forces you to come to and address parts of scripture that seem, oh, I don't know, off-putting. So let's give attention to these verses from Genesis 19, and then after I read the scripture, I'll pray that the Lord gives us illumination as we seek to understand them. Genesis 19, verses 30 through 38. This is God's word, give your attention to it. 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 into 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. And 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-Ami. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day. Amen. Let's pray. Give us your grace and help, O Father, as we come to consider your holy word. We thank you that your spirit, oh Lord, is active and continually at work in and through us. And we pray now that by your spirit, you would shine the light of this word, oh Lord, into our minds and in our hearts. Help us even in this passage to consider and see and rest in Jesus Christ, your son, the one to whom all scripture points and upholds as our great savior. May we rest and trust in him this morning. We ask this in his name, amen. You may be seated. All scripture is God-breathed and is profitable to rebuke us in our sin, to encourage us and train us for acts of righteousness, to teach us the ways of God. Those things that were written in former times, like this passage, Paul reminds the Roman church that they're written for our encouragement, that we might have hope that we would persevere. Jesus, in talking to the Pharisees, says in John 5, 39, that they search the scriptures, for they think that in the scriptures they'll find eternal life, but they don't realize that the scriptures themselves, even Genesis 19, speak of Jesus, speak of him, the very one they will nail to a cross. Paul, writing to Timothy, tells him that it is through these scriptures that he has become wise unto salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord. And he doesn't mean, strictly speaking, the New Testament when he says that, because he's writing the New Testament. He's speaking of that which came before, the book we call the Old Testament. One of the beauties of the scripture is that it doesn't sanitize things, it doesn't give us the truth in a way that is, I don't know, cushy, it doesn't skirt around difficult matters in the depravity of a human heart. Scripture, one of the reasons why we can testify that it is authentic and authoritative and God-breathed is that it's not, it doesn't bear the mark of something that's made up by people, especially a people who are if they were making something up, trying to make themselves look better than they are. You know, the words of God, the scripture, portrays humanity fallen in Adam as full of wickedness. And apart from the work of the spirit of God applying the redemption of Christ to a human heart, that human heart will go astray in very, very destructive and tragic and sinful ways. This passage we're looking at this morning shows us such destructive, sad, sinful tragedy. Indeed, as we look through this passage, I think tragedy is really the theme of it. It is the genre of this narrative here is that we have here a tragedy. That's actually our first point. It'll help us through this. We'll see and learn of what we can from this sad and sordid tragedy. Before we then know or glimpse in this passage and read in the light of the rest of scripture, a glimmer of light. It's a very dark passage, but there is light here as we look at it in the scope, considering the scope of the rest of the canon of scripture, the rest of God's narrative of redemption. There is a glimmer of hope. It might be far way off from the events in this cave. the hills of Zoar, but it is there nonetheless, and it'll be our focus this morning as well. So let's jump into this passage. Let's continue to look at the events of Genesis here, as we consider Lot and his daughters. Now a bit of background, this follows right on the hill of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We talked about that last week, how God came and visited that city with two of his angels, And he brought destruction to it for its ungodly behavior. And this ungodly behavior went far beyond the sin that we would call sodomy or homosexuality. It included things such as a love for money, a mistreatment of the poor and the weak. It included a lack of hospitality. In other words, their sin was great. And it cried out for justice before the Lord. And the Lord is not deaf to the cries of just for justice. And so he destroyed and leveled that city, but not without being gracious and being wonderfully gracious to Lot and to his family. If you remember last week, Lot was given like all of the warnings. He was actually saved even from the people of Sodom himself as they sought to abuse him. And yet he still lingered in the city back in verse 16 of this chapter. So much so that the angels, these men or these angels in the form of men, had to seize him with his wife and his daughters and forcibly remove him from the city. How's that for salvation? It is forced upon them, you might even say here. The Lord shows them great mercy and brings them out. Lot then travels away from the city. His wife sadly looks back, which is far more than like a curious longing to understand what's happening as the destruction rains down on the cities behind her. No, it is a longing to be back there. It shows that in her heart there is waywardness. She doesn't want to go in the direction of the Lord. She does not want to walk on the narrow path. that is set before her, and she immediately experiences the inbreaking of God's judgment on her. Meanwhile, Lot and his daughters escape to a small city named Zoar, and they stay there for an indeterminate amount of time. We're not told how long, but long enough for Lot to become afraid, which is understandable. The last city he was in was destroyed by God, and we're told that this city, Zoar, is a part of the cities of the valley. had in its citizenship the same sins of Sodom there, because the reason why that city was protected and not destroyed was because Lot was allowed to go there. And so no doubt he might be, in his old age here, because he is old, he might be a bit paranoid that the same thing will happen. And maybe there won't be an announcement or help by angels coming to forcibly remove him from the judgment. And so he thinks, let's escape to a cave in the mountains And that brings us into where this chapter begins. Lot goes up out of Zohar and he lives in the hills or the mountains with his two daughters in a cave. Why? Because he was afraid. In many ways, this whole chapter, right, there's the overarching scene of tragedy here. with the daughters and their wicked plan. But this whole chapter is full of tragedy. Think of Lot, he's a tragic figure. The reason why he was in Sodom was due to compromise. He was given all of the land to choose of, a place to reside, and what does he do? Well, he chooses by what his eyes see. He does what any natural man would do. He says, look, here's the wealthy spot. Here's where all the good houses are. Here's where all the famous people are. Here's where the thriving economy is. It's in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. Let me go there and establish my family and my life and anchor my whole existence there, rather than perhaps seeking the Lord's face first of where to settle. And so he compromised. He went and lived in a very wicked place. And then, though he was redeemed and graciously saved here, he has lost a lot, has he not? He's lost his wealth, and he was extremely wealthy. It was no doubt consumed in the fire as it fell from heaven. He lost his home. He lost security as a man who is aging. He lost his future sons. Remember, he goes to his sons-in-laws, and he begs with them to leave the city, but they thought he was playing a joke on him. The sons who were going to marry his daughter, so in a very real way, he lost the next generation. He lost his wife in this as she turned aside, as she gave her allegiance not to the Lord and his ways and wisdom, but to this world. The Lord is a tragic figure, so is his daughters. They are maligned by their father himself. He's not a good father. We saw that last week when the horde, the mob of men appeared at Lot's door in order to seize and abuse the visiting angels. Lot tries to bait them with his daughters and says, here are two of my virgin daughters. Let me send them out to you. Do whatever you want with them. I don't care. What would that do to you as a daughter? Lot is not a charming or good father, and his daughters are very much the product of tragedy as well. They're maligned. They are used as simple bait by their father. Now, some have said perhaps he's just jesting when he did that. Perhaps he was just biding his time. Regardless, it doesn't play well with his daughters as it shouldn't. They've lost their betrothed. future husbands, they're called lots sons-in-laws, yet they aren't married because they're in this season of betrothal. Think of Mary and Joseph where the bond is as close as married as you can be, that to sever that bond would require a divorce. And so they've lost their security as well, like their hope as a woman in a culture like that was to be married and to raise children. Now they're in a cave. in the hills, where to their understanding, for all they know, the rest of the world could be destroyed except for this small city of Zoar. So it's a tragic situation. Yes, their solution was far from godly or wise or right, even just naturally speaking. Yet you can still pity them, just as you can pity Lot. And sometimes pity is a good response, even to wicked, tragic sin. We don't want to soften the effects of sin. We don't want to explain away people's evil choices. Yet we still should have, perhaps, a compassion or a pity, the same way God does, knowing that, yes, their situation was terrible, even if their solution to it was worse. So they are very much to be pitied, Lot and his daughters. There's a tragedy that attaches to them. Together with, here in this chapter, in this event, in these verses, there's a tragic display of wisdom untethered from a desperate dependence upon the Lord. That's what you see here. There's wisdom. They're operating with their own mindset, but they have cut themselves off from a desperate dependence upon God. Actually, this whole chapter here is men, Lot and his women, his daughters, acting out of sync with God's wisdom. They are doing things their own way. This is another example of What we read in Proverbs three, the warning in Proverbs three, five and following where we hear Solomon say, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Just as many before in the book of Genesis, here are men and women acting as those who are wise in their own eyes, who are leaning on their own understanding rather than setting the Lord and His ways before them. And so there's a tragic lack of wisdom that is connected to and anchoring in a desperate dependence upon the Lord, which is the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. Here is a dependence rather on an extreme solution grounded in depraved human thought. In this way, it mirrors what we've seen thus far in the book of Genesis with Abraham and Sarah, as they sought to take matters into their own hands with this plan to give Hagar to Abram, that he might raise up the promise won through her, the servant of Sarah, rather than trusting the Lord to open the womb of Sarah, that she might give birth to a son, which one day she would. Abraham and Sarah took matters into their own hands. Actually, there's a throwback to the story of Abraham and Sarah here in verse 31, where the older daughter says to the younger, our father is old. Remember, that was the driving reason why Sarah and Abraham should go about their plan. Sarah is old. She's past the time for childbearing. And so, of course, this couldn't happen. Of course, the Lord can't provide for us their thinking. That's human wisdom and human knowledge. They, these daughters here, perhaps even worse, mirror not just Abraham and Sarah and their lack of wisdom, their lack of dependence upon the Lord, but perhaps even worse, mirrors him and his sin and his lack of trust in the Lord and his own sinful event with his father, Noah. If you remember right when Noah departed the ark, He planted a vineyard, because he was a man of the earth. And what do you do whenever you have the whole earth before you now? Well, you plant a vineyard. And some time passed, obviously, enough to create wine, to the point that Noah got drunk in his tent. He passed out, and Ham saw his father's nakedness, whatever that means. And it means something really serious, to the point that his whole lineage, or at least Canaan's lineage, would face the curse of God. Here the same. The same circumstances prevail. There is drunkenness in at least two different times here, and as a side note should be said, said here is. the scriptures teaching on drunkenness highlighted for us, just as Paul writes to the Ephesian church, do not get drunk with wine, for that leads to debauchery, rather be filled with the spirit, or be filled with wisdom from above, which the spirit gives. Here is debauchery led, in part, by drunkenness. And so there's a side application here that is a strong application nonetheless, that while wine is a gift to men to enjoy, It, like all of God's gifts, can be terribly abused and can lead to heinous and terrible destruction, and no doubt many of you know that in your own families or in your past. That wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and it will bring destruction, as it does here. Perhaps these daughters, in their wisdom, are motivated by a desire for control, of the situation, or just simple security. Again, remember, in that culture, to be married and to raise up a lineage, to raise up a household, is where their security was, and they completely lack that, as they dwelt in a cave in the mountains with their father, who is, by all accounts in these verses, intending to finish out his days there. And so perhaps they're motivated by a desire for control or security, regardless, they're filled with human wisdom, which is saturated with human depravity, which mirrors, if not exceeds, the very sin of the city that they escaped. In other words, they walk and follow in the sad footsteps of their mother, Lot's wife. They brought Sodom with them to the cave outside the hills of Zoar. And so there's a sad tragedy here. And we see here the fruit of wisdom that is untethered from a desperate dependence upon the Lord. It's encouragement to us to tether ourselves to a desperate dependence upon the Lord. Because it's very easy in our own mind to walk in our own ways, to think that our way is right, it's my way or the highway, and oftentimes our way If we're Christians, sometimes we even twist God's Word to back up our way, right? And one of the ways you can tell if you are prone to that is, has God's Word ever contradicted you? Have you ever gone to Scripture with a desire that you want? even in praying about it, and have you ever gotten a scripture and found God in his words saying essentially no, and then rested in that? Or has, miraculously, God's will always lined with yours? If so, then you worship an idol, and he is not the one true God. Because the one true God will contradict you, will disrupt your own wisdom, will set you in a completely different path. Actually, that's what salvation itself is. God disrupting our wisdom, setting us in a completely different path, giving us a whole new direction in life, giving us life to begin with from the dead. Here we have human wisdom and its tragic fruit. There's another aspect of tragedy here, and that is something we've seen before in Genesis, and again we see here, and that is sin's sad progression. I mean, there's so much sin and depravity here. And it's another example of how things get worse over time. Even amongst those who are the people of God. Lot and his daughters are connected to Abraham. They are connected to the covenant people of God. And just like the sons of Adam, We're very closely connected to God and just one generation removed from the very creation itself. And yet we find great tragic evil. So you have here, sin progresses. As God told Cain, it's crouching at the door and its desire is for you and you must roll over it. In other words, put it to death by faith, trusting in the promises of God and the gospel of Christ. It's the only way you can kill sin. Relying upon the spirit and his wisdom, not your own. Because if you don't, it'll pounce on you and it'll consume you. Sin progresses like a snowball rolling down a hill, creating an avalanche. We've seen this thus far in the book of Genesis, just as you go on tracing this. from the first sin in the garden, which is tragic in its own light, of course, in that it brought all of humankind into a state of sin and misery. Adam and Eve, when they ate the fruit of the tree, they didn't just sin themselves, but Adam represented all who were in him. That is, every single man, woman, and child, except for Jesus. And Adam ate that fruit and rebelled against God, and his rebellion is passed down from generation to generation to every human being. It's why we have sin in the world. It's why we sin, it's because we have and bear the original guilt and sin of Adam, and we are born as those who go astray. Indeed, David can confess, in sin my mother conceived me. And it takes the Lord's interaction and interposition of his grace in order to save us. But sin itself, outwardly at least, or even progresses again like that snowball going down the mountain. It does so here in Lot's life. You start with a simple compromise to live in the wealthy city, motivated more perhaps by a love of money, breaking that eighth commandment and longing for that which is not in God's providence his yet. And it led to this sad point in a cave. Sin progresses tragically. We see it as well in the offspring of this incestuous union. Both of the daughters became pregnant and they bore sons. So in a way, their plan was successful. They had children. One was named Moab, the other Ben-Ami. Now, those names are significant. As the writer of Genesis, as Moses tells us this here, Moab is the father of, well, surprise, the Moabites, to this day, to the moment in which Moses was writing this. And then Ben-Ami was the father of the Ammonites, to this day. In other words, this union produced children who would become the father of nations themselves. This is what it is like to be connected to Abraham. You father nations, yet these nations would continually be a thorn in the side of Israel. They themselves, not because of their messy beginning, their birthright only, would be an enemy of God, but because they actively opposed Israel. The Moabites would be those peoples who, as Israel traveled to the Promised Land after the Exodus, the king, Balak, could not stand them, did not want them to be near his border, so he hired a prophet a man named Balaam, who was in some ways a prophet of the one true God, but yet he was very much motivated by greed and by money. And so Balak hired him to curse Israel. And Balaam first hesitated, but then finally went. If you remember the whole scene with the donkey that is given a human voice to talk to Balaam, because this angel of the Lord is standing before them, ready to slay this false prophet. Or this prophet motivated by greed and that whole narrative where it's the donkey who saves his life and then mocks him appropriately. It's this prophet who goes and opens his mouth for price to curse Israel, but out comes blessing. He can't help but bless the people of God. But it's a wicked attempt by Moab to use even spiritual forces to attack and to curse Israel. Remember the promise of scripture given to Abraham. Those who bless you, I will bless. Those who curse you, I will curse. And so the Moabites, just like the Ammonites, their cousins would be enemies of God because they actively opposed Israel. And one day, as we're told in Isaiah 15, they would be wiped out. And so this is a very tragic and sordid tale in this chapter. but it's not only tragedy. As we read this in the light of the rest of the scripture and its wonderful unfolding, there is a glimmer here. It's a small one, but yet it's still a glimmer of hope. And that glimmer of hope, that light comes to us found buried, you could say, in the genealogies of Matthew's gospel. genealogies with as far as the scripture that you're probably tempted to read past quickly or at least to even just skip altogether. The very book of Matthew begins with this testimony concerning Jesus Christ, the book of the Genesis even, or the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his daughters. And Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. And Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nashon, and Nashon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab. And Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth. And Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. Did you catch that? This woman who has a whole book of scripture devoted to her, the father of Obed, the grandfather of David, is a Moabite, Ruth. You read her book, she comes from Moab. Remember, Naomi and her sons went to Moab in a time of famine. They went to this land of God's enemies, produced by this incestuous union between the older daughter and her father, and in and amongst these wicked people, enemies of God, through God's providence, comes Ruth, who will give birth to the son who will give birth to the greatest king in Israel's history. who will ultimately, as it goes down the line, give birth to the Messiah himself. You see, there is a glimmer of hope in this passage, and it's found here in these genealogies of Matthew. It's found here as well in a small book in the Old Testament called Ruth, which gives the account of a Moabite who discovers the one true God of Israel, and who becomes a part of the lineage that leads to the light of the world, Jesus himself. That's not to be downplayed. Here is a tragic story of distorted events here. Yet one of the children that is born to Lot will, in a way, be the Messiah. Because Ruth will give birth to the one who will give birth, so on and so forth, down the line to Jesus himself. Here is God's sovereign grace arriving to a tragic family and circumstance. and using it for good, to bring about the light of the world. I mean, in a way, this is what Ruth's story is, this whole tragic circumstance with Naomi and her sons. When they go to Moab, the sons die. They leave behind their widows, Orpah and Ruth, and Orpah goes back to her people, but Ruth travels with Naomi back to Bethlehem and, again, becomes the grandmother of the Messiah. And here you have, In this passage, you have, again, a tragic family situation with Lot and his daughters. But if you really think about it, this is the very pattern of the gospel itself. For Christ comes to his family, to a people created in his image, who have gone very astray, to a tragic, depraved, sordid, broken, sinful, rebellious mass of humanity. And what does he do? It's not Sodom and Gomorrah this time. It will be one day. But it's not this time. He brings grace and redemption for those who will call upon his name, for those who, like Ruth, will join themselves to the people of God by faith, hearing the promises of God in the gospel that if you repent of your sins, if you confess them to the Lord, if you call upon his name, he will give you a new name. He will take you out of your old family, which is ultimately rooted in Adam and is marked by depravity and sin and messiness. and rebellion, and he will give you the name of Christ himself, adopt you as a son of God, and welcome you into his family, in his family lineage. Nothing is too hard for the Lord, even the redemption of people as wicked as the Moabites, the Ammonites, and you and me. This is what Christ does. He adopts us by his spirit into his family, and we become a part of Abraham's lineage. We're brought into the people of God by this Messiah who comes to us from Well, a Moabite, among others. There is light in this passage. And it means much for us. It means a world for our understanding of sin and redemption. It shows us that God can bring good through very messy, sinful, rebellious beginnings. Isn't that the promise of Romans 8, 28? That God will work all things together for good for those who love him. This teaches us as well that no matter how messy your family situation, when you're beginning as a family or just think of your own birth and the events surrounding it, like the shame that you might feel attached to that can be overcome by the Lord who gives you a new name and welcomes you into a new family, that here you have God redeeming a very, very, again, this is all the history of the gospel, a very messy situation. And that through one of these descendants, the Messiah would come. Here we have as well a reminder in this passage to put to death our dependence upon earthly wisdom. to seek the light that we have through Jesus Christ and his word and instruction. Not only in order to seize hold of eternal life and to hear the good news of the gospel, to believe and receive and rest in his grace, but also to be directed. And so that we wouldn't fall in the ditch of our own understanding. So that our whole trust and our whole life will be anchored to the revelation of Christ. We have his instruction, we are disciples of him, we follow our master, we give heed and attention to his word. that we might not be led astray, that we might not depend upon our own selves, that we might set the Lord always before us, knowing that he will make our way straight. This passage as well instructs us in our present moment that it's to be used for faith and faithfulness, not for some expedient outcome that we try to control or bring about. Are you right now dependent upon the Lord? Are you now, as a believer, or even as an unbeliever, who wants to trust in the Lord, perhaps even this morning you hear the good news of Christ and say, I want to do that, I do believe. Well, right now, what do you do with this acknowledgement, with this knowledge, with this grace? Do not receive the grace of God in vain. Today is the day of salvation. Receive his salvation, rest in it, and go forth zealous, longing to serve and love the one who has saved you from your sins. Pursue wisdom, not folly. The ways of the Lord, not the ways of the world. Do not follow your own heart. Seek that which the Lord sets before you in his word. This is a very tragic passage. Indeed, it reminds us that in the midst of tragedy and rebellion and sin, God works to bring redemption and light and grace and glory. Have you seen and rested in the glory that is Jesus Christ set before you? I hope you have. receive and rest in Him who redeems you out of all of the sordid mess and sin and depravity and rebellion that belongs to you as you belong to Adam. He brings you into a new family, gives you a new name to walk as a child of God. Let's pray.