So that night they made their father drunk with wine, and the older daughter came and had sexual relations with her father. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up. So in the morning the older daughter said to the younger, "Since I had sexual relations with my father last night, let’s make him drunk again tonight. Then you go and have sexual relations with him so we can preserve our family line through our father." So they made their father drunk that night as well, and the younger one came and had sexual relations with him. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up."

In this way both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the ancestor of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-Ammi. He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today." Genesis 19:30-38

While Lot pled with the angels to spare Zoar, he soon left that city in fear. Of what? I think the people of Zoar didn't much trust the one man who had escaped the other cities, but he may also have feared future judgment upon Zoar for wickedness. Possibly, Lot reflected on the judgment of Sodom and realized that his decision to settle there had caused all his troubles. God had commanded him to flee to the mountains, so finally, he sought safety in a cafe rather than a city.

I really wonder why Lot didn't go to live with Abraham. Prosperity was no longer a problem. Lot was a refugee. Abraham lived in the mountains far from the city. Lot was free to choose where he settled, provided he did not stay in one of the condemned cities when judgment came. Why not go to Abraham? Maybe he was too embarrassed to face his uncle and admit his folly. This was continuing folly! With Abraham there could have been fellowship, encouragement, and perhaps the possibility of some God-fearing husbands for his daughters from among Abraham’s entourage, but the remaining verses of the chapter depict the final state of Lot, the carnal Christian.

Having experienced the wickness of the city, Lot was finally ready to deal with worldliness. He did so by departing from the world. Unfortunately, Lot had left Sodom, but he'd brought some of it with him. Seclusion is no substitute for sanctification. The world without has far less corrupting influence over us than the world within (Romans 7).

Lot's daughters quickly realized that the cave was their permanent home and they concluded that Lot was trying to prevent them from marrying. He would lose no more daughters to wicked men, so he would perish without an heir unless the girls did something about it themselves (Genesis 19:31).

This bleak picture was exaggerated, of course, but very similar to the way that Sarai and Abram had assumed that God could not provide an heir without their help, the girls deduced they would have to resort to unusual means to preserve their father's line. They plotted incest, provided their father with wine, then seduced him. Lot appears to have been only partially aware of what had taken place until it was too late.

Two nations were born of this incestuous relationship, Moab and Ammon. While God dealt kindly with these nations because of their relationship to Abraham (Deuteronomy 2:19), they were a continual hindrance to the godly conduct of the Israelites. Eventually, they would suffer the judgment of God as did Sodom and Gomorrah (Zephaniah 2:9).

The similarities between Sodom and our society today are distressing. Immorality was rampant and perversion had become the norm. Homosexuality is always considered sin in the Bible (Romans 1:24), but in Genesis 19 it was a symptom of a society so sick with sin that it must be judged, cut out like a raging cancer before it spread further. I wonder if we have not actually taken homosexuality beyond where Sodom had gone. Afterall, cable TV brings the sin into our livingrooms, something Sodom hadn't experienced. Sodom stands in Scripture as a symbol of evil and depravity and as a warning of future judgment (Deuteronomy 29:23; 32:32; Isaiah 1:9-10; 3:9: Jeremiah 49:18). Great as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was, it will not compare to the destruction of those who have had greater light through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Matthew 10:15).

The similarity of our society to Sodom warns us that judgment is near. The eternal wrath of God has already been meted out on the cross of Christ on Calvary. Jesus Christ became sin for us; He bore our punishment on the cross (Isaiah 53:4-6; 2Corinthians 5:21). By faith in Christ’s death in our place, we will not face the wrath of God (1Thessalonians 5:9-10), but those who refuse the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ must bear the penalty of their sins, eternal separation from God (2Thessalonians 1:8-9).

More concerning is the similarity between Lot and many professing Christians. At best, Lot was a half-hearted Christian. In New Testament terminology he may have been a believer, but not a disciple (Luke 9:57-62). Lot tried unsuccessfully to keep one foot in the world and the other in the company of the faithful. Caught up in materialism, concerned more with his own self-interest, he chose the best land for himself and left the rest to Abraham. He chose the settled life of the city, while Abraham chose the life of a nomad. Lot, worldly, lukewarm and weak, jeopardized his family for the chance of financial gain. When he finally wised up, he took his revulsion of worldliness to an extreme and forced his children into a dangerous and immoral path.

Is there really any difference between Lot and most of us? I confess that there seems to be more Lot in my life than Abraham. What is the answer to that dilemma? How can we effectively deal with our own complacency? The solution must be found in the differences between Lot and Abraham. While Abraham experienced growing intimacy with God and care for others, Lot cared mostly for himself, even to the point of sacrificing his daughters. Abraham made many mistakes (sins), but he learned from them. Lot lived only for the present, while Abraham was a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth, who chose to do without many earthly pleasures for the joys of greater and more lasting blessings from God.

Let's be clear -- Lot was a saved man (2Peter 2:7-8). Even in the midst of his failures, God spared him from judgment, albeit kicking and screaming all the way. What a picture of the security of the saint, even the most carnal of saints! The reason for Lot’s security, like ours, is not that he was faithful. He wasn't! Lot’s salvation was clearly in spite of himself, not because of his works. Lot was saved, not for his own sake, but for Abraham’s. It was not Lot’s faithfulness, but Abraham’s which delivered him from destruction (Genesis 19:29).

The same principle holds true for Christians today. We are saved, not on account of our faithfulness, but because of the One Who intercedes for us, Jesus Christ, our great high priest (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25). What a wonderful assurance! We will be saved, not because of our worthiness, but His, Who not only died to save us, but Who continually intercedes for us before the Father (1John 2:1).

The later chapter in Lot's life happened in a cave. Lot seems to have tried to deal with the world by seclusion. Monasticism has always been a tempting alternative to mingling with sinners. Lot did not fail in the city as badly as he did in that cave where, numbed by drunkedness, he was lured into incest with his daughters. Lot’s failure in that cave was far more of his own making than most of us would like to admit. It was not just that his daughters had learned so much sin in Sodom (they seem very worldly for virgins), but that they seemed to have carried out what they had learned from their own father as they stood inside the door and heard him offer them to the men of Sodom (Genesis 19:8). In that singular moment, they learned that morality must sometimes be sacrificed to practicality, set aside in emergencies. Once they saw their father’s plight (and their own) as an emergency, incest was no longer a moral problem, for morality must yield to practicality in emergencies.

Many parents, myself included, are greatly concerned about the world in which our children live because temptation is everywhere! In our concern for what is happening in our society, we should recognize that we cannot save our children by restricting them to a cave. In the cave, they will still be influenced by us. Let us remember the tragedy of Lot and recognize that our children learn sin as much from us as from the world.

The Christian doctrine of separation must strike a delicate balance between two equally dangerous extremes. We cannot overstress identification with the world to the point where we no longer declare the gospel, but we must not seek security in seclusion from the world. This is not the Christian’s solution to sin (1Corinthians 5:9-11). For Lot, the proper balance between the city of Sodom and the cave was the tent of Abraham. Christians are to live in the world, but without becoming attached to it or conformed to it.

"The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish" (Proverbs 14:11).