" God's Got a LOT of Nerve!"

Genesis 19

Well suh...  Maybe God is trying to tell us something...  But what?  Because surely you didn't think I was going to move on from Genesis 19 without discussing that scoundrel Lot did you?  I just know you didn't think that I, ME, Rev. Dorinda G. "Here's anotha piece of my mind" Henry, was gonna just walk on by the narrative of Sodom and Gomorrah without talking about the "Father of the Year" candidate, the right, good and just Lot!  I mean really, how often do we get to talk about this seedy character?  We know all about Abraham and his negotiating with what many have determined to be God, just prior to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  We know all about the trials and tensions between Sarah and Hagar.  We even know all about something quite strange happening to Lot's wife on the way out of Sodom and Gomorrah.  In fact, hell, if we are to believe everything we read in the bible, she might still be standing there petrified and frozen for all eternity in a pillar of salt.  But what we don't know much about is that Lot and his two virgin daughters are all that is saved from the cataclysmic goings on that destroyed several cities of the Plain right along with Sodom and Gomorrah.  And even more, that he conspicuously ends up living in a cave up in the hills with his two virgin daughters - the same two virgin daughters he previously offered up to the angry mob, to "do to them as you please" (v. 8b).

As we soon find out, Lot, much like one of his ancestors, Noah, liked to indulge in the consumption of strong drink.  And like Noah, I suppose after half-ass welcoming divine visitors with baking a couple pieces of unleavened bread (nothing like the hospitality demonstrated by his uncle-brother, Abraham), offering his virgin daughters up to an angry mob to have their way with them, watching several cities go up in flames and then seeing his wife turned into a pillar of salt, hell, I suppose he too, needed a stiff drink.  But, if I may, I'd like to stay with my "Color Purple" theme and paint the picture of what happens next with Lot in the same hue.  Why?  Well, because...  Like Noah, the writers of the ancient text wants us to believe that Lot drinks so much that he passes out to the point that unbeknownst to him, he is tricked into having sex with both of his virgin daughters on two separate nights. The text also wants us to believe he did not know when they laid with him or when they got up.  I suppose, his message to the angry mob landed on his daughters and they decided to do with him as they pleased and had their father in ways "after all the manner of the world... and [laid] with him, so that [they might] preserve offspring through [their] father" (vv. 30-38).  Umm hmph!  Once again, I hear The Color Purple echoed through the voice of Lot saying to his daughters; "You betta not tell nobody but God.  It'll kill ya Mammy."  The truth of the matter is that in this case, it probably did.  I'm jes saying...

The sons borne of these incestuous encounters between Lot and his daughters, are Moab, the ancestor of the Moabites and Ben-ammi, the ancestor of the Ammonites.  Both of these names are translated in such a way to expose the incest theme - Moab (of the same father) and Ben-ammi (Son of my Paternal kin).  And if you know like I know, and you should know by now, because the bible tells you so, that from the Moabites, comes Ruth, the ancestor of King David and eventually, Jesus!  So what is God trying to tell us?  That through miscreants, social and cultural misfits, in everyone of us, saint and sinner alike, a potential Messiah lurks just beneath the surface. Let the church say Yessss... Yeesssss.... Yeeessssssssss!
© Dorinda G. Henry, 2010

THEOLOGIA HABITUS EST!