The Aftermath of Sin: We Are Instructed and Encouraged
Part 3 of 5

a. The Lesson Learned.

At the end we have the account of the birth of Lot’s sons or grandsons or whatever. This seems to be the point that Moses, our author, is getting at. This is a derogatory story because Moses is pointing out that the Moabites and the Ammonites came about because of incest. These two nations are cousins to the Israelites but they came into existence through sin and that set the trajectory of the two nations. Moses and the people knew full well the sinfulness of the Moabites and Ammonites. In Numbers 25, we read that as the people were camped at Shittim the daughters of Moab came to the Israelites an seduced them to make sacrifices to the Baal of Peor. Twenty-four thousand people died on that day. This would only be the beginning of the trouble Israel had with Moab. As for the Ammonites, Moses did not have to contend with fighting with them. Joshua would, and the judges and Saul and David, but not Moses. But God wrote in the law against the God of the Ammonites, Molech. Lot’s descendants followed a god that required child sacrifice. In the law of God he told the Israelites that participating in the worship of Molech was a capital offense punishable by stoning. And if they people to failed to follow through with the punishment then God himself would cut that person and their clan off from among the people. This is the heritage of Lot. This is the end of his story in the Bible.

b. Not all is lost.

Lot’s descendants would descend into pagan idolatry and child sacrifice, but yet, with God there is still hope. In Matthew 1:5 we read this amazing statement, “and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth.” By itself that doesn’t seem like a big deal but if you combine that with the story of Lot and the story of Ruth, it becomes a story of redemption. Ruth was a Moabite who happened who Israelite husband died which lead her to marrying Boaz, a wealthy landowner and kinsmen to Ruth’s mother-in-law from her first marriage, Naomi. The marriage put not only Ruth into the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, but also Lot. One of Lot’s descendants would be in the line of Jesus. With God all things are possible. What great grace God has to allow one of Lot’s family to be a part of the seed of the woman that would crush the serpent’s head.

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