Genesis: Lot and Abimelech

Genesis Chapters 18-20

Parallels between Lot and Noah

I'm starting to notice similarities between stories in the Bible. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah reminds me of the story of the flood, in more ways than one.

First is the scene where Abraham pleads with God to spare the cities, for the sake of any good people in them. God promises that he will not destroy a city if there are ten good people in it. It turns out there are fewer than ten good people in Sodom. The only one God cares about is Lot, Abraham's nephew. Just like in the flood story, when the only person good enough to be saved was Noah.

(I won't discuss the scene involving a mob of sexually aroused men, two Angels, and Lot's virgin daughters. I don't know what to make of it. Moving on.)

The Angels tell Lot to gather his loved ones and leave the city, just like God tells Noah to gather his loved ones and build a boat. The many are destroyed while the few are saved.

Lot flees to the mountain where his daughters give him too much wine, and he passes out drunk. Just like Noah, after the flood, passed out drunk in his tent.

Lot's daughters wanted to have children, but the men they were to marry didn't listen when Lot told them to flee the city. So, Lot's daughters have sex with their passed-out father and get pregnant. Apparently, Lot remains completely unconscious during the process. Similarly, when Noah passed out, his son Ham peeked into the tent and saw Noah naked.

We are told that Lot's daughters have sons who become the fathers of two nations: the Moabites and the Ammonites. We are also told that Noah's sons become the fathers of nations. Noah curses Ham, saying that his descendants, the Canaanites, will be slaves. I wonder what will happen to the Moabites and the Ammonites?

Pharaoh and Abimelech

Then, there's the parallel between Abraham's encounter with the Pharaoh, and his encounter with King Abimelech.

In both stories, Abraham worries that he will be killed so the kings can take his wife Sarah. In both stories, Abraham says that Sarah is his sister. In both stories, the kings take Sarah as their wife.

In the first story, God punishes Pharaoh for taking Sarah, and then Pharaoh realises what happened and banishes Abraham and Sarah from Egypt. In the second story, God prevents Abimelech from touching Sarah and tells him in a dream that Sarah is married. Abimelech is offered a choice: return Sarah to Abraham and be blessed, or keep Sarah and die. Sarah is returned, Abraham prays for Abimelech, and everyone in his family is healed of infertility. We also learn that Sarah is in fact Abraham's half-sister. So technically, he never lied.

What does this mean?

There are too many parallels between these stories to be a coincidence. The authors of the Bible want us to think of Noah when we read about Lot, and they want us to think of Pharaoh when we read about Abimelech. Why?

One thing I'm noticing is that lineage is important in the Bible. God says that Abimelech will live if he returns Sarah to Abraham. When Sarah is returned, the result is not that Abimelech is saved from death, but that his family is saved from infertility.

The first time God threatens humans with death is in Eden. God tells Adam and Eve that they will die if they eat from the tree of knowledge. When they disobey, they aren't outright killed, but they are prevented from eating from the tree of life and becoming immortal. The result: God's threat comes true when they die of old age.

When God says to Abimelech "you will surely die," is he saying that he will die of old age? Is he implying that immortality is possible? Perhaps the "you" God is referring to is actually Abimelech's lineage. Is giving Abimelech and his family the ability to have children a substitute for immortality?

Back when the Bible was written, I can imagine that family had a larger effect on children than today. There was no school system, television, social media, or means of easily travelling long distances. The child of a farmer was likely to become a farmer. Perhaps morality is passed down in the same way. Is the child of a good person likely to be a good person?

Noah's son Ham, and Lot's daughters, may produce a lineage that reflects their failings. I will pay attention to what happens to the Canaanites, Moabites, and Ammonites.

In light of these ideas, I see Abraham in a new way. God says, on multiple occasions, that he will be the father of a great nation, and the world will be blessed because of him. God chose him to "direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord" (Genesis 18:19). Let's see how that turns out.