And Lot went up from Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar. And he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
God has just rescued Lot from Sodom. Now Lot leaves the town he begged to be spared and settles in a cave with his two daughters. The verse raises a hard question: why does a rescued man still live by fear?
Lot ends up in the hills — the very place he had already been told to flee to. His address has changed. His motive has not.
Though saved from the destruction of Sodom, poor Lot is still ruled by fear. He is afraid to live in the very city he chose, so he falls back on the mountain he had been told to flee to. But even so, he goes to the mountain driven by fear of men, not led by faith in God. There he becomes caught up in the shameful act of his daughters. He passes out of the story with no record of his end, leaving behind descendants who become the constant enemies of God's people.
Put beside Abraham, Lot's loss is plain.
Abraham usually walked by faith, but Lot had never learned that lesson. This time fear moved him. He found a cave and lived in it with his daughters. How poor he had become! Lot's story is a warning to every child of God. Friendship with the world may cost you nothing in material things, but it always leaves you poor in spiritual things.
Lot begged for Zoar and got it. Yet he could not settle there. One writer traces that unrest to half-hearted obedience.
At Zoar Lot had safety, but he had no rest, because he had not obeyed the Lord completely. The person who turns to God half-heartedly is safe, but he is not very happy. Many a man who believes in Jesus is not at peace. I will tell you why. He does not follow the Lord fully. Perhaps he does not have enough energy of soul. You have just enough of Christ to make you miserable. The real place of safety for you and me is to be in Christ, and then to be taken up with Christ, delighting in Christ as He now is, accepted in glory.
Notice the timing. He would not go up when God told him to; he goes up now that fear drives him. His fear and his trust land in the wrong places.
And there Lot too goes up out of Zoar. He was afraid to go when God told him to, though there was nothing to fear there. Then he became afraid to stay in Zoar any longer. And now he was not afraid to go — yet this was the place and the moment he would have dreaded most, had he known the trap he was walking into, a trap of wine and women. And, sad to say, of his own daughters.
Even now, the judgment he has just watched teaches him only half a lesson.
Judgment stands so close to the place mercy spared that Lot runs from it. He recognizes God's judgment of the world, but he never judges the spirit of the world himself.
The cave shows what Lot has left: his life, and no more. One writer sees in him a believer who stands safe on the foundation while his work burns.
Since he himself is on the foundation, the burning will not touch him, but he suffers the loss of his works. Lot is a most painful example of this in Genesis 19. He escaped the terrible judgment of Sodom, but the fire took everything he owned. How sad that a believer may have nothing of real spiritual value to show for all the years God has given him on earth!
Two men lived through the same day and came out with different things.
Everything Lot built in Sodom perished when the place burned. He was a righteous man tied to the world in a false and evil partnership, and he was snatched out like a stick pulled from the fire. The reward was Abraham's, but deliverance was Lot's.
Lot is out of the plain at last. But distance and communion are not the same thing.
If Lot had sought the face of God, he might have found the mountain a place of communion with Him. Instead it is the scene of his lasting shame. Being separated from the world does not always mean being in communion with God. The worst corruptions of the world can appear inside the quiet of a monastery or a convent, just as in a wicked city. Sodom had left its mark on Lot's daughters, and they brought into the cave what they had learned there.
(Where these writers say "mountain," the ESV reads "the hills.")
- Rescued. Lot leaves Sodom alive but with nothing. He is saved; his work burns.
- Restless. Zoar gave him safety but not quietness, because he had never fully obeyed the word that sent him higher.
- Ruled by fear. He reaches the right place at last, driven by fear of men rather than led by faith in God.
- Reduced. Friendship with the world may cost a believer no money at all. It still costs him spiritual wealth: a cave is all Lot has left.
- Removed, not renewed. Distance from Sodom was not communion with God. His daughters carried Sodom into the cave.
And the first-born said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the land to come in to us after the manner of all the earth
Lot has lost Sodom, his wife and his wealth, and now lives in a cave with two daughters who see no future. This verse gives the older daughter's reasoning: their father is old, no husband is left for them, so the normal way of the world must come some other way.
The plan did not come out of nowhere. It reflects the city the girls had just left.
The scheming of Lot's daughters to have children by their father is a sad comment on what they had learned in Sodom (vv. 31-32). Lot, too, had sunk so low that he no longer cared about the honour of the Lord. He let himself get so drunk that he did not know what he was doing. And this did not happen once only, but a second time the next night (vv. 34-35).
Living in that air had done its slow work on the whole household long before the cave.
Lot and his family got right into the world, and the moral corruption that lust produced stained them. Breathing that morally polluted air for a long time deadened conscience, and produced evil and unheard-of ways (see Gen. 19:30-38).
The older daughter argues as if no other way exists. She leaves God out.
The influences of Sodom had left their mark on the daughters of Lot, for they brought to the cave what they had learned there. They had not learned that God could provide a generation for Lot, if it were His will, without resorting to such debasing means. Abraham and Sarah, Manoah and his wife, and Zacharias and Elizabeth, all proved how God could intervene to provide children for them, in His own way.
The angels pulled all three out of Sodom. What Sodom had put into the girls came out with them.
Lot's faith was very feeble. Though Zoar had been spared for his sake, his fear was so great that he left it for the mountain country he had once dreaded. There he found a cave, and having lost all he owned, he lived in it with his two daughters. The two daughters were saved in body but lost in morals. We are allowed to know that they had caught the immoral ways of Sodom. They brought dishonour on themselves and on their father. They also brought into the world both Moab and Ammon. Both gave their names to peoples who in later days became enemies of the people of God.
The daughters' end goes back to Lot's own path.
Had Lot walked separately, his daughters might have been wives of Abraham's seed, instead of mothers of Ammonites and Moabites.
Lot also chose that place against God's word. The angels had told him to escape to the hills — quoted below in an older wording as "Escape to the mountain."
How much better it would have been for Lot to listen to the word of God's messengers, "Escape to the mountain"... Had Lot sought the face of God, he might have found the mountain a place of communion. Instead it is the scene of his lasting shame. Separation from the world does not always mean communion with God. The world's gross corruptions can be found in the seclusion of a monastery or a convent, just as in a wicked city.
Two nations came out of that cave, and Israel felt them for centuries.
Lot was delivered, and yet only half delivered. The angels rescued him from the worst of company, even after Abraham had rescued him once before. He was brought out again, but as if maimed and wounded, only to be dishonoured further... Yet it was of real moral profit for Israel to remember where a lasting thorn in their side came from. The Moabite and the Ammonite had a shameful origin. These two nations were neighbours and relatives, known for constant envy and hatred against the people of God... "The one who sows to his own flesh," no matter who or where or when, "will from the flesh reap corruption."
The law later shut Moab out. Yet a Moabite woman stands in the family line of the Messiah.
Ruth was a loving woman, but to a Jew she came from an especially hateful source. She was a Moabite woman, and so the law forbade her to enter the assembly of the Lord to the tenth generation... This gave an even deeper testimony that grace would go out and bless the very worst of the Gentiles.
- Sodom sowed. The daughters' plan is what the city taught them. Lot's household breathed that air until conscience went numb.
- Sodom reasoned. "No man on earth" is unbelief doing sums. God had given children to Abraham and Sarah, to Manoah's wife and to Elizabeth, without any such means.
- Sodom followed them out. The angels saved the girls' bodies, but not their morals. Even the mountain became a cave of shame instead of a place of communion.
- Sodom began with a choice. Had Lot walked apart from the world, his daughters could have married into Abraham's line, instead of becoming the mothers of Israel's enemies.
- Sodom's harvest met grace. Sowing to the flesh reaped Moab and Ammon. Yet God brought a daughter of Moab, shut out by the law, into the line of the Messiah.
come, let us give our father wine to drink, and let us lie with him, that we may preserve seed alive of our father.
Lot has fled Zoar in fear and now lives in a cave with his two daughters. There the elder daughter proposes wine and incest to keep the family line alive.
God's messengers had told Lot to escape to the mountain. He asked for Zoar instead. Fear later drove him to the mountain anyway — by his own route, and too late.
How much better if Lot had listened to God's messengers: "Escape to the mountain." It would have saved him from the fear that overtook him in Zoar. He would have known the mountain as God's place of shelter, rather than his cave of shame. So often we think we know what is best for us, and we turn away from what God commands. In the end we only prove our own folly, and we lose what God in His mercy had prepared for us. Separation from the world does not always mean communion with God.
The daughters escaped the fire, but Sodom's thinking came with them. Their plan assumes God can do nothing unless they arrange it themselves.
Sodom's influence had left its mark on Lot's daughters. They brought to the cave what they had learned there. They had not learned that God could give Lot a family line, if it were His will, without such degrading means. Abraham and Sarah, Manoah and his wife, and Zacharias and Elizabeth all proved how God could step in and give them children in His own way.
Years in that city had changed them within, wherever they lived later.
Lot and his family went right into the world, and the moral corruption that lust produced stained them. Breathing that morally polluted air for years deadened conscience, and produced evil and unheard-of ways.
The daughters supplied the drink, but nobody forced Lot to swallow it — twice.
Lot had sunk so far into unconcern for the honour of the Lord that he let himself get drunk — too drunk to know what he was doing. Nor was this only once, but a second time on the following night.
This is not a sudden collapse. It is the last step of a road Lot started long before.
He had always shown a secret desire for the things of Egypt or those of Sodom. His heart never seems to have broken free from the world, so his course was always unsteady. From the time he parted from Abraham, he went from bad to worse — from one stage of evil to another. At last the scene closes with the shocking transaction in the cave.
Lot's own path closed off another life for his daughters.
If Lot had kept himself separate, his daughters might have married Abraham's descendants, instead of becoming the mothers of Ammonites and Moabites.
Two nations came out of that cave. Israel would meet them again and again as enemies.
Lot was delivered, and yet only half delivered... It was of moral profit for Israel to remember where a lasting thorn in their side came from. The Moabite and the Ammonite had a shameful origin — two nations, neighbours and relatives, known for constant envy and hatred toward the people of God. The one true God marks it all in His wisdom. Sin then, as now, produced a harvest — large and long-lasting. Yet sovereign grace in some cases keeps it from being a never-ending harvest of misery for those who indulged in it. "Whoever sows to his own flesh," no matter who or where or when, "will from the flesh reap corruption."
The story does not end with the harvest. Generations later, a woman of Moab appears in the family record of the Messiah.
Ruth was a loving woman, yet to a Jew she came from a hated source. She was a Moabitess, and so the law barred her from entering the congregation of the Lord until the tenth generation... This gave a still deeper testimony that grace would go out and bless the very worst of the Gentiles. Whether the Jews like it or not, God brought Rahab, the once immoral Gentile, and Ruth, the gentle daughter of Moab, into the nation. More than that, He brought them into the direct line from which the Messiah would come.
- Choice — the cave is the last stop on a road that began when Lot parted from Abraham. From that day his course was unsteady.
- Absorption — years of breathing Sodom's air deadened conscience, and his daughters brought into the cave what they had learned there.
- Unbelief — their scheme assumed God could not give Lot a family line without shameful means. He had given children to others in His own way.
- Harvest — sowing to the flesh reaped Moab and Ammon, a thorn in Israel's side for centuries.
- Grace — God brought Ruth of Moab into the direct line of the Messiah. Grace reaches the worst of origins.
And they gave their father wine to drink that night. And the first-born went in, and lay with her father, and he did not know of her lying down, nor of her rising.
The story of Lot ends in a cave, not in the fire of Sodom. It ends with wine, two daughters, and a father who slept through his own disgrace. This verse raises the hardest question of his life. How does a saved man sink this far?
The fall did not begin in the cave. One writer traces it back to a single look at good land.
The Lord spared Lot and his daughters — saved, but only as through fire. This was not to their honour. It came from His faithful care and tender mercy. His own unfaithfulness had put him there. It was his unchecked desire for the good things of the world. "And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere" (Gen. 13:10). Then he pitched his tent toward Sodom. Next he dwelt in Sodom (Gen. 14). On the eve of its downfall, Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom, in the place of honour there (Gen. 19:1) — a sad example of the earthly minded believer in the path of decline! Such men dishonour the Lord, and pierce themselves through with many sorrows.
Lot lost everything and ended in a cave. His daughters came out of Sodom alive, but not untouched.
He found a cave in the mountains, and in it, having lost everything he owned, he lived with his two daughters. The two daughters were saved in body, but they were lost morally. We are allowed to know that they had caught the immoral ways of Sodom. They brought dishonour on themselves and on their father, and brought Moab and Ammon into the world.
The verse ends by saying that Lot knew nothing of it. That dullness took years to grow, and it is the opposite of what the gospel does in those who receive it.
Lot was a converted man in the wrong place. He should have been completely separate from it. Those who receive the gospel have "escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire" (2 Peter 1:4). That is what Lot's history does not illustrate. Lot and his family got thoroughly into the world, and were tainted with the moral corruption that sinful desire produced. Breathing a morally polluted atmosphere for years deadened conscience, and produced evil and unheard-of ways (see Gen. 19:30-38).
What the daughters did shows what Sodom taught them. What Lot did shows how far he had sunk.
The scheming of Lot's daughters to have children by their father is a sad comment on what they had learned in Sodom. Lot had sunk so far into unconcern for the Lord's honour that he let himself get drunk and not realise what he was doing. And this was not only once. It happened again the following night.
Two nations came out of that cave, and both spent their history fighting Israel.
It did Israel moral good to remember where a lasting thorn in their side came from. The Moabite and the Ammonite had a shameful origin. These two nations were neighbours and relatives of Israel, known for constant envy and hostility against the people of God. Sin then, as now, produced a harvest that was large and long-lasting. Even so, sovereign grace in some cases keeps that harvest from being a never-ending misery to those who indulged in the sin. "The one who sows to his own flesh," no matter who or where or when, "will from the flesh reap corruption."
Lot's life shows what a rescued life looks like when a man builds nothing for God.
Lot was rescued — saved, but only as through fire. That fits with the fact that we find no altar and no sacrifice from his hand. He was pulled out of the fire, and that was all.
The law shut Moab out. Yet Ruth the Moabite stood in Boaz's field, and one writer sees the whole gospel in that.
The law of Moses said, "No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD forever" (Deut. 23:3). What then could Ruth have expected from Boaz but to be rebuked and driven from his field? And that same stern law, which cursed and shut out the Moabites from blessing, curses and shuts up heaven against us all. But thank God, if the law "given through Moses" condemns the sinner, "grace and truth" which "came through Jesus Christ" saves him when he trusts that gracious Saviour.
- Choice. Lot's cave began with his eyes on well-watered land. The tent became a house. The house became a seat in Sodom's gate.
- Drift. His daughters left Sodom alive, but they carried Sodom with them. Saved in body, lost morally.
- Dullness. Years in a polluted atmosphere deadened his conscience. He could be drunk two nights running and never know it.
- Harvest. Moab and Ammon came out of that cave. One night's sin grew into a long harvest of hostility against God's people. Sowing to the flesh reaps corruption.
- Grace. Lot came out of the fire with no altar to show for his life. Yet Ruth came from cursed Moab. Grace reaches where the law only shuts the door.
And it came to pass on the next day that the first-born said to the younger, Lo, I lay last night with my father let us give him wine to drink to-night also, and go thou in, lie with him, that we may preserve seed alive of our father.
On the morning after the first night in the cave, the older daughter tells the younger to do the same again that evening. How did a family that angels rescued from judgment sink this far, and what did the world inherit from that cave?
The plan calls for wine a second night. One writer traces both the daughters' scheme and their father's condition back to the city they had just left.
The scheming of Lot's daughters to have children by their father is a sad comment on what they had learned in Sodom. Lot, too, had sunk so far into unconcern about the honour of the Lord that he let himself get drunk. He did not realise what he was doing. Nor was this only once, but a second time on the following night. We may even wonder that the children survived. But the first became the father of the Moabite nation, and the second the father of the Ammonites. Both proved to be troublesome enemies of Israel.
Lot's family escaped the fire, but escape from a place is not escape from its moral influence. One writer contrasts what the gospel produces with what Lot's story shows.
Of those who receive the gospel, we read that they have "escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire" (2 Peter 1:4). That is what Lot's history does not illustrate. Lot and his family went right into the world. The moral corruption that lust produced stained them. Breathing that morally polluted air for a long time deadened conscience, and produced evil ways no one had heard of before.
The daughters wanted to keep their father's family line alive. One writer says they were wrong about God. A far-off cave gave them no protection from what they carried inside.
Separation from the world does not always mean communion with God. The worst corruptions of the world can appear in the seclusion of a monastery or a convent, just as much as in a wicked city. The influences of Sodom had left their mark on the daughters of Lot, because they brought to the cave what they had learned there. They had not learned that God could give Lot a family line, if it were His will, without such degrading means. Abraham and Sarah, Manoah and his wife, and Zacharias and Elizabeth all proved how God could step in to give them children, in His own way.
Two nights in a cave produced two nations. One writer says Israel gained something by remembering where those nations came from.
There was real moral profit for Israel in remembering the source of a lasting thorn in their side. The Moabite and the Ammonite had a shameful origin. These two nations were neighbours and relatives, and they were known for constant envy and hostility against the people of God. The one true God marks it all in His wisdom. Sin then, as now, produced a harvest that was large and long-lasting. In some cases sovereign grace forbids that harvest to be a permanent misery to those who indulged in the sin. "The one who sows to his own flesh," no matter who or where or when, "will from the flesh reap corruption."
The loss is not only in what happened. It is also in what might have been.
If Lot had lived a separate life, his daughters might have married Abraham's descendants. Instead they became mothers of Ammonites and Moabites.
The law later shut this family line out of Israel's assembly. In one woman it came in anyway.
Ruth, the third woman mentioned, is an exception, because there is no stain on her character. She was a Moabitess. The law was against her and cursed her… But by faith she too enters the assembly with her children. The third after her, her grandson, is King David himself. The law which had pronounced the curse is completely set aside in her case.
- Choice. Lot and his family went right into the world. The cave is where that road ended.
- Atmosphere. Long exposure to Sodom deadened conscience. The daughters left the city, but they carried its thinking with them.
- Unbelief. Their plan assumed God could not give them a family line. Other households in Scripture prove that He can, in His own way.
- Harvest. Two nights produced Moab and Ammon, lasting enemies of God's people. Sin reaps a harvest larger and longer than the act itself.
- Grace. The law cursed the Moabite, yet Ruth entered by faith, and King David came of her line. The harvest of sin is real, but grace can set the curse aside.
And they gave their father wine to drink that night also. And the younger arose, and lay with him; and he did not know of her lying down, nor of her rising.
A second night follows the first, and again wine opens the way to the same sin — the last thing Scripture records of Lot happens while he knows nothing of it. Two hard questions follow: how did a man rescued by angels end up here, and what came of the children born that night?
The angels pulled the daughters out of the city, but the city stayed in them. One writer traces what they did to the air they had breathed for years.
Lot and his family got thoroughly into the world, and were tainted with the moral corruption that lust produced. Breathing a morally polluted air for years deadened their conscience, and produced evil and unheard-of ways (see Genesis 19:30-38). That is the lesson I learn from Lot and his children.
Lot is not simply a victim here. The verse says he knew nothing of it, and one writer traces both the cause and what came of that night.
The scheming of Lot's daughters to have children by their father is a sad comment on what they had learned in Sodom (vv. 31-32). Lot, too, had sunk so far into unconcern for the honour of the Lord that he let himself get drunk enough not to realise what he was doing. This did not happen only once, but a second time on the following night (vv. 34-35). We may even wonder that the children survived, but the first became the father of the Moabites and the second the father of the Ammonites — both of them proving to be troublesome enemies of Israel.
This is not the first time in Genesis that wine strips a delivered man of his dignity and marks his descendants. One commentator sets the two ruins side by side, and reads the outcome as a harvest.
We had already seen sad enough results in the case of Noah. He drank the fruit of the vine to his own dishonour, and then pronounced a curse on one branch of his descendants... So it is here with Lot. Angels delivered him from the worst of company... but he came out crippled and wounded, so to speak, only to be dishonoured further... Yet it did Israel moral good to remember where a constant thorn in their side came from: the shameful origin of Moab and Ammon. These two nations were their neighbours and relatives, and they were known for endless envy and hatred toward the people of God... Sin then, as now, produced a harvest, large and long-lasting... "The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption."
Nothing here happened all at once. The cave is the last stop on a road that began with a look at good land.
It was his own unfaithfulness that had put Lot there. It was his unchecked desire for the good things of the world. "And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere... like the garden of the LORD... So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley" (Genesis 13); then he pitched his tent toward Sodom. Next he lived in Sodom (Genesis 14). Just before its downfall, "Lot sat in the gate of Sodom," the place of honour there (Genesis 19:1). What a sad example of the earthly-minded believer on the path of decline! Such men dishonour the Lord, and pierce themselves through with many sorrows.
One writer reads Lot's end as a life's work burned up while the man himself stands safe.
Since he himself stands on the foundation, the burning will not touch his person, though he suffers loss in his works. Lot is a most painful example of this in Genesis 19. He escaped the awesome judgment of Sodom, but everything he owned burned up. How tragically sad that a believer may have nothing to show in the way of real spiritual value for all the years God has given him on earth!
The law shut Moab out of Israel's assembly. That is what makes one Moabite woman's place in the family line of the Messiah so surprising.
Ruth was loving, yet to a Jew she came from a source that was especially offensive. She was a Moabitess, and so forbidden by the law to enter the assembly of the LORD to the tenth generation... (Deuteronomy 23:3-8). This gave an even deeper testimony that grace would go out and bless the very worst of the Gentiles. Whether the Jews like it or not, God has brought Rahab, the once immoral Gentile, and Ruth, the gentle daughter of Moab, into the nation. More than that, He has brought them into the direct line from which the Messiah was to arise.
- Choice — the cave is the end of a road that began when Lot chose the well-watered land. Small steps toward the world ended in sorrows he never planned.
- Atmosphere — years of Sodom's air deadened conscience in his daughters. They left the city, but its thinking came with them.
- Wine — drink robbed Noah of his dignity, and now Lot. One night's sin marked his family for centuries.
- Harvest — sowing to the flesh reaps corruption. Moab and Ammon became a lasting thorn in the side of God's people.
- Grace — the law barred Moab, yet grace brought Ruth the Moabitess into the line of the Messiah.
And both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.
Genesis 19 ends not with fire on the cities but with a father and two daughters in a cave. How did a rescued family end up here? And what became of the children born that way?
Lot's daughters left the city, but the city did not leave them.
Those who receive the gospel have "escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire" (2 Peter 1:4). That is what Lot's history does not illustrate. Lot and his family went deep into the world, and the moral corruption that lust produced tainted them. Years of breathing morally polluted air deadened conscience. It produced evil and unheard-of ways (see Genesis 19:30-38). That is the lesson I learn from Lot and his children.
They came through the judgment alive. They did not come through it clean.
The two daughters were saved physically, but they were lost morally. Scripture lets us know that they had picked up the immoral ways of Sodom. They brought dishonour on themselves and on their father, and they brought Moab and Ammon into the world.
God's messengers had told Lot to escape to the mountain. He asked for Zoar instead, then fled to the hills in fear.
How much better if Lot had listened to God's messengers: "Escape to the mountain." It would have kept him from the fear that overtook him in Zoar. He would have known the mountain as God's place of shelter, rather than his cave of shame… If Lot had sought the face of God, he might have found the mountain a place of fellowship with Him. Instead it is the scene of his lasting disgrace. Separation from the world does not always mean fellowship with God… The influences of Sodom had left their mark on Lot's daughters. They brought to the cave what they had learned there. They had not learned that God could give Lot a family line, if it were His will, without such degrading means.
The daughters planned it. Lot made it possible by getting drunk — twice.
Lot's daughters schemed to have children by their father. That is a sad comment on what they had learned in Sodom (vv. 31-32). Lot too had sunk so low in unconcern for the Lord's honour that he let himself get drunk past knowing what he was doing. Nor was this only once, but a second time on the following night (vv. 34-35).
Scripture sets the facts down plainly. The two sons born here became two nations, and Israel lived beside them for centuries.
The written word shows God's moral judgment in plain facts, long before the time came to say it in unmistakable words. Yet there was moral profit for Israel in remembering where a lasting thorn in their side came from. The Moabite and the Ammonite had a shameful origin. These two nations were neighbours and relatives of Israel, well known for their constant envy and hostility toward the people of God. God alone marks it all in His wisdom. Sin then, as now, produced a harvest, large and long-lasting. Yet sovereign grace in some cases refuses to let it stay a permanent harvest of misery for those who gave in to it. "The one who sows to his own flesh," no matter who or where or when, "will from the flesh reap corruption."
The shame did not stop with Lot. It travelled down two family lines.
So here we have representatives of the two sons of Lot, fathered under shameful circumstances, as recorded in Genesis 19. They set themselves against what God was doing… Sad to say, it has often been the case that those closely related to the people of God have been foremost in opposing them.
The law shut Moab out. Grace did not.
Ruth was loving, yet to a Jew she came from a source that was especially offensive. She was a Moabitess, and so the law forbade her to enter the assembly of the Lord to the tenth generation… This gave a still deeper testimony that grace would go out and bless the very worst of the Gentiles. Whether the Jews like it or not, God brought Rahab, the once immoral Gentile, and Ruth, the gentle daughter of Moab, into the nation. More than that, He brought them into the direct line from which the Messiah was to come.
- Cause. Years inside Sodom deadened conscience in Lot's family. The daughters carried the city's ways into the cave.
- Rescue. They were saved physically but lost morally. Escaping a doomed place did not change what they were.
- Distance. Leaving the world behind is not the same as fellowship with God. The mountain that could have been shelter became a scene of shame.
- Harvest. Sowing to the flesh reaped Moab and Ammon. That crop outlived Lot and fought God's people for centuries.
- Grace. The law shut Moab out to the tenth generation, yet God brought Ruth the Moabitess into the very line of the Messiah.
And the first-born bore a son, and called his name Moab the same is the father of the Moabites to this day.
The last line of Lot's story names what came out of the cave. The older daughter's son becomes the father of a nation Israel still knew. Why does the Bible record such a shameful beginning, and what was Israel meant to learn from it?
The name itself carries the scandal. A study of Bible names gives its meaning:
Moab — From father: what father?
The record had a purpose. Israel gained by knowing where a lasting enemy came from, and by seeing how sin bears fruit:
It was of real moral profit for Israel to remember the source of a lasting thorn in their side. That was the shameful origin of the Moabite and the Ammonite, two nations, neighbours and relatives, known for constant envy and hatred towards the people of God. The only God marks it all in His wisdom. Sin then, as now, produced a harvest, large and long-continued, even if sovereign grace in some cases keeps it from being a perpetual harvest of misery for those who indulged in it. "The one who sows to his own flesh," no matter who or where or when, "will from the flesh reap corruption."
Lot escapes Sodom, yet he ends up in a cave. His whole course is one long warning:
Lot had begged to go to Zoar. But after Sodom's destruction he became afraid to stay there. So he took the angels' earlier advice and fled to the mountains. Abraham as a rule walked by faith, but Lot had not learned that lesson. Fear moved him this time. He found a cave and lived in it with his daughters. How deeply impoverished he had become! Lot's history is a real warning to every child of God. Friendship with the world does not always bring poverty of money, but it always brings poverty of soul.
They left the city, but the city had not left them:
Separation from the world does not always mean communion with God. The gross corruptions of the world can appear inside a monastery or a convent just as much as in a wicked city. The influences of Sodom had left their mark on Lot's daughters, for they brought to the cave what they had learned there. They had not learned that God could give Lot descendants without such degrading means, if that were His will. Abraham and Sarah, Manoah and his wife, and Zacharias and Elizabeth all proved it. God stepped in and gave them children in His own way.
Moab and Ammon were Israel's relatives, and its lasting enemies:
The two sister-nations, Moab and Ammon, are known as "the children of Lot" (Deuteronomy 2:9), and they came from an incestuous origin (Genesis 19:37-38). They have always been persistent and unrelenting enemies of God's chosen nation. They also belong to the coming great alliance of nations. That alliance will form under the revived Assyrian power, to destroy the children of Israel and blot out their very name from the earth (see the prophecy in Psalm 83:4-8).
Moab's character became a picture of comfort that has never been disturbed:
Moab is the very picture of self-satisfied, self-indulgent religion such as is seen in Laodicea, "I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing" (Revelation 3:17). "Moab has been at ease from his youth and has settled on his dregs; he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile. So his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed" (Jeremiah 48:11).
The story does not end with the curse. A woman of Moab, cursed by the law, becomes the ancestor of Israel's king:
Ruth is an exception, for there is no stain on her character. She was a Moabitess. The law was against her and cursed her. It is written, "No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD forever" (Deuteronomy 23:3). But in faith she too enters the assembly with her children, and the third after her, her grandson, is King David himself. The law that had pronounced the curse is completely set aside in her case.
The nation itself is not written off forever:
Both Ammon and Moab are promised a national restoration in the latter days, that is, when the Lord comes (Jeremiah 48:47; 49:6).
- Sowing. Lot sowed to the flesh, and the harvest was "large and long-continued" — a nation of neighbours who became Israel's lasting enemies.
- Poverty. Friendship with the world may leave a man's bank account intact; it always empties him spiritually. Lot ends in a cave, moved by fear where Abraham walked by faith.
- Carry-over. The daughters escaped Sodom but brought Sodom with them. Changing address is not the same as communion with God. They never learned that God could give what they schemed to seize.
- Character. Moab becomes the picture of religion at ease — never emptied from vessel to vessel, its taste unchanged, saying with Laodicea, "I need nothing."
- Grace. The law shut Moab out for ten generations. God sets it aside for one believing Moabitess, and King David comes from her line. Even the nation is promised restoration when the Lord comes.
And the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; the same is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.