Genesis 19 sees the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The angels who visited Abraham warn Lot about the destruction. Lot flees with his wife and two daughters. Lot’s wife famously looks back and turns into a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:26).

After escaping, Lot lives in the mountains with his daughters. It must’ve been remote because Lot’s daughters were unable to meet husbands to carry on their father’s line. They decide to get Lot drunk so they can sleep with him and get pregnant. The daughters birth sons: Moab and Ben-Ammi. These grow into the nations of Moab and Ammon, respectively.

What we have here is the same sin as Sarah giving Hagar to Abraham. There is fear of not bringing forth seed, fear that the family line will end. It is the fear of death (Heb. 2:14). The daughters resorted to scheming just as Sarah and Abraham did. They found a way to produce fruit. They found a natural source to bring life out of them.

Lots daughters were fruitful but at what cost? Balaam recruited the women of Moab to sleep around in Israel’s camp. Moab became a lingerie snare to Israel. Ammon was a thorn in Israel’s side and warred against them for generations. Ishmael too brought continual conflict to Israel, conflict that continues to this day in Palestine. That which is born from natural unction is God’s enemy.

Abraham was promised a seed, which we have seen is Christ (Gal. 3:16). The promise to Abraham is also to us: Christ within is promised us just as God promised Christ would come from Abraham’s own body. God made no promise to Lot’s daughters but they didn’t turn to Him as Abraham did.

Lot’s daughters show us the soul that disbelieves the promise of Christ within. Rather than trusting the Lord’s promise that life will come from Christ, we give up hope and turn elsewhere to conceive and produce the fruit we hope for. Sarah and Hagar show us the soul that turns to the law for life. But as Paul points out, the law could never give life (Gal. 3:21-22).

Lot’s daughters show us the soul that turns to the old man, that looks to father Adam as the source of life and fruit. Self-preservation is a key motivation. Lot’s older daughter says to the younger, “go sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line” (Gen. 19:34). The old man relies on himself to preserve himself. Ironically, this causes him to lose his life. Things function differently in the spirit: the one who loses himself for Christ finds Christ within as life (Matt. 16:25).

Whenever we turn to something other than the Lord, we are productive; we bear fruit. But instead of an increase of spiritual life within we multiply enemies to our souls. We birth our own Ishmaels, Moabs, and Ben-Ammis. “For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh” (Gal. 5:17).

We must believe in the new birth of Christ within–the birth that is not “of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). To all who receive Him, He gives power to become children of God (John 1:12).