Genesis 19:29-38: a reflection

29When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived. 30Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth. 32Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.” 33They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose. 34It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.” 35They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she got up. 36Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father. 37The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.

This passage opens with a note of grace: When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow. Lot was spared, the account says, because God remembered Abraham. But what follows is a dark and shameful episode. Lot's daughters, isolated in a cave, afraid and without hope of a future, take matters into their own hands in a sinful way, and through them are born the peoples of Moab and Ammon. It is a sad story of fear and faithlessness leading to shame.

Notice the two threads here. First, God's grace: Lot was rescued because God remembered Abraham, spared not for his own merit but for the sake of another. And second, the sad turn that follows, born of fear and a failure to trust God with the future. The daughters, afraid they had no future, acted in a shameful way rather than trusting God to provide one; fear and faithlessness led them into sin.

Yet even here, grace has the final word, though only later Scripture reveals it. From Moab would one day come Ruth, the Moabite woman who trusted the God of Israel, and through her line would come David, and in time the Messiah. Out of even this shameful origin, God would in time bring redemption. That is worth holding onto. When fear tempts you to seize control and take a sinful shortcut rather than trust God with your future, remember that fear and faithlessness lead to shame, and that God can be trusted to provide. And when you look back on shameful chapters, your own or others', remember that God's grace can bring redemption even out of them, as he did from Moab. His grace reaches even into our shameful places.

Lord, this passage tells how you remembered Abraham and rescued Lot, and then how Lot's daughters, in fear and faithlessness, fell into a shameful sin rather than trust you with their future. Teach me from both. Thank you that Lot was spared not for his own merit but because you remembered another; your grace reaches beyond our deserving. And guard me from the fear that seizes control and takes a sinful shortcut rather than trusting you to provide. When fear tempts me to grasp at my own future in a wrong way, help me trust you instead. And thank you that even from this shameful origin you would bring Ruth, and through her line the Messiah; your grace can bring redemption even out of our shameful places. Help me trust you with my future, and rest in a grace that reaches even there.