In Genesis 19, we read a series of very disturbing stories. It is the chapter where Sodom and Gomorrah are ultimately destroyed, where all of its inhabitants are destroyed, where Lot’s family is destroyed. No, not all of Lot’s family dies in the fire storm that consumes the cities, but they are all destroyed. Sure, his wife and sons-in-law and daughters die, but the ones who remain are still affected by sin. Lot is taken advantage of by both of his remaining daughters, who get him drunk and ultimately get pregnant by their father. Very disturbing stories indeed.

Disturbing, but valuable for our consideration, which is why I want to think about Lot and his daughters today. Obviously it is a gross topic and one that we generally flee from, but I think it hits closer to home than we’d ever like for it to.

Most of us are probably not engaged in or tempted by incestuous relationships, but how many of us are tempted by controlling our own lives? Isn’t that what the daughters were ultimately guilty of? Read Genesis 19:31-32, “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 lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.”

The daughters had a lot of things wrong. First, they thought that there were no other men on the planet. Clearly they let their current cave-dwelling situation become a blinder for what was really going on. They saw their current situation and decided to take it into their own hands. Second, they justified their evil. It is never ok to be intimate with your father. Ever. Yet, they thought, we have to preserve his lineage. And preserve it they did…in the form of the Moabites and the Ammonites. Good call.

Don’t we do the same things, though? We don’t allow God to be in control, because we see our current situation and decide we need to take matters into our own hands. We try to solve all of our own problems – and the problems of other people – instead of letting God’s will be done. Jeremiah 10:23 still says, “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” But do we really know that? Or, do we really apply that? I’m definitely guilty of not applying it all the time. I try to plan and make everything perfect and…ultimately, I’ve planned God right out of the equation. I’ve also added a lot of stress to my life, much like Lot’s daughters did. How stressed were they thinking they had to come up with a plan to preserve life?! God was in control, though. They didn’t have to stress, and neither do we. God will preserve this nation, or He won’t. But we don’t have to worry. He will preserve His people.

We are probably also guilty of doing evil and justifying it. It’s just a “white lie” and it’s really in the best interest of that other person that they don’t know the truth. Or what about the Martha-syndrome? I’m doing a good thing, I’ve just let it take first place over the Lord. Whatever it looks like in your life, I’m sure you’ve done something just like I have where you try to make sin seem ok. But we know that is never is. Its outcome is always death, always separation from God (Romans 6:23, Isaiah 59:2).

So Lot’s daughters committed what we would like to call a big sin, but really, it was just a different outlet for sins we’re all guilty of committing. May we all recognize that God sees all sin as heinous, not just the ones that we classify that way. And, may we all work to give God complete control of our lives; never taking matters into our own hands and ultimately making the situation far, far worse.