By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé
A person can attend church every week, join a Bible Study, become a member of a small group and rise to leadership roles in every one of these admirable activities and yet, Michael and I believe that such an individual will still find this week’s central story from Scripture, a complete surprise. Just when we feel that we have come to understand this God we serve, we can almost hear the Bible‘s authors saying to us, “Really? Well let us take you one step further. Let us take you to a place you’ve never been before!”
In preparing this week’s blog, the Holy Spirit, Himself, took us to such a place and, if you have ten or twelve minutes, Michael and I are going to transport you there as well.
In your Bible readings, over the years, were you surprised to find, in Genesis 19, right after Lot and his two daughters have fled the now- destroyed Sodom, a candid depiction of these two young women getting their father drunk on wine and then, on successive nights, sleeping with him for the purpose of getting pregnant? Michael and I were extremely surprised. And yet, verses 30-38 of this chapter describe exactly this.
(As an aside, is it now verifiable to say that the Old Testament, which some say is dull and predictable, is honestly just anything but such things?)
And, why on Earth would these two virgin girls even contemplate such a thing, much less carry it out? Their stated purpose is revealed in verse 32:
“Let’s get our father to drink and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”
The Torah says,
“Let us bring to life, seed from our father.”
Michael completely mirrored the progression of my thoughts when he began by saying,
“These people are from Sodom; this activity isn’t such a big stretch! They were living in a box of pure evil; they lived in the box of Sodom!”
How true! Michael added,
“They came from a different outlook on life. That’s why God destroyed it. It’s not a good outlook.”
However, the more we thought about it, and the more we considered that, out of all of Sodom, only these three were saved by God from the inferno which consumed it, we came to a different conclusion. Michael summed it up so very well:
“It is highly possible that Lot’s daughters thought it was the end of the world and that they, quite innocently, believed that Lot and his line would end unless they went to extremes to preserve it.”
As stated, this is where our best reasoning left us.
As far as Lot was concerned, Scripture is emphatic that he was completely unaware of any of this, remaining in a drunken stupor through it all.
And the outcome of this entire scenario?
“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 had a son, and she named him Ben Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.”
(Genesis 19:36-38) NIV
One might be thinking that this is quite a story but what is its role in the overall picture of Scripture and, in particular, what is its import in Michael’s and my overarching theme of the love of God in the Old Testament?
The fact is that it is a little vignette, tucked away in Genesis 19, which powerfully represents a central theme in all the Biblical Word of God. How is this and what is this theme?
We all recall that two weeks ago, Abraham strongly negotiated with God for the preservation of Sodom for one reason and only one reason: Lot lived there and Abraham loved Lot. He loved him despite the very different paths each of their lives had taken.
Also, Abraham was a rescuer and, at that moment, when God was contemplating the destruction of Sodom and the surrounding environs, Lot was very much in need of being rescued.
God knew Abraham’s true agenda in negotiating a reprieve for Sodom and, so, He saved Lot and his two daughters. This is truly remarkable in view of the fact that Lot practically had to be dragged from Sodom. Lot is a complicated figure in Scripture. How he is Everyman, mankind with a conflict between his better angels and his own demons.
What was God’s reaction to such a conflicted person? Who is God in the Old Testament? He is, as stated last week and as chronicled down the centuries, right up until today, a patient, loving and understanding God. He takes humanity with a demon on one shoulder and an angel on the other and He says, “I can work with this. Come as you are and we will discover goodness and its peace together. I love you. You’re worth waiting for.”
So, as Abraham greatly desired, God saved Lot from Sodom. But, here comes the amazing part. How long did God save Lot? What about his progeny from Lot’s two daughters – the just mentioned Moabites and Ammonites – did God care about this offspring from Lot’s own daughters, for goodness sake?
Surely, even our God, our One, True and abiding God, wouldn’t care about them. Conceived in a drunken state with his own children – certainly no God could abide the infamy of these sons! Wouldn’t there be a limit to God being concerned enough about Abraham’s wish to save and preserve Lot to give these sons a real chance in life?
Ah, to think this is to misunderstand Yahweh, our Heavenly Father, who looks down the generations and is faithful so far beyond what a human can imagine that there is absolutely no common thought between us.
As Michael often and perfectly reminds us:
“Don’t think that God is like us – that He thinks like we do, or that He would fail to look down the generations. He is much more complicated than that!”
With regard to these sons of Lot and Lot’s two daughters, God did the following to afford them a great opportunity to become a godly people:
1) “Then the LORD said to me, ‘Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any part of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.”
(Deuteronomy 2:9) NIV
2) “When you come to the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them to war, for I will not give you possession of any land belonging to the Ammonites. I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot.”
(Deuteronomy 2:19) NIV
3) Ruth, descended from Moab, was a strong worshiper of God and, as a result of her life choices, is in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1.
God can always be counted on to honor His promises. When He sent his two angels to Sodom to save Lot from the imminent destruction of the city, He didn’t save him just to leave him stranded later in life. He is gracious and gives every advantage and opportunity to such a man as Lot. Yes, Lot was flawed but God is faithful to the flawed, i.e. all of mankind.
Now, as we often say today, the ball was in Lot’s and his descendants’ court. What would the Moabites and the Ammonites do with this largess, with this God of many chances?
Next week, we will explore this, as Lot’s progeny, like everyone, is given free will to follow God Who has given them everything or to look elsewhere for God substitutes. The story of this will place them as the subject of a dramatic God – mankind negotiation. It is an iconic story as Jehoshaphat and God bargain. The stakes could not be higher; the insight into God could not be more illuminating.
God bless us all as we study His Word, as we come to know Him.
As Michael says,
“Let us slow down the pace of the Old Testament. A God of love lives here. We must not miss Him.”
Start at the title, my thought was a lot of us. But the message is to me is a voice that got me through every day of teaching. That voice said I must be non-judgemental. I could only help and work with my kids if I accepted them and their circumstances without judgement. God does that for me. He sees me as a soul to save, even when I can’t see myself that way. I’m a small piece of the picture painted by God’s flawed Lot.