This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. Well, after that stirring time of worship and song, let's turn to the genealogy in Genesis chapter 11. We'll start reading in verse 24, Genesis 11, 24. This is God's holy and inspired word. Nahor lived 29 years and became the father of Terah. Nahor lived 119 years after he became the father of Terah, and he had other sons and daughters. Terah lived 70 years and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Now these are the records of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran became the father of Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his birth in Ur the Chaldeans. Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Sarai was barren, she had no child. Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went out together from Ur, the Chaldeans, in order to enter the land of Canaan, and they went as far as Haran and settled there. The days of Terah were 205, and Terah died in Haran. This is the word of the Lord. Well, we started Genesis on May 11th, 2014. And we've preached 43 sermons so far. And in that first sermon, we opened up the whole series with these words. Genesis is the book of beginnings. It's the book of first things. It tells us of creation, our first parents, fall, the entrance of sin and death into the world, judgment and salvation. It tells us of the beginning of the nation Israel through the stories of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of course, Joseph. But in another sense, Genesis is not just about first things, it's about last things. The themes we see at the beginning of the human race point us also to the end of human history. The first creation points us to the new creation and the new heavens and the new earth. The first Adam points us to the last Adam. Genesis is, after all, says one, the beginning of the revelation of the one who writes history from the Alpha to the Omega, who is the first and the last, the beginning and the end. In God's way of doing history, the last things are as the first. So that's how we started the series. A while ago, we covered then, of course, the normal Old Testament introduction background stuff, like the title, authorship. Of course, Moses is the writer, and I know that for one very simple reason, Jesus says so. all I need. Then we looked at an outline of the book and so we said that the book of Genesis could actually be divided into two major sections. Genesis 1 through 11 which covers creation to Babel or what we might call primeval history And then Genesis 12 to 50, which covers Abram to Joseph, or what we could call patriarchal history. In Genesis 1, 1 through 2, 3, we have the creation account, 2, 4 to 25, the garden and the first couple. Chapter 3, we saw the fall, the judgment, God's salvation. We made our way through those chapters and we finished up with the Tower of Babel and the Shemites. We also noted in those introductory messages, I don't actually remember how many there were, but we said that the structure of Genesis was based around a Hebrew word, Toledot, which is translated in our Bibles as these are the generations of, or this is the history of. And there are 10 of them, which is significant. And the very first one that we saw in 2.4 was these are the generations of the heavens and the earth. 5.1 these are the generations of Adam. As that Toledot, or the generations of Adam, marches onward, we have this foreboding refrain, and so-and-so begat so-and-so, he lived X number of years, and he died. Adam's sin has now begun to demonstrate itself in his posterity. In 6-9, these are the generations of Noah. 10-1, these are the generations of the sons of Noah. 1110, these are the generations of Shem. 1127, these are the generations of Terah. And then we have Ishmael, Isaac, Esau, Jacob, and each of these Toledotes, each of these generations of actually introduces a unit or a new section. Then we finished up our introduction of Genesis with the importance of the book and the message of the book. Then we studied the days of creation. And so if you weren't here for that and you're wondering, here's my take on Genesis 1, is that God created the world and the heavens in six days. That's what I think it means, six days. And so God does in a week, Calvin actually was baffled that it took him so much time. We talked about the days of creation. We talked about the doctrine of creation. We talked about the age of the earth. We talked about, most importantly, the historicity of Adam. You have to understand that if Adam is not a historical person, you lose the gospel. Because it is Jesus Christ, the last Adam, who comes and undoes what the first Adam did. And so the first Adam sins and plunges his posterity into a state of sin and misery. It is the first Adam who commits the original sin and that sin is imputed to all of Adam's posterity and it is through the disobedience of the one that we all die and yet it is through the obedience of the one that we are made alive and justified. So we saw man is in the image of God, spent time on that, man in the garden temple, marriage in the garden temple. Then in Genesis three, we get to the saddest chapter in the Bible, the tragedy of the fall of Adam and Eve and really the fall of the whole race. But here's the magnificent thing is that in spite of Adam's sin and in spite of Adam's rebellion, there was grace. Grace that came from God. There was grace in the first gospel promise where God promises, actually, He indirectly promises to Adam and Eve by speaking to the serpent that the seed of the woman would come and crush the head of the serpent. That first gospel promise is a manifestation of the grace of God, but then God continues to show his grace to the first couple by slaying animals and covering them with their skins, replacing their futile effort at covering themselves with fig leaves. In Genesis 4-5, we see the development of the two seeds, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. We see civilization growing. We see, along with the growth of civilization, the spread of sin and death in the whole human race. But even then, in the midst of all of this darkness and in the midst of all of this sin and violence and rebellion, the grace of God continues to shine through because he has Enoch And Noah. We finally arrive to Genesis 6, the notorious sons of God, daughters of men passage. I dare not try to summarize that. The sin of man leads to universal judgment by God through the flood, and it is Noah and his family that are the targets. They're the recipients of God's free grace, and Noah, Noah becomes a savior, small s, and becomes a new Adam. It will be through Noah now that people are to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And so Genesis 7 and 8, we see the flood in terms of judgment and then also recreation. Genesis 9, there is the emergence of a new world and a covenant with Noah and all of Noah's posterity, which means it's a universal covenant. But then in the end, what we find out is that Noah isn't a perfect savior. In fact, Noah needs a savior. needs a savior with a capital S. And so his sons carry on the serpent seed. So for the purging of the earth and its cleansing by the flood, as long as human beings will remain, the earth will still be a place where sinful human beings are the inhabitants. Chapter 10 brought us to the table of nations. And the table of nations, of course, is significant because what God is doing is God is setting the table. God is now showing how these nations are developing and growing, and then to wrap up, as it were, that first section of primeval history, then we have the Tower of Babel, God's judgment. So the incident that happens in Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel on the plains of Shinar is actually both judgment and grace. Okay, it's judgment in that God scatters the nations, scatters the peoples and confuses the languages. That is actually an act of divine judgment, but it is also an act of divine grace because what God does is God prevents a unified solidarity and indeed a nationalism that would rise up in pride and arrogance against the living God. And so God scatters the people. And what we saw as we looked at 10 and 11 is we saw this interesting structure. And I wanna review this very quickly with you, then we'll get to the exciting stuff of Shem's descendants, okay? Now, if you look at chapter 10, verse one, We have the introduction to this new section, this is a Toledot, right? So these are the records of the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and sons were born to them after the flood. And then we have the sons of Japheth in two to five, the sons of Ham, six to 20. And then what Moses does is he wraps up that first genealogy with the sons of Shem. Now, the sons of Shem, This is where we're gonna get the idea of the Semites, okay? This is gonna be the origination of the nation Israel. But that line that we see, that first genealogy, it will go Shem to Joctam, and then it leads right to Babel. Then we have the concluding statement in 10.32, Now these are the families of the sons of Noah according to their genealogies by their nations. And out of these, the nations were separated on the earth after the flood. And so we have the introduction in 10.1, the genealogy through the chapter. the conclusion in 1032, then we have this interlude of the Tower of Babel. Now it's not there accidentally. It's actually to demonstrate that even with the godly line of Seth that ends up going through, as it were, through the Shemites, that even among the Shemites there was indeed the seed of the serpent. Then what happens is starting in 11 verse 10, notice is these are the records of the generations of Shem. Shem was 100 years old and became the father of Arpkeshad two years after the flood. So what happens is, is after the Babel incident, then we have a second genealogy for Shem. So we have two genealogies for Shem. The second genealogy though, goes from Shem to Peleg to Abram. So think about it this way, Shem is going to have sons and what is going to happen is that Shem's genealogy through Joctim will lead to the judgment at Babel, his genealogy through Peleg will lead to Abram. It's important All right, 10 or 11, 10 to 26. Now we're not gonna read all of these. I was gonna have Dave do the scripture reading and have him read the entire genealogy and see how long it took him to do all the names, but I had mercy, okay? So in chapter 11, 10 to 26, we have Shem's descendants. Now, in Genesis 5, we had a genealogy. This is fascinating to me. Maybe it's only fascinating to me. I hope it's fascinating to you. We had 10 names in the genealogy from Adam to the flood. Now, after the flood, we will have 10 names in the genealogy from the flood to Abram. 10 before the flood, 10 after the flood. All right, and this genealogy is given to us in two major parts, 10 to 26 is Shem, and then 27 to 32 focuses on a descendant of Shem named Terah, all right? So in 10 to 17, Archpashad is actually the third of Shem's four sons. But yet, this is how the genealogy is actually going to be traced. Now, just think with me for a moment. In ancient Near Eastern culture, if you had children, who was the most important? The firstborn son, all right? That is part of the warp and woof of ancient Near Eastern culture. The firstborn son is the heir. The firstborn son is the preeminent one. The firstborn son is the one through whom the promise is supposed to continue on. God is going to turn that on its head all throughout the book of Genesis. And he does it right here by tracing the line through Shem and then to a third born son from Shem. And again, why does God do that? Because God is underscoring that this is not a matter of birth order, chronology, or even ultimately race. It is a matter of his free sovereign choice. And so the line will go from Ark Peshad to Shelah to Eber, which is where we're going to get the word Hebrew from, and then Peleg. And then at that point, the line of Shem divides at Eber, and the divine selection of one brother over against another is nothing other than a demonstration of election according to grace. Now verses 18 to 25 go from Peleg to Terah. And with Peleg, we actually notice something very interesting. Notice verse 18, Peleg lived 30 years and became the father of Reu. Peleg lived 209 years after he became the father of Reu. He had other sons and daughters. Reu lived 32 years and became the father of Sarug, et cetera. Notice what happens with Peleg. All of a sudden, when he started having children, it starts getting much earlier, and the lives of these people start to shrink drastically. a demonstration of the spread of sin into the human race. At the end of this section, verse 25, we have this fellow, Nahor, and he has a son, Terah. And as you're reading along in the genealogy, unless you already know the story, there's really nothing that catches your attention about this other than the fact that Terah, who has just come into this world, is in fact going to end up being the father of the faithful. And so Terah has Abram, Nahor, who's named after his grandfather, And Haran, who is the father of Lot, verse 27. And so here we see the introduction of Abram and the word Abram just simply means exalted father. It's a weird name to give to your kid. But it does probably reflect some sort of nobility within Tara's line. And then what ends up happening is that Heron dies in Ur. Heron is Lot's father. Lot now becomes an orphan. You see what's happening. Do you like to read novels? You like to read cowboy novels, right? Okay, if you read novels, not a big novel fan, read once in a while. You pay attention to the details. Because when you pay attention to the details and you get to the end, and then when you go back, when you see those same details in light of the end of the story, then all of a sudden, those details start to make sense. And so you might be reading along and you see the revolver on the table in one scene, and then the next scene, the revolver's not on the table, and you go, oh, look at that, there's a detail that I should pay attention to. I bet that revolver gets used in the murder of somebody here very soon. The fact that we're just told that Heron dies in Ur is actually setting the table for us to explain why Lot ends up going with Abram. because Abram ends up, in a sense, adopting Lot, who is his nephew, all right? Now, in verse 29, it tells us, Abram and Nahor took wives, and Sarai, okay? Let's get this out there and then move on quickly. Sarai is actually Abram's half-sister, okay? You keep that in mind when he's later saying, hey, she's my sister, all right? Her name means princess. Absolutely beautiful. And then Milka. I don't know what they were thinking, but anyway, Lot's sister. The family, under the leadership of Terah, we're talking about a culture that is strongly patriarchal. Terah decides that he's gonna move his family. and he ends up moving them, they will actually end up settling, they've lived in one center of worship of the moon god Sin, S-I-N, and they will end up moving to another center for the same worship of the same false god. Now here's where things get really, really interesting, is that Sarai, in ancient Near Eastern religion, was actually the name of Sin, the moon god's consort. And Milcah was the daughter of Sin in the moon god religion. Now what the names do is the names actually show you how committed Terah is, whose name by the way means moon, how committed he is to the worship of the moon god cult. This is a reminder to us actually that the nation Israel is going to be born right out of pagan idolatry. Okay, so here's a little takeaway for you. No matter what your ancestry, no matter what you were born into, God's redeeming grace is greater than any circumstance, any family, any ancestry that you could be born into, okay? He redeems us from that. And so, remember Joshua, in Joshua 24, he says to all the people, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, from ancient times, your fathers, Terah, Abram, your fathers lived beyond the river, namely Terah, the father of Abram, and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. And in fact, throughout Joshua chapter 24, as Joshua's preaching to that next generation that's about to, he's about to go off of the scene, they're about now to settle the land and multiply and complete the fulfillment of the promise, Joshua's reminding them repeatedly, our fathers worshiped other gods. Reminder of the history. Reminder what they were born out of. Reminder what they were saved out of. Then the text tells us this little detail. Notice verse 30. Sarai was barren. She had no child. If she was barren, guess what? she had no child. Why say it twice? Why be redundant? Why repeat the obvious that this woman had no child? You have to remember what is happening here is Moses under the inspiration of scripture is setting up for us the beginning of the gospel according to Abraham. And the very theme of barrenness, here we are introduced to the first time in Scripture, this theme of barrenness, and it says it twice, she was barren, she had no children. In other words, as Abram takes this woman to be his wife, they have no children, they are infertile, they have absolutely no heirs. Maybe by the idea of adopting Lot into their family, maybe Abram was fulfilling, you know, not only a duty to his brother, but also a sense of wanting to be a father. Whatever the case, this metaphor of barrenness is a metaphor of hopelessness. If you lived in the ancient world and you were barren, it was a sign of shame, it was a sign of hopelessness, there was a sense in which barrenness was the worst thing that a woman could actually go through. There were no fertility clinics, there was no fertilization processes, there was nothing like that. Barrenness actually, in a sense, locked up a woman to a sense of a hopeless, futile life. Walter Brueggemann says the barrenness is an effective metaphor for hopelessness. That is, no human power to invent a future. Verse 31. Terah took Abram, his son, Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, his son, Abram's wife, and they went out together from Ur, the Chaldeans, in order to enter the land of Canaan, and they went as far as Haran and settled there. This is this big family decision, of course, under the leadership of Terah. He's gonna move his family. Now, I don't know why he's going to move his family, but you know what this sounds like? They leave Ur of the Chaldees, they head out from Ur of the Chaldees, and they only make it to Haran, which actually meant they had to travel north before they were gonna go south for a while. It couldn't help but to be reminded of that line from that great Three Dog Night hymn, headed for Las Vegas but only made it out to needles it's what it seems like we're gonna go we're gonna go to Canaan Well, they stop in Haran and Haran is noted actually for its mammoth temple to the moon God's scene. And so it's speculated that maybe the family decided that they were gonna head out to Canaan, they were gonna take a stop and visit this incredible shrine. And when they get there, they decide that this is where they're going to stay because of whatever religious affinities they felt in that place. And then verse 32 tells us in such simple terms, The days of terror were 205 years and terror died inherent. This is like pretty ordinary stuff. This family, they were pagans and this guy had a barren wife and this guy died and so they keep his son and they all decide to move out together and head off to the great, you know, to the great north woods or whatever and here they are and then the old man gets there and he dies. stirring stuff. I read that this week and my heart soared. Well, there's actually two things that we need to keep in mind as we consider the way Genesis 11 wraps up. because we're going to see next week in Genesis chapter 12 that the Lord Yahweh is going to start speaking to Abram directly and he's going to call him. Now, here are the two things that we need to keep in mind. What I want you to do as we think about these things is I want you to put yourself in Abrams' situation or Sarai's situation. And here you are, you're fairly nomadic, you've moved around. Tara is the patriarch, he's made the decisions. We have no baby, that makes me sad. And here we are in this life that is just so ordinary, so mundane, so depressing. The first thing to keep in mind is One, God's promise. God's promise. One of the biggest challenges to the life of faith is keeping the promises of God in the forefront of our mind in the midst of the ordinary and in the midst of the mundane. And so here, God had made a promise. that the seed of the woman was going to come and crush the serpent's head, and here's the glorious thing. Unbeknownst to Terah, to Abram, or Sarai, God is bringing that promise to pass. Which reminds us that God keeps his promises and fulfills his promises in the midst of the ordinary, daily, mundane stuff of life. Not every day is a Red Sea parting day. Sometimes it's just we moved and dad died kind of day. What we see is we see God's purpose and his plan slowly moving ahead through unwitting participants. Isn't it a great thing that you can be unwitting and yet be a participant? I mean, that gives a lot of us hope! And so here's the promise of God, it's moving ahead, it's moving slowly, it's moving in the face of adversity, it's moving in the face of man's sin and man's arrogance, man who is always doing what? Seeking to just power over God's boundaries. And so after that primeval universal history, God says, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna actually narrow in the focus here on one family, one man. Why? Because this one family, by the way, this hopeless family, this barren family, this family lost in the darkness of paganism, is now going to become the recipient of free, sovereign, eternal, matchless grace. God's keeping His promise. If you would have been living at that time, and let's say you would have understood to some degree the promise of God. By the way, I think that there were some. Abraham is going to meet a man in Genesis chapter 14 named Melchizedek, who was a priest of El Elyon, God most high. So God would have his people. So let's say you were one of those who was just eagerly waiting for the promise of God to come to fulfillment, and God says, okay, I'm gonna show you something. You wanna see how I'm gonna do this? Look at this family. And you would say, is this plan B? I mean, Lord, I don't want to be disrespectful, and I know you didn't ask for my advice, but I think I might be able to find a better candidate to fulfill the promise. But this is the way God works. This is the way God works, not many mighty, not many noble. God chooses the small things of the world, the foolish things of the world to do what? To confound the wise. And so here, this little hopeless, hapless family, in the midst of pagan darkness is about to have the grace of God explode on their life. Why? Because God is keeping his promise according to grace. He is about to call Abram who is actually in the line of Shem, who is in the line of Seth, who is the seed of the woman. God is keeping his promise according to grace about ready to call Abram and bring about the fulfillment of that promise. He is going to do what? He is going to create a nation in order to save the nations. The seed of the woman preserved through Seth, preserved through Shem is now in Abram and it will be this one man that God will bless so that all the families of the earth will be blessed. In other words, in this very ordinary text, what we see is the promised plan of God right on track. He's not scrambling. He's not rushing hither and yon trying to figure out, oh my goodness, do we have anybody else other than the moon worshipers? Well, one of the angels, check the directory, please. God's promise. But the second thing in the midst of this really ordinary stuff is God's purpose. Now, Who makes the decision for them to leave Ur the Chaldeans? Well, Terah does. Who gives them the idea that they're going to head to Canaan, but only make it to Haran? Well, Terah does. So these moon worshiping pagans were just living the life, making their decisions and making their move. And in Heron, Tara dies, Sarah is barren. And yet here's the most amazing thing is that God is at work. God is working. He's arranging the details. Tara, the moon worshiping pagan, makes the decision to leave Ur, and takes Abram with him, and later, God himself will reveal to Abraham that it was none other than God himself who brought Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees. I am the Lord, he says to Abraham. who brought you out of Ur the Chaldees to give you this land to possess it. You say, hang on a second, I thought you said Terah made the decision. Yes, God made the decision too. And because God made the decision, Terah made the decision. God worked through a moon-worshiping pagan to get his family on the move, putting in their hearts the intent of moving to Canaan. Now you think to yourself, what's the big deal? Well, the big deal is that God has an eternal purpose. He has a sovereign plan. And he's working out that plan into the very details of our lives in such a way so that when we think we're making decisions, and we think we're doing the stuff, and we think we're making the moves, and we think we're arranging the details of life, it is none other than the sovereign, almighty, eternal, invincible God who is actually working in and through us in spite of us and us not even knowing it. And so to be sure, Abraham will fulfill a unique role in redemptive history. We're gonna see that over and over and over again. Abraham is a unique figure. But also, we see in Abraham, Abraham the believer, who is an example and a pattern for those who believe. And this is what we see in his life at this point. He doesn't know God from a rock. In fact, he thinks God is a big rock in the sky. And what we see is a God who's working out his plans and working out his purposes through the details of this man's life, even as an unconverted man, even as a pagan, an idol worshiper. God is moving the furniture and arranging the circumstances for Abram to come to know him. You know, that's what God does. There are some of you, you made a move in your life one time, and you thought it ended up being the absolute worst move, and yet it was that move that put you in the circumstances in which you came to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you were in relationships and in marriages and they were absolutely horrible and nightmarish and you wondered, what in the world did I do that for? And yet it was through all of those circumstances that God humbles you, brings you to your knees and you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. When you think life is falling apart and you think life is hopeless and you think that you're just living what you're supposed to be living and doing what you're supposed to be doing, there is a God who is working through the details of life, arranging life in a way so that he ends up being absolutely inescapable. God has actually spared some of your lives. Some of you should be dead. Dead, dead. in the ground dead. And there is no reasonable explanation why they didn't throw dirt on you at some point other than a sovereign God extended his hand because he had a different purpose. God actually arranged it for you to be here today. I believe in a God who is so absolutely sovereign that he arranged for you to be here today. There may be someone that doesn't know God at all, does not trust the Lord Jesus Christ. God has you here today to hear this. Jesus Christ came into this world to die for sinners, to lay down his life and to pay the penalty for rebels. And he paid that penalty in full so that whoever believes in him can have their sins washed away and have a brand new start just like Abram will have in Genesis chapter 12. That's what you need to know. And so here's God who's absolutely sovereign, working out all things after the counsel of his will, from him, through him, unto him are all things. To him be the glory forever, amen. And so here he is organizing, arranging Abram's life, and what we see as we return back to Genesis is we see Abraham, and he's going to be the figure who in all of his glory receives the covenant becomes the heir of the promise, and in all of his flaws, will be a model to those who have put their faith and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no mistake about it, Abraham is a hero in the Bible. He's a hero of faith. But there's only one reason why Abraham is a hero of faith in the Bible. That's because he ultimately put his faith in the true hero, his seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God's purpose and God's promise in Abraham's life reassures us that God is truly at work in your life. He really does have a purpose. You may feel hopeless. You may feel undone. Trust in the God who is in control of all things. You will never be disappointed, ever. Let's pray. Father, thank you for working in the ordinary things Father, our lives are just, for the most part, pretty ordinary. Family, work, disappointments, sometimes joy, sometimes success, but it's all pretty ordinary. We bless and praise your holy name, that not only are you sovereign over the ordinary, but that you work through it. We thank you, Father, for every person here, from the smallest to the oldest, that you are so in control of their lives, that you've governed the details to such an extent that they're here today. We pray, Father, that through your Son, you'd be mighty to save. And we ask this in the name of the one who overcame death and fulfilled your promise, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.