“Look, I have two virgin daughters. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do with them as you wish. But please, leave these men alone, for they are my guests and are under my protection.”

(‭‭Gen 19‬:‭8‬)

To any sane person or parent, reading about how Lot’s daughters planned and slept with their father in order to preserve their family name is both alarming and disturbing. What would make a daughter see her own father as someone to go to bed with? All things considered, a few thoughts in this story give us some insights as to why these girls might have done what they did. 

1). Their father had offered them to the men of Sodom because he wanted to protect his guests. During that time, as in many other cultures across the globe, being hospitable was paramount. Their father choosing to protect his guests over protecting his daughters and their virtue may have left his young daughter with the impression that as long as one's intentions are good—then it does not matter what one does to get there.

2). The men that they were offered to were most likely men that they were familiar with, as well as men they may not have known. Their father's decision may have conveyed the idea that a man is a man, regardless of your familiarity with him or lack thereof.  It was perfectly okay to sleep with either of them. So since their intention was a good one, which was to preserve the family name, how they went about it or the man that they had to sleep with to achieve it did not matter.

3)  Their living environment was toxic. The home, school, and larger community are all important in forming a child's values. The things that a child sees and hears on a daily basis will eventually shape the way that child thinks and behaves. In a place like Sodom, even at a young age, Lot's daughters would have seen and heard about the things that were going on around them.  If they were in school, their teachers would be Sodomites.  Their friends were the sons and daughters of  the perverse Sodomites.  Since the apple does not fall too far from the tree, those little children were growing up with those same inhumane philosophies and values.

Unknown to Lot, a seed was sown in the heart of his young daughter that fateful night as he frantically attempted to reason with the men of Sodom in an attempt to provide his guests with first-rate hospitality.  It was a seed that carried his approval of indiscreet immorality and sexual abuse. A seed that  later produced incest and a harvest that would last generations beyond anything he could have predicted or planned for. A harvest of which he would have been less than proud as a father.

In your role as a father, every choice you make is a seed that will eventually bear fruit. "Will it be a good or bad harvest?" is the question.  What seeds are you sowing into the hearts of your children?  What harvest are you expecting?

Prayer:  Lord,  may your Holy Spirit guide every seed that I plant.  May every seed produce a bountiful crop of righteousness in my child's life, in the name of Jesus!