January 1, 2020
Jesus ‘ Ancestors (1:1-17) Part 5
But before moving on, there is something powerfully ironic in this genealogy. In contradistinction to almost all other Jewish records, Matthew’s includes women! Here are their stories. In Ge. 19:30-38 we read about Lot’s daughters. Lot, Abraham’s nephew had settled in Sodom which at that time was a fertile valley. The moral climate of Sodom was sexually out of control, and there was a decided hedonism characterized by pride, gluttony, laziness, and the neglect of the poor (Ez. 16:49). God decided to destroy it, but gave Lot and his family angelic warning. He, his wife, and daughters fled. While camping in a cave in the mountains outside of a small town called Zoar something happened that greatly offends modern sensibilities. Lot’s daughters slept with their father.
Why? Well, for one thing women in that day found their value in their capacity to bear and raise children (sons especially). Here Lot’s daughters were, stuck in a cave, with the whole world (as they thought it) destroyed. They did not want the human race to end with them. So, since their father was the only living male, they chose a deliberate and “practical” course of action. This had nothing to do with sexual pleasure. It was all about keeping the race alive.
As it turned out, both became pregnant, and bore two future enemies of Israel–Moab (Moabites) and Ben-Ammi (Ammonites).
