Abraham's Pagan Past

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:10.669 Well, tonight I'm excited to turn back to genesis after many, many years 2 00:00:10.789 --> 00:00:16.989 of not preaching this book. Of many years ago I preached through Genesis One 3 00:00:17.109 --> 00:00:21.660 through eleven and then stopped and then moved on to other things, and now 4 00:00:21.739 --> 00:00:29.739 I'm excited to return and preach through chapter twelve and and so many chapters after 5 00:00:29.859 --> 00:00:33.899 that. I'm however, we are going to start at the end of eleven 6 00:00:33.979 --> 00:00:40.450 tonight, in Genesis Eleven. I'm beginning in Verse Twenty Seven, Genesis Eleven, 7 00:00:40.490 --> 00:00:47.609 verse twenty seven through thirty two. This is God's holy and inspired word, 8 00:00:48.049 --> 00:00:53.920 and give your attention to it now. These are the generations of Tara. 9 00:00:55.000 --> 00:01:00.880 Tara fathered Abram, Nahor and Hurn, and hurn fathered Lat Horn, 10 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:03.430 died in the presence of his father Tara, and the land of his kindred 11 00:01:03.549 --> 00:01:11.150 in her of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name 12 00:01:11.189 --> 00:01:15.549 of Abram's wife was Sarah. The name of Nahor's wife Milka, the daughter 13 00:01:15.670 --> 00:01:22.700 of Haron, the father of Milka and Isca. Now Sarah I was barren. 14 00:01:23.019 --> 00:01:26.299 She had no child. Old Tara took Abram, his son, and 15 00:01:26.420 --> 00:01:30.980 lot, the son of Harun, his grandson, and Sarah, his daughterinlaw, 16 00:01:32.620 --> 00:01:38.650 his son Abram's wife, and and they went forth together from her of 17 00:01:38.730 --> 00:01:42.049 the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to 18 00:01:42.209 --> 00:01:46.890 run, they settled there. The days of Tara were two hundred and five 19 00:01:46.890 --> 00:01:53.920 years, and Tara died in Harn. In your bibles you are all very 20 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:59.959 used to seeing chapters and verses, and these are very, very helpful for 21 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:05.629 getting around our bibles, for coming up with Bible reading plans, for communicating 22 00:02:05.790 --> 00:02:09.389 with one another where we are in the God's word. I'm very glad we 23 00:02:09.509 --> 00:02:14.469 have them, but we also have to remember that, like perhaps the study 24 00:02:14.590 --> 00:02:21.099 notes in our bibles or the headings above the text, the verses and chapter 25 00:02:21.099 --> 00:02:27.219 numbers are not original, they're not inspired, they're not a part of God's 26 00:02:27.419 --> 00:02:30.930 word as he gave it to us. They were added much later. This 27 00:02:30.090 --> 00:02:34.729 is important to remember because we want to be careful that, even as we 28 00:02:34.849 --> 00:02:39.969 pay attention to chapter numbers and verse numbers, we don't want to miss the 29 00:02:40.129 --> 00:02:45.520 headings that God himself gives us, the headings that are in fact inspired, 30 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:52.080 our part of God's word. Now, different books of the Bible rely on 31 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:58.629 different structures and communicate those structures to us in different ways in genesis. One 32 00:02:58.669 --> 00:03:02.710 of the major ways in which this book is divided is by what we see 33 00:03:02.750 --> 00:03:07.550 here in Verse Twenty Seven. These words. Now, these are the generations 34 00:03:07.830 --> 00:03:15.860 of this heading heads up ten different parts of the book of Genesis. We 35 00:03:15.939 --> 00:03:21.500 might say that there are ten books in Genesis. This book is number six. 36 00:03:22.780 --> 00:03:27.169 So if you go back to genesis two, for for example, you 37 00:03:27.210 --> 00:03:31.210 will find that after the prolog of Genesis, Chapter One and two, two, 38 00:03:31.610 --> 00:03:36.289 two, verses one through three, in verse two four, we have 39 00:03:36.449 --> 00:03:42.800 this these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created 40 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:46.719 in the day that the Lord God made the Heavens and the earth. Book 41 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:52.520 Two starts this way in genesis five. This is the book of the generations 42 00:03:52.639 --> 00:03:58.590 of Adam. Book three in Genesis Nine says these are the generations of Noah. 43 00:03:58.870 --> 00:04:01.430 And then tonight we come to book six, skipping a few there. 44 00:04:02.110 --> 00:04:09.509 Now, these are the generations of Tara. Now, though, Tara starts 45 00:04:09.629 --> 00:04:14.020 this book, book six of Genesis, it's really one of his sons that 46 00:04:14.099 --> 00:04:18.779 will become the primary person of interest, and his name, of course, 47 00:04:19.019 --> 00:04:28.129 is Abram later changed and better known by his name Abraham. Abraham is really 48 00:04:28.930 --> 00:04:33.569 the center of these next chapters here in a book six, it's a long 49 00:04:33.610 --> 00:04:36.649 one. It starts in Chapter Eleven, here at the end of Chapter Eleven, 50 00:04:36.730 --> 00:04:42.319 goes all the way through the beginning of Chapter Twenty Five. That indicates 51 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:47.040 to us in part the importance of Abram, of Abraham, and of course 52 00:04:47.639 --> 00:04:54.389 we know this not only from the Old Testament but also the new, and 53 00:04:54.550 --> 00:04:59.189 in that we learn and remember. Perhaps the Abraham's life is more than about 54 00:04:59.189 --> 00:05:04.470 Abraham's life. It's about God's dealings with him, God's dealings with the world 55 00:05:04.509 --> 00:05:11.259 and even with us. Perhaps some of you have sung in a Sunday school 56 00:05:11.259 --> 00:05:15.379 class or at home with your parents. Father Abraham had many sons. Many 57 00:05:15.459 --> 00:05:20.060 sons had father Abraham. I am one of them and so are you. 58 00:05:20.850 --> 00:05:26.730 So let's all praise the Lord Right, right, arm, left, Armond, 59 00:05:26.769 --> 00:05:30.930 so on. Right, we sing this song and it actually means something 60 00:05:30.009 --> 00:05:34.290 very important. What does it mean? It means exactly what it says. 61 00:05:35.560 --> 00:05:39.600 Father Abraham had many sons. I am one of them and so are you. 62 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:44.240 When we put our faith in Christ, the offspring that was promised to 63 00:05:44.319 --> 00:05:53.750 Abraham. Well, much more about that later in this to this man God 64 00:05:53.910 --> 00:05:59.790 promises. We will read in chapter twelve a great promise. He calls him. 65 00:06:00.310 --> 00:06:03.860 You can read this or simply listen in verse one. Go from your 66 00:06:03.939 --> 00:06:08.220 country and your kindred in your father's house, to the land that I will 67 00:06:08.220 --> 00:06:12.579 show you and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless 68 00:06:12.660 --> 00:06:15.339 you and make your name great, that you will be a blessing. I 69 00:06:15.899 --> 00:06:18.649 will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, 70 00:06:18.730 --> 00:06:24.170 and in you all the families on the earth, are of the earth, 71 00:06:24.449 --> 00:06:28.889 shall be blessed. This promise gets repeated at many times and in many 72 00:06:28.930 --> 00:06:35.560 ways, and indeed in the New Testament proclaims very clearly that when we believe 73 00:06:35.720 --> 00:06:41.759 in these same promises that were promised to Abraham, fulfilled and culminated in Christ, 74 00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:47.829 we are we belong to this family. So perhaps that generates a little 75 00:06:47.870 --> 00:06:54.709 more interest in you, in hearing this genealogy, because this is one of 76 00:06:54.750 --> 00:07:00.110 the things that we have before us, our genealogy, this is our family 77 00:07:00.509 --> 00:07:05.139 history. Right. These generations of Tara that come to Abraham tell us something 78 00:07:05.220 --> 00:07:11.339 of our own family, our own life, the place from which we have 79 00:07:11.579 --> 00:07:18.490 come. They also are, in some ways, symbols of the kind of 80 00:07:18.689 --> 00:07:25.850 work or represent a representations of the kind of work that God often does in 81 00:07:26.170 --> 00:07:32.040 salvation, and I'll show that to you in a moment. I'll just add, 82 00:07:32.120 --> 00:07:34.800 before we look at some of the details of this passage, that I 83 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:42.240 hope that you will find this passage encouraging as we consider the places out of 84 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:47.350 which God calls us. Perhaps it will be especially encouraging to those of you 85 00:07:47.430 --> 00:07:51.750 who are not born into godly homes, because what we see in Abraham is 86 00:07:51.829 --> 00:07:59.220 how God can establish great faith, a mighty and holy religion, even out 87 00:07:59.300 --> 00:08:07.180 of idolatry and brokenness. So let's start with some observations about the text. 88 00:08:07.379 --> 00:08:11.220 This family story here that we have in just these few verses is very dense, 89 00:08:11.819 --> 00:08:16.930 so let's slow down and make sure that we're following it and understand it. 90 00:08:16.689 --> 00:08:22.009 One it teaches us lessons here and it also prepares us for later things 91 00:08:22.089 --> 00:08:26.160 that will happen in the book of Genesis us. The first thing that we 92 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:31.639 observe in chapter or in Verse Twenty Seven is that Abraham are, I'm sorry, 93 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:37.559 Tara, has three sons. Tara has three sons, Abram, Nahor 94 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:45.309 and Harun. All three sons have wives, but not all have children, 95 00:08:45.350 --> 00:08:50.389 at least not right away, because we read that Sarah, Abram's wife is 96 00:08:50.549 --> 00:08:56.179 barren. She can't have children. So starts out pretty simply. Abram, 97 00:08:56.220 --> 00:08:58.700 Nahor and Harun, the sons of Tara, but it gets very mixed up 98 00:08:58.820 --> 00:09:03.779 after this. The first thing we read is that Haroun has a son, 99 00:09:05.860 --> 00:09:11.009 Abraham's brother, Tara's son, Harun. He has a son, the son 100 00:09:11.409 --> 00:09:18.090 is lot, and there's also a daughter that we learn later on, MILCA. 101 00:09:18.289 --> 00:09:24.009 But sadly Haraun dies at a young age. You read this in Verse 102 00:09:24.090 --> 00:09:28.399 Twenty Eight. Harun died in the presence of his father, Tara, in 103 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:33.399 the land of his kindred. What does this mean? Well, it means 104 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:41.629 that Tara loses a son and lot and Milka lose a father. Remarkably, 105 00:09:41.509 --> 00:09:48.110 Milka marries her dad's brother, Nayhore, that is her uncle, and they 106 00:09:48.230 --> 00:09:56.019 have children. What about Abram? Abram Marries Sarah. Later she is called 107 00:09:56.220 --> 00:10:01.500 Sarah. Perhaps you'd know that. What we learned later on in Genesis is 108 00:10:01.899 --> 00:10:07.210 that she is also Tara's daughter, but by a different mother. So Sarah, 109 00:10:07.649 --> 00:10:13.809 Abram's wife, is his half sister. Now this isn't that important right 110 00:10:13.970 --> 00:10:18.049 here, but later on it becomes important because Abraham will tell some half truths 111 00:10:18.289 --> 00:10:26.679 about his sister Sarah I. The important point here and now is the one 112 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:33.240 that scripture makes. She can't have children. Now that only is a sad 113 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:39.110 thing and a difficult thing, especially in a family that wants children, especially 114 00:10:39.389 --> 00:10:46.350 in a culture that thrives and depends upon children being produced, but it has 115 00:10:46.470 --> 00:10:50.659 theological implications as well, because you remember back in Genesis chapter three that it 116 00:10:50.779 --> 00:10:58.580 was through the offspring of the God's of God's Holy Line, that a child 117 00:10:58.620 --> 00:11:03.889 would be born who would undo the curse, who would fix everything that was 118 00:11:05.009 --> 00:11:11.090 broken, broken things that we see here in this family. Death, loss 119 00:11:11.169 --> 00:11:16.649 of parents, loss of children, infertility and more. A child would come 120 00:11:16.730 --> 00:11:22.360 who would solve these problems, who would make everything right. But Sarah I 121 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:31.039 was barren well after Harun's death. Some time after that we read that Tara 122 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:37.590 takes his family, Abraham, the now fatherless son Lot, Abraham's wife, 123 00:11:37.669 --> 00:11:43.149 Sarah, and they leave or of the Chaldeans to head to Canan. That 124 00:11:43.230 --> 00:11:46.909 might surprise you because of course you maybe, maybe not of course, but 125 00:11:46.070 --> 00:11:50.980 some of you know that eventually that's the destination, that's the goal. Tara 126 00:11:52.139 --> 00:11:54.340 and leading out with his family to Canan, but they don't make it. 127 00:11:56.139 --> 00:12:01.129 Instead they settle in a place called Harun. Don't let that confuse you. 128 00:12:01.250 --> 00:12:05.490 There are two hurns in this passage, one a person, right the son 129 00:12:05.649 --> 00:12:09.850 of Tara, and then also the place. By the way, don't let 130 00:12:09.970 --> 00:12:13.129 those kinds of things annoy you about scripture. If you feel a little frustrated, 131 00:12:13.250 --> 00:12:20.360 just remember how many Christophers there are in this congregation. and or perhaps 132 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:24.720 you have traveled up north of Paceon and driven by Christopher's creek, or you 133 00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:28.919 know these common names are common in our culture as well, just as they 134 00:12:28.919 --> 00:12:35.750 are in the Bible. So don't be overly annoyed. Instead, do your 135 00:12:35.789 --> 00:12:39.950 best to track. So they leave, they had to Canaan, they don't 136 00:12:39.990 --> 00:12:45.220 make it all the way. They settle in a place called Harun, and 137 00:12:45.379 --> 00:12:52.779 it's there that Tara dies. So in this dense story, in all of 138 00:12:52.860 --> 00:12:58.009 these events and people, what kinds of things do we find? Well, 139 00:12:58.049 --> 00:13:01.809 we find the same kinds of things that we find in our own families, 140 00:13:01.769 --> 00:13:07.250 the kinds of things that the writer of Ecclesiastes describes as life under the sun, 141 00:13:09.490 --> 00:13:16.600 life under the curse. We find death, untimely death. We find 142 00:13:16.759 --> 00:13:22.840 tragedy. We find broken families, we find mixed up families, we find 143 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:33.470 infertility, complicated family relationships, we find traveling moves changes. Interestingly, not 144 00:13:33.629 --> 00:13:39.909 all the family seems to go Nahor is not listed here when they move. 145 00:13:43.580 --> 00:13:46.500 Does this remind you at all of your own family? Maybe not all of 146 00:13:46.659 --> 00:13:52.779 it, maybe parts of it, maybe other things you could add. These 147 00:13:52.899 --> 00:14:01.129 things remind us that when God calls Abram out of the Earth Coldea's and into 148 00:14:01.210 --> 00:14:05.450 the place where he would set his name, he calls him out of a 149 00:14:05.610 --> 00:14:11.639 world that is cursed, the same world that we experience our families are brokenness, 150 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:18.000 death as well. We can add to this even more when we remember 151 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:24.669 are and when we when we notice, perhaps on the idolatry out of which 152 00:14:24.710 --> 00:14:28.830 we are also called. It's not just a mixed up, in broken world 153 00:14:28.950 --> 00:14:35.070 out there or in them, but it's in US too. And we see 154 00:14:35.190 --> 00:14:41.139 this in Abram's family. Despite Abram and Abraham's great name as a man of 155 00:14:41.299 --> 00:14:46.899 faith, a man of God later on, it did not begin this way. 156 00:14:48.539 --> 00:14:52.649 This family were not worshipers of the one true God, but we know 157 00:14:52.850 --> 00:14:58.370 this well, according to various Old Testament scholars, we can see this in 158 00:14:58.529 --> 00:15:03.529 various ways of the test the text suggests that they were worshipers not of Yahweh 159 00:15:05.409 --> 00:15:11.240 but of a Moon God, ironically called sin. Why do we think this? 160 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:16.960 One Old Testament, scholar, Brusotki, puts it this way, offers 161 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:22.230 this evidence. First, Er and Harun were important places in the Moon God 162 00:15:22.389 --> 00:15:30.110 cult at the time. Second, Sir I and Milchi are probably named after 163 00:15:30.190 --> 00:15:35.629 the name and title of sins, that's, the Moon God consort and daughter 164 00:15:35.740 --> 00:15:41.220 respectively. In other words, they're named after these pagan gods. And Tara's 165 00:15:41.259 --> 00:15:48.539 name may be related to the Word Yur Ra, meaning moon. All of 166 00:15:48.620 --> 00:15:52.730 these things fit together and also fit with what we have in Joshu and fourteen, 167 00:15:54.850 --> 00:16:00.929 where God says to his people now, therefore, fear Yahweg and serve 168 00:16:02.049 --> 00:16:07.159 him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your father's served 169 00:16:08.039 --> 00:16:15.039 beyond the river and in Egypt and serve Yahwa. You see the point. 170 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:22.950 Israel didn't come and the family of the Lord, these sparkling, Wonderful God 171 00:16:23.110 --> 00:16:30.710 fearing creatures, know they're the fathers of our fathers. Where idolaters and many 172 00:16:30.789 --> 00:16:36.460 of this it's much the same for many of us. A many of us 173 00:16:37.419 --> 00:16:41.620 didn't we're not raised in Christian homes, or perhaps we only can go back 174 00:16:41.620 --> 00:16:48.730 a few generations of Christians and find people that are worshiping the creation instead of 175 00:16:48.889 --> 00:16:55.450 the creator. A remarkable passage when we consider what we read earlier in the 176 00:16:55.490 --> 00:17:00.009 Psalms, in our call to worship. God is God over all creation. 177 00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:06.640 He set the great lights, it said in and Psalmone thirty six, the 178 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:11.400 great lights in their places, both the sun and the moon. As great 179 00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:14.920 as they are, though, they are not greater than God, and yet 180 00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:21.029 people worship them. They still do. But this ought not to be. 181 00:17:22.029 --> 00:17:27.630 And so God, in saving the world, calls us out of this, 182 00:17:29.309 --> 00:17:33.660 calls us away from the Moon, God's sin and from any kind of sin, 183 00:17:36.339 --> 00:17:41.539 the transgresses, the law of God and all of these events we begin 184 00:17:41.660 --> 00:17:45.849 to see what book six of Chat, of Genesis is going to be all 185 00:17:45.930 --> 00:17:52.329 about, what all of the Bible is all about, which is God's grace 186 00:17:52.490 --> 00:17:57.680 in our lives, his calling us out of sin and darkness, out of 187 00:17:57.880 --> 00:18:03.079 brokenness and tragedy, out of death, out of mixed up families and all 188 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:08.400 kinds of difficulties, to to settle us, to settle us in a place 189 00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:17.069 and with a people, brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers that are devoted 190 00:18:17.789 --> 00:18:25.549 to him and to him alone. This ultimately happens because he fulfills these promises 191 00:18:25.670 --> 00:18:34.460 in an offspring that is born of a barren woman, born of Sarah, 192 00:18:36.619 --> 00:18:42.569 another miraculous birth that that aleads to more and more miracles that eventually lead to 193 00:18:42.690 --> 00:18:48.289 Jesus, born of a virgin, a miraculous birth, a mark of God's 194 00:18:48.650 --> 00:18:53.609 power and grace and desire to save, a mark of his steadfast love that 195 00:18:53.769 --> 00:19:06.680 continues generation after generation after generation. And so it is God's call to us 196 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:11.710 to hear him as he is, to see in his word, His grace 197 00:19:12.230 --> 00:19:17.670 and depend and to depend upon him, both as he reveals himself here and 198 00:19:17.910 --> 00:19:21.430 in all the scriptures. And when we do believe in him, when we 199 00:19:21.509 --> 00:19:26.140 put our faith in the God of Abraham, we will enjoy all the blessings 200 00:19:26.220 --> 00:19:30.059 of abor him, and God will be true to his promise that in him 201 00:19:30.099 --> 00:19:36.140 all the families of the Earth shall be blessed, even US Amen,