19:30-32
Lot’s life seems to be dominated by fear. Earlier he was afraid to go to the mountains (Gen 19:19), now he is afraid to stay in Zoar. So he and his daughters lived in a cave. We then have a rather sordid episode, one of many in the Bible. The daughters are desperate to have a husband so they can have children. It seems from the Bible that a prime concern of women was to find a man in order for them to have a child. Sometimes this led them to do wrong things, as here. So they plot to get their father drunk and then sleep with him.
19:33-38
So they enacted their plan, and it seems their father was oblivious to what was going on or what happened. First the elder daughter slept with Lot, then the next night it was the younger daughter’s turn. Again Lot was unaware of what was going on. Presumably when his daughters became pregnant he must have worked out that something had gone on!
We find these sorts of incidents difficult to come to terms with, wondering why they are in the Bible! The first thing to note is that they are descriptive, explaining what life was like, and many sordid things went on, even amongst God’s people. Secondly, if we look at the narrative, things never end well. The actions of the two daughters gave rise to the nations of Moab and the Ammonites. Both these peoples were antagonistic towards Israel.
No comments:
Post a Comment