same virginity he had first offered up to the gang of rapists earlier.

One might ask, what possessed Lot’s daughters to do what they did?

First, the primary role of a woman in those days was to bear offspring.

They would have been terribly ashamed to not have had any children.

Second, notice they said “Our father is old and there is no man on earth to come to be with us.”

They literally thought they had witnessed the end of the world.

Third, having growing up in Sodom where there appeared to be little if any moral restrictions placed on sexual behavior, the decision these girls made to mate with their father would not have been that big of a stretch.

The result of this unholy sexual union would be the nations of Moab and Ammon.

These two nations became the arch enemies of Israel and would later be singled out as those nations with which Israel could NOT intermarry.

A final word about Lot.

Here I think we get a good portrayal of the fleshly, uncommitted and worldly believer.

Although, he never renounced his faith in God, never do we see him actively pursue the things of God.

When Abraham gave him his choice of what land to take, Lot chose Sodom.

He wanted the comfort and excitement of living in a big city with all of its wealth and attractions.

In the end, God spared Lot the destruction he wrought on Sodom and Gomorrah.

So technically he was “saved” but because of the choices he made and the worldly temptations he succumbed to, he became unusable by God.

Let all who have ears to hear, listen.

NEXT TIME WE BEGIN GENESIS CHAPTER 20