Lie Down שָׁכַב

We have another word used to refer to sexual intercourse in our chapter 19 of Genesis. שָׁכַב lie down, lie, lie asleep, to have sexual intercourse. It is used 207 times in the Old Testament. Like our word from yesterday it has more of a general sense, but the context clearly shows that sexual intercourse is what is meant. A good example of this sense of the word is when Joseph was in Egypt and Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him into having sex with her. Genesis 39:6-10, 12 Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “שָׁכַב Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master's wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to שָׁכַב lie beside her or to be with her … she caught him by his garment, saying, “שָׁכַב Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. Joseph is a great example for us to do what God instructed the Corinthian Christians to do through Paul. 1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. We will explore more of what this means at a later day but for now notice that this kind of sin effects us in a deeper and more internal long lasting way than the others. So the best thing is to flee which is what Joseph did. Unfortunately this route is not always followed especially by those in our chapter today. Genesis 19:32-36 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will שָׁכַב lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and שָׁכַב lay with her father. He did not know when she שָׁכַב lay down or when she arose. The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I שָׁכַב lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and שָׁכַב lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and שָׁכַב lay with him, and he did not know when she שָׁכַב lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. You might be asking where in the world did they get an idea like this? From these chapters of Genesis we find they came from the culture that Lot had chosen to live close to that influenced his daughters but also him. If we look earlier in the chapter when Lot took in the two angels. He tried to talk the wicked men of the city to stop their evil by giving them an alternative solution which by the way was also evil. Gensis 19:6-8 Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” It is sad that Lot wanted to protect the angels but not his own daughters. So, his own daughters probably didn’t feel very valuable if their own Father failed to protect them. There is a lot to all of this that we will explore in future days. Let me close with how important it is for us to have the fellowship of godly people around us. We can’t always control who we are around for work and other activities so we need to have some good influences of godly people to help prevent the evil influences we get bombarded with on a da