Moab, Ben-ammi, and the Beauty of Advent

MOAB, BEN-AMMI, AND THE BEAUTY OF ADVENT

An Exposition of Genesis 19:30-38

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: December 4, 2022

Series: The Book of Genesis

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says,

³⁰ 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. ³¹ 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. ³² Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” ³³ 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.

³⁴ 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.” ³⁵ 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. ³⁶ Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.³⁷ The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. ³⁸ The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day. (Genesis 19:30-38)

INTRODUCTION

I assume that today’s passage is not often preached during the season of Advent, and perhaps it is not often preached, period. And yet, we operate according to the wonderful and freeing conviction that all Scripture is divinely inspired and therefore beneficial to our spiritual walk. God has given us every Scriptural passage, to be rightly understood in the context of the whole Bible, for our spiritual nourishment. So, let’s begin by tracing the flow of thought in verses 30-38, and afterward we will zoom out and attempt to see how this passage relates to the Bible’s bigger picture.

UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT

Lot’s New Home (v. 30)

As we come to verse 30, we remember that Sodom and Gomorrah and the entire valley had just been destroyed (Genesis 19:24). The Lord’s angelic messengers had granted permission for Lot and his wife and their two daughters to escape to a little city named Zoar (Genesis 19:18-23). Tragically, “Lot’s wife… looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” (Genesis 19:26) Only Lot and his two daughters escaped the punishment that fell on “the cities of the valley” (Genesis 19:29).

Lot had originally been instructed to escape to the hills (Genesis 19:17), but Lot had requested that his destination be Zoar instead of the hills. We don’t know how long Lot took shelter in Zoar, but it is ironic that eventually Lot left Zoar and fled to the hills, which is where he had been instructed to go in the first place. The reason that Lot left Zoar is because “he was afraid to live in Zoar” (v. 30).

We don’t know exactly why Lot was afraid, but we should remember that Lot had just gone through a catastrophic event. The place that he had called home for the past fifteen years had been completely destroyed. All the people that he knew there – his fellow residents, including his sons-in-law – had perished. All of his property and possessions had turned to ash. The land area of the entire valley had become like a smoking furnace. And his own wife had been pulverized as a result of her disobedience. This severe trauma must have overwhelmed Lot and overloaded his soul. How do you go on after something like this?

What would you have done? If the tri-town area of Norway, Paris, and Oxford were completely decimated by the judgment of God, and you manage to escape to some small hamlet a few miles away, with the smell of sulfur and smoke palpable in your nostrils, and perhaps the few people around you know that only you and your daughters managed to escape the smoking ruins, what would you do? Lot, with a nature like ours, must have felt some combination of shock, disorientation, isolation, and fear. I’d probably leave that little hamlet and run for the hills, too.

So, “Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills” and he eventually settled into his new home, which was a cave in the hills, where “he lived… with his two daughters” (v. 30). From their vantage point, the future appears bleak.

Lot’s Daughters Address a Valid Concern in an Improper Manner (v. 31-35)

The Daughters’ Concern, Plan, and Course of Action

The future certainly appears bleak to Lot’s two daughters. What they perceive as a problem is the end of Lot’s family line. As it stands right now, Lot has two daughters, no sons, and no grandchildren. Further, nearly all the men they had seen over the past fifteen years are dead. Although the statement “there is not a man on earth to come in to us” (v. 31) is obviously an overstatement, their sentiment is understandable since all the men of the valley, except for their father, had just perished. The “manner of all the earth” is, of course, for men to pair off with women, have babies, and thereby extend the family line into future generations. As it happens, there is only one man around – their aged father – and since ‘Dad is old’ there is limited time in which to act.

Notice what Lot’s daughters are concerned about. They are concerned about the preservation of their father’s seed through children. Lot’s daughters are not primarily concerned about their own prospects for marriage. Lot’s daughters are not primarily concerned about their own physical pleasure. What they manifestly desire is “offspring from [their] father” to carry on into the future. Lot’s daughters are right to be concerned about their father’s legacy and the perpetuation of their family line. The Lord’s first recorded words to Adam and Eve were, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). The fact that birth rates have plunged in both Western and Asian countries is a testimony to the fact that these countries have devalued children and have failed to trust God’s design for human flourishing. By contrast, the biblical worldview places a premium on children as a blessing from the Lord and as a way of living with a future-orientation. As for Lot’s daughters, they have a valid concern, but they choose to address it in an improper manner.

What they do next is obviously wrongheaded, to put it mildly. Their plan is to see to it that their father Lot gets drunk on wine. Then, when their father is inebriated and unaware of his surroundings, “[they] will lie with him” – one at a time, on consecutive days – in order to raise up children from their father (v. 32). The older daughter is the first to put this plan into action (v. 33). On the next day, the younger daughter does likewise (v. 34-35).

Lot Bears a Measure of Responsibility

At this point it is important to pause and remember that Lot did not know what was happening. The phrase “He did not know when she lay down or when she arose” occurs in both verse 33 and verse 35. Lot didn’t know what was done to him. However, Lot does bear responsibility for allowing himself to get drunk. It is true that his daughters “made their father drink wine” (v. 33, 35), but what this means is that they spearheaded and encouraged the effort. We are not to think that they force-fed wine into their father’s mouth against his will. Instead, Lot willingly drank of the wine, and he bears responsibility for getting drunk and thus losing touch with reality, and this means that he bears a measure of real responsibility for what happened when he was intoxicated. One reason why you should not allow yourself to get drunk or drugged up is because you have a Scriptural responsibility to be sober-minded and to act judiciously at all times! When Lot was sober-minded earlier in Chapter 19, he was able to say to the men of Sodom, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.” (Genesis 19:7) But when he was in a drunken state, he had no capacity to say ‘No, my daughters, we must not act so wickedly.’ Lot bears responsibility for drinking away his capacity for quick and sound moral judgment.

So, Lot bears a measure of responsibility for what happens. Lot also bears some responsibility on account of the fact that he had disregarded his daughters’ sexual purity when he offered them to the unruly mob (Genesis 19:8), so it should come as no surprise that his daughters also disregard their own sexual purity as well as their father’s sexual purity.[1] Lot bears some real responsibility here.

Lot’s Daughters Are Guilty of Egregious Misconduct

At the same time, Lot’s daughters are guilty of egregious misconduct. In terms of what Lot’s daughters do to their father, the law of nature teaches us that incest between a parent and child is not right. Scripture itself teaches this same principle. Genesis 2:24 is the foundational marriage text, which says “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). The logic of Genesis 2:24 shows that a parent-child union is inherently inconsistent with God’s design for the conjugal union. Later, Leviticus 18:6-18 expressly forbids incestuous relationships. Further, Lot’s daughters are sinning not only against God’s good design, but also by implementing it through a form of violence in which they have incapacitated their father so that they can force their will upon him.

Two Nations Are Born (v. 36-38)

But even though the sexual activity involved in verses 32-35 is forbidden, it can still succeed at conceiving children – as it actually does in this case: “Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.” (v. 36)

In due course these pregnancies arrive at full term, and two consequential sons are born. The older daughter had a son and named him Moab. The name Moab is  a play on words, since Moab sounds like the word “from our father” (v. 32, 34). The younger daughter also had a son and named him Ben-ammi, which means ‘son of my people’.

Baby Moab grew up and became “the father of the Moabites to this day” (v. 37). Baby Ben-ammi grew up and became “the father of the Ammonites to this day” (v. 38).

Going forward through the rest of Scripture, there are over 150 references to the Moabites and over 100 references to the Ammonites. These two people groups, the Moabites and the Ammonites, were Israel’s geographic neighbors to the east, and they brought trouble upon Israel. So, Genesis 19:30-38 tells us the backstory to two of Israel’s consequential and troubling neighbors.

GENESIS 19:30-38 IN THE LARGER CONTEXT OF SCRIPTURE

Now that we’ve noted the basic flow of thought in verses 30-38, we now need to widen our lens and see how this passage relates to the larger context of Scripture. I would like to call your attention to five bigger picture dynamics that will help us to understand and apply our passage.

Lot’s Daughters Are Not Alone in Immorality

First, although we must condemn the immoral actions of Lot’s daughters, we must not forget that a number of other people commit sexual immorality in the Book of Genesis. In effect, Abraham set up his wife Sarah to become the wife of Pharaoh (Genesis 12:10-20) and later to become the wife of Abimelech (Genesis 20:1-18), though God intervened to protect Sarah on both occasions. In Genesis 16, Sarah gave her servant Hagar to Abraham in order to get children through her, and Abraham consented to it. Later, Laban will trick him Jacob and give him a disguised Leah to marry when the agreement was for Jacob to marry Rachel. Then Jacob would take Rachel as a second wife, and in due course both Leah and Rachel would give their maidservants to Jacob in order to get children. Later still, Jacob’s son Judah slept with a woman disguised as a prostitute who turned out to be his daughter-in-law. You can attempt to rank these various examples of moral failure if you’d like, but I simply want to point out that no one has the moral high ground over anyone else. Ever since the fall of mankind into sin, the whole area of marriage, sexuality, and children has often been mishandled by sinful human beings, and this continues to be the case in the 21^st century. Instead of trusting the Lord and doing what is right, so often people attempt to take their pleasure and future into their own hands, and make quite a mess in the process. 

Moab and Ammon are Israel’s Second Cousins

Second, the Moabites and the Ammonites are part of Israel’s extended family. Of course, if you go back far enough – either to Noah or to Adam – the entire human population is part of the same extended family. But some people groups are more closely related to other people groups, and we see that here. In Genesis 11 we met Terah, the father of Abraham, Nahor, and Haran. Lot was Haran’s son, and therefore Abraham’s nephew. What this means is that Abraham’s son Isaac (to be born in Genesis 21) is Lot’s first cousin (Terah –> Abraham –> Isaac on one side, and Terah –> Haran –> Lot on the other side). What this also means is that Isaac’s son Jacob, and Lot’s sons Moab and Ben-ammi, were second cousins. So, when you’re reading about the Moabites and the Ammonites, don’t think of them as far-away foreigners. Instead, think of them as extended family, near kin, next door neighbors who can all trace their ancestry to Terah.

God Watches Over the Moabite and Ammonite Nations and Holds Them Accountable for Their Sin

Third, even though the nations of Moab and Ammon were conceived in incest, they are still included within the scope of God’s providential oversight and care. God pays attention to them and calls them to account for their sin.

In Deuteronomy 2, the Lord told the Israelites to walk in peace toward the Moabites and the Ammonites when the Israelites passed through their lands. Moses wrote,

“And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. And the LORD said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the people of Lot for a possession.’” (Deuteronomy 2:8-9)

Several verses later, Moses wrote:

“… the LORD said to me, ‘Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar. And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession.’” (Deuteronomy 2:17-19)

These passages make it clear that the Lord himself gave land to both Moab and to Ammon. Although they were not the Lord’s chosen people in the special way that Israel was, nevertheless they were within the scope of God’s providential care. You are also within the scope of God’s providential care, regardless of how convoluted your backstory might be.

Further, even though Moab and Ammon were part of Israel’s extended family, the Moabites and the Ammonites proved to be unfriendly toward Israel. As a result, God held the Moabites and the Ammonites morally accountable for their unkindness and wickedness. Deuteronomy 23:3-6 says,

“No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD forever, because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotiamia, to curse you. But the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loved you. You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.” (Deuteronomy 23:3-6)

Note well that this harsh judgment upon the Ammonites and Moabites is not on account of their ethnicity. Instead, the judgment was given precisely because the Ammonites and Moabites were morally significant human beings who were inhospitable to the Israelites and who sought to bring a curse upon the Israelites. The problem with human beings is not their physical or genetic makeup, but the corruption of their hearts and the sinful deeds that flow out of their corrupt hearts.

Whatever your background – someone might have been conceived as a result of incest or rape or adultery or out-of-wedlock sexual immorality, or someone might have been unwanted by one or both parents – whatever your backstory, you are an image-bearer of God, you are called to be a worshiper of God, you bear moral responsibility for the course of your life, and God will hold you accountable.

The Moabites and Ammonites Are Included in the Scope of Future Blessing

Fourth, although the Moabites and the Ammonites both fell under the judgment of God because of their sin, nevertheless the Lord promised to eventually bring blessing upon them (Jeremiah 48:47, 49:6). This reminds us of Genesis 12:3, which revealed that the scope of God’s promised blessing through Abraham is all the families of the earth. The Moabites and the Ammonites are not excluded, but are actually included within the scope of future blessing.

In Jeremiah 46-51, the prophet Jeremiah proclaims the Lord’s judgments on several nations, including Egypt, the Philistines, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar and Hazor, Elam, and Babylon. But even though the predominant tone of these passages is destruction, occasionally the Lord slips in a promise of future blessing. At the end of the section on Moab, the Lord says: “Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 48:47) At the end of the passage on Ammon, the Lord says: “But afterward I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 49:6)

Although sin has corrupted every branch of humanity’s large family tree, the Lord extends His grace just as far, and so there shall be a remnant of Moabites and a remnant of Ammonites who join us in worship before the throne of God in God’s forever kingdom. We do know the name of at least one Moabite who trusted in the God of Israel: her name is Ruth.

A Moabite Woman and Ammonite Woman Are Included in the Messianic Line

And this leads me to a fifth observation. Do you remember how often we have talked about the promised messianic genealogical line in the Book of Genesis? Genesis traces this special seed line from Adam through Seth down to Noah, and from Noah through Shem down to Abraham, and from Abraham through Isaac to his grandson Judah, and eventually we will get to David. Well, as a testimony to so much of what we have been speaking about, it is important to say that one Moabite woman and one Ammonite woman are included in this special genealogical line that leads to the Messiah.

Matthew 1 traces the genealogical line from Abraham to the Messiah. In the first third of the genealogy we are told that “Boaz [was] the father of Obed by Ruth” (Matthew 1:5). Boaz and Ruth were the great-grandparents of King David. We know from the book that bears Ruth’s name that Ruth was a Moabite woman. Without getting into all the details, Ruth eventually took refuge under the God of Israel and married Boaz, a man from the tribe of Judah, and their offspring continued the messianic line.

Returning to Matthew 1, two verses after the part about Boaz and Ruth we are told that “Solomon [was] the father of Rehoboam” (Matthew 1:7). Matthew doesn’t tell us anything about the woman by whom Solomon fathered Rehoboam, but 1 Kings 14 does:

“Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.” (1 Kings 14:21)

Ruth was a true believer in Israel’s God. Perhaps Naamah never became a true believer, and perhaps Solomon should have never married her in the first place. But the fact remains that both Ruth the Moabite and Naamah the Ammonite are included in the genealogical line leading to the Messiah. The presence of a Moabite and an Ammonite in the messianic line is not a testimony to the fact that the Moabites and Ammonites are great and mighty and deserving of this honor. That’s not the point. The point is that their presence is a testimony to the fact that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is a gracious God whose mercy extends to the nations, and He is not put off by someone’s ancestry. “For God so loved the world,” – both Jews and Gentiles, all sinners, and all kinds of sinners – “that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) God “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30) and to “[believe] in the Lord Jesus” (Acts 16:31), and thereby to become part of His forever family.

A Beautiful Tapestry

I hope that these wide-lens views of how Genesis 19:30-38 fits with the Bible’s big picture illustrates how any Scriptural passage, though at first glance it might seem like a small and unrelated piece of a very large puzzle, is part of a beautiful tapestry that reveals the glories of our Lord’s righteousness and the wonders of His bountiful grace.

THE BEAUTY OF ADVENT

Last but not least, I think it is very important to point out how God chooses to highlight the beauty of His Son’s entrance into our world.

When Sarah wanted to build up her house with children (Genesis 16:1-4), she concocted a plan to do it by giving her maidservant Hagar to Abraham, and thus Abraham fathered Ishmael by Hagar. So, what surrounds the conception of Ishmael is unbelief, the unwillingness to wait patiently on the Lord, and moral compromise. Ishmael comes about as the fruit of human effort to secure the future through human strength and human wisdom – and the very activities involved are morally bankrupt.

When Lot’s daughters want to build up their house with children (Genesis 19:30-38), they concocted a plan to do it by leading their father into drunkenness and then coupling with their father, and thus Lot fathered Moab and Ben-ammi by his daughters. So, what surrounds the conception of Moab and Ben-ammi is unbelief, the unwillingness to wait patiently on the Lord’s wisdom and timing, and moral compromise. Moab and Ben-ammi come about as the fruit of human effort to secure the future through human strength and human wisdom – and the very activities involved are morally bankrupt.

These flesh-driven efforts are similar to what happened at the Tower of Babel, where men attempted to build themselves up through their own strength (Genesis 11:1-9). But what we actually need is for divine grace be come down upon us poor sinners.

So, when God sent His dear Son into this world by being conceived in and born of a woman, God did it in such a beautiful way. God saw to it that there was no plotting and scheming by any human being. It is completely outside the scope of human possibilities to bring about the human conception of God’s Son. If the Lord of glory was to be conceived in a woman’s womb, it must necessarily be the work of God, and not the work of any man. If God’s Son was to become a man, it must happen as a free and self-giving act of God’s spectacular grace, and not as the result of any plotting or conniving by a woman attempting to build her house on her own terms. None of that. The incarnation of the Holy One would happen by the grace and power of God, and no thank you to any human being.

So, when the appointed time of our Lord’s coming drew near, God saw to it that the whole thing was enveloped in beauty:

“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy–the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.” (Luke 1:26-38)

God’s initiative, not Mary’s. God’s promise, not Mary’s plan to make something happen. God’s gracious favor, not Mary’s anxious striving. God’s eternal purpose, not Mary’s temporal concerns. God’s power, not Mary’s ability. God’s strength freely exercised, without the involvement of any man. In this holy plan, there is not a whiff of impurity. God saw to it that the woman chosen for this holy task was characterized by a humble and obedient faith. Very soon Mary will lift up her voice in praise:

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” (Luke 1:46-48) 

The answer to the moral ugliness of the events depicted in Genesis 19:30-38, which in fact only gives us a picture of the moral ugliness that infects the entire human race – the answer to this moral ugliness is the holiness of God’s Son. And the humility and faith and obedience that surround the divinely orchestrated conception of God’s Son in Mary’s womb testify to the beauty and righteousness of the incarnate Word. From here, God’s light goes forth to bring salvation, righteousness, and peace to all who call upon the Lord’s name.

ENDNOTES

[1] Coats writes, “The one who offered his daughters for the sexual gratification of his wicked neighbors now becomes the object of his daughters’ incestuous relationship. Quoted in Ross, Allen P. Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1996: p. 363.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Assohoto, Barnabe and Samuel Ngewa, “Genesis.” In Africa Bible Commentary: A One-Volume Commentary Written by 70 African Scholars. Tokunboh Adeyemo, General Editor. Zondervan Edition (first edition published in 2006).

Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. The Book of Genesis (Ariel’s Bible Commentary). Fourth Edition. San Antonio: Ariel Ministries, 2020.

Ross, Allen P. Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1996.

Steinmann, Andrew E. Genesis (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019.