The Lot of Lot
If we could only see the consequences of our choices before we make them, how different would our lives be! The story of Lot is a tragic one. Lot’s life doesn’t end at the end of our reading, but the author of Genesis doesn’t find the rest of his life worth mentioning. The point has been made, and hopefully others can learn from his experience. But few people seem to learn from the mistakes of others. Each generation seems doomed to make the same mistakes, perhaps thinking that they are smarter than their ancestors or maybe they never really thought about them.
Lot was the nephew of Abraham. God spoke to Abraham and told him to go to the land that He would give him. And Abraham took Lot with him. We know nothing about Lot’s father or why Abraham took him with him to this new land. Both of them were prosperous men, and at some point they had to separate, because they needed more room for all their flocks and possessions.
Abraham gave Lot his choice of where he wanted to go. Abraham would take what was left. Lot chose the Jordan valley. It was well watered, like the Garden of the Lord (Eden). In the valley was the city of Sodom, whose inhabitants were “wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.” Lot chose to live near that city.
Shortly after, God spoke to Abraham again and expanded on His promise of blessing to Abraham. He was told to look in every direction, and God would give it to him and his seed. It was as though God could see that Lot would soon disappear off the map, and his future was not promising.
The nearby land was invaded by a number of kings, and they sacked the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, in which Lot now lived. Abraham had enough men under his command that he was able to rescue Lot from their hand. The king of Sodom offered a rich reward to Abraham, but he refused to take any of it. He didn’t want anyone to think that he was wealthy because of Sodom.
The time came when God decided it was time to judge the cities of the plain, particularly Sodom and Gomorrah. He told Abraham of his plans, and Abraham pleaded with God for the lives of the righteous people who might be living in those cities. God agreed with Abraham not to destroy the cities if ten righteous people could be found in it. Apparently He couldn’t find them, but He sent His angels to bring Lot out safely with his family.
The angels appear as human beings, and Lot invites them into his home for the night, unaware of who they are. Lot was in the gate of the city, which is commonly understood to mean that he had a position of leadership in the city. The men of the city approach his house and demand that he bring his guests out that they may “know” them. Today we would think of this as getting acquainted with them, but the expression is a common one in the Old Testament for having sexual relations. We see this same expression a few verses later, when Lot offers his two daughters to them and describes them as having not “known” men.
The angels strike the crowd with blindness and compel Lot to leave with his family. His sons-in-law (apparently they were engaged to his daughters and not yet married to them) think that Lot cannot be serious, and they refuse to leave. Lot didn’t seem to them like one who had the inside track with God. Lot leaves with his wife and tow daughters.
They are instructed not to look back nor to stay in the plains. His wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt.
The daughters of Lot, fearing that they would now end up without husbands or children, get their father drunk and have sexual relations with him. He wasn’t even aware that this had happened. Apparently getting drunk was not a new experience for him, otherwise he would have guarded himself from it. The offspring of these unions become the fathers of the nations Moab and Ammon, two perennial enemies of the nation of Israel.
Genesis will later recount the birth of Ishmael to Abraham, how that Abraham had relations with his servant girl Hagar, because he and Sarah thought this would be the way that he would have a seed, since they did not have any children of their own, and she was getting older. The descendants of Ishmael (the Arabs) have been enemies of Israel to this day.
Still later, Isaac, the promised son of Abraham, would have two sons of his own, one of which, Esau, would also father a people who would become enemies of God’s people. No fault is found in Isaac for the outcome of his son, but clearly in both Lot’s and Abraham’s case, we can see undesirable consequences from less than perfect actions. Actions do have consequences, and they can last for generations. If only we could see what they might be before we do the things we do.
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