Lot has to be one of the more tragic characters in the Bible. At first glance we could be excused for asking why this story was ever included. Perhaps we find the answer to that some hundreds of years later in a way that helps us better understand the Book of Joshua.
Lot was the nephew of Abram, or Abraham as he was later known, and travelled with him. But the time came when the flocks of both had reached the point where they agreed to part ways because of conflicts between their herdsmen over access to available pastures. Abraham allowed Lot the first choice of land and he took what was no doubt the more fertile land near Sodom (Genesis 13).
Eventually Lot moved with his family into Sodom, a city of the depraved. Here, when visited by the angels sent to save him, Lot does something that seems absolutely revolting to our way of thinking. In the Eastern tradition he invites the two strangers into his house. When the men of the city surround the house demanding that Lot send the men out to satisfy their sexual lust, Lot offers his virgin daughters instead. Culturally, Lot understood that his highest priority was to ensure the safety of his guests. By way of contrast, the men of the city were violating the cultural obligation to extend hospitality to the stranger.
Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. Only Lot and his two daughters escaped with their lives. Lot, it seems, ended up a lonely old man, sharing a cave with his daughters. Without any reasonable prospect of marrying and carrying on the family line the daughters conspire to get their father drunk so they can get pregnant by him. The older gives birth to a son she names Moab, the younger names her son Ben-ammi, the ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites.(Genesis 18, 19).
Fast forward a few centuries. On their journey to the Promised Land Israel sent ambassadors to ask the permission of the Amorite King, Sihon, to pass through his land. Sihon refused and sent his army to attack Israel. The Amorites were soundly defeated (Numbers 21:21-35). Seeing this, Balak, the Moabite King, enlisted the support of Balaam the prophet to curse Israel. However, God intervened, making sure Balaam blessed the Israelites instead. On top of this some of the Israelite men were seduced by the Moabite women and subsequently joined in the worship of the Moabite gods. The ring leaders of this revolt were put to death (Numbers 22-25).
The actions of the Amorites and Moabites saw them excluded from the congregation of Israel ‘for ten generations’. Commenting on Deuteronomy 23:2-3 the NIV Study Bible suggests this may have meant forever, as the number ‘ten is symbolic of completeness or finality’. This exclusion, recorded in Deuteronomy 23:3-6 concludes ‘As long as you live, you must never promote the welfare and prosperity of the Ammonites or Moabites’. The ban however had nothing to do with the way the Israelite men conducted themselves with the Moabite women or joined with them in the worship of pagan Gods as seen in v.3-6.
3 “No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. 4 These nations did not welcome you with food and water when you came out of Egypt. Instead, they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in distant Aram-naharaim to curse you. 5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam. He turned the intended curse into a blessing because the Lord your God loves you. 6 As long as you live, you must never promote the welfare and prosperity of the Ammonites or Moabites.
In the harsh desert environment in which these people lived travellers were often dependent upon the hospitality of others for their welfare. It was for a lack of hospitality to the traveller that the Ammonites and Moabites were condemned. Ironically, if it had not been for the hospitality of their ancestor Lot in offering protection to strangers at the cost of sacrificing his two daughters, there would be no Ammonite or Moabite.
Which brings us to the story of Ruth the Moabite whose story is found in the book that bears her name - only one of the two books in the Old Testament named after a woman. Some online Jewish sources claim Ruth was a Moabite princess, although the Bible doesn’t seem to confirm that. Her story does, however, provide another piece of evidence that the apparently harsh, no mercy rhetoric of the Old Testament should not be taken at face value.
The story takes time during the time of the Judges. At a time of severe famine an Israelite family moves to Moab where the two sons married local women. The father and both sons die, leaving the mother, Naomi and her two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah. Finally Naomi decides to return home. The younger women state their intent to accompany her. Naomi finally convinces Orpah to remain with her own people, but Ruth is determined to stay with her mother-in-law whatever the cost.
The conversation between the three women tells us a little of the culture and perhaps provides further insight to the language of Joshua (from Ruth 1:14-18).
14 And again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye. But Ruth clung tightly to Naomi. 15 “Look,” Naomi said to her, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. You should do the same.”
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. 17 Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” 18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.
According to Lawrence J. Epstein, the ‘Biblical Israelites had no concept of religious conversion because the notion of a religion as separate from a nationality was incoherent.’ When a pagan woman married a Jewish male she automatically became part of his clan and religion. On this basis, Orpah’s decision to return to ‘her people and her gods’ can be seen as a return to a way of life she had left on marriage to Naomi’s son.
Ruth, on the other hand, made a decision to stay. She had become, by marriage, a Jew, and it was as part of her mother-in-laws clan that she wished to live out her life.
For her loyalty to her mother-in-law she is eventually rewarded. She returns with Naomi to Bethlehem where her kindness to Naomi is noted by one of the town’s more influential citizens, Boaz, a descendant of Rahab the Canaanite prostitute. Boaz and Ruth marry and become ancestors of King David, and eventually Jesus. Rahab and Ruth are among only four women listed by Matthew as Jesus’ ancestors.
Two women for whom the apparent rules are broken, or two stories show that however harsh the law may seem, grace is always greater? Or was it simply that fact that Rahab, by doing the spies a favour and Ruth by marrying an Israelite man received a ‘get of out goal’ card, something that most could not take advantage of? And what about the men? Was there no hope for them?
Starting from where I have left off in the story of Ruth, in my next post I will explore this topic a little further
SOURCE
Epstein at: http://www.myjewishlearning.com/author/lawrence-j-epstein/
Bible quoted: New Living Translation
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