Today we find Lot at rock bottom, drunk, hiding in a cave,
with two pregnant daughters…and it gets worse
How’d he get here?
Once upon a time, Lot was living large. So large, even the patriarch Abraham, yielded to him.
The land couldn’t contain their ever-growing herds and flocks.
This caused strife between their herdsmen.
So, Abraham said; Lot, we’re family. You choose wherever you want. If you go left, I’ll go right, you go this way, I’ll go that.
We may not
fit on the same ranch, but we can still be neighbors, live peacefully,
side by side. Right? Let’s just not fight.
Lot was at a crossroads.
The world lay at his feet.
Abraham was the elder. Abraham was the one God called to this
land of abundance and milk and honey. Abraham was the one who took Lot under
his wing and brought him on this adventure. Abraham was probably the reason Lot
prospered.
The right thing, the honorable thing, would be for Lot to
yield to Abraham.
Lot’s decision is in Gen. 13:10-13
And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar (south). 11 Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. 12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. 13 But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord.
Lot lifted his eyes, not to the Lord, but to the land.
Then Lot chose for himself, not for the Lord, not for Abraham, not for what was best for his family, not for what was right, but for... himself.
When you find a place where you see and hear from
the Lord; don’t move, until, He tells you to.
Yeah but, the grass is greener, the rent is cheaper, I can make more money...
Lot separated from Abraham, the man to whom God spoke,
visited, blessed and said: Through you, all nations of the earth will be blessed. Genesis 12:3, 22:18.
Lot willingly left, the friend of God, and dwelt with the
enemies of God, in the wicked city of Sodom.
Nevertheless, mercy triumphed over judgement, and God gave Lot an eviction notice, effective immediately.
Lot was told by God, (via the angels) to flee wicked Sodom, Gen.
19:17, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind
you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the
mountains, lest you be destroyed.”
Escape! Don’t look back, or stay in the plain!
So, what’d they do?
Looked back and stayed in the plain.
Mrs. Lot looked back and turned into a salt shaker.
Now he’s afraid of Zoar, so he goes to the mountains to live in a cave.
Genesis 19:30
Then Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountains, and his two
daughters were with him; for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. And he and his two
daughters dwelt in a cave.
Today, Lot's Cave near ancient Zoar (modern day: Ghor as-Safi) is an archaeological site southeast of the Dead Sea.
There’s an inscription in the cave that mentions Lot by name.
Remnants from the cave date to early Bronze Age (3300–2000 BC).
Nearby is: Lot’s Cave Museum. They have on display
excavated pottery reportedly 4,500 years old.
A Divine Warning:
This area south of the Dead Sea contains the remains of the
ancient world’s largest cemetery. By Divine Design, this is the lowest place
on earth, 1,329 feet below sea level.
The earth itself echoes a Divine warning to flee the place of
the dead to the land of the living; because what happened in Sodom, will happen
again, in the quickly approaching Great Tribulation.
So…
Lot & daughters, went from living large, to cave squatters.
If we leave the presence and protection and provision of God…
peace disappears, and fear sets in.
Know
Jesus, Know Peace
No Jesus,
no peace
When we walk in the center of God’s will, we will have peace,
no matter our location or possessions.
Yeah but…Lot was in God’s will, wasn’t he?
Lot got permission to choose wherever he wanted.
Lot got permission to go Zoar.
Lot got… no peace.
You see there’s a huge difference between the permissible will
of God and the perfect will of God.
Peace of God accompanies the perfect will of God, not
the permissible will.
That saying, “It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission”,
only feeds the flesh, and repels the Peace and Presence of God.
It is a miserable way to live. Lot had too much of the world
to be happy in the Lord, too much of the Lord to be happy in the world.
Worse yet, fence straddling, destroys our witness, especially
to family, it actually harms the cause of Christ.
Lord, we commit to be all in, all the time, in
public and private, at home and on the street, even in our thought life, and
when, especially when, nobody’s looking but You. We want to walk in, live in,
Your peace that passes understanding, Your joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Help us to cling to, and stay smack dab in the middle of, Your Good and
Perfect will.
31 Now the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth.
Dad’s old, there’s no other man on the planet to
give us kids
Okay, none of what she said was true, except perhaps the dad’s old part (that’s relative). Uncle Abe, is 99. Lot’s 70s – 80s? In Florida, that's a spring chicken, or is it a snowbird?
However, we have compassion on the girls, what
they just went through was terrifying; all surrounding cities destroyed, except
little Zoar.
Plus, their fiancés (husbands) are dead; just
killed in the destruction of Sodom. So, obviously, they weren’t Godly men, or
they’d still be alive.
Picture the scene.
They’re no longer looking out over thousands of
acres of well-watered, green pastures filled with their own flocks and herds.
They’re no longer seated in their stately parlor
sipping tea (or whatever they sipped back then) and chatting the day away.
They’re hiding, in a dark musty cave, choking on
campfire smoke.
This scene, and the next seven verses tells us a
lot… about Lot, and his influence on his daughters.
Ø Lot’s fear
Ø Lot’s irresponsibility
Ø Lot’s compromise
Lot’s fear
Lot
fears the mountains, then he fears Zoar, now he’s hunkering and hiding in a cave.
Fear
exaggerates reality.
The monster under the 3’ bed is 10’ tall. Lot’s daughters fearfully exaggerate;
there’s no man left in the whole wide world to give us babies.
Fear
disconnects from reality. It’s the way (custom) of all the earth. We have to do
it. Everybody’s doing it.
Lot’s irresponsibility
Lot
failed to find suitable husbands for his daughters. If only he’d have talked
to them about it. Made a plan. Hey girls, let’s go to uncle Abe’s, we’ll start
over, he’s got lots of hunky, Godly, ranch hands that’d love to meet
you. Why didn’t he go to Abraham? Toward Abraham was probably the direction the
angels pointed when they told him to head for the hills.
Was
Lot present? Involved? An example of faith, integrity, character, courage,
morality, so his daughters could see what a Godly man and husband should be?
His
selfish, irresponsible, unwise life choices reveal that he wasn’t.
Lot
subjected his family to the wicked influences of Sodom.
Before
we say, I’d never!
What
do we allow in our home? What do we listen to? What do we watch? What comes out
of our mouth? Consider: Tik-Tok; You Tube? TV Channels? HBO? Showtime? Music?
Speech? &%$#!
Nowadays
there’s no need to go, to sin city, Sodom or Vegas, the spirit of Sodom streams
24/7 straight into the souls of our homes—and we’re paying for it. In more
ways than one.
Lot’s compromise
Lot’s life style
was compromised instead of circumcised. Instead of being set
apart, he settled in with the world of the wicked.
He made no
difference. No salt. No light. No one took him seriously.
He actually offered
to give his own daughters to a mob of males to be gang raped.
Angels had to
literally pull him from Sodom.
Father’s have enormous
influence on daughters
Lord, help us
walk with You fearlessly, responsibly and without compromise so our influence
is for Good not evil.
32 Come, let us make our
father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve
the lineage of our father.”
Dysfunction
on steroids.
The Bible,
covers everything; cowers to nothing.
In the last
four chapters we’ve covered:
Chapter 16,
adultery; 17, circumcision; 18, sodomy; 19, incest.
Whew.
Much of that
was covered while my young grandkids were listening. It wasn’t easy, but the Bible
is the best place to go to teach sex education, and family values.
At this place
in Scripture, you may hear sermons saying, Lot was able to take his daughters
out of Sodom, but not take Sodom out of his daughters. Then, the spotlight
swings to the sin of the daughters.
However, I
submit to you that Lot’s daughters are simply imitating their father.
Remember, Lot
had just offered his daughter’s to be raped repeatedly for a politically
correct, stupid and sinful, but socially acceptable tradition. Protect your
guests with your life—whatever it takes. Or at least, that’s how it was, from
his compromised point of view.
Now, Lots
daughters offer to rape their father, repeatedly (twice), for a politically
correct, stupid and sinful, socially acceptable tradition. Procreate the
lineage of your father—whatever it takes. Or at least, that’s how it was, from
their compromised point of view.
Lot thought he
was doing a respectful thing, but in reality, he was horrifically disrespecting
his daughters.
Lot’s daughters
thought they were doing a respectful thing, but were horrifically disrespecting
their father.
In major
dysfunction, many times the child will do anything to please the parent.
Of course, down
deep inside the girls knew it was wrong, otherwise there’d be no need to get
ol’ dad drunk.
It had not yet
been written for them, but for us, the Bible is perfectly clear is multiple places.
Here’s one: Leviticus 18:6; No one is to approach any close
relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.
And others for
further study: Leviticus 18:6-18; 20:11, 12, 17, 19-21; Deuteronomy 22:30;
27:20-23; Ezekiel 22:11; 1 Corinthians 5:1.
So… do you
think the girls went through with it, or did they just talk about it?
Let’s see:
33 So they made their father
drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and
he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
Yep. They went through with it.
The original text in no way implies they made him
drink. They offered him drink, perhaps encouraged him to drink, but they did
not force him to drink. You can lead a horse to water…
Lot willingly took and swallowed, the wine—in excess. I
can’t remember what I did last night, excess.
34 It happened on the next day
that the firstborn said to the younger, “Indeed I lay with my father last
night; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie
with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.”
The influence of Sodom was evident.
The girls knew the drill, they were familiar with the effect
of drunkenness; and how to use it.
Perhaps they weren’t as innocent as Lot thought.
35 Then they made their father
drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did
not know when she lay down or when she arose.
Okay, we need to back up and look at a couple seeds planted
over the past two weeks, because now they are ready to sprout.
A couple weeks ago we looked at:
Sodom
and Gomorrah, Rescue Mission, Genesis 19:1-11
Lot made the angels a feast (Genesis 19:3).
The word used for feast in Hebrew is: mishteh.
The definition: feast, drink.
The uses are: banquet(s), drank, drink,
drinking, feasting, where they were drinking, which he drank.
Hiccup!
It appears perhaps drink was as important to Lot’s feast
as food.
Then, last week when we were in:
Sodom & Gomorrah, The Reckoning, Genesis 19:12-29
The angel warned them to escape to the mountains. However, Lot
said he was afraid of the mountains, and begged to go to Zoar.
But then, Lot leaves Zoar, and goes to the mountains.
Did he insist on Zoar, not so much for fear of the mountains,
but for fear of being without supplies (for medicinal purposes, hiccup!).
Okay, take those seeds back to our text.
We might conclude the girls already knew, Lot would drink, a
lot.
We don’t know for sure; we weren’t there, it doesn’t say, but the
situation begs a few questions:
If Lot were not a drinker:
Would the girls have come up with such a crazy scheme?
Would they have gotten away with it?
Would they have enough booze in the cave to get dad drunk,
really drunk, two nights in a row?
Perhaps they could fool him once, but not two nights in a row.
If Lot was not a drinker, wouldn’t he have come to the obvious solution? Let’s go stay with uncle Abe. However, someone who gets—I can’t remember sleeping with my daughters drunk—would rather go into isolation than reveal something like that to, Mr. Father of Many Nations.
I might need to apologize to Mr. Lot, one day, in heaven. Which is where he’s at, because, the Holy Spirit tells us that God delivered just Lot, that righteous man whose heart was vexed, tormented, convicted, from day to day by their unlawful deeds. 2 Peter 2:7-9.
That is a description of the convicting work of the Holy
Spirit. Which is the result, the fruit, of Abraham’s intercession. Gen.
19:29 (God remembered Abraham and delivered Lot).
Without Abe’s intercession, instead of just Lot,
or, righteous Lot, we might’ve just had, lost Lot.
Here in is the power of prayer tapping into the amazing saving
grace of God.
Lord, like Abe, we pray for all those You’ve given us, we stand in the gap, and pray them Home, in the name of Jesus.
NOTE: To be clear. Lot may have battled
with alcohol abuse, the key word is battled, but, he did not surrender
to it, otherwise he'd fall in the same lot as the sodomites and others who never enter heaven.
1
Corinthians 6:9-11
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men
who submit to or perform homosexual acts, 10 nor thieves, nor the
greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the
kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were
washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and by the Spirit of our God
36 Thus both the daughters of Lot were with
child by their father.
And they packed up the wagon and moved to Alabamy, with, Pappy, Daddy; Lot his own grandpappy.
Did you know first cousins in Florida can legally marry?
Not that you care, but I just wanted to balance it out, so the Alabama folks don't shoot me.
37 The firstborn bore a son and called his
name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this
day. 38 And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name
Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day.
Moab means, from father.
Ben-Ammi means, son of my people.
The Moabite and Ammonite people settled in what is now north
and central Jordan.
Jordan’s capital today is, Amman, named after Ammonites.
They were enemies of Israel.
Ammonites
The Ammonites, worshipped a false god called molech, he was a
fire-god with the face of a calf; his images had arms outstretched to receive
babies sacrificed to him. Today the name has changed, the evil is the same,
instead of molech we call it abortion.
Amos 1:13 says that the Ammonites would rip open
pregnant women in the territories they conquered.
Moabites
Moabite women seduced Israelite men into massive sexual sin.
This provoked the Lord’s anger and a plague broke out. Folks were dropping
dead, until Phinehas, in his zeal for the Lord, ran into a tent where an
Israelite man was with a Midianite woman, and he thrust them through with a
javelin.
The plague stopped but by then, 24,000 were already dead. Numbers 25.
Make no mistake, God reserves the ungodly for judgement.
But don’t forget, He also rescues the righteous, 2 Peter 2:7-9.
There once was a Moabite woman born into that pagan family; on
the wrong side of the tracks.
But God looks at the location of the heart not the house.
The lady’s husband died, and things were hard.
She, like Lot, stood at a crossroads. Unlike Lot, she chose to
deny herself and follow the God of Israel she’d come to know.
God is faithful.
Through Divine connections, she married a man named Boaz.
And became the great grandmother of King David, ancestor of
our Lord and Savior, Ruth 4:17, Matthew 1:5.
God knows how to find a diamond in the rough.
Like a Moabite woman named Ruth.
Or, a person just like—you.
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, soon we celebrate Resurrection Sonday.
Thank You for coming out of the grave, so we can come out of Lot’s cave.
When we stand at the crossroads, help us take Ruth’s
path to You, not Lot’s to Sodom.
Like, Abraham we stand in the gap for all the Lots
You’ve given us, we pray that none are lost.
Thank You.
We love You, forever.
Amen.
Prayer Requests:
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Genesis 19:30-38
You tube: Lot &
Daughters, Genesis 19:30-38
This was feed for you to read. Now it’s Seed for
you to sow.
Thank you for sharing.
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