This week’s reading: Genesis 11:10 —12:9
Hi Friends,
Once again we encounter a genealogy, and I am excited to get to the last name of this list! Known as the “Father of Faith,” we will begin to explore the journey of Abraham, who at this point in his life, is still named Abram. We will see how, perhaps some people will follow God to a certain point, then settle in their own ideal spot, while others will go to the end of the world and back, if God but commands it. Abram’s pilgrimage is one filled with the good, the bad and the really scary, but it is such an incredible inspiration that, like I said before, I am excited to dive in. Hope you are too. We are in Genesis, chapter 11, verse 10 and will go through to chapter 12 verse 9. Listen to the incredible promise from God to this devoted follower:
“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Gen 12: 2-3 NIV
The godly lineage continues. We trace the descendants of Shem down to Abram, and get a little tidbit that’s interesting to know in verse 10 of our reading. It says, “Two years after The Flood, Shem was 100 years old….” This means he was about 97 years old at the time of The Flood and did not have children until after The Flood. I am not sure why, but I find it interesting to track the ages of these past Saints. I guess one of the reasons is that, with God, it is never too late to do great things. No matter how old we are…or how young…God can use anyone for His Glory, and Shem is certainly one of God’s tools. Not only did we see his heart for God as he honored his Dad, Noah, but we also can note how he is the origin of the people of God, the Israelites, after God returned the world to innocence, giving humans the opportunity to start over and have a different ending. Here’s another lesson: while each human must make our own choice as to wether we follow God or not, having a father, grandfather and even a great-grandfather who lived his Faith by example, is a huge influence on the future generations. Shem chose to be a blessing and as we move on down this lineage, we can see those “godly genes” will be passed down to Abram also. As I did some research, I came across an article that was very interesting, titled, “Abraham Lived During the Life of Shem.” And if we follow the ages of when each died, we can see that this in fact matches the numbers. Some think Shem lived in a completely different area than Abram, but this article points to the possibility that Abram learned all about the pre-Flood world from his 7x great-grandfather, Shem. He heard all about the events from Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel and all the way through the Ark and The Flood…how cool is that to think this might have been Abram’s background? I will put a link below from that article, because I want to give them credit for their work, but I’m also posting their lineage chart in my article below, so we can visualize this lineage better.
One thing I do want us to note is how, with each child that was born after Shem, their years in this world began to get less and less. Recall how I said that this is a major piece of information because, God never intended humans to die. It was the introduction of sin into this world He had created, that caused this sad reality. We go from Shem, who lived until the ripe old age of 600, down to Nahor who passes from this world when he was 148. That’s quite a difference, my Friends, and this shows the damaging effects of sin. Yet God Who is Omniscient, already knew the story. He already knew we children would go astray and need His Provision of a Savior. He already knew a longer life would only leave more opportunities for us to move away from Him, and so God allowed sin to corrupt the atmosphere and planet, as well as our bodies, which would lower our lifespan. God did not do this, mind you, but sin permeates every part of Creation and so it also fowls up the air we breathe, the water we drink and the ground from which food grows. All these lead to shorter lives because all of these corruptions were never meant to be in our bodies. And so we see the human’s life potential go from hundreds of years down to a little over one hundred. But this is actually a good thing. None of us were created to live in a fallen, sinful world. We were made in the image of God to live in Paradise forevermore. Now that sin has become a part of our lives, we must work with God to repent and surrender to Him so that, in Christ, we will be able to do exactly that. While God never wanted sin, and the death it would bring with it, God can, and does, use all things and works them all together for our good. (Ro 8:28) Our part is to connect with Him, as often as we humanly can, and learn to trust and obey His lead. This is the way we may have the Abundant Life here, as we wait excitedly for the Eternal Life to come. These men, and the women with them, have already done their part. Now we must glean from them so God can use their experiences to bless our own journeys. Hopefully, we will follow suit and leave some godliness behind us too, to help any generations that may come after us…that is, if Jesus doesn’t come first, of course! But we all have a part to play in the fulfillment of Humanity’s Story and learning from these earlier Saints, with the Holy Spirit’s help needless to say, is certainly one of the ways to accomplish this mission.
Terah’s mission. We read that, beginning when he was 70 years old, Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran becomes the father of Lot and also at least one daughter, Milcah, who marries his brother Nahor. But then sadly, Haran dies in his place of birth, in the land of the Chaldeans, before Terah decides to move out of this land and go towards the land of the Canaanites. It is not said whether God calls Terah out of that area, but it was a big step to leave their home behind. The land of the Chaldeans was a prosperous and civilized realm, so to leave it all behind, would have taken some kind of Faith, but in who Terah placed that Faith, we do not know. Joshua 24:2 says that, “…Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshipped other gods.” (Jos 24:2) This tells us that Terah worshipped many gods, including the God of Noah at best, but at worst, he did not worship God his Creator at all. This is why I think that speculation about Shem I mentioned above may be a key in the choices of Abram. If his Dad, Terah, did not follow the one True God, then perhaps Abram had heard of the God Who helped Noah and his little family survive The Flood, from Shem. But then again, perhaps God simply moved Abram’s heart to follow Him. I guess there are things we will simply not know for sure this side of Heaven! But this is why we must learn to walk by Faith. (2Co 5:7) We are to understand what we can, but then trust God for the rest. To continue with Terah, for reasons not specified in the Bible, after setting out to Canaan with his son, Abram and his wife, Sarai, along with his grandson, Lot, Terah chooses not to continue the whole journey and settles in a town named Haran. Again, all we can do is speculate here. Did he get tired of the journey? Did he simply give up? Did he choose not to obey any potential call from God? We don’t know. But we do know God had His Holy eye on Abram from the start. Once Terah settles, it is Abram who takes up the mission to get his family to the land his Dad had set out to occupy. The lesson here? Don’t settle, my Friends. Only God knows of course, but we could very well be calling Terah the “Father of Faith” had he kept on moving in Faith to his destination. We never know what God is going to use us for so, continue your journey. Don’t allow anything that has, or has not happened in the past to hinder you from moving forward towards the destiny God desires for you. We are never to settle for second best, but to simply trust and obey God, no matter what things may look like. If our hearts are still longing for something else, then turn to God and pray for guidance and strength to keep on keeping on towards that goal. Our lives, and those of people around us, will be more blessed when we choose to go all the way with God. Yes, this might mean some trials. Yes, this might bring some pain. But we will never regret the journey when we walk with the Lord, wherever He leads.
The Call and Promise to Abram. After giving Abram a partial agenda of where He wants Abram to uproot his family, God makes a series of such incredible promises to him. First, God will make Abram a great nation. At this point Abram’s “nation” is just him and Sarai, and maybe his nephew Lot! That doesn’t look like the greatest start towards such a big target. But that word “make” means that it is not Abram’s full responsibility to bring this about. Sure Abram has to choose to obey God, but God is telling him that this is going to happen regardless of his level of obedience. Second, God says, “I will bless you.” Now sometimes the way we expect a blessing to come to fruition is not exactly what God has in mind…I mean who but God would enter into Humanity as a tiny, helpless Babe in a manger, of all places? But what we can depend on is, His Plan is always the best Plan. If God says He is going to bless Abram, then Abram knows enough to count on those blessings, whichever shape they come in. Third, God promises to make Abram’s name great. Remember Nimrod and his Prideful companions? They wanted to make a name for themselves, but God would not allow it because their hearts were turned away from God, and so, only further sin would have resulted. So here, see God elevating Abram because his heart was soft towards God. We will see that Abram is not a perfect man… but who is right? The heart of the matter is always a matter of the heart, and God knows He can move Abram to grow into the man of Faith He always desired mankind to be. And so God chooses to bless Abram…but it doesn’t stop there! Fourth, God vows to make Abram a blessing to those around him too. Again, this is God moving Abram’s heart to imitate God’s own. God is a Giver and so He desires His children to be generous as well. To be blessed is wonderful. To be a blessing is godly. Fifth, God extends Abram’s territory of blessings as He pledges to bless those who bless Abram. This means God will also make sure Abram’s blessings will overflow to those around him. How generous is God when He meets and exceeds our needs? But then to meet and exceed the needs of those that are kind to us too? Are we getting a bigger picture of how magnificent this promise in these two little verses really is? Sixth, God guarantees that He will curse those who will curse Abram. This talks about a lovely shield of protection wherever Abram travels. If some peoples choose to dishonor Abram, God will see that they are paid back for their evil intentions. And seventh, last but oh my goodness certainly NOT least, comes this guarantee that the entire world will be blessed through Abram. Of course, we know God is talking about the Messiah, our Savior and Lord, King Jesus. Please make the time to read Hebrews 11: 8-19 this week, but here are verses 13 through 16, speaking about Abram and those listed before him: “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (Heb 11:13-16) Abram never gets to see the fulfillment of this last great Promise, yet he believed it would be fulfilled. Jesus Himself proclaims, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” (Jn 8:56) As we grow in Christ and begin to see the unseeable, our peace and joy increase, even if we do not physically get what we are hoping for. It is the eyes of our Faith that ushers in this peace that surpasses understanding and this joy that strengthens us to live life fully. As we grow, we trust God more and more, and this life? It becomes, more and more abundant.
What a journey of Faith. Again, chapter 12 begins the amazing ride of Abram. Here, very clearly, God speaks to Abram and tells him to keep moving forward. To leave his forefathers and their false religion behind, and go to a place that God would show him. Ok, so if it took some amount of Faith to move out of a wealthy and refined culture to go to a land that they knew, Canaan…how much more Faith did it require to go to a place that God did not even specify yet? (again see Heb 11:8-10) That always stuns and inspires me. You see, very often as we are following our Lord, we are not really sure where He is leading us either. The foundation of Abram’s Faith must be ours too. His Faith was firmly placed on the One who made the promise, not in knowing how that promise would be fulfilled. “Life is a journey, not a destination.” We’ve all heard this saying, right? But it is so very true, and moreover with God, life should be a great adventure. If we really begin to trust God, no matter what, then do we really need to know where we are going on this planet? Do we have to understand every detail on the itinerary here on earth? Can’t we wait and be surprised with what God has up His Holy sleeve? This is how I see Abram starting this nomadic lifestyle. Traveling from here to there and just living life trusting God to provide and protect wherever he happens to be. Oh we will see the scrapes Abram gets into, his mistakes as well as his incredible Faith. And we will, hopefully, choose to join him as he seeks to love God with all he’s got. This is certainly what I desire from my own pilgrimage here, and every time I make the decision to trust God’s Will over my own, that Freedom fills me with more peace and joy and contentment than I can fully comprehend. It is not the things that happen to us here that grant us the Abundant Life. It is simply taking this journey with God in us, around us and through us that adds value to everything that happens. As we begin to join Abram and Sarai on their way towards God’s promise, I hope you will join me too on this amazing ride called the Christian Life.
Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think.
<>< Peace, Diane
“Abraham Lived During the Life of Shem” (genealogy chart)
