“Genesis 19:30-38”

Sunday, December 15, 2019

“Lot went up from Zoar, and stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters. Then the firstborn said to the younger, ‘Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father.’ So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. On the following day, the firstborn said to the younger, ‘Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our family through our father.’ So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.”

---End of Scripture verses---

“Lot went up from Zoar, and stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar…” (verse 30) At first Lot didn’t want to go into the mountains of Moab because it was too difficult and he was afraid he would not make it (verse 19). In this verse he was afraid to stay in Zoar so he went up into the mountains of Moab. Lot seems to be a person who was very much driven by fear, and that is understandable given the extreme trauma he had recently experienced and all the loss he was forced to endure. “He stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters.” Since he had very recently become a widower, it was just him and his two girls roughing it in a cave. You can’t help but fill pity for the poor fellow and his daughters.

“There is not a man on earth…” (verse 31) “Their notion that not a man on the earth was left was unjustified. They had only recently left the populous city of Zoar; and their allegation that their father only, of all the men on earth, was left had no foundation in fact and appears here more as an excuse for what they wanted to do than as any heroic deed on their part to preserve humanity… This tragic, pitiful episode stands here as awesome proof that Lot and his family had been in Sodom too long. They had indeed been delivered OUT OF Sodom, but Sodom was still IN them to a certain degree.” (James Burton Coffman)

“Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him…” It is obvious that Lot’s daughters knew this was a sinful thing to do because they knew their father would never have willing gone along with it if he were sober. And I wonder where they got the wine from. They had recently fled for their lives from the destruction of Sodom to the city of Zoar, and then from Zoar to the mountains of Moab. If they took it with them from Zoar, it makes you wonder if they had this episode planned out from the start. Or maybe Lot and/or his daughters really liked their wine and didn’t want to leave home without it. Either way you look at it, this is just further proof (if we really need any more) that no good thing comes from drinking alcohol, and when intoxicants are used, only foolish, sinful and harmful things happen. “That we may preserve our family through our father.” Maybe their idea was to preserve their father’s name and not repopulate the whole earth.

“So they made their father drink wine that night…” (verse 33) Something tells me that they didn’t have to twist his arm to drink the wine. “He did not know when she lay down or when she arose.” (verses 33 and 35) It requires a startling level of drunkenness for somebody to be completely oblivious to having intercourse with another person, let alone being entirely unware that they entered and exited the occupancy of their bed. “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long over wine, those who go to taste mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things and your mind will utter perverse things. And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, or like one who lies down on the top of a mast. ‘They struck me, but I did not become ill; they beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink.’” (Proverbs 23:29-35)

“The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.” “The names Moab and Ammon are apparently symbolic: Moab (Genesis 19:37) closely resembles the Hebrew [~me'ab], meaning ‘from a father’; and Ben-ammi signifies ‘son of my kinsman.’ Thus, the degrading circumstances of their birth were memorialized by the Moabites and Ammonites themselves, and it is most illogical to blame Israel in any manner with the charge that they ‘invented’ this account to discredit those peoples.” (James Burton Coffman)

“It is true that long afterward both nations became bitter enemies of Israel, both politically and religiously. It will be recalled that the king of Moab hired Balaam to curse Israel, and that through Balaam's suggestion, the whole nation of Israel was seduced by the licentious devices of the Moabites at Baal-Peor (Numbers 25), resulting in the whole nation's rejecting God and becoming attached to Baal… ‘Solomon built a high place for Molech, the god of the Ammonites, and burned incense and sacrificed to this god (1 Kings 11:5; 7:8).’ Molech was the horrible fire god. His image was a huge ugly statue with a hollow belly containing a furnace to heat his brazen arms, into which children were cast as sacrifices. Some of the kings of Israel, notably Solomon and Ahaz, as did also Manasseh, caused their sons ‘to pass through the fire’ to go to Molech. As Morris pointed out, however, not all of those people were evil. Ruth the Moabitess was honored with one of the O.T. books relating how she became one of the ancestresses of Jesus our Lord. Naamah, an Ammonite woman, was one of Solomon's wives, and the mother of king Rehoboam.” (James Burton Coffman)

“The two sons are born, and nothing more is heard of Lot. His story ends on an inglorious and ironic note. At the beginning of the chapter he was willing to let the virginity of his daughters be forcibly defiled, without even informing them, in order to save lives. Now in order to ‘maintain life,’ his daughters have lost their virginity by forcing themselves upon him without his knowledge.” (Nahum Sarna)

Please read Genesis 20:1-7 for tomorrow.

- Louie Taylor

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