Ruthless Selfishness
In the last post on Genesis 20 I made a passing comment regarding the horrible sins of Lot's daughters. After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah Lot was afraid to live in Zoar and so he took his daughters up to live in a cave. Doubtless he was mourning the death of his wife and the loss of his home and in so doing he completely failed to consider his daughters and their future. The end of Genesis 19 details how Lot's daughters respond to Lot's selfishness with a selfishness of their own. Just as Lot only thought of himself in hiding in the cave, his daughters think only of their future and so they get their father drunk in order to become impregnated by him. They did their job well because it says Lot was so drunk that "He did not know when she lay down or when she arose" (Gen. 19:33, 35). In the last post I labeled this the "unspeakable foolishness" of Lot's daughters, but it is also rightly described as a ruthless selfishness. Thinking only ...