What is the context?
Lot leaves Zoar because he is afraid to remain there and settles in a cave with his daughters. The account does not explain exactly what he fears. The older daughter, believing there is no man available to continue their family, proposes getting their father drunk and bearing children through him. The two carry out the plan on successive nights.
The repeated statement that Lot is unaware of their coming and going is important. The daughters arrange these encounters while he is drunk; the account does not describe a knowingly agreed plan between all three. Their intention to preserve the family leads to incest, and both become pregnant.
The sons are named Moab and Ben-ammi, identified as the ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites. The end of Lot's story thus becomes the beginning of two peoples who will appear repeatedly in Israel's history. Rescue from the destruction has not removed the family's fear or put its life in good order.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Christians commonly read this as a grim family aftermath and an account of the origins of Moab and Ammon. Wesley's notes on Genesis 19:30–38 emphasize the wrongdoing, while the US Catholic bishops' note on Genesis 19:30–38 draws attention to the story's account of Israel's related neighbors.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
The later story does not reduce every descendant of these sons to the circumstances of their birth. In Deuteronomy 2:9, 19, God tells Israel not to seize the lands He has given to Lot's descendants. His dealings with Moab and Ammon include limits on Israel's actions toward them.
A still larger connection appears through Ruth, a Moabite woman identified in Ruth 1:4. Ruth 4:13–17 places her son Obed in David's family, and Matthew 1:5–6 includes Ruth in Jesus' ancestry. The Bible can tell the shame of a people's beginning truthfully and still show God's grace at work through a woman from that people.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.