Lot's Daughters: Bad Company Corrupts Good Morals - Genesis Part 46

Now, you know, from the beginning of time, parents have understood a basic truth about life that, try as they may, they can never seem to convince their teenagers of. And what is that truth? Well, it's that who our closest friends are has a dramatic impact on our life.

Good friends have a good impact and bad friends have a bad impact. This is what we want to talk about today as we return to our verse by verse study in the book of Genesis. We want to go back and see this truth in action 4,000 years ago and then we want to bring that forward and we want to talk about, okay, as followers of Christ in the 21st century.

So like what difference does that make for me? So that's our plan. Are we ready? All right, here we go. A little bit of background first. If you'll remember here in Genesis Chapter 19, where we are now, God sent two angels to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities as well. But before they did that, in his mercy, God told the angels to rescue Abraham's nephew Lot and his family who were living in Sodom at the time.

So that's our background. Let's pick up the story now. Genesis Chapter 19, we pick up at verse 15.

Here we go. With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, Hurry, take your wife and your two daughters or you will be swept away. And when Lot hesitated, the angels grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters, for God's mercy was upon them, and pulled them out of the city. And as soon as the men, that is the angels, had brought them out, they said, Flee for your lives.

Do not look back and don't stop anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains or you will be swept away. But Lot said to them, Oh no, my lords, you have magnified your loving kindness by saving my life, but I cannot escape to the mountains, for this disaster will still overtake me there and I will die. Lot said, Now behold, there is a town near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please let me escape there.

For is it not small? Meaning if you don't destroy it, it's not that big a deal that my life may be saved. And the angels said, Behold, I grant you this request, that is, not to overthrow the town about which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you get there. Therefore, the name of this town was called Zoar, which in Hebrew means small. It was near to Sodom, but it was kind of south of Sodom where Lot fled to. Verse 23, Now the sun had risen by the time Lot came to Zoar, and then the Lord rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, and he overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and all that grew on the ground. Wow. Now Abraham, who was living in Hebron, arose early in the morning and looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land was ascending like the smoke of a furnace.

You say, Well, Lon, wait a minute, let's just stop right here. So tell me, you really believe this happened exactly the way the Bible says? You really believe that God rained down fire and brimstone, whatever that is?

Well, it's kind of a sulfuric compound. That God rained that down on these cities and burned them all up exactly like this? Absolutely I believe that. And I gave you all the reasons why biblically, archaeologically and historically why this, I believe, stands the test of an investigation and is exactly true as the Bible says. And all of that was in part 42 of this series entitled Lot's Sad Ending.

If you missed that, I urge you to either buy the CD in our lobby after the service or to go online to mcleanbible.org and download or podcast that message and listen to it. And I'll give you the biblical information, the archaeological information, the historical information that I think makes it clear this really did happen. Verse 26, But Lot's wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.

And yes, I believe that happened too, exactly the way the Bible says, primarily because the Lord Jesus himself believed that this happened. Remember what he said in the New Testament, Luke 17, 32. He said, Remember Lot's wife. When he was talking about not looking back at the second coming and missing anything of this world, he said, Remember Lot's wife. Now, what happened to Lot and his two daughters after this?

Well, let's look. Verse 30, And Lot left Zoar and stayed in the mountains and his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar, so he stayed in a cave along with his two daughters. There are literally thousands upon thousands of natural caves that are all around this area, and so obviously Lot picked one of these caves and he and his two daughters lived in it. Verse 31, And then the firstborn said to the younger daughter, Our father is old, and there is no man to come into us after the manner of the earth. Come, let us make our father drunk with wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father. So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father. And he was so drunk that he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. On the following day the firstborn said to the younger daughter, Behold, I lay last night with my father.

Let us make him drink wine also tonight, then you go in and lie with him. So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and again he was so drunk he did not know when she lay down or when she arose either. Thus both Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father. The firstborn daughter bore a son and called his name Moab, and he is the father of the Moabites to this day. As for the younger daughter, she also bore a son and she called his name Ben Ammi, and he is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

The Ammonites settled just north of the Moabites, again on the east side of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River. Now, that's the end of Genesis 19, our passage, but it's time now for us to ask our most important question. So, is everybody ready? All you guys out there ready? Everybody here at Tyson's ready? Yes? Okay, not inspiring me with great confidence, but we're going to try this anyway, all right? So, here we go. Come on now. Nice deep breath.

One, two, three. Go White! Very nice. That's good. You say, Lon, so what? Say, this is a little like not so good.

What just happened here? Well, I agree, this is like a little not so good, but we're going to talk about it anyway and talk about what difference it makes for you and me. Our passage in Genesis 19 certainly records one of the most unsavory events in all of the Bible. But you know, one of the greatest proofs of the Bible's veracity and trustworthiness and integrity is that it tells us truthfully, openly about the failures of its greatest heroes as well as their successes and for sure that's the case here in Genesis 19 with Lot. I mean, it's so tragic. His life began so well, walking with Abraham, following God by faith into the promised land, becoming a wealthy man by the blessing of God, and look how his life ends. How tragic is this?

But we've talked about that already. I want to talk now about his two daughters, shall we? I mean, for them to conceive a plan like this and then to carry it out with such coolness and so matter-of-factly is astonishing to me. You say, well, but Lon, maybe this was considered okay in that day to preserve your family by having sex with your father.

Friend, listen to me, no human society has ever considered incest between a father and his daughter to be okay. You say, well, maybe they did way back in Abraham and Lot's time. No, they didn't. You say, well, how can you be so sure of that? Because we have a wonderful stela, which means like, looks a little bit like the Washington Monument, from the time of Hammurabi in Babylon. It dates to within 100 to 200 years of the time of Abraham.

It's called the Code of Hammurabi, which is written on it. And the Code of Hammurabi specifically mentions this kind of incest between a father and a daughter and declares it to be a serious crime for which the people who do it are exiled for the rest of their life out of the community. Sociologists say, and here's one of them, and I quote, he said, incest between a father and his daughter has been considered a sexual taboo in all known human collectives and cultures.

This has never been considered okay. Not in Abraham's time, not in anybody's time. So I asked myself the question, what happened to these two girls that so threw their moral compass off so far that they would plan and execute such a thing? Well, the Bible gives us the answer.

Let's look at it. First Corinthians 1533 in the New Testament, the apostle Paul writes, do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good morals. In other words, who we keep company with will inevitably have an influence on our morals, on our values, and on our behavior. And the Bible says, if the people we keep company with are ungodly people, then their influence is going to be a corrupting one. And this is exactly what was happening in Corinth, which is why Paul wrote these words. Look, First Corinthians 1512, now Paul says, if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection from the dead? You see, not only were some people at Corinth denying the resurrection, but they were using this denial to try and convince the Christians there to live a life of sin and sensuality and drunkenness and debauchery. Verse 32 of that chapter, if the dead are not raised, Paul says sarcastically, then let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.

You see, this is what these people were saying. They were saying, hey, let's eat and drink for tomorrow we die. Their logic was there's no resurrection. There's no heaven.

After you die, there's no nothing. So let's forget about morals. Let's forget about biblical obedience. Let's forget about holy living and just grab all the sensual pleasures we can right now for tomorrow we die. And it was in this context that the Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth and said, do not be deceived.

Bad company. Like the ungodly people you've got telling you there's no resurrection, bad company will corrupt good morals. Now look, he goes on to say, next verse, become sober minded as you ought and stop sinning. For some people have no knowledge of God.

The people who are telling you there's no resurrection. And you're letting them influence your behavior and lead you into sin. And they don't even know God.

Paul says, I speak this to your shame. Now, let's go back to Genesis 19, because this is exactly what happened to Lot's two daughters. Genesis 13 13 says, Now the people of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinning greatly against the Lord. And Lot's daughters, don't forget, had lived their whole lives keeping company with these people, allowing the morals of these people in Sodom to rub off on them. The result is that these two girls had lost all sense of decency, all sense of propriety, all sense of virtue to the point that they could plan and carry out the most unholy kind of incest without the slightest pang of conscience. Like what Charles Ryrie said about them in his study Bible, he said they were Sodom tainted.

They had lived there so long that the morals of that city had tainted them. Now, let's bring all of this forward and talk about you and me. As followers of Christ, how does this relate to us? Well, friends, much in every way, because this principle from 1 Corinthians 15, Do not be deceived.

Bad company corrupts good morals. This is telling us that we as believers need to be discerning and deliberate about the closest company we keep. And this principle is a key teaching of the Word of God.

2 Corinthians 6 14 says, Do not be unequally yoked up together with unbelievers. The imagery here comes from the world of agriculture, where when you were going to plow a field, you would yoke up two animals to pull the plow. Now, if you yoked up two equal animals, two mules, two oxen, two horses, whatever, it worked fine.

Everybody knew that. But if you unequally yoked up two animals, then it worked terribly. If you don't believe me, sometimes take a plow and put an ox on one side of the yoke and a mule on the other and watch what happens. It ain't pretty. And it doesn't work.

You can't do that. And everybody in the ancient world understood that principle. What the Bible is telling us is that this is not just a principle for how you plow a field. It's a principle for people spiritually.

And Paul goes on to make that clear. He says in 2 Corinthians 15, next verse, For what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Why should you be on the same yoke together?

It's an unequal yoke. What have you got in common with an unbeliever? A believer has a biblical worldview, an unbeliever has a secular worldview, a believer has a biblical morality, an unbeliever has a secular morality. A believer has a Christ-centered value system, an unbeliever has a self-centered value system.

And if you yoke these two kind of people up together in a close personal relationship in every case without fail, the unbeliever will pull the believer their way every time, never fails. You know, one of my favorite preachers of all time, in fact, one of my favorite Christians of all times is Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He was the leader, the preacher, the pastor of the London Metropolitan Tabernacle, the first real mega church in history in the late 1800s in London. And he was a man with a tremendous sense of humor. He was also a man with a tremendous girth.

You understand what I'm saying? He's a big guy. All right, there's a true story about a young lady who came to see him in his office one day and told him that she was planning to get married and he said, well, who are you planning to marry? And so she told him and he said, well, is he a believer? Is he walking with God?

Is he a godly man? And she said, no, she said, but I'm going to pull him up. She said, what do you think of that? Mr. Spurgeon got up out of his chair and said to her, excuse me, young lady, would you do me a favor?

Would you stand up on the chair and climb up on my desk? And she thought he was crazy, but she did what he asked. And she got up on top of his desk, standing on top of his desk in his office, and he was standing on the floor. He reached up his hand and said, now grab my hand, which she did. He said, OK, now pull me up.

And immediately he yanked her without hurting her, but he yanked her off the desk and back down onto the floor. And he said to her, Madam, a believer never pulls the world up. The world always pulls a believer down.

And how right he is. This is why God, God's been telling us this for millennia. When the Israelites came into the land, this is why God said, Deuteronomy 7, verse 1, when the Lord brings you into the land you're entering to possess and drives out before you, many nations do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord's anger will burn against you.

And this really happens to real people. It happened to King Solomon. 1 Kings 11, verse 1, now King Solomon loved many foreign women from the nations, look at this, concerning which the Lord had told the Israelites you must not associate with them because they will surely turn your hearts away after other gods. The Bible says as Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods. Well, isn't that what God said was going to happen? And his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord as the heart of David his father had been, and the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord. People have often asked me, hey, do you think you're related to King Solomon in the Bible? And my answer is I don't know, but whether I am or not, I don't want to end the way he did. He didn't end well, and this is why.

But friends, this principle applies not just to our spouses, it applies to all our close personal relationships, our best friends, our business partners, our boyfriends, our girlfriends, our mentors, our therapists, our roommates, anyone we allow to have a major influence in our life. You say, well, wait a minute, wait a minute. Sounds to me like you're branding every non-believer on the planet as a horrible person. No, no, I'm just saying what the apostle John said, 1 John 4 verse 5. He said they, unbelievers, are of the world, and therefore they speak from the viewpoint of the world. What John is saying here is because of their spiritual condition, unbelievers are not horrible people, they're worldly people. And that's the only kind of people they can possibly be because that's what they are.

They are of the world. You say, so long, what are you saying? That we as followers of Christ shouldn't have any contact with non-believers? No, I'm not saying that at all. Remember what Jesus said, John 17, 15. He said, we are in the world, we're just not to be of the world. Folks, to accomplish the great commission and to reach people for Christ.

Of course, we must have acquaintanceships with folks who don't know the Lord, play golf with them, go out to lunch at work with them, go to a ball game with them. Listen to me, this is what I'm saying. But we must guard our hearts and not allow them to become the influencers of our lives. That's what I'm saying. Does everybody understand that? Let me say it again. We must guard our hearts and not allow them to become the influencers of our life.

Hey, it's a real simple formula, friends. Bad company promotes bad morals. Good company promotes good morals and godly company promotes godly morals. So, in conclusion, let me go from preaching to meddling, can I?

And ask you a question. I want to ask you, what about the people as a follower of Christ that you are the closest to? As a follower of Christ, are you deliberately seeking to keep company with godly people? People who will challenge you to rise higher in your walk with God. People who will confront you about non-Christ-like behavior in your life. People who will urge you on to obey God in your life instead of trying to entice you to disobey God in your life. Remember what the Bible says.

It says, don't be deceived. Folks, so much of how our spiritual life goes rises and falls on this singular issue. Who do we let become the influencers in our life? You say, so what you're saying, Lon, is that I may need a complete overhaul of my personal relationships. If I really want to grow in Christ or if I'm a new believer, you're saying I may have to, you know, give up some of my personal relationships because they're taking me in the wrong direction and build all new relationships.

Is that what you're saying? Well, I did. This is what I had to do. You know, when I came to Christ 42 years ago and with this we're done. Of course, I was in Chapel Hill. And I'd been in Chapel Hill for almost six years when I came to Christ, over five.

And, you know, everybody I knew my whole life was Chapel Hill, North Carolina. And the man who led me to Christ, of course, you know, his name was Bob Eckhart. After I came to Christ, he said, you know, you need to get baptized. I said, what? Jewish people don't get baptized.

Are you crazy? I said, talking about Jesus might be one thing, but get baptized? Well, I did because if that's what Jesus said, that's what I did. And then after I got baptized, he said, now you need to leave town.

True. I said, what do you mean I need to leave town? He said, Lon, don't you understand? Every relationship you have here, all your old drug buddies, all your old drinking buddies, all your old girlfriends, all your fraternity brothers, don't you understand every relationship you have in this town is enticing you to sin and enticing you to disobey God and trying to lead you in the wrong direction. You are never going to blossom here as a Christian with all of these relationships.

You need to get out of Dodge. And when you go someplace else and finally settle, make a deliberate point. He told me to build a team of people around you from the very beginning who walk with Christ.

You know what? I left town, hitchhiked around the country for a while with my dog, came to Washington in 1971 and did exactly what Bob Eckhart said. Began looking out for searching out and surrounding myself with people whose spiritual walk was higher than mine, better than mine and would challenge mine. And those were the friends I picked. Bob Eckhart gave me one of the best pieces of advice anybody's ever given me.

He was so right. If I had stayed there with all those old friendships, I would never have blossomed for Christ. And friends, if you keep all the old relationships that you have right now, I don't know your friends, but if they're not walking with Jesus and many of them ahead in their walk with Jesus than where you are, then, you know, your life's not going to blossom for Christ either.

Sorry. You're going to be just like a teenager whose parents keep telling them who you hang around with is going to have a huge effect on how your life goes. And friends, I'm here on behalf of God to say what Bob Eckhart said to me, which is deliberately seek out, seek out, people who are Christ-like and ahead of you in their walk and make them the influencers in your life. Had Lot's daughters done that, things might have ended very different for them, but we don't want to walk in their footsteps. So if you need to change some friendships, hey, I'm going to pray right now that God gives you the courage to do it. Was it hard to break all those friendships, leave Chapel Hill and start over?

Of course it was hard. But if we mean business with Christ, we're willing to do it. And you know what? He honors it. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for challenging us today as believers in Christ regarding one of the most important teachings in the word of God, that who we keep company with spiritually will have a make it or break it influence on our spiritual walk. And so now I want to take a moment of quiet just for a moment and allow people here to talk to you, Lord.

And if there's some relationships that they need to change or press that case home to them, even in these moments. Lord, give us the courage to do what it is that we know in our hearts you've told us to do. And honor our willingness to put Christ first above friends, above roommates, above boyfriends and girlfriends. Christ first. And we pray these things in Jesus name. What did God's people say? Amen. Thank you.