The sins of the father

Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father." – Genesis 19v32

As awful as Lot’s choices in Sodom and the results of them were they were really not the worst of it. After spending all this time in the world Lot’s family had certainly been affected by it.

Remember Lot’s solution when the men of Sodom came for the men in his house? He offered up his virgin daughters instead. Can you imagine that? Here was a crowd of lust filled perverts and Lot was willing to throw his daughters out to them!

So it is not surprising that we find those same daughters coming up with a unique solution to a problem. They had all been sent to a neighbouring town, but now they are living in a cave. Dad was getting old and he had no one to carry on the family name. They didn’t have husbands so they had no way to have children themselves. One of them had a bright idea. ‘Let’s get dad drunk and have sex with him! That way he will have sons and we will have children.’

What a great idea! Well, at least in the minds of daughters who had grown up in Sodom and saw their father offer them up to the crowd.

It worked! The both got pregnant and they both had sons. Their sons were Maob and Ben-Ammi. Both of those names can are hints of the sin, for they can both deal with inbreeding.

We are naturally repulsed and sickened by this turn of events, but that is what happens when we start to think like the world. The repercussions were serious. Moab and Ammon became the enemies of Israel.

We can think that our choices are not that serious. We can think that we will not be hurt by dabbling in the world. When we think that way we err, and our error has repercussions we cannot even imagine at the moment.