In the last issue for volume 5, we will discuss Lot’s daughters and how they reacted to the destruction of Sodom. We have been talking about the life lessons we can learn from Lot and we will see how we cannot be oblivious to the results of our choices or our surroundings.
I showed in the last issue that Lot was saved before the destruction of Sodom and the life lessons we can learn from that. Now we turn to look at what happens to Lot as Sodom and Gomorrah in the cities in the Jordan River Valley are being destroyed.
Lot chooses to do something other than what the Lord told him to do. Because of the choices he has made so far, what happens next is unthinkable for many in the modern era. But it shows how Lot’s decisions continue to affect him and those around him.
Lot’s First Daughter’s Actions (Genesis 1930-33)
As we seek to understand why lot was unaware of his daughters’ actions, the subject of this part of the study will make most of us modern readers and Western culture readers blush if not understanding why this part of the story made it into the Bible.
Although they are almost identical, I want to take each of the daughters one at a time. Let’s start with where Lot ended up and how he got there. You will remember that God sent two angels to Sodom to save Lot and his family before He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities of the Jordan River Valley.
The angels warned Lot and his family to go to the hills. Lot’s wife looked back with longing and was turned into a pillar of salt. Lot argued with the angels and wanted to go to a small city, Zoar, instead of to the hills surrounding the Valley God would destroy with fire and burning sulfur.
The angels allowed Lot and his daughters to go to that small city. He went there for a time, but it is not clear how long he stayed there. The Bible tells us he was afraid to stay in that small city (Genesis 19:30). This is strange. The man who is unafraid to live in Sodom with its dangers and wickedness had a problem with the smaller city?
Perhaps he was afraid because of God raining down His judgment of fire and sulfur on the cities of the Jordan River Valley. But the angels told him that he would be safe there, that God would spare that city. Did he not believe them?
Whatever his fears may have been, he decided to do what God wanted him to do in the beginning, to go to the hills. Lot ends up living in a cave with his two daughters. I’m struggling to call him a cave man.
That’s not very strange. What is strange is what happens next. As much as I don’t understand why Lot was afraid to live in the small city of Zoar, I understand even less the logic of Lot’s daughters.
The older daughter, the one who should’ve known better, hatched a plan with her sister to get their father drunk and sleep with him. The three of them are all that is left of his family because of Sodom.
Lot cannot imagine right now that all his decisions have not come back to haunt his family. Lot’s daughters probably did not learn the best of ethics in Sodom. They saw the same wickedness Lot was very much aware of. No matter how righteous Lot was, it did not transfer to the rest of his family.
This is how much our culture can affect us without us realizing it. Lot did not realize how much the culture of Sodom affected his family. Scripture says he is righteous but it does not say the same about any other members of his family.
Lot was unaware of his daughters’ actions for those two days, but what they did is inexcusable. The firstborn daughter said to the younger that their father is old. We can interpret this a couple of ways. First, perhaps she is saying that her father will not marry again.
Why this gives the daughters license to get their father drunk and have sexual relations with him makes no sense. Second, she may be saying that he is too old to find them husbands. That might be more likely.
They are not interested in their father romantically. It’s possible the traumatic experience of watching the entire Jordan River Valley’s population be destroyed by the Lord except for the small city of Zoar made them think their prospects were slim. But that’s just it. That small city remained untouched by the Lord.
Could it be they thought that the men of Zoar were homosexual also? Possibly. The Bible does not say anything about that small city. These are all possible theories explaining why they did what they did. Incest was still looked down on by Ancient Near Eastern culture. The common penalty for incest with a daughter was banishment.
Some of these theories make more sense based on what she says to her sister. She is concerned that there is not a man on earth to come in to them (a biblical euphemism for sexual relations). “The manner of all the earth” is also a reference to having sexual relations.
She clearly is not thinking straight as I mentioned. There are still men in Zoar, provided they are not homosexuals like in Sodom. But that also is a misnomer because they had men they were pledged to marry in Sodom. They found some men who did not have homosexual tendencies.
I think my best interpretation of this situation is that they were afraid their father was too old to find men like he did in Sodom that did not have homosexual tendencies. That is the best way I can understand what is happening in their minds and motives.
Their concern is to preserve offspring for themselves and their father is the only man around. If they are so traumatized by the Lord destroying all the cities except for one in the whole valley, and they have lived there all their lives, they may be concerned that there is no one left on earth and it is up to them to repopulate the species.
As I have said, none of that makes sense if they think it through, but this may have been their thought process for their actions. The firstborn says to the other that they should make their father drunk on wine and each take their turn for the next two nights.
Scholars get sidetracked with where they found enough wine to do this but it may have been that the places that worked destroyed in the Jordan River Valley where places with very rich vineyards. They also make connections between Noah getting drunk and exposing himself to his sons and Lot getting drunk so that he was unaware of his daughters’ actions.
There might be literary connections that this is about Lot’s daughters deciding to commit incest with their drunken father. Unlike Noah, who made himself drunk with wine, they actively pursue this result with their father. They’re the ones to get him drunk, although the Bible doesn’t say a about him resisting getting drunk. That’s another ungodly decision he makes.
Their ultimate concern is to preserve offspring any way they can. I suppose no one from the culture that looks down on incest is still alive at the time, so this is the only viable option they think they have.
The Bible specifically says they “made their father drink wine.” If he truly wanted to resist, he should have. But Lot’s daughters are the ones who are blamed for these actions. That doesn’t mean Lot should be off the hook.
It seems Lot was completely unaware of his daughter’s actions after he was drunk. He did not know when she came in, what she did, or when she left. He got drunk, and that is on him. But his daughters’ actions are on them.
There are touches of irony throughout this account as Lot was willing to give away his daughters to the men of Sodom to protect the angels, and yet, the daughters will give their virginity away to their own father instead. Both options are not supported by biblical ethics.
Lot’s Second Daughter’s Actions (Genesis 19:34-35)
Once again, Lot appears to be completely oblivious to what is happening around him. The first daughter’s proclamation of what she had done reminds me of Lameck and his proclamation of his sin of killing a man (Genesis 4:23). I don’t believe they were proud of themselves for what they had done.
I think the first daughter’s proclamation is more about her thinking she just saved the planet because she would preserve offspring. That’s how I am reading it. The first daughter says the youngest that they should do the same thing the next night.
Lot is again unaware of his daughters’ actions. Perhaps he is still willing to drink wine and get drunk to forget the fact that the city he loved was now gone, all his friends and people he knew are gone, and his wife is gone.
People choose to lose themselves in alcohol to numb the pains of life so they don’t have to face situations in their lives. It is a common reason people have for drinking and getting drunk. Nothing else seems to matter after they have suffered great losses and traumatic experiences.
Even then, the choices we make and the actions we take are on us. We must bear the responsibility to “commit the crime” and “do the time.” Even if we are in the center of our actions or choices, we just don’t know any better, does not mean we will not bear the consequences of those circumstances.
The first daughter charges the younger daughter to do what she did for the same reason, to preserve offspring, and probably in their mind’s eye to preserve the entire human race. The following night, the daughters pursue the same course of action.
They make their father drunk, and this time, Lot’s younger daughter commits incestual relations with her father. The text looks almost exactly the same as it does for the first daughter.
It says that Lot didn’t know the second night anymore than he knew the first night that his daughter had come in, had sexual relations with him, and when she came in or when she left.
The Results of Lot’s Daughters’ Actions (Genesis 19:36-38)
Lot’s daughters become pregnant by their father. They achieve their goal of preserving offspring. His firstborn daughter bore a son she named Moab. It’s a familiar name to us because the Israelites will deal with the Moabites throughout their history.
Moab means “progeny of the father” and is aptly named by the first daughter. Moses tells his listeners, the Israelites who gathered to hear the whole Torah read to them, about the origins of the Moabites and the Ammonites.
The younger daughter bore a son and his name means “son of my people.” His descendants will be the Ammonites. Neither the Ammonites nor the Moabites have a negative reputation in the Bible for the. But they will be sworn enemies of the Israelites throughout the history
Lot’s daughters have achieved their goal but the means to that goal are not God’s best for any situation. Their thoughts and mental processes, the motives and means do not reflect God’s ideals. They “did what they needed to do” but the way they did it did not honor God or their culture.
Even though there were people in the city they moved to, when they lived in the cave instead, they thought they were the only people on earth. Faulty logic and reasoning can get us into as much trouble as temptations and old desires.
Life Lessons from Lot’s Daughters
I can give you at least three lessons we can learn from Lot’s daughters and Lot’s choices. First, every the decision we make bears consequences. They can be good consequences or bad ones. When we choose to sin, we cannot expect God to take away the consequences.
Some Christians live with the consequences of their sins before Jesus saved them. Sometimes He makes the road easier and other times we deal with the consequences of our choices and actions. Be prepared to bear the consequences of your choices and actions. When we make better choices and follow through with godly actions, we will also enjoy the fruit of those choices.
It is always our goal to live more for Jesus than worldly ways. Each of us is growing into our holiness and godliness at the pace the Holy Spirit gives us. Always obey the Holy Spirit and do the godly things He commands you to do. The more we obey Him, the more we will enjoy the benefits of godliness instead of the consequences of worldly living.
Another life lesson we can learn is from Lot and his passive permission to his daughters to do what they wish. He was responsible and put himself in a place where they could take advantage of his drunkenness.
It’s not a popular message in our culture today even among Christians but alcohol can rob you of your attentiveness and ability to make good decisions. It takes away your awareness and clear-headed decision-making skills. It may give you joy for the moment but will make you pay for it later.
Alcohol is not the only thing that distracts us in this world. A temptations and desires from our former life before Christ can keep us from achieving the holiness God wants to bring into our lives. We must be aware of our temptations and weaknesses and shore up those temptations that cause us to follow through with the wrong actions that cost us.
We must have godly discipline to keep on the straight and narrow road that leads to God-powered success in life. We must have the courage to go against the grain of this world and honor God with our thoughts, speech, and actions.
The last life lesson from Lot’s daughters we can learn is to check our motives and avoid premeditated sin. Lot’s daughters decided on actions that were ungodly even though their desire to preserve offspring for their family was not an ungodly motive.
Many times, we have godly desires but fulfill them in sinful ways. Our motives can be pure but our means in the way we get there can be impure. We must be careful to be obedient to the Holy Spirit, check our motives and the means by which we achieve our goals.
There is always a way to use godly means to make our motives and the intentions of our hearts come through our actions and produce righteous living. We also have ungodly motives we need to root out of our lives.
We must do the hard things people don’t see. People rarely know our motives and intentions unless we express them. They only see the actions and speech we do. You can have the right motives and intentions but not show them through your actions.
We must begin with our hearts and the inner person. When we allow the Holy Spirit to change us from the inside out, we can be assured that our motives and intentions are right before God. Then we can follow through with actions and speech that glorify Him in every situation we face.
The goal of our lives must be to glorify God in all things. In every motive and intention of our hearts, we can choose to not make bad choices like Lot’s daughters. We can glorify God and show those around us the kind of life God desires for everyone.
It all starts with obedience to the Holy Spirit, discipline to follow through with His commands, and courage to implement His plans for our lives. These are the hard things we do as Christians that the world rarely takes notice of.
But we are not here for them. We are living our lives for the audience of One. Only His approval is worth our efforts. He sees you being transformed by the Holy Spirit and obeying Him. He sees your effort whether or not the world does.
The Saga Continues…
We have finally finished our minor character study of life lessons from Lot. I hope you have seen some things in his life you can apply to yours. We will be going back to Volume 4 and pick up with more life lessons from Abraham.
