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.