Does He really "allow" it?

Or does the Bible simply relate instances of it in the same way it gives accounts of other types of sin?

"No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord" (Leviticus 18:6, NIV).

Verses 7-18 proceed to delineate several close relatives which are included within the prohibition of verse 6:

• Mother (verse 7)
• Stepmother (verse 8)
• Sister (including half-sisters, verses 9, 11)
• Granddaughter (verse 10)
• Aunt (verses 12-14)
• Daughter-in-law (verse 15)
• Sister-in-law (brother's wife, verse 16)
• A woman and her daughter or granddaughter (verse 17)
• Sister-in-law (wife's sister, verse 18)

Clearly, God did not "allow" incest, at least after giving the Law to the Israelites! But just as clearly, there are instances of such relations in Scripture. Many of them took place prior to the issuance of the Law at Mount Sinai. Once the Law was issued, it became clear that such relations were improper.

Abraham and Sarah

One of the most well-known examples of "incest" in the pre-Sinai period is that of Abram and Sarai. The story of Abram/Abraham begins with God's call for him to "Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you." God promises to make Abram into a great nation and that all nations will be blessed through him. Abram believed in God, and he and his family set off across the desert as God directed.

When Abram arrived in Shechem, God said, "This is the place!" "To your offspring, I will give this land." So, Abram built an altar there, traveled to Bethel, pitched his tent, built another altar and called on the name of the Lord. After that, a famine hit, so Abram and his group went down to Egypt. Abram was afraid that the Egyptians would kill him and take Sarai because she was very beautiful, so he asked her to tell them that she was Abram's sister (Genesis 12:13). We find out later that this was true; Abram (now known as Abraham) told Abimelek: "Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife." (Genesis 20:12).

Lot and His Daughters

In Genesis 19, God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah, where Lot and his family lived. Presumably, out of faithfulness to Abraham, God sends two angels to rescue Lot and his family and take them out of the city. Lot's wife famously looks back on Sodom and is turned into a pillar of salt. So Lot and his daughters head into the hills to escape the destruction of Sodom.

Because their husbands-to-be had refused to leave with them, Lot's daughters despaired of ever having children since Sodom had been destroyed. "One day, the older daughter said to the younger, 'Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children – as is the custom all over the earth. Let's get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father'" (Genesis 19:31-32).

Judah and Tamar

Genesis 38 relates the story of Judah and Tamar. Tamar had married Judah's son, Er. Er was "wicked in the Lord's sight," so God put him to death. Judah's second son, Onan, then married Tamar; Judah told him to "fulfill your duty as a brother-in-law to raise offspring for your brother." But Onan refused to honor this obligation; instead, he "spilled his seed on the ground" to keep from getting Tamar pregnant. God was displeased with this, so he also put Onan to death.

Judah then declined to give his next son to Tamar as a husband because he was afraid of what might happen to him. So, Judah told Tamar to go live in her father's household and wait until his son grew up. However, Tamar "saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife." So, she disguised herself as a prostitute, slept with Judah – her father-in-law – and became pregnant. After her pregnancy became obvious, Judah accused her of adultery – until she revealed that he was the father of her unborn child. Judah said, "She is more righteous than I since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah." And he did not sleep with her again (Genesis 38:26).

Other Cultural Prohibitions

Interestingly, other cultures of the Ancient Near East (ANE) also prohibited incest. For example, Hittite laws included incest within a category of offenses punishable by death or banishment. (The Hittite laws date to the middle of the second millennium BC, i.e., between 1650 and 1500 BC.) Also, the Code of Hammurabi, dating to about 1750 BC, prohibited incest, with the same penalties (banishment or death). Thus, the fact that the Bible does not specifically prohibit such relations prior to Sinai does not necessarily mean that they were acceptable; rather, it could mean that "everyone knew" that such relations were wicked, and thus no specific prohibition was necessary.

God's "Response"

In none of the cases recounted in Genesis did God specifically approve of these actions. He did not immediately strike down the people involved – but that does not mean that God "allowed" it. Scripture shows humanity "warts and all" – even those people recognized as "righteous," like Abraham. But the fact that God later made it clear that such relations were sinful demonstrates that God did not, in fact, "allow" incest.

For example, Genesis twice tells us about Abraham's deception concerning Sarah's status as his wife. Does this mean that God allowed it? Probably not, such deception demonstrates a lack of trust in God's ability to protect Abraham. Did God approve of Jacob's deception of both Esau and Isaac? Or was that a case of a person taking matters into their own hands to achieve what they thought was God's will?

"When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone, but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death" (James 1:13-15). God does not cause people to sin, nor does he approve of sin. And since God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, what was evil before is still evil today.

Why Does God Allow Incest in the Bible?

He doesn't!

The fact that God didn't specifically forbid incest prior to Sinai doesn't mean that He "allowed" it. Considering that other cultures (specifically Hittite and early Babylonian, as reflected in the Hittite Laws and the Code of Hammurabi) treated incest as a serious crime, it would be a grave mistake to think that God "allowed" it. However, since God does not "hard-wire" us – either for obedience or disobedience – Scripture shows instances of incest the same way it shows murders, adultery, and other sinful behaviors. Such actions are included in the Biblical account to demonstrate the truth of Paul's declaration: "There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:22-24).

God never "allows" sin in the sense that he approves of it; Scripture relates the story of the human condition, for good and for bad, to demonstrate that everyone needs the forgiveness that God offers in Jesus!