Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you. John Owen (1616-1683)
If you read Genesis or if you preach through it, you will come inevitably to Genesis 19:30-38, a sad and sobering story that in many ways it would be easier to skip and pretend was not there. In some ways it would be nice to think that such a story was not in the Bible and equally nice to think that such things do not happen on earth. But it is there and it is Scripture. So what are we to do with it?
The chapter clearly warns against drunkenness and incest but these are seldom the most obvious sins that tempt Christians today. Having said that, the Bible does warn against drunkenness and it is clear that it also expects sexual union to be kept to the marriage bed. In particular, it should be noted how drunkenness leads easily to a loss of self-control and so to many other sins, especially those of a sexual nature. How important it is not to fall into drunkenness or into anything approaching it.
Silver-tongued Henry Smith (c 1560-1591), an early Puritan preacher, once observed with reference to this incident "Sodom was burnt but sin escaped". There is a good deal to learn here about what the old Puritans used to call the sinfulness of sin. The Shorter Catechism defines sin as “any transgression of or want of conformity to” God's holy law.
Perhaps the best thing to do therefore is to attempt an anatomy of sin. That is what we have here. By anatomy we mean a study of the structure or internal workings of a thing. In this case, sin. Some ten observations can be made.
Sin - salvation does not grant immunity from it
Perhaps the first thing to note is that this story follows on from the glorious deliverance of Lot and his daughters from Sodom. It was a wonderful salvation that they had received and one would perhaps expect to find that now Lot had been rescued from Sodom, a place which vexed and distressed him because it was so wicked, he would begin to live in a wiser way than he had been living previously. However, that is not the case. It reminds us of what happened to Noah when he came out of the ark, following the flood. You remember how he also became drunk and how that led not then to a case of incest but certainly to his son Ham falling into sin in a similar area, a sin that, as here, had consequences for future generations.
It is a glorious thing to be converted, to be saved. However, we would be very foolish to think that it offered some cast iron guarantee against falling into sin, even into grievous sin. That is patently not the case. We who believe, we who have left Sodom behind, by the grace of God, may still have Sodom in our hearts and may still fall into who knows what sin, if we do not daily look to God. Thomas Adams says of Lot that he "was scorched with the flame of unnatural lust, that escaped burning in the fire of Sodom."
Sin - how it can occur even in a godly family
Another thing to add here is a warning against the idea that sin always comes from the outside into a godly family. In 1984 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher spoke to her party backbenchers of fighting not only the enemy without, in The Falkland Islands, but also, referring controversially to the striking coal miners, the need to "be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty." No doubt she spoke conscious of her predecessor Winston Churchill's claim that "when there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you."
Of course, there can be malign outside influences and it is possible here perhaps that the influence of old Sodom was making its mark, but, in the final analysis, the sin that is described in this particular incident comes directly from within the family and not from without. It is a reminder that even in the cosiest of situations, sin can raise its ugly head and wickedness is possible. Be on guard against it – from without or within.
Sin - the danger of isolation
Verse 30 says that Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave.
Why was Lot afraid to live in Zoar? Zoar was his idea, rather than God's and perhaps on reflection that was what made him fearful. Or perhaps it was the continuing wickedness of the people. If Sodom was gone, what guarantee was there for Zoar? Matthew Henry suggests that if we assume that Sodom and the other cities were swallowed up by the Dead Sea after their destruction, it may simply have been that being also on the plain, Lot could see what a precarious place it was.
Just past the Lisan Peninsula, a large spit of land that now separates the north and the south basins of the Dead Sea, tourists are today shown a cave, a 10-minute climb up a steep flight of steps. As is typical in that part of the world, the cave is surrounded by the ruins of a small Byzantine church from some time between the fifth and eighth centuries. There is a reservoir too and some mosaics. Remains from the cave have been dated to the early Bronze Age (3000 – 2000 BC) and an inscription inside the cave mentions Lot by name. It is no more likely to be the very cave than other holes in the rocks found in the area. There are many such caves in the Dead Sea region. It is in these caves that the Essenes also lived in the inter-testamental period. In 1947 the first of the fascinating Dead Sea scrolls was discovered in a cave in this region by a Bedouin shepherd boy looking for lost animals.
It was to a cave somewhere in this region that Lot fled with his daughters and there that they lived, just as people in various parts of the world have and still do live in caves to this day. They became troglodytes, we may say. The storm had at last passed and so we revert to the tranquility of the opening narrative that existed at the oaks of Mamre. A cave, however, evokes a much more rugged, a much less attractive and a more desolate scene than a grove of trees. Why did Lot not return to his uncle Abraham? Was it pride or shame? From the time he had left that man of God, it had been trouble all the way. We cannot know exactly how Lot thought but isolating himself like this was not a good idea. Did he give no thought at all to the need for his daughters to be married and for the family line to continue?
Although solitude has some uses, as a general rule too much of it is not a good thing. While accepting that there may have been some exaggeration, the whole sordid history of pre-Reformation monasteries and nunneries shows that. In a study of the dioceses of Lincon and Norwich over a hundred year period C D Knudsen has to admit that "nearly half of the monasteries experienced a case of sexual misconduct". A bishop "could expect to encounter numerous instances of it during his career".
Remember Paul's words to couples who want to give themselves to prayer (1 Corinthians 7:5) Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Writing on being alone with God in the 1620s, the Puritan Henry Scudder (d 1659) says in his Christian's Daily Walk "First, Affect not too much solitude; be not alone, except you have just cause, namely, when you separate yourself for holy duties, and when your needful occasions do withdraw you from society; for in other cases, two are better than one (saith Solomon) and woe be to him that is alone …." He is referring to Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10. He goes on to say that "When you are alone, you must be very watchful, and stand upon your guard, lest you fall into manifold temptations of the devil; for solitariness is Satan's opportunity, Gen 3:1, 39:1; 2 Sam 11:2; Matt 4:1; which he will not lose, as the manifold examples in scripture, and our daily experience, do witness. Wherefore you must have a ready eye to observe, and a heart ready bent to resist all his assaults …."
Sin - the danger of good intentions
We read in Genesis verses 31 and 32 how one day the older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children - as is the custom all over the earth. Let's get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father."
There is no doubt that the concern of these women was good; their intentions were fine. They wanted children, which is good. They wanted to preserve their family line, which was also good. Some have suggested that they had some idea that Messiah might be born through their father, who was descended from Terah, Abraham's father, but that is not explicitly stated. The far more obvious point is that their intentions were good but the method that they chose was wrong.
An obvious example of this sort of thing today is where a man and a woman want a baby but are unable to do so and so they resort to various unbiblical means to bring that about, including using a surrogate and artificial insemination by donor.
There are plenty of people with bad intentions in this world. That is the cause of a great deal of sin. There are also many people with good intentions but who use wrong means to bring about what they desire. There is a saying – the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It is based on something the reforming French Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) once said - “hell is full of good wishes and desires”. We need to have not only good intentions but good actions too.
The intentions of these women were good. Why did they not speak to their father? Was he unapproachable? Why did he not think about their almost inevitable desire to have children and to extend the family line and so do something to help them? Did he not care that he had no grandchildren? The importance of free and open conversation in family life has been noted by many. In an article on listening at home, the writer Tedd Tripp begins "How well do you communicate? Most of us will answer in light of our ability to present our thoughts and ideas in cogent ways. But I would suggest that the finest art of communication in our family life is not expressing our ideas. It is understanding the thoughts and ideas of the other people in the family." Whether Lot spoke often with his daughters or not, what he failed to do was to understand their thoughts and ideas.
The parent unwilling to “have the talk” with his children has become almost a stock comedy caricature. There is no humour in this story. It would be easy to blame all this on the daughters but that would be very wrong. Lot was not without blame by any means. The same man who had once callously offered them up to be raped, now, in the bizarrest turn of providence, fails to prevent them committing incest with him. When people have bad desires, it is most understandable if they do not talk about them but with good desires surely we can at least talk about them and explore legitimate possibilities. This is how it should be.
Sin - the danger of carelessness
As stated, it would be wrong to suggest that the daughters were entirely to blame for this incident and that Lot bore no responsibility. When the daughters attempted to get their father drunk he should have realised what was happening but rather he became so stupefied that he hardly knew what he was doing. It was not wrong for Lot to have drunk wine with his daughters. Indeed, while he avoided drunkenness, he did not sin. Clearly, however, he drank so much that he was not just drunk, he was so drunk that he was not even aware of it when his daughter lay down with him or when she got up! It speaks of a carelessness that had clearly crept in as the shock of Sodom's demise and the loss of his wife began to become a more distant memory and Lot grew lax and failed to be careful in the way that he should have been about how he lived.
In the New Testament Paul tells Titus older men must be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, in steadfastness. Lot was not sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled or sound in faith, love or steadfastness. It was his undoing.
It is a danger in youth to think that you are young and so you do not have the responsibilities that others have and can therefore afford to be less careful. It is a danger too as you get older and are tempted to slacken off a bit and to be a little less diligent than you once were. Hosea 7:9 speaks of the man who is sprinkled with grey but does not see it. It is a picture of how slackness can creep up on a man as he grows older, as happened to Lot. As he grew greyer so he sprouted slacker. At first the grey hairs and the slackness were imperceptible but then one day they could not be hidden. Watch out!
Sin - its persistence
It is amazing to read in verse 34 that the next day the two sisters decided to repeat the whole sordid drama but this time with the younger daughter. Yet how typical of sin. There are very few sins that a person commits only once. Sins are usually repeated. More often than not, that is what happens. Generally speaking, it gets easier to fall into a sin the more often it is committed. Until the day we die, sin will be trying one way or another to trip us up or drag us down. What a sobering thought. Far from sinning so that grace may abound then we ought to be busy putting sin to death by the Spirit of God.
Sin - the danger of repeating it
This is the corollary. Verse 35 reveals that exactly the same thing happened the next night with the younger daughter. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. It is true that Lot was unaware of what happened exactly on both occasions but he cannot have been unaware that he had become blind drunk. He must have had some inkling of what had happened the night before. Nevertheless, the very next night he falls into the very same sin. There was no excuse the first time and there was certainly even less excuse the second time.
Again, what about us? Yes, we sinned the first time and maybe there was something that could be said by way of mitigation but the second time and the third time, and, let us face it. some of the sins we are guilty of we have committed many, many times over. There is absolutely no excuse. We should surely learn from our mistakes at the very least.
It is true that Paul says in Romans 7:15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. But we must not forget that stark warning in Hebrews 10:26, 27 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Lot was treading on very dangerous ground in acting as he did. We dare not follow him in this or anything like it.
Sin - its deceitful nature
Verse 36 of Genesis 19 says So both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father. Obviously at some point Lot began to realise what had happened. What questions he asked and what answers he was given, we are not told, although given the situation he pretty much knew that there could only be one reasonable explanation. These were not virgin conceptions. And so the daughters felt that they had done what they set out to do and perhaps they felt quite proud of themselves to think of their ingenuity. What a deceiver sin is! How blatantly it corrupts us and uses us and leads us into its evil ways.
Sin - its far reaching consequences
Finally, in Genesis 19:37, 38, Moses tells us that the older daughter had a son, who she named Moab and the younger daughter a son, who she named him Ben-Ammi. From these two come the Moabites and Ammonites of Moses' day. In Genesis 18:18 we are reminded that through Abraham all nations will be blessed. Lot, in contrast, became the father, by means of incest, of two nations that would be a continuing thorn in Israel's side. Moab seems to be formed from words meaning from father and Ben-Ammi means son of my people.
The Israelites were not to harm the Moabites and Ammonites (Deuteronomy 2:9, 19). However, in Deuteronomy 23:3, 4 we read that No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, not even in the tenth generation. The reason? … For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim to pronounce a curse on you. ….
The Moabites and Ammonites often worked together and were among the strongest enemies that Israel had to face down the ages. We read of their opposition to Israel in the time of Moses and on into the times of the Judges and the Kings.
In Zephaniah 2:8-10 we read of God's judgement on them "I have heard the insults of Moab and the taunts of the Ammonites, who insulted my people and made threats against their land. Therefore, as surely as I live," declares the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, "surely Moab will become like Sodom, the Ammonites like Gomorrah - a place of weeds and salt pits, a wasteland forever. The remnant of my people will plunder them; the survivors of my nation will inherit their land." This is what they will get in return for their pride, for insulting and mocking the people of the LORD Almighty.
Sin - though always bad news, is excelled by grace
It would be wrong not to point out briefly at the end of this chapter that although these Ammonites and Moabites were of no great good to the Israelites, nevertheless some good did come to Israel via Ammonites and Moabites and to us who believe also.
Although Deuteronomy 23 tells the Israelites to exclude Ammonites and Moabites from the assembly, we read in 2 Samuel 23:37 and 1 Chronicles 11:39 that among David's mighty men was one "Zelek the Ammonite". There is reason to suppose too that Naamah the Ammonite, mother of Rehoboam was the woman Solomon had in mind when he wrote his Song of Songs. There is also the Old Testament story of a couple from Bethlehem who, in a time of famine, went down to stay in Moab. Not only did they find shelter there for a while but when the woman eventually returned home alone, after her husband's death, she was accompanied by a descendant of Moab, someone descended from the very act of incest that we have been considering. Her name was Ruth and, of course, she became the ancestor not only of King David but also of great David's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Daniel 11:41 it prophesies that Antiochus Epiphanes will also invade the Beautiful Land (Israel or Palestine) and many countries will fall. However, "Edom, Moab and the leaders of Ammon will be delivered from his hand." These lands no doubt symbolise the Gentile nations who would one day hear the gospel of Christ.
It is no wonder that Paul says in Romans 5:20 "But where sin increased, grace increased all the more". What hope such a fact rightly gives us.
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Sin does not disappear just because we have been saved. We have noted the dangers of isolation, merely having good intentions and of carelessness and the fact that even the most godly family may fall into sin. We have reminded ourselves too of sin's persistence and the danger of repeating it. Sin is deceitful in nature and has far reaching consequences. Though it is always bad news we must never forget that grace is always greater.
This article first appeared in Reformation Today
