According to the bible's Genesis, Lot is Abraham's nephew, his brother Haran's son. When Lot and Abraham come out of Egypt and head east, they decide they should split up with their respective families. Lot chooses his land first. He picks the Jordan valley in which the city of Sodom is located. Abraham (then called Abram) chooses Canaan.
Lot takes up residence in Sodom. Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave God decides he will go down and check it out for himself, which would seem unnecessary since he is deemed to be omniscient. Abraham converses with God when he learns of God's plan to destroy Sodom. He asks God if he would not destroy the city if he found 50 righteous people living there. God agrees. Then Abraham continues to bargain with God. How about 45 righteous? Again, God says he wouldn't destroy the city because of the 45. Abraham continues, what about 40? 30? 20? 10? Each time God tells Abraham he would not destroy Sodom if he found that number of righteous people in the city. Who has the moral high ground here, anyway?
Two angels come to Sodom in the evening. Lot is at the gates of the city and invites the two angels to spend the night at his house, and continue on their way the next day. They accept his invitation, and Lot puts on a feast for them. Before they retire for the night the men of the city, both young and old come to Lot's house and surround it, all the people (does this mean all the girls and women were there too?) to the last man, surround it. The men call out to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them." Of course, "know" here is a biblical euphemism for sodomize. Lot goes outside to speak to the men and says, "I beg you my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold I have two daughters who have not known man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them what you please; only do nothing to these men for they have come under the shelter of my roof." WHAT? He's prepared to send his two daughters out to this mob so they can be raped and sodomized by the the men of the town. What kind of father is he? Aren't his own daughters under the shelter of his roof too? Most fathers would sacrifice themselves to spare their children. Not Lot. He's not putting his own ass out there on the line. He'd prefer that his daughters did so and didn't even bother to consult with them before offering them up. Fortunately for them, the men of the town weren't interested in women. They only wanted the two angels. As we shall see, these men (angels) had some magical powers and were quite capable of taking care of themselves. The townsmen press hard against Lot intending to break down the door. The angels manage to pull Lot back into the house and close the door. They then strike the men who were at the door with blindness so they can't find their way to the door. (See, I said they had magical powers!)
The angels ask Lot if there is anyone else in the city that he wants to save. Lot considers the two men who are to marry his daughters. It appears he cared more about his future sons-in-law than he did about his own daughters. Somehow, Lot gets past the mob to warn them, but can't convince them he isn't joking. How hard could he have tried? I guess we are to presume that they perished in the conflagration, although we aren't told that they were. The angels send Lot, his wife and two daughters to the city of Zoar, the city of Lot's choosing. They warn Lot and his family to flee the city and not to look back until they clear the valley. Unfortunately, Lot's wife looks back on the destruction and is instantly turned into a pillar of salt. Really? The death penalty for looking back on the destruction? It hardly seems fair not to have advised the family what the actual punishment was for looking back, so they could determine the seriousness of this infraction. The Lord rains fire and brimstone down on Sodom and Gomorrah. The cities and all its inhabitants are destroyed; men, women, children and animals and all vegetation.
Lot is afraid to dwell in Zoar (the bible gives no reason) so he and his two daughters go up into the hills and live in a cave. One day the elder daughter says to the younger, "Our father is old, and their is not a man on earth * to come into us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring through our father." So for the next two evenings they get their father drunk and each one takes a turn lying with him. Lot is so drunk he is unaware that his two daughters have sexual intercourse with him. As a result off their intrigue both daughters become pregnant. The elder has a son named Moab, who becomes the father of the Moabites. The younger also has a son, and calls him Benammi, who becomes the father of the Ammonites.
*Really? The whole earth? They had just left Zoar. Was it a city devoid of young men?
This part of the story seems particularly ridiculous. First of all, I'm sure it's not every young woman's dream to have sex with their elderly father, drunk or sober. Secondly, he was old and so drunk he has no idea they were even in his bed. What are the odds he could perform sexually for them? Speaking of odds, what are the chances of both women getting pregnant on their first efforts? Lastly, if they wanted to meet some men who might be interested in them or in just getting them pregnant they needed only to leave their cave and descend from the hills into the city of Zoar. I'm sure they could have found some willing candidates.
What kind of family is this anyway? Could they be any more dysfunctional? These were the righteous people who were worth saving? Lot was purported to be the good guy, yet he was prepared to throw his own children to the wolves. Lot's daughters got their father inebriated and sexually assaulted him in order to become pregnant. His wife disobeyed God and was turned into salt, although the crime and punishment seem a bit ridiculous.
This story has all the look of a fabricated one that was not all that well thought out. The only point of the story seems to be to inform us that God frowns very heavily on homosexual activity and is prepared, at least in this instance to eradicate it by destroying entire cities, including any women, children and animals caught behind their walls, at least some of whom must have been innocent; also that disobeying God can have some serious consequences.
So, what can we conclude? How about Lot wasn't the righteous goodie-two-shoes we thought he was and neither were his daughters, so God is not a very good judge of character or righteousness either for that matter? Maybe Lot wasn't any more righteous than his fellow townsfolk and deserved to perish with them. But God doesn't come off as squeaky clean either. Innocent animals, children, infants were no doubt burned to death in the conflagration.
