Genesis 19 Lot’s Daughters
Lot escaped from destruction with the clothes on his back and his two daughters. They ran to Zoar, but didn’t stay there. Lot’s daughters are desperate for children and trouble ensues.
Some stories I am excited to ‘dive into’, but this is not one of them. My heart hurts for Lot’s daughters. I cannot comprehend how they became SO desperate to do this despicable act; not once but TWICE to their father. I can understand their desire for children. In the time they were living in, women were pretty much worthless without children.
I know I wanted to be a mother LONG before that day came. As a child, I pretended and imagined what it would be like. I had NO concept of what was actually involved in becoming a mother. Even as I prepared to enter into marriage, I STILL had no idea of the basic mechanics of the interaction. It didn’t take long to figure it out though! My four children are proof of that.
When these two sisters concocted their plan, where they desperate or depraved? What exactly were they looking for? Were they wanting to become pregnant? Were they wanting to experience the pleasure of intercourse? They couldn’t have been searching for a permanent solution to their husbandless state. This ‘relationship’/’arrangement’ couldn’t go on forever. They would have to come out of the hills someday and face society again.
Lot’s daughters had been raised in Sodom. They saw untold debauchery their whole lives. To them, was this an acceptable solution? They KNEW it wasn’t acceptable to their father; otherwise, they wouldn’t have felt the need to get him drunk first. But they had witnessed God’s judgment on the whole valley for such sins.
Zoar was on the list of cities to be destroyed when Sodom was judged. The WHOLE VALLEY was to be wiped out, but the angels granted Lot safety in Zoar. Thereby granting Zoar safety because of Lot. It was “a little city” according to Lot but did it have only a little sin of the area? Was it just as corrupt? Probably not; as God would not have spared it if it was. But the men of Zoar were not chosen as replacement sons-in-law for Lot’s daughters. In fact, after being in Zoar for a little while, Lot decided it wasn’t a good place at all. He took his daughters out and chose to live in the hills AFTER he told the angel “I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die” (verse 19b). To me, this means that the possibility of death was preferable to continuing in Zoar.
Lot’s daughters didn’t feel that way. They wanted what ‘every other woman on earth’ had; a husband. They saw no hope of that ever happening though as their father was old and was unable to find husbands for them. “There is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth” (verse 31b). Was it impossible for a woman to get a husband unless it was done through her father? What about orphans or the fatherless? Maybe they were too old for any exemptions.
As much as I like entering the story, I don’t feel able to do so with this one. I believe God already exposed their sins enough in His telling of the story. I believe that I would be shaming them even more to walk into their tale. I’ve already raised plenty of questions about their experience.
One final thing I want to note though is that God turned a bad situation into something else. Ruth came from the family of Moab and she is the mother of Obed, who was the grandfather of king David. God could have prevented either of the sisters from conceiving that night with their father, but He didn’t. We don’t know for absolute certainty that this was the ONLY time these daughters did this. Would they have tried again if they didn’t become pregnant that night? Maybe. I wonder if they told their children how they were conceived. NOT something I would want spread around, or to hear from my only parent!
Father God, You know my curiosity. I like to know the back story most of the time. But this is one of them that I’m alright with leaving all the details to You. Thank You for the ability to do that too. Thank You for giving me enough questions to wonder but keeping me in check. I would have appreciated discretion if I were in their shoes. In fact, there are parts of my life that I don’t want to share with anyone but You. Thank you for discretion!
