Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Please remain standing and let's hear God's
Word From Genesis Chapter Eleven. Genesis eleven
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versus ten through thirty two. So
that's verse ten through the end of this
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chapter. I this this section brings
us to the end of chapter eleven and
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also the end of this section in
genesis that's sometimes called the prehistory, all
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the things that happen really before Abraham. Starting with chapter twelve, things slow
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down a little bit and we get
a lot more details about Abraham and other
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ways of God's dealing with his people, particularly through the Covenant of Grace.
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We're going to take a little bit
of a pause in Genesis after this point.
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Not sure when we're going to come
back to it, but this will
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end our the section. This genesis
one through eleven, is prehistory that God
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has given us. So let's give
our attention now to the reading of his
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word, beginning at verse ten.
These are the generations of Sheem. When
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Shem was a hundred years old,
he fathered a Parkishad two years after the
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flood, and SEM lived after he
father to Park Ashad five hundred years and
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had other sons and daughters. When
a Parkashad had lived thirty five years he'd
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fathered Shella and a Parkashad lived after
he fathered Shella four hundred and three years
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and had other sons and daughters when
Shella had lived thirty years. He fathered
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Eber and Shalla lived after he fathered
eber four hundred and three years and had
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other sons and daughters when Eber had
lived thirty four years. He fathered Paleg
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and Eber lived after he fathered pay
leg four hundred and thirty years and had
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other sons and daughters when Paleg had
lived thirty years. He fathered Rayyu and
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Peleg lived after he fathered Rayu two
hundred and nine years and had other sons
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and daughters when it when Rayu had
lived thirty two years. He fathered Sir
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Rugg and rayu lived after he fathered
Sir Ug two hundred and seven years and
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had other sons and daughters when Sir
Rog had lived thirty years. He fathered
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Nahor and Sir Roug lived after he
fathered Nahor two hundred years and had other
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sons and daughters when Nahor had lived
twenty nine years. He fathered Tara and
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Nahor lived after he fathered Tara.
to H or one hundred and nineteen years
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and had other sons and daughters.
When Tara had lived seventy years, he
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fathered Abram, Nahor and Harn.
Now the is are the generations of Tara.
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Tara fathered Abram, Nahor and Harun, and Haroun fathered lat. Harun
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died in the presence of his father, Tara, in the land of his
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kindred, in the ear of the
colds, and Abram, in Nahor,
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took wives. The name of Abram's
wife, Abram's wife was Sarah. The
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name of Nahor's wife Milka, the
daughter of Harun, the father of Milka
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and Esoch. Now Sarah I was
barren. She had no child. Tara
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took Abram, his son in lot, the son of Harun, his grandson,
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and Sarah his daughter in law,
his son Abram's wife, and they
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went forth together from her of the
Calde's to go into the land of Canaan,
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but when they came to Harun,
they settled there. The days of
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Tara were two hundred and five years
and Tara died in Harn. This is
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God's word, may bless it to
us. Please be seated. If you've
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ever had a chance to visit a
war memorial where you've seen a long list
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of names of people who have died, soldiers perhaps, who gave their lives
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up in service of their country.
I'm you know that this isn't just a
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list of names. You haven't just
bumped into something that is just a bear
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record of the facts, as though
it was just a piece of paper in
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a filing cabinet somewhere. And you
know that because of the context in which
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those names are set, etched carefully
into concrete or granite or something like that.
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I'm the shape of the memorial'll the
space around it, the air above
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it, the the various plaques and
information that teaches you how you ought to
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approach and respect the the the memorial
and the people that are represented by those
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names. A similar thing happens in
these genealogies, and I hope you've begun
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to see that, because we've had
a lot of genealogies in genesis one through
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eleven. There are some more throughout
the Bible and Genesis as well, but
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a high concentration of them here in
the beginning, and I hope what you've
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begun to see, and we'll see
again here in genesis eleven, is that
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when God gives us these genealogies,
he's not just giving us a record of
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names, just something in a five
heling cabinet that you might look at and
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say, Oh, well, okay, I guess that's interesting, a little
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bit of information. But no,
God has put them in a particular context,
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like the war memorials. He surrounds
them with information space that we are
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to read it in light of he
says. Particularly, he puts the names
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in a particular way to tell us
that this isn't just a record of history,
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but it's to shape US somehow.
It is a to get make a
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particular point about who we are and
who God is. So that means we
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have to pay attention. It means
we have to come with a posture of
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learning and humility. It means we
have to come with a posture of respect
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as we see what God it is, what it is God has put in
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front of us and what it is
he wants to say to us, even
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today in this genealogy. Well,
this one, like the others, is
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no different when we see how this
genealogy is placed here, particularly in the
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context of the sin and pride of
the people of Babel, the disorder and
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the confusion that results from that.
Will See how God extends His grace and
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humbles us so that we might receive
it, in as he gives us these
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names. So let's first a consider
its context, to the a surround it,
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around the genealogy on either side.
You remember from last week we have
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the the the story, the account
of the Tower of Babel in genesis eleven
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one through nine. Here on the
whole Earth is unified in this really great
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way. A mankind is expressing his
humanity in a united way and organized way.
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He's ambitious, he's moving toward a
high goal. When I say he,
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I of course don't mean just one
person, but all people. We
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read in genesis eleven that as they
migrated on toward the East, they made
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this decision to begin to build for
themselves. Come, let us make bricks
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and burn them. And then in
verse four, they they take that work
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project even further. Let us build
ourselves a city and a tower with its
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top in the heavens, and let
us make a name for ourselves, lest
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we be dispersed over the face of
the whole earth. So here we see
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humanity working towards a particular goal,
but not a goal that God has given
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them. God has called them to
live in the world, a particularly under
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this covenant that he made with Noah, in a way that respects the moral
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order that God is set in place. They are to live under his sovereign
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authority. They are to live according
to justice, they are to live according
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to ways which would cause humanity to
flourish and grow. Yes, but in
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a way that's always I'm recognizing God
as a lawgiver, has sovereign instead,
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however, these people, which is
to say all people, decide to construct
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for themselves a tower that reaches to
the Heights of Heaven. I'm not to
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protect themselves against one another, but
to protect themselves against God. They want
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to make a name for themselves.
They want to make a name for themselves
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instead of receiving a name from God. They climb up into the heavens.
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I'm to take hold of them,
I'm to express their authority and sovereignty apart
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from God. Well, God does
not look kindly on this or overlook it,
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but he sees it for what it
is, this great expression of Man's
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pride, and he comes down and
he sees this tiny tower that they've built
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and he says to them behold.
They are one people and they have one
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language, and this is the only
the beginning of what they will do.
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And then God restrains their evil by
dividing their speech, dispersing them over the
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face of the earth, creating confusion
in their language. He makes them unable
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to speak to one another, work
together unite in the way that they had
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been able to before. And in
many ways this confusion and disorder, I'm
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represents the kind of confusion and disorder
that is in their own hearts. Despite
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their very organized way and ambitious,
goal focused way that they work together to
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create the Tower of Babel, it's
really inside their hearts things were all mixed
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up, their priorities were wrong and
they sought to rule over God of rather
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than under God. Well, God
confuses their language, he spreads them over
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the face of the earth, and
in this we remember that there is a
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sub mercy in that he doesn't flood
the earth again, as he promised to
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do, and he's certainly would have
been right to do in this situation.
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But despite God's judgment, despite His
mercy and allowing them to live and and
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continuing to allow them to flourish,
man doesn't learn, as he is still
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true today. I'm God judges us, he disciplines us, he he strikes
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us down, he shows us the
ways of our sin the misery that comes
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from it. And yet we continue
to fight against him, we continue to
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not give him the glory that's do
his name. We continue to be shortsighted
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and establish a name for ourselves man, the story of Man, you might
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say, as a story about a
a failure to learn over and over and
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over again. And we see that
even a little bit here in this genealogy
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and we'll see it more in as
you read on, in the coming chapters.
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In Genesis there's idolatry, there's short
sightedness. Instead of pursuing a life
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according to God's laws, as are
embedded in nature, they go after other
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gods. They pursue their own ways. In the book of Joshua, some
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of the background about this is filled
out a little. In Joshua Twenty four
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two, Joshua says to the people
of Israel, long ago, your father's
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lived beyond the Euphrates. If Euphrates
Tara, the father of Abraham and Nahor,
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and they served other gods. Joshua
says this to them. To say
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this is the family that you came
from. You came from an idolatrous family.
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You came from a family that was
serving other gods. You do not
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be like this. Let me.
If you'd like, you can turn with
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me to Joshua Twenty four and I'll
read you one more verse, verse fourteen.
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So the verse I just read was
Joshua Twenty four two. In verse
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fourteen, he takes this background information
and and puts before them, the people
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of Israel, this very clear command
in twenty four fourteen. Now, therefore,
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fear Jehovah and Serve Him in sincerity
and faithfulness. Put away the Gods
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that your fathers served beyond the river
and in Egypt, and serve Jehovah.
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There's this command that he gives to
them. He says, don't do like
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you used to do, don't act
like the family from which you came from.
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We even have hints that this is
what's going on already in the genealogy
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itself, in Tara's genealogy. In
Verse Twenty Seven of Genesis, Chapter Eleven,
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I'm Bruce Walkin mentions that they go
to a place, they settle in
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areas that are particularly important for this
moon God cult. This Moon, God's
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is somewhat ironically and aptly named sin
S I N and they go. They
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settle in these places, in Er, in Harun and places that are particularly
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important for this for this cult.
We also know that not only do they
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settle in these areas, but Sarai
and Milka are most likely named after sins,
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consort and daughter respectively. Tara's name
even might be related to Yara,
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which means moon. These likely things
point to further evidence of what Joshua says
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is obvious. These people served other
gods. They were naming their children after
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them, they were moving to important
cities that served these gods. As you
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see this, what you realize very
quickly, as this point I was making
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a moment ago, that man fails
to learn. Can you imagine? God
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has just flooded the earth, man
built up this great tower for his name
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and he struck them with confusion.
Every day now they're facing these obstacles of
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trying to talk with people they used
to be able to talk with. Divide
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it up, and yet still still, mankind continues, continues to go after
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sin, both these particular God and
sin itself, serving other gods, living
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in a way that is not according
to God's law. Well, it's in
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this context, in this disorder,
in this confusion and all of this sin,
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that we have genesis eleven, ten
through thirty two, that we have
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this genealogy. And what do we
see in this genealogy? A genealogy that,
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on the one hand, hints,
as I mentioned, in these names
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and in these places, of the
sin that's going on, but a geneology
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that in many ways is breathing life, the life of God. How do
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we see that? You see it
in number ways. First of all,
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you see it in the order,
the lack of confusion. Man is spread
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out all over the face of the
earth, there's all kinds of confusion in
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his language, he's no longer united. And yet here's this genealogy. Mankind
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continuing to prosper, one son after
another. I'm being born again and again.
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There's another way that God reminds us
and is foreshadowing in the genealogy the
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promise, his promises. You remember
back in a very similar genealogy, back
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in chapter five, there was a
long list and some ways parallel with some
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of these things. I'm in chapter
five and we read this, listen to
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how this genealogy goes. When Seth
had lived a hundred and five years,
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he fathered enosh. Seth lived after
he fathered Enosh eight hundred and seven years
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and had other sons and daughters.
Thus all the days of Seth were nine
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hundred and twelve and he died.
When Enosh had lived ninety years, he
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fathered Keenan. Enosh lived after he
fathered Keenan eight hundred and fifteen years and
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had other sons and daughters. Thus
all the days of Enosh were nine hundred
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and five years and he died.
Now, when you compare that, and
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it continues to go on like that
with chapter eleven, you notice that something's
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missing. Do you know what it
is? And he died. That strong,
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powerful refrain that happened over and over
again right after the fall, reminding
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us of how sin came into the
world and he died and he died and
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he died and he died. Genesis
eleven is a little bit different. We
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don't read and he died, but
each of these blocks of the genealogy and
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with something different, and he had
other sons and daughters and he had other
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sons and daughters and he had other
sons and daughters. So instead of each
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point in the genealogy coming to a
full stop again and again and again with
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this death of these people. Instead
it's spreading out and he had other sons
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and daughters, and he had other
sons and daughters and he had other sons
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and daughters. This kind of life, as mankind, is spreading across the
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face of the earth. This living
is attributed to only one thing, to
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God, to God keeping his promise
not to flood the earth but to hold
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man are, to hold his judgment
at bay until Jesus returns, but also
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his promise from the very beginning that
through the children of man, through eves
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children, would come one who would
be a savior, and that this genealogy
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takes us up to one of the
most important people in that promise, to
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Abram. We read of Abram being
born to this man Tara, along with
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his we hear of his wife and
other relatives of his, and then when
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we come to chapter twelve, God
settles the story down and will for many
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chapters on this one person, Abram. If you have your bibles open,
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you can read with me at the
beginning of Chapter Twelve, and this provides
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the other part of the context around
Genesis Eleven, as the word, the
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spirit of God settles down on Abram
to give us information and about him.
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We read this now. Jehovah said
to Abram, go from your country,
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your kindred and your father's house to
the land that I will show you.
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In light of what we've heard about
Tara already, we see what God is
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doing. Man Has, in many
ways been separating himself from God since Genesis
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Chapter Three, but now God is
going to separate Abram and his family from
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man, in a sense, from
the cities and places that he's established,
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and particularly from these, particularly from
Er. He says golf, from your
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own country, leave the cities that
you've built, the family that you have,
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and go to the land that I
show you. God tells Abram to
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depend on him, to put his
faith in him, and then he makes
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promises to Abram. First, two
and I will make of you a great
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nation and I will bless you and
make your name great, so that you
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will be a blessing. I will
bless those who bless you, and him
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who dishonors you I will curse,
and in you all the families of the
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earth will be bred, blessed.
Various other things happen and various other promises,
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and God makes an official covenant with
Abram and in Genesis fifteen, giving
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the sign of it later in genesis
seventeen. But, as we see in
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this these few verses will be expanded
out as these promises are given to Abram,
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these great promises, one in a
context of sin and two in a
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context of barrenness. This is what
is said of Sarah, isn't it in
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the genealogies and Chapter Eleven, that
Sarah I was barren, Abram's wife?
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So God is making promises that in
many ways seem impossible. God is going
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to make Abram a father of of
many nations, that the fan all,
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that all the families of the earth
will be blessed in him. God,
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what we see, what we see
here, is what God is doing,
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is he is beginning to expand on
that promise, in that work of that
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promise. Now, going back to
genesis eleven, what this all teaches us
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us is that out of the sin, out of the misery, out of
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the confusion, out of the disorder, God is taking and will take man
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from there to here, and he
does, and he does in a very
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specific way. And this is what
I want you to focus on for the
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for the rest of our consideration of
this passage. God's salvation, whenever he
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brings it, is always very specific. It's always very particular. A lot
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of times we fall into the error
of thinking of God's salvation and a very
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kind of abstract way. It's sort
of like a bumper sticker that sort of
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means something but isn't really filled out
with many details. What the Bible does,
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though, what God does when he
tells us his word, is he
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fills out those particulars and he tells
us that his salvation is not abstract or
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just sort of floating out there.
are somewhere, something we kind of leave
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in. That is good, but
it's this very, very particular thing,
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so particular that you might say it
like this. When a parkashot had lived
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thirty five years, he fathered Shella, and a park ashod lived after he
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fathered shell a four hundred and three
years and had other sons and daughters.
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It's that particular. God's salvation is
so particular that it comes down to the
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these very specific names of specific people
living at an exact time in an exact
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place, with an exact number of
years, not only of their lives,
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but of events in their lives.
And of course we know from the rest
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of scripture, from our own personal
experiences, these specific periods of time just
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don't only relate to birth and death
and the birth of sons and daughters,
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but everything, every moment of it. Our lives is providentially ordered by the
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will of God, every single moment. Our Salvation, in other words,
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is not abstract, vague, difficult
thing to really express, less in the
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words it's given. In many words, it's shown to us again and again
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and again. And what we have
here in genesis eleven is the particulars of
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God's Providence, one after another after
another, leading up to this man Abram,
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who then will lead up to a
man named Jesus, this particular man
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in a particular place, born in
a very particular way to a particular woman
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by a particular God, are Triune
God, who she conceives by the Holy
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Spirit coming over her Mary. It
gives forth and bears forth this son,
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who is called Jesus, who is
God, God, comes into a the
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world in a particular way and he
dies on a particular cross between two particular
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people. God's Providence, in other
words, the way that God works in
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the world and has worked in the
world is not sort of Willie Nilly or
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just reacting to events or kind of
making it up as he goes along.
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It's very exact, it's very particular. This includes, of course, the
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son of God dying on the Cross, when the people of Israel, these
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people that called themselves sons and daughters
of Abraham, rose up against the son
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of God and put him to death, being joined with gentile rulers. It
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wasn't an accident. They were deliver
Jesus was delivered up unto death by these
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people, to be sure, but
he did so, but he did so
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according to the will of God.
God's sovereignty and plan was over this particular
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action as well, and it was
so that we would be saved. And
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this, beloved, brings us a
lot of hope, a lot of confidence
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in God, if you would have
eyes to see it, because just as
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all the saving work was done according
to the perfect will of God in these
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particular ways, from the time of
Shem to the time of Abraham and from
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the time of Abram to the time
of Jesus, so true for the time
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of Jesus to today. Your names, your particular names are also written down
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in the book of life. When
we put our faith in Jesus, we
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don't put our faith and some kind
of abstract good plan that has something to
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do with positive thinking and joy of
some sort. It has to do with
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Jesus. And when we believe in
Jesus, God promises to us that we
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belong to him in a particular way. He know ows US, he saves
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us, he's chosen us. You, your name, you as you are
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before the foundation of the world,
that he might save you through Christ's work
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on the Cross, and as your
salvation was chosen by God and worked out
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according to his promises and his providences. This is true not just of your
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beginning in his plan from all eternity, and not just in the particular dates
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of your life, your birth,
your death, maybe major events, but
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in all of the events of your
life. You might think about how it
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is you came to salvation in Jesus
Christ. Maybe it was Sunday school teachers
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or preaching or your parents raising you
according to God's word, teaching of you
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these promises, of these gospels.
Maybe it was a friend, maybe it
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was a particular time, a particular
place. These were not accidents. These
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are God's works and they are great, aren't they? They're marvelous and excellent,
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and it means that we can depend
on God not only for our salvation
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in a general sense, but in
a specific sense in the particular moments of
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our lives where we have to face
decisions and we decide, will I choose
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one thing or choose another? Well, I trust in God's saving grace,
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or will I not? When we
face these particular challenges, trust in your
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particular God. Trust that he is
sovereign even in you, these moments of
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trial, these ways in which he
is testing you. And this is what
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we read of in First Peter,
isn't it? Earlier? We read that
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God brings about various trials in our
life to test our faith. Don't see
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those as apart from God, but
see those as him working in you,
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saving you and bringing you to the
end. All of these things, I
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should bring us great hope, when
we read a genealogy like this, when
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we consider our own names written in
God's book, that all the genealogy that
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we have is one that is also
connected to this genealogy, that we are
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sons and daughters of Abraham through faith
in Jesus Christ. Let us give praise
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to God right. Let us humble
our hearts and be thankful to him for
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bringing us out of chaos and disorder
and sin and idolatry to belong to the
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family of God, all because of
his sovereign and particular grace. Let us
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pray
