Monday, April 28, 2014

#52 Taboo Genesis 19



Then Lot when up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters were with him; for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. And he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave. Now the first-born said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father." So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn wing in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, "Indeed I lay with my father last night; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you may go in and lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father." Then 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. Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day. Genesis 19:30 - 38 NKJV

It said that Lot was afraid to dwell in Zoar. I am not sure if this was because of the people there, or possibly the similarities between sin in that city that took Lot back to the conversation with the angels and Sodom. He may have feared that judgment was imminent here also. He flees with his two daughters to the mountains, and this time without an escort.

I remember, as a small boy, reading what happens next, and feeling quite appalled. It was a shock to someone born in my time and a long standing Taboo. We live in a time of little excuse, past the time of the Patriarchs and original sin, in view of both Moses' law, and the fulfillment of the law in Christ. I was an arrogant little fella and thought, "thank God, I am not a sinner like those sinners." However, as an adult I read this in view of a certain light or possibly a shadow, of the knowledge of good and evil. In a spiritually dead world, Lot's daughters did not have the structure of Levitical law, nor the Word of God that I now read from. They had this knowledge though, that I don't have this, and in the city they were from people take what they want. But they also had an element of the knowledge of wrong doing, since in order to get this now, they would have to get their father drunk. They were left to their own  moral devices, and appear to live strictly in view of today. Whatever check of conscience came to them they were easily able to put away, justify their actions, contrive a plan, and bypass their father's possible objections by getting him drunk. You ask, why doesn't God come down and talk to us like He did with our forefathers? Is it any wonder, why he had to back then? This was before the written law, and it builds the case against man's ability to live as a law unto himself. He knows right from wrong, but only by degree and with the knowledge that comes from a dead spirit and the wisdom that springs forth from a depraved and wicked heart. It is not the righteousness of faith, and man will always find away to justify himself to the image of a god made in man's image. 

God does not build His church on the wisdom or morality of men. The Bible makes no attempt at hiding the sins of our parents. It is not a worship of elders, of "good men", or based upon man's ability. I cannot judge Lot, his wife, or his daughters, since we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Sin has already been judged, and the wages of sin is death. The law will come not to save men, but to reveal sin to man, and to send those who can see running for the cross. So yes, God talked to them and sent angels, He showed them His power in judgment, and His patience in grace. Did man stop sinning? No. Did it make him want God? No. Are we so far off from the logic of Lot's daughter's?  No. We can justify a lot of things to ourselves, and we are all born enemies to the righteousness of God. 





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