Lot's Subsequent Career (Genesis 19:30-38).
By choosing the well-watered Circle of Jordan with little regard for the consequences and the fact that it was outside the land chosen by Yahweh for His people, resulting first in being taken prisoner by the five kings, and then in his gradual absorption into the life of Sodom, Lot has taken the path that led to his own impoverishment. His future now is bleak.
He finds himself with nothing, and with nowhere to go. That his choices have resulted in the lowering of his daughters' morals comes out in this passage. And yet he is not entirely forsaken. From his seed will come fruitfulness, nations will be descended from him. Thus there must have been some restitution of the fortunes of his family, for the whole nations of Moabites and Ammonites could not be totally his direct seed. As with later ‘Israel' they would be made up also of descendants of servants and tribal members.
‘And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar, and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.'
Lot's sorry state is emphasised. He is traumatised with what has happened, and it is clear that the devastation was so much beyond what he was expecting that he no longer has any confidence in his situation. Who knows whether Zoar will be next? He dare not risk it. Yahweh was right after all. There is only one place of safety, and that is in the mountains.
We must not underestimate the tumult in Lot's mind. He is not thinking straightly. Had he been he would have fled to his uncle. But he is totally devastated. He may also have been too proud to admit his mistakes. No doubt Abraham had had words to say on the subject of his choices.
“He dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters”, emphasising how low he has sunk. No civilisation for him now. And his daughters had sunk with him.
‘And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old and there is not a man in the earth (or land) to come in to us after the manner of all the earth”.'
The despair and dreadful condition the girls are in comes out here. They have possibly seen their husbands (o their sisters' husbands) destroyed in the conflagration, they have seen all that they have known violently destroyed. Possibly they were not welcomed in Zoar but seen as bringing the curse on Sodom and Gomorrah with them. They are traumatised. We must not judge their behaviour as normal. They feel that no one will want to have anything to do with them after this. They are alone and deserted.
“Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father.”
It is an act of desperation. They feel totally estranged from the world outside. Yet the importance of seed to keep the family in being becomes the one thing that totally absorbs their minds. It takes possession of them above all else. Can we doubt that they are clinically depressed and behaving accordingly? The firstborn has one fixation, to have a child, and she persuades her sister to the same. Her tortured mind sees it as the only means of hope. We must not judge too harshly for they were in a sad condition, and relationships were not quite as clear cut in their day, especially in Sodom.
‘And 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, nor when she arose. And so it was on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, “See, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine as well tonight, and you go in and lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father”. And they made their father drink wine that night as well, and the younger arose and lay with him, and he knew not when she lay down and when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.'
The sorry incident brings out their state of mind and the fact that they had something of Sodom in them. Gladly do we learn that Lot knew nothing of the matter at all. He was probably glad to drink himself into unconsciousness, and never dreamed what his daughters were up to. But depression, and desperation and despair drove them to it. It may be that they even had to repeat the experiment, for they would not be satisfied until they were with child. Whatever the case, in the end they were successful.
It is clear that the writer totally disapproves of what they are doing, for he vindicates Lot. There is little doubt that this would later influence the attitude of the Israelites to the Moabites and Ammonites. This incident may have been partly in mind in the prohibition of Deuteronomy 23:3-6; Nehemiah 13:1 although the primary reason is there given. But their actions are never actually condemned.
‘And the firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. The same is the father of the Moabites to this day.'
Loose etymology can make it mean ‘of his father', and with names loose connection was all that was asked for. In her depressed condition she has a fierce pride that she has begotten a man from her father. He is pure seed, not a Sodomite. That he became the ‘father' of the Moabites suggests that he inter-married with a local tribeswoman and that eventually his descendants gained ascendancy over the tribe which takes his name.
‘And the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi. The same is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.'
Ben-ammi means ‘son of my kinship'. She too exults in bearing seed to her father, although not quite so blatantly. The same applies as with Moab. That this ascendancy is seen as Yahweh's doing comes out in Deuteronomy 2:19 where Yahweh is seen to make clear that He has given their land to them as ‘the children of Lot'.