Sex and violence are the secret of success in any modern medium of entertainment. The long time best seller, the Holy Bible, has its fair share of both. The awkward problem for the faithful is to explain it all away. Surely when Jewish scribes were compiling various documents into their Bible they could have edited out the unsavoury or unflattering passages they inherited from their oral traditions.
All other nations, both past and present, seem to make sure their own version of events is appropriately favourable. But the Jews seemed to have no problem dishing it out to themselves. The sins and omissions of kings like David and Solomon are faithfully chronicled. Those who believe most of the Hebrew Bible is fiction need to explain away this negativity since it could be seen as evidence that God inspired the Bible for His own inscrutable purposes.
A Jewish hero called Lot was the patriarch Abraham's nephew. His behaviour as described in Genesis chapter 19 is generally considered absolutely appalling, yet he is called a righteous man in the New Testament. (2 Peter 2:7) He lived in Sodom, where morality wasn't a priority.
God sent two angels in the form of men to assess the people of Sodom with a view to destroying the city if necessary. As it happened Lot met the men at the city gate and, being very hospitable, invited them to his home for the night despite their willingness to sleep on the street. Lot evidently thought that was not a bright idea.
During the evening a crowd gathered outside Lot's house yelling to him to bring the men out "so that we can have sex with them". (v 5 NIV) The details of the story need not concern us but Lot eventually and shockingly offered to send out his two virgin daughters instead of the men. It is hard to find any commentator who defends Lot for this shocking behaviour. Clarke's Commentary claims traditional Eastern hospitality required a host to defend a stranger in his home even at the expense of his own life; but in this case Lot didn't put his own life on the line but his daughters' virginity.
Nothing is said about the daughters' willingness to participate in this game but seemingly they were willing to do their "duty" -- Lot would have had some trouble getting the two out if they didn't want to go. They probably knew many of the men in any case.
The angelic guests decided that Sodom had to be destroyed and told Lot and his wife to get ready with their extended family to leave the city first thing in the morning. The obedient daughters were willing to go but not the guys they were engaged to. (v 14 NIV) It says something for the commitment of these girls to God that they were prepared to leave the luxury of Sodom and head into an unknown future without their partners.
The family duly set off next morning to leave Sodom for good. Their angelic guides cautioned them not to look behind as burning sulphur was about to rain down on the city. But the mother's heart was evidently still in Sodom and she couldn't help but look back. The record says she was turned into a pillar of salt. The obedient daughters steadfastly plodded on with dad, who the previous night had offered them up to the wolves.
Lot and his daughters lived in a small town called Zoar for a time but seem to have found it to be much like Sodom, so moved on, settling finally in a cave in the mountains. Quite a come-down from the luxury of Sodom!
The story doesn't end there. Eventually the older daughter, presumably considering the men of Zoar quite unsuitable and too far away, suggested to her sister that they do their noble duty and preserve their dad's family line by getting pregnant through him. Realizing that he might not like the idea, they got him drunk two nights in a row, and first the elder daughter and then the younger "lay with him", and both became pregnant. You'd have to agree that the sex education available in Sodom must have been up to the very best of modern porn standards for these two virgins to organize impregnation by a drunken dad.
The two sons conceived in this most unusual way both later headed tribes (Moabites and Ammonites) that were thorns in the flesh of the Hebrew people. But one of the descendants, Ruth, became an ancestor of Jesus Christ.
You might think that Jesus would never dare to mention the name of His infamous ancestor, Lot, because Jewish scribes might challenge Him to explain away Lot's offer of his daughters as sex sops. But you'd be wrong. Jesus used the character and fate of Sodom as a picture of the time preceding His Second Coming. He warned the faithful in the predicted chaotic end times of this world to be ready to jump and run at a minute's notice. (Luke 17:28-32) For a wrenching experience like that Lot and his daughters set a worthy example in leaving prosperous Sodom.
Like everybody else the daughters may have shown faulty judgment at times, but when the chips were down they were true believers. Likewise their dad!
Corrie ten Boom - The Roots of the Jerusalem Prayer Team Unspectacularly Supernatural Walking After Emptiness
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