Genesis 19:30-38 (ESV)

Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

Faith changes everything. Having grown up in the Sodom school system, Lot’s daughters were steeped in a secular culture, and they saw through that “lens.” When Lot discovers that Zoar isn’t a nice small town, and heads for the hills, his daughters say, “There is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.” They definitely weren’t thinking, “I wonder what great thing God is going to do next.”

Surely, their dad had told them about his rescue at the hands of Abraham and about how Abraham’s household defeated kings in battle to do it. Obviously, there were plenty of able bodied men involved and the girls should be aware that they don’t live that far away. If they’d thought rationally about all this for ten seconds, they wouldn’t have been so pessimistic.

Instead, they let their imaginations run wild and view everything through the lens of hell. So, they hatch this demented plan to get pregnant by their father. That can’t end well.

We’re not told how it does end, but Lot must have eventually figured it all out. Surely this broke his heart.

Our culture is no less poisonous. The computer you’re reading this on is a conduit to all things both good and evil. We’re swamped by cultural influences. Those influences interact with our sinful nature to assault us from every direction. How can we keep from being destroyed?

By faith. How you think affects how you see. Those who don’t wonder about why things happen can’t see God’s hand. Lot’s daughters heard the angels predict the events to come, but that didn’t open their eyes.

And notice that the lesson Lot’s daughters missed seems almost unmissable. Their mom was killed in a cataclysmic event that wiped out the whole valley. Their natural reaction is denial and repressed memory.

The key is to resist reacting “naturally.” God is often most visible in the things we don’t want to look at.

The weekly study guides, which include discussion questions, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies