Genesis 19:30-38 against CCC:2388

[wina]

Dear All,

Could anyone please explain to me about the title above?? because I’m confused about it why Lot’s daughters slept with him?? which I thought it supposed not to be approved (CCC:2388)?

 

[NotWorthy]

Incest is not approved by any standards of the Church. But remember, this part of Genesis is simply an historical rendering of what happened. The sacred author is not condoning what happened, he’s simply relating it.

To the average ancient Jew, there was, however, a moral lesson here. The Moabites and the Ammonites were the hated enemies of ancient Israel. These two tribes were God’s ways of punishing Lot’s children for their incest. The lesson to young Israelites would be something like, “don’t commit incest or you will end up like those accursed Moabites or Ammonites”.

You see several instances of tribes forming from the sin of their fathers (and mothers) who would later become thorns in Israel’s side.

For instance, the Edomites came from Esau, Jacob’s older brother.
The Canaanites came from Canaan, the son of Ham who “uncovered Noah’s nakedness” (which many scholars believe means that he had incest with his mother).
And later on Islam rose from the descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abraham born from Hagar, Sarah’s slave.

So while the author of Genesis doesn’t condemn these people, their actions clearly have repercussions throughout the following generations. I think this is representative of just how damaging sin is to us today.

 

[wina]

Incest is not approved by any standards of the Church. But remember, this part of Genesis is simply an historical rendering of what happened. The sacred author is not condoning what happened, he’s simply relating it.

To the average ancient Jew, there was, however, a moral lesson here. The Moabites and the Ammonites were the hated enemies of ancient Israel. These two tribes were God’s ways of punishing Lot’s children for their incest. The lesson to young Israelites would be something like, “don’t commit incest or you will end up like those accursed Moabites or Ammonites”.

Dear Brother NotWorthy,
Thank you for the explaination.
God bless

 

[wina]

So while the author of Genesis doesn’t condemn these people, their actions clearly have repercussions throughout the following generations. I think this is representative of just how damaging sin is to us today.

Is it like “Karma”??

 

[mpernot]

NotWorthy, that’s exactly my take also. There are several examples of sexual sins in Genesis that come back to haunt Israel, this example being the most obvious.

Aside from this instance, probably the other most obvious one is Abraham having a child with Hagar, which he was not supposed to do. Abraham and Sarah were supposed to trust God; instead, they laughed when he told them about Isaac (the name Isaac means ‘laughter’). The child Ishmael is the branch by which Islam traces back to Abraham. Incidentally, this is also why we view God as ‘Father’ and the Muslims view God as ‘Master’. Isaac was the son of Abraham’s main wife Sarah, while Ishmael was the son of the concubine Hagar (children of concubines were slaves to the paternal leader of the family).

Also, Rueben was the oldest of Jacob’s 12 children and, as such, would have been the one to receive his Father’s blessing. When he slept with a prostitute, he forfeited the blessing. Likewise, Simeon and Levi forfeited the blessing when they deceitfully killed the Sichemites in retaliation for the rape of Dinah (Genesis 33). Thus, the blessing went to the 4th oldest, Judah, which is why Jesus came from the line of Judah and not Rueben, Simeon, or Levi.

I remember Scott Hahn saying that there were 6 sexual sins in Genesis that affected Israel in the future, but I could only remember these 4.

 

[NotWorthy]

So while the author of Genesis doesn’t condemn these people, their actions clearly have repercussions throughout the following generations. I think this is representative of just how damaging sin is to us today.

Is it like “Karma”??That great philosopher of our time, Earl Hickey, couldn’t have said it better!!!