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The scriptures. May God
bless the reading of His holy word.
This is the account of
Shem’s family line.
Two years after the flood,
when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. And after he
became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and
daughters.
When Arphaxad had lived years,
he became the father of Shelah. And after he became the father of Shelah,
Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Shelah had lived 30
years, he became the father of Eber. And after he became the father of Eber,
Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Eber had lived 34
years, he became the father of Peleg. And after he became the father of Peleg,
Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Peleg had lived 30
years, he became the father of Reu. And after he became the father of Reu,
Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Reu had lived 32
years, he became the father of Serug. And after he became the father of Serug,
Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Serug had lived 30
years, he became the father of Nahor. And after he became the father of Nahor,
Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Nahor had lived 29
years, he became the father of Terah. And after he became the father of Terah,
Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
After Terah had lived 70
years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
This is the account of
Terah’s family line.
Terah became the father of
Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.
While his father Terah was
still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. Abram
and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of
Nahor’s wife was Milkah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both
Milkah and Iskah. Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.
Terah took his son Abram,
his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his
son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan.
But when they came to Harran, they settled there.
Terah lived 205 years, and
he died in Harran.
Genesis 11:10-32
This ends this reading
from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Early on in the book of
Genesis, we find two instances where the author bridges from one important
figure to another through the use of genealogy.
The first such instance
occurs in Genesis, chapter 5 and you may remember that the scriptures found
there take the reader from Adam through his son Seth to Noah through a
detailing of the family tree.
As we turn to the
remainder of chapter 11 following the account of God confusing the language of
the world’s people before scattering them, we find yet another interesting
linkage take place, this time between Noah and Abraham, via Noah’s son Shem.
Look again at those words here:
This is the account of Shem’s family line.
Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years
old, he became the father of Arphaxad. And after he became the father of
Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Arphaxad had lived years, he became the father of
Shelah. And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and
had other sons and daughters.
When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father
of Eber. And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had
other sons and daughters.
When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of
Peleg. And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had
other sons and daughters.
When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of
Reu. And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other
sons and daughters.
When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of
Serug. And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had
other sons and daughters.
When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of
Nahor. And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had
other sons and daughters.
When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of
Terah. And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had
other sons and daughters.
After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father
of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
This is the account of Terah’s family line.
Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And
Haran became the father of Lot.
While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in
Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. Abram and Nahor both married.
The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah;
she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah. Now Sarai
was childless because she was not able to conceive.
Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of
Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together
they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to
Harran, they settled there.
Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran. VV.10-32
Now, we know Noah was 600
years old when God brought the floodwaters on the earth (Genesis 7:6). We learn
from the opening verses in today’s passage that Shem turned 100 years of age “two
years after the flood” and so he would have been 98 when his father was 600.
How’s that for family
longevity, huh?
Despite his advanced age,
Shem, like his father, had children and we read where one of his sons was named
Arphaxad. Shem would then go onto live 500 years in full and the scriptures
tell us that he “had other sons and daughters” during that time.
Going back to chapter 10,
we found an introduction to the lineage of Arphaxad. Here’s a reminder:
Arphaxad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah the
father of Eber. Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg. Vv. 24-25a
And so with this, we go
back to our verses for today and see a correlation through Peleg and then a
carrying on of descendants from him until we get to Terah who would father the
father of the Israelite nation, Abraham (Abram).
Terah is an interesting
figure because although he is found in the family tree of Jesus (Luke 3:23-38),
he wasn’t a follower of God. We know from these words from verse 2 of the 24th
chapter of Joshua, as Israel’s leader addresses the Israelite people”
Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord,
the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father
of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other
gods.” Joshua 24:2
So going back to our
scriptures, we read where the false god worshipping Terah We read where Terah lived
in Ur of the Chaldeans when one of his three sons, Haran, passed away. His
other two sons, Abram (Abraham) and Nahor both married with the latter wedding
his deceased brother’s daughter, Milkah. Abram took Sarai (Sarah) as his bride
and we learn an important fact about her here that we know comes into play
later. For we read where Sarai was “childless because she was not able to
conceive”.
For reasons unknown, Terah
took his son Abram (Abraham), his wife Sarai, and his grandson Lot (the son of
Haran) and “set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan but didn’t get
there because again, for unknown reasons, they “settled” in Harran when they
arrived there. This was where Abram’s father died at the age of “205 years”.
And with this, we are
ready to examine the life of Abram (Abraham). We’ll begin looking at that in
tomorrow’s message but before we close, one more interesting point.
As we see in the first
part of Genesis, much of the emphasis in God’s Word is placed on three men –
Adam, Noah, and Abraham. It’s of importance to note and remember that God made
a special covenant with all three.
The covenant with Adam is
found in Genesis, chapter 3, verses 16 through 19:
To the woman He said, “I will make your pains in
childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your
desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
To Adam He said, “Because you listened to your wife
and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from
it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat
food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for
you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you
will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were
taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
This was followed by the
Noahic Covenant which is in the ninth chapter of Genesis, verses 8 through 17:
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now
establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with
every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the
wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature
on earth. I establish My covenant with you: Never again will all life be
destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to
destroy the earth.”
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am
making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for
all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the
sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the
earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember My covenant
between Me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the
waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the
clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all
living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant
I have established between Me and all life on the earth.”
What was the Abrahamic
Covenant?
You’ll have to stay tuned
as we get set to look at his life and a relationship with a God he didn’t know growing
up. I hope you’ll continue to come back to future messages as we look at
Abram/Abraham’s fascinating story.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS:
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be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to
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