Genesis - The Fall of Lots Household (Genesis 19:30-38)
The Fall of Lot’s Household
Connection/Tension
Just two weeks ago, we went through a story with some tough details- and this morning, we have another one of those. So, if you have children who are not ready for more mature content, the childcare rooms are still open.
This is a story we likely wouldn’t spend much time on if we didn’t preach through the bible passage by passage. Yet, we are attempting to submit to God’s word by preaching through whole books and letting the biblical authors take us where they will. And in God’s wisdom, that leads us to a story like the one we have today- one we may recoil from yet is good for us to hear.
There are two different approaches to a story like this, be grossed out and retreat from it, or pay careful attention to the text and see what God means to show us. We are going to take the second path, and learn about our ability to shape the generations that come after us, for good or for ill.
Context
The last twenty-four hours have been a whirlwind for Abraham. Angelic visitors showed up on Abraham’s doorstep, warning of destruction, and then went down to the city of Sodom. After a horrible night, the angels rescue an undeserving man, Lot, and what’s left of his household from an evil city and destruction rains down on that city. The sins of human beings have brought judgement on the earth and led to the de-creation of that city and valley- bringing it back into emptiness and nothing.
The question that comes next now that Lot and his household are out of Sodom, is Sodom out of them? The first leg of their journey, to the city of Zoar, results in Lot’s wife suffering the same fate as the city of Sodom and becoming a pillar of salt when she longingly looks back to the city God saved her from.[1] Now, we will watch as the narrative exposes the hearts of Lot and his two daughters…
Revelation
30 Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters.
The Corrupt Journey
What we are about to see is the photo-negative of the way God had designed the world. In other words, what we see God designed in Genesis 1 and 2 is about to flip on its head and the corrupt inverse of it all.
That happens because Lot’s way is corrupt. And because Lot goes on a corrupt journey, it’s no surprise to find that his destination is just as undesirable.
Where do we see this corrupt journey in this verse? Lot leaves the little city of Zoar that God had given to him as a refuge (Gen 19:21). It displayed a lack of faith to begin with that Lot demanded a city like Sodom to begin with rather than going to the place God had originally called him (Gen 19:17). And it confirms his lack of faith that once there, he decides God’s promise of protection is not enough and he has to leave instead. Lot’s kind of like is in that he struggles with simple obedience and creates alternatives to God’s clear commands.
In this tragic train of decisions, what emotion is motivating Lot’s heart? The text is plain that it’s “fear-” fear is motivating Lot. That’s why I call it a “corrupt journey,” because it’s the inverse of the journey Lot went on with Abraham back in chapter 12 (v. 4). God called them out of the wicked city of Babel to go to the place where he would show them, and they went in faith, not knowing the destination yet trusting God to lead them.
Now, Lot’s faith has deteriorated immensely. He living in Sodom, a wicked city like Babel, and the Lord mercifully called him out of it again through his angels. Yet, instead of going forth in faith to the place God wanted him to go, he went forth in fear to the place he thought would be best. He’s on a journey of fear rather than of faith.
Here, as in so many other places in the Bible, the author depicts fear as the opposite of faith. Faith trusts God to provide, even when we don’t understand how, so we listen to him. Fear reveals a lack of trust that God will provide, and since someone in the grip of fear doesn’t find God generous or reliable, they go about seeking to provide life for themselves on their own terms- which is exactly what we see Lot doing here and the results are horrifying.
Please notice that what this story is condemning is not just feeling the emotion of fear- that’s normal for limited creatures like us in an unpredictable world. The experience of fear isn’t the problem, it’s the giving into its influence and allowing it to control you rather than faith. Fear is in charge when your circumstances are big and God is small and it’s up to you to fix your reality. Faith on the other hand rules when your God is far greater than anything you’re up against, and so you commit yourself to him in simple obedience. You could even say that faith is putting your fear in the right place (not what’s in front of you, but the one whose above you and rules it all).
Fear is a killer that wants to drag us away from our God- as it does to Lot and his daughters here, and threatens to do to us unless we repent and believe the gospel.
The Corrupt Destination
Now we see where Lot’s fearful and desperate decision making has left him- isolated in a cave with his two daughters (see verse). The next time we see a cave in the story, it will be a burial place for the dead (Gen 23:9).[2] And here, it Illustrates for us their spiritual direction and destination- further and further from God into death.
Make no mistake, the enemy wants to isolate you from other Christians, so that he can remove you from their influence and place you under his. So, whenever you feel the temptation to retreat away being a part of a church family, please remember that inclination is not of God. Whatever the reason, whether you feel hurt by someone or a sense of shame over your failures, God does not want you isolated and alone (only his enemy does). Please, keep pursuing the people of God in faith that God will make your church a place where he meets your needs.
Now, we will get to see spiritual death in action at what comes next,
31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
Now, we see that Lot is not the only one fear is motivating here- it’s driving what’s left of his family and Lot’s failures are about to repeat in his children.
Without considering God’s word or God’s plan, the daughters consider only the urgency of their situation and hatch a scheme. In their eyes, their father is becoming old, possibly he will die soon. Also, to them there doesn’t seem to be a man left alive on earth (or at least one that they have a realistic possibility of encountering). Of course, this isn’t true- there are still plenty of men left on earth. Yet, fearful thinking makes us feel desperate, like we are backed into a corner, and leads us to hasty and foolish decisions (fear is like blinders that makes us see only one option, when God has provided more).
The hasty plan this devise is an unthinkable one- they will get their father drunk so that they can produce offspring by him. We can begin to see here that though Lot’s household has left Sodom, Sodom has not left them. They have brought its corrupt value system with them into this cave they escaped to.
Back in Sodom, Lot made the terrible decision to offer his daughters to the mob and expose them to sexual abuse. Now, they in turn sexually abuse him.[3] It seems like they are aware of the grossness of their action- because they must conceal it by getting their father drunk.[4]
Now, we have arrived at the photo-negative of what God designed for human beings at the start. The end of Lot’s journey of fear has led to spiritual death. If you remember, “in the beginning” God made the man and the woman, and they were “naked and were not ashamed” (Gen 2:25). Now, they are naked and deeply shaming themselves. It’s like creation is coming apart at the seams.
The oldest daughter has adopted the tactics of the serpent, using deception to accomplish her scheme (cf. Gen 3:1). She’s now his accomplice and acting under his influence. When humans follow the snake’s influence, they end up behaving not like the images of God (the real human beings) that God designed them to be, but more like the beasts of the field. And now, more like animals than people, they give themselves over to degrading sexual sin.[5] The sin of Sodom had plunged that city back into a state of emptiness, chaos, and death; now, the sin of Lot’s household is bringing them spiritually into that same state.
What’s the story trying to communicate to us here? That fear and sin distort and dehumanize us and drag us away from being images of God who bring life into the world into defaced images of God who bring death and destruction into the world. The enemy has a plan to spoil the purpose for which God created you. He wants to de-create you through your sin (which is what I think this story is depicting here because it’s such the inverse of Eden and the definition of the good design with which God created).
When we sin, we really think we are creating a better situation for ourselves (and possibly others), yet nothing could be further from the truth- beginning from the inside out we are de-creating ourselves- heading towards death and destruction. Instead of living for the great purposes God designed us for, we start to live for nothing greater than our own gratification at greater and greater expense, which is no great purpose at all (that’s what I’m trying to get across in saying sin de-creates us and drags us towards nothingness).
And we see here two tools our flesh uses to bring us to this place: the misuse of alcohol and sex. Notice I said the “misuse” rather than the “use”- because both things are good gifts from God that we can sinfully distort.
These are not the only two ways for us to sin and bring destruction to ourselves, yet they are what appear here in the text and are common and powerful ways the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. So, I urge you this morning not to give an inch to temptation in either of these areas. It’s pure lies that misusing substances and sex can bring lasting life.
And what if you have a past of sexual immorality or addiction, should you feel extra shame because of that? No, if you are repenting and believing the gospel, you should feel extra gratitude that the Lord Jesus has fully delivered and cleansed you if you.
And what if your neighbor lives in sexual immorality or addiction, should you have a sense of judgement or despising toward them? Not judgement and despising, but compassion, since you know how devastating these things are and long to see them healed and restored like yourself.
What we are going to see soon is that while sin came to de-create people, Jesus came to recreate his people through the gospel, so it never gets the last word.
Now, this sad story continues and gets even sadder,
34 The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 35 So 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.
The sin of the older child repeats in the younger child. The fact that this sin repeats is not surprising because the way that Moses (the author of this story) describes this sin and failure relates it back to the sins and failures that came before. In Genesis and the Bible, we see a pattern of human failure through the generations.
In this story with Lot, a father becomes drunk and something shameful happens with his child. Does that story sound familiar to anyone; has this happened before? This is what happens with Noah after God delivers him from the flood (Gen 9:21), and now it happens with Lot after God delivers him from Sodom.[6] And in both cases of Lot and Noah, they failed by consuming fruit in an ungodly way (this time in the form of an excessive amount of alcohol) which connects their sins back to the first sin of Adam- the first passive man who allowed chaos to come into his household and wreak havoc.
What are all these connections teaching us? One thing is that sinful patterns pass down from parents to their children through the generations. Apart from the intervention from God, of all we receive from our parents, one is that we learn to repeat their sin patterns and we pass them down through our children after us. The older you get, do you see more and more of your parents in you, including their weaknesses and sins?
And now we see the effect of Lot’s passivity and fear in the nations that come from him,
36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.
So, these two daughters were “successful” in their scheme. They both became pregnant, and they both produced offspring who would become the founders of nations- the Moabites and the Ammonites.
Both the Moabites and the Ammonites will become bitter enemies of God’s people in the generations to follow. They will both stand in their way and oppress and oppose the Israelites as they wander through the wilderness on the way to the land God promised them (Num 21 – 22). In other words, Lot’s failure will have ramifications for years and years to follow. As a father, he shapes the generations to come and he leaves behind a legacy of fear and death.
Man, as you watch Lot’s journey unfold, and his household fall apart into ruin, it’s depressing; it almost feels hopeless. And what’s more, it’s not just a story disconnected from our world- it’s a story that describes our world. So, what do we do with this story then?
We recognize that the pattern of sin and failure that passes down through the generations is powerful, and something we inherit from the start of humanity. This is why so many of our households were so painful growing up and some were even twisted and abusive like this one.
And, if the pattern of humanity we receive from our ancestors is broken, we have one of two options: despair that we are both victims and perpetrators of the problem OR long for a new and better pattern from God we can conform ourselves to.
Christ/Church
Thankfully, we don’t read any of these stories in isolation from the rest of the Scriptures, but rather considering what comes before and what comes after. This story is not supposed to lead us to despair but to lead us to the one who forms and recreates our hearts.
In the beginning, God created us “in his image” (Gen 1:28)- that was the pattern he formed us in and what we were originally intended for- it’s because of the sinful decisions of our first parents that the world is in the cycle it’s in.
When Jesus came into the world, he came to break the cycle! He came to restore things to their original pattern through his life, death, and resurrection. That’s why the Scriptures say, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” Just as God loved to create in the beginning, he loves to recreate in people and places where sin has de-created. When anyone follows Jesus, he begins restoring our original purpose and dignity (that sin stole), that’s why our whole lives change!
For those of us who follow Jesus, the brokenness we receive from those who come before us is real, and it does affect us, yet the Scriptures are clear it does not get the last word. Just to be clear: one of Jesus’s ancestors was a Moabite- Ruth![7] The Moabites are one of the nations that came from Lot and his daughters… and God uses that line, that originally came from such a dark place, to bring king David into the world, and then later, Jesus himself! While Lot’s sin does have consequences, it does not have the final say- that belongs only to Jesus.
Some of us had godly parents and we received a lot of good things from them, but we also received their weaknesses and failures. Some of us had ungodly or even abusive parents and we are still reeling from our childhood.
God is offering all of us a new pattern and a new path. The story that was your upbringing does not have to be the same story for you or for the next generation that comes after you. There’s more hope in Jesus than there is despair in the world. He temporarily allowed death to conquer him to that he could remake and recreate people who are spiritually dead.
Where then should we go from here? How should we apply these truths?
First, we should reflect and ask where fear and distrust of God is leading us to pursue shameful courses of action. Are we isolating ourselves like Lot and his family and looking to preserve or create life for ourselves (like Lot’s daughters) in shameful and destructive ways? If so, Jesus has a better path. He’s wiser than us and can provide better than we can. Let’s repent and believe the gospel. Let’s obey every word he’s spoken in trust that he will powerfully meet our needs.
Second, for those of us who are parents and leaders of households, let’s be aware daily that we need Jesus to form and remake our hearts so that the next generation can follow Jesus even better than us. I sense my weakness and sin more than ever since becoming a parent, and now more than ever, the good of someone else depends on my sanctification. I’m either passing down life or death to the next generation depending on whether I’m repenting and believing.
And one final word- just as Sodom influenced the household of Lot, so the world wants to do the same to ours and our kids. So, beyond just seeking our own holiness, we must seek to be more intentional with our kids than the world is, to not only show them what Jesus is like, but diligently teach them how to do it. Need a place to start? The book Family Discipleship by Matt Chandler and Andy Griffin gives some great tools and I recommend it.
Church, what could happen if we lived out these principles as a community- families and singles together? Not only could we become the most holy and loving place possible, but the next generation could follow Jesus even further than us and have less rather brokenness than our own generation. And that’s something we should all aim for together, whether we are married or not.
Let’s pray.
[1] John H. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary, ed. Gary Lee (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 173.
[2] J. Chadwick, Manners & Customs of the Bible (North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 1998), 31.
[3] Cf. John H. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary, ed. Gary Lee (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 174.
[4] Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 16–50, vol. 2, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1994), 62.
[5] Calvin, https://ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom01/calcom01.xxv.i.html.
[6] John H. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary, ed. Gary Lee (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 174.
[7] Pastor Sam pointed this out.
