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.