seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Genesis 19:30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”
33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” 35 So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 37 The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. 38 The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today,
Here's the link to the commentary I use.This morning... the commentary apologizes for the "lewd stories" of the Bible.
The firstborn went in and lay with her father: We may be uncomfortable with the idea that the Bible includes the record of such disgraceful sins.
Yet Donald Barnhouse observed: “It is far better for children to learn the facts of life from the Word of God where sin is condemned than from dirty words on alley walls, or from lewd stories. No one can escape knowledge of sin… these things are never mentioned without being accompanied by the stern warnings that God hates sin and punishes it.”
“Ironically, in his own drunkenness Lot carried out the shameful act that he himself had suggested to the men of Sodom: he lay with his own daughters.” (Sailhamer)
Now here again, the story doesn't really make sense. Even the commentary agrees that it doesn't make sense.We will lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father: This is a remarkable — and seemingly desperate sin from Lot’s daughters. Some suggest that they believed that the whole world had perished with Sodom and Gomorrah, and it was now their responsibility to repopulate the earth through their father. However, their brief time in Zoar was enough to show there were other people.
This, apparently, was not all Lot's fault... although he did get blackout drunk, not once but twice. Was Lot just a drunk before the strangers took out everything he had... or was he now keeping himself in a drunken stupor because he lost everything?Did he get the wine from his stash before leaving? Did he grab a couple bottles of wine to take with him? That sounds almost plausible. We would pack a couple jugs of water. But they were supposed to be running for their lives. Did Lot have time to stop by the wine cellar to choose a couple bottles?
Their mother had been turned to stone during the sulfur storm. Oh wait, maybe the wine is what caused her to slow down! Maybe the wine was the ill-gotten gains that cost her life. Maybe the girls grabbed their mother's pack and dragged it along with theirs. Maybe that's where they got the wine that got their dad blackout drunk.
It makes more sense, however, that they purchased the wine in Zoar. That means the girls would have seen humans going about their normal lives in Zoar. Those girls knew there were more humans around. They knew it wasn't the end of the world.
I've been sold a bill of goods by my church once again! Those girls didn't really believe it was the end of the world. They knew there were people in town.
They were, more likely, bored. They were sitting in a cave with their father. They had no brothers. There really was no one to carry on the family name.
Wait... Maybe they got it in their young ignorant minds that the only one who could continue the heritage of their father, their mother, was no longer alive. Maybe they figured it was indeed up to them to produce male heirs.
This was NOT just a case of "we'll never get married". It was to preserve Lot's heritage. There were no male children in the family. There was no one to "inherit" Lot's family name. If they had children with someone else... the children would have taken someone else's family name.
The girls, betrothed but not married, would have been 12 or 13 years old. After all they had been through, it's easy to see how ignorant little girls could convince themselves that their dad was the only recourse. It may have been a child's game gone horribly wrong.
The story doesn't make sense. Twice [Verses 33 & 35] it says Lot had no idea they crawled in bed with him.
If you've ever partied with a blackout drunk, you know that it is plausible that Lot would not have remembered. However, a blackout drunk would probably have a really hard time getting an erection.
I bet he was a bit forlorn and confused when both girls started to show, if he had sobered up by then.
My Online Bible calls this section "Lot and His Daughters".
Was this really incest?
