Desperate To Sin
Genesis 19:30-38 NIV
Sodom and Gomorrah were gone. Lot's wife was a pillar of salt. Lot and his two daughters were the only survivors of the devastation that God had brought down on the two cities of sin. Lot had lost everything he owned. At first, he had gone to Zoar, but he was afraid to stay there. Perhaps it was because he was afraid the Lord would destroy that city, too. Perhaps it was because the people of Zoar had a negative reaction to his getting out of Sodom before it was destroyed. Perhaps Zoar wasn't too friendly a town in the first place, especially to homeless vagrants like Lot and his daughters had become. For whatever reason, Lot took his daughters and moved into a cave in the mountains. It's hard to understand why he didn't go to Abraham. The man whose prayers had helped to spare Lot lived nearby. Maybe Lot was embarrassed. Maybe he was afraid to go crawling back after the split with Abraham. Maybe he was so stunned after what had happened, he couldn't think straight. But, again, for whatever reason, he took his daughters to the mountains and hid.
Lot's daughters had their own set of problems. They were in the middle of nowhere. They had gone from being eligible young virgins to homeless women with no hope. No men lived around them. Their fiancées were dead. Their dowries had burned up in the blast. From all evidence, there was no hope that they would ever marry. They had to do something. They had to make sure their aging father's bloodline was preserved. Now, remember, these two girls had grown up in Sodom. They had no spiritual basis to their lives. They could only see what their situation seemed to be, and they believed that they had to do something to solve the problem. So, in desperation, they committed a grievous sin. One at a time, they got their father drunk and slept with him. The result? Moab and Ben-Ammi, the fathers of the Moabites and the Ammonites, two of Israel's greatest enemies, the two Israel never defeated.
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Sometimes life seems to leave us no way out. Sometimes our situation is so desperate that it may seem that our only source of hope lies in a path of sin. What these girls didn't know, and what you and I tend to forget, is that God is in control. He knows exactly what is going on. And He is in the process of working out the problem for our good. In fact, He began working out the problem for our good long before the crisis occurred. If Lot's daughters had been patient, God would have provided husbands for them. If you and I are patient, God will work out all the difficulties in our lives. If we wait and hope in the Lord rather than turning in desperation to sin, then His name can be glorified through our lives.
Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
Psalm 37:4-7a NIV
Used with Permission
