today to Genesis chapter 11, and we're going to begin in verse number 10 of this passage and go down to the end of this passage, down to verse number 32. This gives us the generations of Abraham, or Abram, as we begin to look here at his forebears, his forefathers that are listed for us here to give us some context about where Abraham comes from and the time frame at which Abram was. We're going to start this study on Abraham and we're going to look at his life As we look at his life, we're going to be able to see these promises of God to him and how these promises reflect even today and how they are in force and the fact of the fulfillment of those promises when they shall come. We're also going to look at Abraham's faith and that faith as It is written for us how important it is for us to have that understanding and that example for our own faith and what we have in it. Abraham was saved those many, many years ago, almost 2,000 years before the Lord even came on the scene, and Abraham was saved exactly like you and I were saved. Except from his standpoint, he was looking forward to what Jesus was coming to do, and you and I were looking backward to what Jesus has already done. He was saved the exact same way you and I were, by grace through faith. And so we'll look at that. Paul uses that as an example for us, particularly when he gets there in the book of Romans and is describing Abraham's faith. We see those examples that are given to us there in Hebrews chapter 11 of his faith. So we're going to be looking at all these things as we go along in this study. as we try to cover these things that are written for us concerning this man and what he would mean to so many, including us even today, 4,000 years removed from him. And so we begin here in Genesis 11. This is the first mention of him as we are reading concerning these generations. This is after the flood. This is after the building of the Tower of Babel there in chapter 11 and God confounding the languages and those languages going out from that place and carrying that new language that was divided from the one singular language that was there in the land at the time in the plain of Shinar as they spread out and they take their languages to the different parts of the world. And what we see them then doing at this point is as they are separating, as they're going out carrying what culture they had there at the Tower of Babel, they carry that culture with them, and they are scattering into the parts of the world. They now speak another language from what they spoke here, but they're all telling, continue to tell the exact same stories. They continue to tell the exact same idea about the gods that Nimrod had taught them of there in that place. They carry that with them to the four corners of the earth. And what is it that they do in every place? They build the exact same building that was built there in the Tower of Babel. They go and build pyramids. It's all over the world. In every culture. It seems they built some sort of ... Even in the North American culture, the American Indians that we have in North America, they were called mound builders because they didn't build the stone, but rather they would build earthen mounds to do the sand and build buildings on top of those mounds. They built the exact same structures, the mines. The Aztecs throughout Mexico and Central America and even down into South America, they built those pyramids all over Egypt there particularly. We see those pyramids all over China. In the Far East, they have those pyramids. This was something that was carried throughout the world. Again, they're building the same buildings. They're telling the same stories about their gods. It's almost comical. to read those stories about their gods and how they have different names for these gods, but they're telling the exact same stories about them. One of the, to me, the funny ones, I guess, or maybe the most stark ones, is the Egyptians and the Mayans. They both celebrated or worshipped a snake god. and they talk about that snake god being so powerful and had legs and he would walk around and they even gave credit to him being the creator even. And they both tell the same things about this snake god with the four legs. He gets lifted up in himself and he rebels against the big god. They never explain who the big god is. It's just that the snake god makes the big god mad and what does the big god do but take away his legs so that the snake has to crawl around on the ground. They tell the exact same stories. They have different names for them but it's the exact same thing. And it's because of the confounding of the language that takes place here. But then the focus comes back here to Shem's family. You have the three sons of Noah that come off of the ark and they are populating the earth. And it's from their line that these families exist on the earth after the flood. It's the reason you and I exist today. I am from the line of Japheth. Guess where you come from? The line of Japheth. We're all from his line. His descendants went up into Europe and those areas of northern Europe and the Germanic countries and Germanic tribes rather and they come across the big water to the United States and here we are with the descendants of Japheth. The line of Shem is the line of Israel, the line of the Jews. And this is what you find here in our text tonight, as we are looking here, as it comes down to Abram, these genealogies that are given for us in the scriptures, that describe for us this lineage from Shem to Abram. And then once we get through the genealogy, it just begins with Abram's life here in these next several chapters. But he says here in verse 10, these are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old and began our faxing two years after the flood. And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad 500 years and begat sons and daughters. Arphaxad lived 5 and 30 years and begat Selah. And Arphaxad lived after he begat Selah 403 years and begat sons and daughters. And Selah lived 30 years and begat Eberu. And Selah lived after he begat Ebru 403 years and begat sons and daughters. And Ebru lived 430 years and begat Peleg. And Ebru lived after he begat Peleg 430 years and begat sons and daughters. And Peleg lived 30 years and begat Reu. And Peleg lived after he begat Riu 209 years and begat sons and daughters. And Riu lived 230 years and begat Sirug. And Riu lived after he begat Sirug 207 years and begat sons and daughters. And Sirug lived 30 years and begat Nahor. And Sirug lived after he begat Nahor 200 years and begat sons and daughters and Nahor lived 9 and 20 years and begat Terah. And Nahor lived after he begat Terah 119 years and begat sons and daughters. Now do you see here, as we're going down through this genealogy list here, we have their exact number of years that they lived. You have the number of years up to the time that this particular descendant was born. Doesn't mean they didn't have descendants before that, and it tells us that they have further descendants after that, but it's the one that's in the line that is of most importance. That's the one that it's focusing on. So when it tells us there that Serug lived after he begat, well, let me back up to verse 22. Serug lived 30 years and begat Nahor. It may have been that Serug lived 20 years and begat 10 other kids by the time he gets to Nahor. But Nahor is the one that's in the line. So that's the one that's focused on in the genealogy. But the exact number is given for us so that we can see, we can figure out the timeline. God has given that exactly to us for us to be able to see that timeline as it's given. But the stark thing, the stark reality is you have before the flood, you have the genealogies that's given for you there in chapter 5 and beginning of chapter 6 there as it brings you up to the flood. You have those names listed there of those that were born after Adam and Eve and their descendants, and you have all of them living 900 years, 800, 900 years, every single one of them. Noah, at the time of the flood, was 600 years old. He lives another 350 years after the flood, so he's 950 years old at his death. Shem, the very one that we're focusing on here in chapter 11, he only lived 600. So immediately, right after the flood, you see this drop in the ages take place. He's living 350 years less than his father lived. Arphaxad lived 438, his son. Selah, Arphaxad's son, he lives 433. The Hebrew lives 464. At Peleg, it drops down to 239. And you see that constant drop going on down to Nahor, it's Peleg 239, Riu 239, Sireh 230. Nahor lived 148 years. And so you see that constant drop there in the age of man. After the flood, the further we get away from the flood, the less time man spends on this earth. The lifespan grows a great deal shorter after this. But nevertheless, it's somewhat remarkable by the time you get to Abram here in our text, who he was able to at least maybe have heard of, maybe even known personally, I don't know. But you have Shem here who was 100 and he began Arphaxad two years after the flood. So Noah was 602 years old at that time, his father. Shem would live another 500 years after the flood there, well 498 after his son is born, for a total of 600 years. Arphaxad lived 35 years and begat Selah and then he would live another 403 years and would die 62 years before Shem would die. Selah lived 30 and begat Eberu and then Selah lived another 403 years and he would die 32 years before Shem died. So Shem's only lives 600 in comparison to Noah's 950, he's still outliving many of his descendants even. Hebrew lived 34 years and begat Peleg, and Hebrew lived a total of 464 years. Peleg lived 30 years and begat Reu, and it was during his life Peleg's life, that the earth was divided, or what took place here in Genesis chapter 11, I believe is what it's talking about there, is in the division of those nations, when that took place, that was during Peleg's life. And he lived from 1,757 years after creation to 1,996 years after creation. That being determined from the time of the creation to the time of the flood, the flood was 1,656 years after creation. And so this took place, Peleg's life rather, took place about 101 years after the flood did. And that's when this division took place among the nations here in the Plain of Shinar. In that time frame. When exactly it took place in Peleg's life, I don't know. It was during his life. It was in that time frame. Peleg lived 209 years after he begat Riu. And then Riu lived 32 and begat Sirug, and he lived another 207 years after that. And Sirug lived 30 and begat Nahor, and then he lived another 200 years after that. And Nahor would live 29 and he begat Tira. and Nehor would live another 119 years, and then he would die. This is what is in common, no matter the length of days, no matter how long the life may be, this is what was in common to them all, they died. And he died, and he died, and he died. And he died, they would all die. Whether it was 950, or whether it was 140, it was nevertheless they died. And then we read here in this text, verse number 26, and Terah lived 70 years and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. It doesn't necessarily mean they were all twins. It just means that during that 70-year period, he had these three sons. And the three sons that were important to the story that's being told to us here in regards to the children of Israel as they would come on the scene here from this man, Abram. Now, Abram's two brothers there, Nahor and Haran, are mentioned with him, and it says, now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father, Terah, in the land of his nativity in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took them wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai. and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran. Now, we are told in Genesis chapter 20, particularly in verse number 12, that Sarah was Abram's half-sister. In fact, if you go over and read that with me, chapter 20 and verse number 21, Chapter 20, verse 21, we see that specifically. No, I'm sorry, verse 12. Chapter 20, verse 12. There ain't even 21 verses in that chapter. You'd be hard-pressed to find it. It's verse 12. Genesis 20, verse 12. And Abram says here, he's talking to Abimelech, and says, Yet indeed, she is my sister. She is the daughter of my father. but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. So here she is, she's ten years younger than Abraham, or Abram at this point, and she is his half-sister by his father. They have different mothers. And so she becomes his wife. Horan, his son Lot, would marry Well, let me go back up to our text and read that. Haran died before his father Tira in the land of his nativity in Ur of the Chaldees, and Abraham and Nahor took them wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarah, his half-sister, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milca, and she was the daughter of Haran. So that would be his niece that he would take as his wife. And the father of Milca, which is Haran, and the father of Isca, And Iska is mentioned there, and we don't have any other name or any other understanding of who Iska is, other than most think that Iska is actually Lot's wife. That she was also the daughter of Haran. Now, whether or not that's a case, I don't know. I don't know if that's... So it would be also Lot's half-sister. that he took as his wife. But whether that's the case or not, I don't know. It's just that her name is mentioned, but they're not giving us any other reason why. And that's the reason most think that it is, that she was the wife of Lot. So, we have this down to, from the genealogy beginning at at Shem, after the flood, you have these names listed, this genealogy given us, in the specific time that it's given to us. You have the exact years that are timed out for us. So we know that frame of time and how far it is along after the creation to these events that are taking place. The Lord's careful about this in in these genealogies given to us, there's no way you can fit millions of years in anywhere in the creation story there. It just don't fit. You have to make up ideas about where it could possibly go if that's the case. The years are given to us specifically there in regards from Adam all the way through even to Abram here. And then there are other times that are given for us to take us all the way up to our Lord even that we can follow that path as well. The Lord is specific. in the giving of His Word to us, to give us those very years, a number of years, that we can find this. Now, we are told that they live, their land of nativity, there in verse 28, was in Ur of the Chaldeans. This is where Tira was born, and this is where Abram, Nahor, and Haran were born. And Ur is 150 miles southeast of Shinar. So it draws down closer to the Arabian Peninsula there, and where this particular land is, or this place, Ur we call these. 150 miles southeast from where these events here in the first part of chapter 11 takes place. They're in the plain of Shinar. By the way, they have ... I won't get into all of that today, but Answers in Genesis has a couple of documentaries on it that you should go look up. They've got them on YouTube. Go look them up there. Concerning the Tower of Babel, they know exactly where it was at. They've done excavations on it. It was torn down, I believe, by Alexander the Great. When he came in and conquered the area, he tore down what was remaining of it because it was never a completed building. Because it was never fully completed, it had begun to crumble and to fall down. He had torn it down to the foundation to rebuild it. He wanted to build it up to the fullness of its glory. He died and he didn't get a chance to. It was left at the foundational state. What was the ruler of Iraq before we went in there? Saddam Hussein. His name left me. Saddam, he went in to it. He was going to rebuild it back as well. Not only the Tower of Babel, he was going to build the whole city of Babylon. He was going to rebuild it all. He had started construction on it. Of course, he's dead now too. As far as I know, there's no building on it right now. But they know exactly where the building was, and we have that record of it today. If you want to go to Iraq and go there, you can go see it. But it's there today. We know exactly where it is at. from the standpoint of our world today. And so it's a real place that these events took place in. And so here they are 150 miles southeast of Shinar in Ur of the Chaldees. And it tells us here, verse 29, and Abram and Nahor took them wives, it tells us. And then it tells us that Sarai was barren and she had no child, verse number 30. So Sarah was barren and was not able to have children, which is important to our story. Her barrenness was told us here from the beginning in regards to that. Verse 31, and Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth with them from Ur to Chaldeas to go into the land of Canaan, and they came into Haran and dwelt there. Which that's interesting there as we see that Tira is the one that is said to have led his children toward the land of Canaan. So he's brought them out of Ur of the Chaldees and moving them toward the land of Canaan And they come to Haran and dwelt there. And since that name is the very name of his son, some have estimated that Hira actually built this city. Now, whether or not that's the case, I don't know. Or maybe that city was built in honor of his son, or whatever the case may be. But it's named the same as his son. And so it may be that he himself was the builder of that city. But they come and dwelt there at Haran, and this is where Tira would die, here in this place. And the days, tells us verse 32, in the days of Tira were 205 years, and Tira died in Haran. And so they start their journey from Ur to Chaldees, and go to the city of Haran there, and there they establish a home as if they, I don't know whether they gave up on getting to Canaan at that point, or whether it was just a necessity for them to stop, but they dwelt there, and of course this was the place that Tira died in Haran. Now, give you some perspective here. The flood of Noah was 1,656 years after the fall or after creation. Depends on how long Adam and Eve were in the garden. I don't think they were in there very long. I don't know how long, but I don't think it was very long. But at least it is 1,656 years after the fall we have the flood of Noah take place which we read about in Genesis chapter 6 through Genesis chapter 9 as that destruction of the world took place at that time by water. God brought this on because of the wickedness of man and that is his deeds were only evil continually so that God destroyed the earth saving alive only Noah and his family and those animals that God had put on the ark with him, besides the sea creatures that could live in the sea. This was, again, 1,656 years after the fall. Now, Noah died 2,006 years after the fall. 2,006 years or 350 years after the flood. The confusion of Babel took place, and where we began our story here in Genesis chapter 11, the confusion of Babel took place during Peleg's day. And he lived anywhere from 1757 after the fall to 1996 after the fall. So he's approaching almost 2,000 years after the fall of Adam and Eve there in the Garden of Eden. So sometime in that frame of time in his life span is when that division took place that is listed for us here in Genesis chapter 11. Abram was born at 1948 years after the fall. 1948 years after the fall. That means Abram was 58 years old. If my math is mathing, Abraham was 58 years old when Noah died. So I don't know how much contact they had with their family in Shinar or at Ararat or wherever Noah and his family were at at the time. There in the plains of Ararat, below the mountains of Ararat, there are monuments there. that are big stone monuments that were erected later on. They're not as old as the flood itself, but they are known by the people in the area. That's Noah's grave and his family. That's their graves. On the side of Greater or Lesser Arafat, the mountain there just above where those graves are given there, there's like all around it there's old stone buildings and stuff that at one time stood there. There's just foundations of them now. But on the side of Greater Arafat, it's on the big mountain. On the side of it, up so far, there's actually a vineyard that's growing there. The people in the area have called it for generations Noah's Vineyard. Most of it was destroyed in 1906 when a Turkish army was marching up the hill to go and find Noah's Ark. They were going to go up there and destroy it. They believed it was up on the mountain and they were going to go up there and destroy it. They started up the hill. A little ways up the mountain, there was a big earthquake. It killed all of them, by the way, that was going up the mountain to try to destroy Noah's Ark. It killed that whole Turkish battalion that was going up to do that, and part of the vineyard was destroyed. But I understand there's still some of that vineyard there today. So, I don't know if Noah and his family stayed there. at that mountain until their death, I don't know. I don't know where they went to beyond that point. As I said, they know the supposed gravestones, those stones that are up marking, that they call those graves were put up there later on because of the markings that were on it. They know that it was not original to Noah. How long they were there, whether or not Noah and his family even stayed there in the area after They come off the ark, I don't know, and there's no way we can know that the scripture doesn't give us those things. But it's interesting to think that by the time you get all the way down that line of these generations that we're reading about and coming into the life of Abraham, or of Abram at this point, if he had possibility of travel to get there, he could go talk to Papa Noah. and find out all this stuff that had taken place up to that point. He would have had that eyewitness account of what the world was like before the flood and what the world was like after the flood. He would have that eyewitness account of what the wickedness of man had brought the earth to at that point and how he could see even then the wickedness of man continuing to expand after the flood. And so he had that ability. to have that accountant. I think that's very interesting. He's 58 years old. When Noah died, that's a lot of time that he could have had maybe to go and see Papa Noah. And I can't help but think, if you've got a family member, a known family member that's that old, that's hung around all those years, that you would make some special trip sometime in your life to go and see him, you know. I can't imagine them not doing that, at least making a pilgrimage to see Noah. You'd figure he would be a character a lot of people would want to go talk to and see, knowing what he'd come through and what he came from. But that's just to give you an idea of that, about what we're coming into when we come into the birth of Abram and in the beginning of his life. So we end here in chapter 11 and they are in Haran having moved there by Tira as he's bringing his sons and their families with him to the land of Canaan. And we'll come up in chapter number 12 next time and we'll take on with this first promise given to Abram by God and the command of God for Abram to go. And he's going to carry the family on into the land of Canaan. And we'll begin to see these events of Abram's life. And we're going to, as we go along, we're going to see Abram's failures and we're going to see his shortcomings. We're going to see the sins that he would commit. But we're also going to see his great faith and in the God who called him. which is remarkable as we see God working in this man's life. And all the way from the pitiful little sins, all the way to the great acts of faith, And what worked in Abram's life as God continually moved on him and assured him of these promises that he had given him. And the great power that he would give Abraham to affect not only his own family, but the people and the nations around him even. And what an impact Abram would have even unto this day. because of the promises of God and the faithfulness that he gave to Abraham. So we'll take up with this Wednesday as we look here in chapter number 12. Alright, let's all stand. We'll be dismissed.