Moab and Ammon

"And he [Lot} and his two daughters dwelt in a cave. Now the firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will be with him, that we may preserve the lineage of 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. It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, "Indeed I lay with my father last night, let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and be with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father." Then 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 were with child by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day." (Genesis 19:31-38)

Lot and his daughters left Zoar, a city that would have been destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah except that Lot begged the Lord to be allowed to live there in Zoar rather than in the mountains, because he was fearful of living in the mountains; but of course, he soon found that he feared living in evil Zoar even more than living in the mountains. Lot's ambivalence and fear aside, his daughters knew they were not the last human beings on the face of the earth; that not ALL cities had been destroyed. Yet, the eldest of the two daughters plots to have her father impregnate both she and her younger sister while in a drunken stupor such that Lot won't even recognize his daughters or remember what he has done, all because she believes (or is she lying to her sister?) that there are no men left in the world.

Lineage was an important thing in those days, still is today in some countries although perhaps not quite so much in America. Was the daughter's fear only about preserving the lineage as she indicated? I'm not trying to make what she did right, just trying to understand what could have motivated her to do such a terrible thing.

It was sinful and she knew it, as evidenced by her having to trick Lot into doing it.

Lot's weakness is evident once more in that his daughters were able to make him drunk; where is his strength of will? Yet, the Bible calls Lot a righteous man still, so we see that God did not place the blame on him for the resulting actions.

The daughters do become pregnant, and their two children, Moab and Ben-Ammi are the fathers of a group of people later known as Moabites and Ammonites, who are later excluded from living with the Israelites, even though the Israelites recognized them as blood relatives. The areas in which these people lived bore their names: the land of Moab and the land of Ammon. And Israel will do battle with them many times.

What we see here, as we saw with Abram and Sarai as well, is the human tendency to take matters into our own hands, rather than trust in, and wait upon, God. What comes to us as a result of not waiting on God is trouble, for ourselves and for others; trouble that could have been avoided had we been patient. But our fears are in control, not God. Fears that cause us to take action; fears that are evidence that while we say we trust God, we actually do not.

Trust doesn't worry about tomorrow or the future, such as Lot's daughters were doing.

I recently read a book by Gregory A. Boyd entitled "The Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now," in which the author reminds us that God is the Great "I AM," not "I WAS" or "I WILL BE," but "I AM." I spent some time thinking about those two words, and about the author's premise that we can, if we choose, experience the presence of God consistently if we would but recognize that He is with us ALWAYS. The I AM is in the RIGHT HERE AND NOW with us…in other words in EVERY MOMENT…and it is those moments, one by one, that we are to redeem, or use wisely, to worship Him and love Him…and others.

The reason we lose the experience (or the knowledge or recognition) of His presence is because He is in the PRESENT while we are either living in the past (hurt, bitterness, or regret) or in the future (worry, fear of the unknown, etc.) If we would only remember Him in the now, rather than forget Him as we let our fears overwhelm us and push God aside. If we could only trust that He is here with us, has not forsaken us, has everything under control, and wants us only to seek HIM…rather than working out our own future in our own ways…and missing what He has for us RIGHT NOW in THIS MOMENT!

To dwell with God in the HERE AND NOW takes a choice: that choice is called FAITH. We "choose" to bring our thoughts under submission to the presence of God, or we choose to let our thoughts drag us away from dwelling in the presence of God to instead dwell in the midst of our fears, worries, hurts, regrets, etc. Faith is not believing something until it becomes real; faith is choosing to believe that what God has spoken is real whether we can see it or not. For example, His Word that says He is always with us and will never forsake us is real right this very moment, regardless of whether I feel His presence. My feelings don't change God's truth; but my feelings can prevent me from living as though His Word is true, if I allow them to do so rather than taking them captive to the knowledge of (the remembrance of, the recognition of) Christ. HE is here…with us! And He is keeping us, no matter whether we are in feast or famine. Knowing that, keeps us CONTENT in all situations, as Paul the Apostle was, no matter what his situation.

Faith is not a feeling; it is a CHOICE. It is training our minds, our busy chattering minds, to hold tight to those thoughts of God while rejecting those thoughts of fear, worry, etc. It is by this practice of training our minds to focus on God NOW that we are transformed into the image of Jesus Christ; Jesus walked in God's presence BY CHOICE during every moment of His ministry; and the miracles God performed through Him proved it. Perhaps our lives will show God's presence in such display when we are living in God's presence moment by moment as well.

God was with Lot and his daughters, but they could not recognize it, for their fears for the future, blinded them to it. That momentary losing of the knowledge of the presence of God in their lives, led them to desire something else more than God, and that led them to sin; as it will do to us as well.

If we are to faithfully display our powerful and loving God to the lost world around us, if our faith in words is to line up with our faith in action, then we must repent of our fears and worries, of excluding God from this moment and the next. We can have memorized hundreds of scriptures, but unless we are LIVING those truths, living in righteous obedience to those truths (the Word of God dwelling IN us), then we have only gained head knowledge (are puffed up) and our actions do not match our words. It is by the choice of FAITH that we will see our actions line up with our words, with HIS Word! Only then are we faithful witnesses of the GREAT IAM, showing that we DO trust Him…in this moment…

Ah, but that moment is now in the past and so we must trust Him in THIS moment…

Oops! and NOW in this one,,,,

THIS is how God takes care of our future…by taking care of THIS moment. The future is here in but a moment; just as the past is behind us in but a moment. We are to face reality, the reality of this very moment; we are not to escape it by running back to the past or ahead to the future. And we are to face it with God, not without Him. We are to be led by Him in this moment, to know His will for us in each moment and to walk WITH Him…not behind Him and not ahead of Him.

For God is WITH US NOW! We must learn to recognize it and to remain with Him where He is. THE GREAT I AM IS RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!