Genesis Day 35: The End of the Line…

Genesis 19:30-38

How many news stories are there, that when you hear them, you cringe?

And the reality is, they are not really new. You know what I mean. Certainly, the names of the people involved are new, but the base story isn’t. Same stuff, different people, year after year. Yet no matter how many times we hear the story, well, we still cringe.

I cringe as I read these eight verses from Genesis. They chronicle “the end of the line” for Lot. We won’t read any more of him.

Lot and his daughters || Hendrick van Somer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Yet, you might be thinking I am naïve. Perhaps.

I am not sure it is naivety. Our ability, my ability, to sink to “cringe-worthy” depths isn’t a surprise—rather, it is a disappointment. It is this “old lesson” which we know, but somehow don’t learn.

And when we don’t learn the lesson…when we fail to follow God…the end of our line, our story, isn’t pretty.

Though the Lord had assured Lot he could safely flee to Zoar, Lot was unsettled; there was some underlying fear. While Lot knew God, we see something in him – his indecision – which may or may not have had an effect on his daughters. (I am trying not to judge Lot.)

Yet his daughters, deprived of their husbands, living in a cave, reveal that there is more of “Sodom and Gomorrah” in them then their father would have approved of.

Was Lot indecisive? Was he fearful? Was he simply easy-going? Why would his daughters think they could do this?

We don’t get to read Lot’s reaction—what we do know is the consequences—we know “the end of the line”.

Let’s look at the offspring of Lot and his daughters.

One of them is Moab—the founder of the Moabites. They worshiped a fertility god and indulged in orgies—their culture was a constant stumbling block to God’s people as they made their way to the Promise Land.

The other is Ben-Ammi—the founder of the Ammonites. They were cruel. Cruel in war. Cruel in all matters. They worshiped Molech and practiced child sacrifice.

This is the “end of Lot”.

Two lessons.

First: How we live matters. This is not new news.

Second: No one, and no family, is ever beyond God’s redemption.

Don’t for a minute think this is the “end of the line with God”—no, in fact, a Moabite woman, Ruth, bears witness to God’s faithfulness. Ruth (there is a book in the Bible with her name and her story) bear witness to those who, regardless of their family history, when they have faith, God responds.

How did God respond to Ruth? From Ruth will come King David—and King Jesus!