God Preserves & Prepares

Again, I'd ask for you to pray for us as we're going over these next two weeks. Some are wondering why Annie's going. Well, she's going to help with the conferences and be involved in all the setting up and so forth. It's an opportunity for her to go. I suspect as well that the children have been talking and sending her as a caregiver because they're thinking I'm a tottering old fool anymore and they need someone to look after me.

I don't know. So, take your Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 11. Genesis chapter 11 is where we're going to look today. We're going to finish this chapter. Before we do, let's just take a moment to pray and ask God to open His Word to us, and by grace to show us things that we need to hear from His Word. Father we are here again as your people to listen to your voice Father this looks like a book to most and yet we know it's the living word of God it has the ability to penetrate our hearts and to separate those things which are inseparable it has the ability to change us it reveals you to us and in this book which is living we find the living God even now Lord as we read through these particular texts we pray that you would reveal yourself again thank you for the privilege that we have of gathering around your word thank you for your grace in our lives every day and Father we just ask now open our minds to the truth of your word for our good and your glory in Jesus name, Amen Well, when we last looked in on mankind, we saw confusion and chaos and everyone else headed out to different places.

We saw the Tower of Babel and its results, and we saw that man in his pride sought to find security in staying together and building a city crowned with a tower that no one had ever seen before. They were proud self and rebellious seeking God on their terms even pursuing idolatrous worship Consequently God brought judgment upon them but he didn bring the judgment of catastrophe as he had before Instead, he brought confusion. He confused their language so that the people could not understand one another any longer.

And as a result of the confusion, they abandoned their building project and left for other lands. See, wanting in their pride to make a name for themselves, they actually did make a name for themselves, but a name that they didn't want, the name Babel or the name Confusion. And so because of that judgment, we have a world today of different languages, different cultures, and quite different ways of looking at the world.

But is that the message God wants to give us? A world lost forever in chaos and confusion? Is that the message he wants to give us? What about the long-ago promise that we saw early on in this book where God said to Adam and Eve that he was going to raise a seed from the woman who would conquer the seed of the serpent. What about that promise? Is that no longer possible?

Is that the end of the story? No, what we see here is that God will accomplish his purpose of raising up that seed and his purpose now takes on an entirely new turn. An entirely new thing happens at this point. Now that new turn in God's purposes is reflected, is actually reflected in the structure of this book of Genesis. And so I want to take a few minutes to see how that plays out, okay?

So this will help you understand Genesis a little more, but the book is constructed in such a way to reflect this whole new way that God's going to work now with mankind. Genesis can be divided into two parts. Two. Okay? The first part we can call the primeval history. Okay?

This is the history of God's dealings with all of mankind. It's the earliest history of man that we see recorded in the Bible. It goes from Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, through Genesis chapter 11, verse 26. Okay? That's the first part of the book, the primeval history. The second part of the book we can call the patriarchal history Primeval history is first 1 through 11 And then comes the patriarchal history And in this history the focus of God dealings with man now narrows to one man and to one family.

All right? From this point on in the book, we don't see God dealing with mankind as he's done in a primeval history, from this point on to the end of the book, we see God dealing with one man, one family, eventually one nation. This is the new turn in God's purpose. And that one man is Abraham and his family. And it tells the story of the patriarchs. The rest of the book will not tell the story of the patriarchs.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now you can see why this signals a major break or a turning point in the book of Genesis. That history, the patriarchal history, begins in chapter 11, verse 27. And it goes all the way through the end of chapter 50. That's the patriarchal history. now what we see is that God still has the purpose of raising that conquering seed of providing a redeemer and a rescuer for the world but how will he accomplish that now we see from this point on in fact we can say from this point on through the rest of the bible exactly how he accomplishes the promise he made in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15.

And here in this book he begins to work in providing that seed through one particular line that comes from one particular man, Abram. And what we see in our text today is that he will accomplish his redemptive purpose by preserving and preparing that promised line. Now I say that promised line because we're going to look at two genealogies today. And I'm sure if the word had gotten out, we wouldn't be this crowded today, would we?

Two genealogies. Oh no, not again. Yes, here we are. Two more genealogies. But look in those genealogies you see one genealogy talking about how God preserves that promise line and the other he talks about how he prepares it Okay Now in order to see that we have to look at the genealogy that you find in chapter 11, verse 10 through 26. So let's look at that together.

These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad, two years after the flood. And Shem lived after he fathered a parkshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters. When a parkshad had lived 35 years he fathered Shelah. And a parkshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters. When Shelah had lived 30 years he fathered Eber.

And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters. When Eber had lived 34 years he fathered Peleg. And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg, 430 years, and had other sons and daughters. When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Ru, and Peleg lived after he fathered Ru, 209 years, and had other sons and daughters. When Ru had lived 32 years, he fathered Sarug.

And Ru lived after he fathered Sarug, 207 years, and had other sons and daughters. When Sarug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor, And Sareg lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters. When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters. When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

All right. Now here you find that this genealogy closes the primeval history. It's the, remember, we talked about these early on, it's the Toledot of Shem, which is translated, these are the generations of Shem. The record of his generations are descendants. And so we begin by pulling off the shelf the last volume of our primeval history. This is the last volume of our primeval history.

That volume is entitled, The Generations of Shem. That's the volume that closes the book on the primeval history. And as you read that volume, you see God preserving His promised line. God preserving His promised line. Now once more you find a boring genealogy, okay? I hope after this series they won't be quite as boring.

At least they won't be for me. But once more you're going to find a boring genealogy, and yet Moses, by the style and the composition of that genealogy, still wants to communicate some truth. More truth than just who fathered whom. He's trying to make a point even in these genealogies. Now sometimes it's important to trace your lineage. Now there's a group of women in America that think that they occupy a particular privileged place in our society.

They're called the Daughters of the American Revolution. Maybe none of you have ever heard of them. They're not held in quite high esteem as they used to be. But the Daughters of the American Revolution have this rule. Only certain women can be part of this organization. What women?

Women who can trace their ancestry to a veteran of the Revolutionary War. If you can't do it, you can't be a part of that group. It's important that you be able to trace back your lineage all the way back so you can prove that you have an ancestor who fought in the American Revolution. Well, Moses wants you to see an important connection here. And that connection is this.

Abram is connected directly to Shem. That's what he wants you to see. You say, well, okay, great. His great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather is Shem. What's the big deal? Well, the big deal is found in Genesis chapter 9, where Moses is cursing Canaan and blessing Shem and Japheth.

And there's an important phrase, and it's a little bit of a different phrase than the other blessings. Let's look at verse 24 of Genesis 9. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. He also said, Note, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.

May God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem and let Canaan be his servant Do you see what different about the blessing with Shem He blesses God not Shem Blessed be the Lord The Lord there God personal name there's His covenantal name. There's His personal covenant name, Yahuwah, which in your Bibles is always written as capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Yahuwah, or Jehovah.

Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem. He's talking about God, this Lord, this Yahweh, and not so much about Shem. What's the point? Yahweh, or the Lord, is the God of this family, of this line. The true God who made the promise of a Redeemer is the One who is particularly interested in this line. This is His line, if you will.

This is the line that He's going to work with. He is the God of that line. That's not saying He's not the God of the whole world, but it is saying here is His chosen line through whom He's going to work. This is the line of blessing and promise. Thus, Abram is directly connected to Shem, who Noah said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem. So Abram is in that promised line.

Now you find some other clues here of that promise line. Look at chapter 10. Chapter 10, verse 25. To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother's name was Joktan. Joktan fathered Almadad, Sheleth, Hazarmaveth, Yerah, Hadorim, Uzel, Diklah, Obah, Abimele, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab.

All these were the sons of Joktan. Boy, those of you who are having kids, what a list for names, huh? Isn't that great? Send your kid to school with some of those names. But notice here, when you compare that with chapter 11, verse 18. When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu.

And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters. What do you see different about this genealogy compared to the last one where Peleg is mentioned? What you see in chapter 10 is the descendants of Peleg aren even mentioned The descendants of Joktan are Up to a point and then it stops What the point You see that the first genealogy says nothing about Peleg's children.

It ends with Joktan's children, descendants, but doesn't pursue that line anymore. But here you find the genealogy picks up with Peleg never mentioning Joktan. and it follows Peleg's descendants all the way down to Abram. Now remember in this book how Moses has written it. Almost always you'll have two lines and he'll talk about the first line and talk about its descendants up to a certain point and then never mentions them again.

But then the second line he follows through and he keeps going. That's the promised line. Now we saw it before. There was the line of Cain and the line of Seth, right? And he followed Cain to a certain point, and then we never hear about Cain's descendants again. And then we follow Seth all the way down to Noah.

Now Noah has three sons. And we hear about two of those sons' descendants, right? In chapter 10, up to a certain point. And then after that, you don't hear anything more about the descendants of Ham or the descendants of Japheth. At least you don't hear about what happened to all those people. But you follow Shem's line down.

Shem is the promised line. Alright? Are you with me? You see this all the way through. You're going to see it through the rest of the book. You're going to see right here again.

Well, we'll get to it in a minute. But you see it further on. You have Abram has two sons, right? Isaac and Ishmael. I had Esau ringing through my head. That wasn't right.

Isaac and Ishmael. You hear a little bit about Ishmael, but then you follow Isaac's line. Isaac has two sons, Jacob and Esau. You hear a little bit about Esau's line, then we go to Jacob and we follow that line down. The line that he continues with is the promised line. And so here in chapter 11, we find that this is the promised line.

Abram's in the promised line that's going to accomplish the purposes of God. They follow it down to Abram. Now, there's also another comparison. Compare this genealogy with chapter 5 Turn to chapter 5 I not going to You do it Turn to chapter 5 and start glancing through that genealogy Real quick Just go through it real quick I'll give you about 10 seconds.

Okay. Good enough. Now flip over to chapter 11, the genealogy we're in right now. I just read through it. What's missing? What is missing in this genealogy that you find in Genesis chapter 5?

And he died is not there. Now why would the author, why would Moses go, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died, but here you don't see that at all. There's got to be a reason for that. Why didn't he say, and he did this many years, and then he fathered these things, and he lived this many years, and he died. He doesn't do that here.

Why not? It's kind of like in this genealogy, you're speed reading. You're coming, boom, to Abram. You're coming to it quicker. And he doesn't emphasize, and he died, because he was emphasizing in that last genealogy the issue of the curse of sin. He wanted you to get the point.

This is the curse of sin. Now he's got another point. What is that? It's more optimistic. It's focusing on birth and a future hope. That's what he's doing.

He's getting you to focus. There's something different going on. God is at work. Again, here is promise. Here is hope. God will work because this is the line of blessing.

But what I want you to see in particular is how God preserves this line of blessing. God does it in the darkest of days. He does it in the darkest of days. Let me tell you what I mean. Adam and Eve sinned, right? God judges them with death and banishment.

But He graciously lets them live for another 900 years and He clothes them in their nakedness. Cain sins. God judges him by cutting him off from the earth. But then He shows grace to Cain by putting a protective mark on him so no one will kill him. Complete corruption envelops the earth. God judges with a universal flood.

But He shows grace. by saving one family and actually saving creation itself by the taking on the ark of those animals. And he makes a promise. never to use that kind of judgment again, and seals it with a rainbow. So you see that? You see, sin, judgment, but grace. Sin, judgment, but grace. Sin, judgment, but grace.

Now we come to the Tower of Babel. Right? Corruption grows into idolatrous pride at Babel. God judges with confusion and chaos, and there's nothing. There's no grace extended. It ends. that story ends without God extending grace.

It's like this is the backdrop of this genealogy. Against the backdrop of that wickedness, you see God yet preserving His line. Even though He doesn't say anything about grace, by the way. I'll just give you a preview. Kind of like the end of the television program where they show you a little bit about next week. Next time we come back to Genesis. you see the grace you know what it is abram i'm gonna make something of your family and it will what bless all the nations all the nations that are scattered with no word of grace it comes now through abram abram through you i'm gonna bless all the nations that i just scattered and that i just judged you see that's the word of grace that goes from there to the end of the bible after Babel.

But yet there's a hint of it here. Against the backdrop of the judgment and the wickedness of Babel, you see God preserving His line of blessing. He doesn't give up on it. He still preserves that line of blessing. And He does it in the longest of days. Not just the darkest of days, but the longest of days. what you notice here is that God keeps working and preserving his line and if you added up all the numbers and some scholars say that there may be gaps in this because the Hebrew word for father can stand for grandfather or ancestor there may be gaps, there may be not just assuming there are no gaps this adds up to nearly 3,000 years 3 years God still at work even though no one can see it God is still at work preserving His line Now just imagine that for a moment It looks like God's absent for 3,000 years, doesn't it?

But He's still working. He's working quietly. He's working in a way that nobody sees. But He is preserving His line. He fulfills, he does it in the longest of days. It may seem that God is absent, but he continues to work over the line of all these centuries.

You know, that caused me to ask a question. How long and how dark are your days? Some of you may be sitting here saying, you know, my days are really dark. Things are happening in my life that are really, really difficult. And I don't see God working. Is he?

Is he? It may not look like it to you. But when God intends to fulfill his purpose, he never stops working. He didn't hear. He continued slowly but surely, continuing to preserve this line, never abandoning his promise, never walking off the scene he's still slowly but surely continuing to work now this isn't just here this is through the rest of scripture and what sometimes we have to get a handle on this when it seems like god is absent it doesn't mean he's not working he's working in ways that often escape our notice but he's still working Thus ends the primeval history of mankind with this genealogy taking us to Abram.

So, we put that last volume back on the shelf, the last volume of the primeval history. Now we reach up and we take down the first volume of the patriarchal history. Okay? We take down the first volume of the history of the patriarchs. Now this volume is called the Toledot of Terah. You see that in verse 27.

The Toledot of Terah or the record of Terah's generations or descendants. This volume The Toledot of Terah this volume extends from chapter 11 verse 27 through chapter 25 verse 11 It is essentially the story of Abram. The generations of Terah, the story of Terah's descendants will center on Abram and tell his story of his son all the way through chapter 25, verse 11, where then we pick up the second volume of the patriarchal history.

The first thing you notice in this volume is another genealogy. But it isn't the entire volume, is it? Unlike the last volume, this volume, the first volume of the patriarchal history, the whole volume is not a genealogy. This is just the first chapter in the first volume. So what we find in 27 through 32 is the first chapter of the first volume of the history of the patriarchs, the story of Abram.

Let's look at it. Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives.

The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now 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 forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan.

But when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. Now here, at the end of this genealogy, Terah dies. It's kind of like the connection with the last volume. Okay, somebody dies. All right, now we're done with that part of the history.

Let's move on. And here you see God preparing the promised land, the promised line. God preparing the promised line. Again, do not miss the fact that the writer narrows the focus to Abram. What does that mean? It means, okay, here we have Terah.

He has three sons. Abram Nahor and Haran Haran dies Then you got left Nahor and Abram And you hear a little bit about Nahor but then what It all about Abram Abram's the promised line. He and his family will now occupy center attention from this point on. This will be the focus of all our attention from this point on. So that's the singled out line. That's the line of promise.

Now, what you notice in this genealogy is there's a little bit of action. It's not quite as boring as the other genealogies because you've got some things going on here. You've got some marriages going on. You've got some children being born. And you have them moving from place to place. So there's more here than just genealogy.

Here the characters of the story are introduced. we begin to see in more detail just how God is going to fulfill His purpose. He's going to use the family of Terah. Terah lives in Ur of the Chaldeans in Mesopotamia. Again, between those two great rivers. Some of you probably have never even heard of the Tigris and Euphrates River until the United States forces went in in 2001.

Then you're introduced to those two rivers. Remember in high school history? Yeah? between those two rivers is one of the cradles of civilization right that's where some of the earliest archaeological evidence of man's habitation are found of earliest sign of civilization that's where Terah comes from between those two great rivers he has three sons Abram, Nahor and Haran Haran has an untimely death he dies young and he leaves behind two orphans Izca a daughter and Lot, a son.

We never hear about Isca again, but we do hear about Lot. Abram and his father Terah decide to head for Canaan, taking Lot, but leaving Nahor behind. But they don't make it to Canaan. They only go 550 miles to the northwest. And they settle in a city called Haran. And if you would find it today, it would be close to the present border between Syria and Turkey.

Okay, so they're moving down here from the head of the Persian Gulf up here, 550 miles to the border between Syria and Turkey. that far and they settle in. By the way, it says they settled there. It's the same word used to the people when they settled in Shinar before they built the Tower of Babel. They settled there. It's like, here's where we're going to stay.

You see the Terah's surviving sons, Abram and Nahor, Mary. Nahor to Milcah, Abram to Sarai. But here is the wonder of God preparing his promised line. Listen, here's the wonder. The line of promise is filled with the most unpromising people. The line of promise is filled with the most unpromising people.

What do I mean by that? Well, for one thing, the entire family worships the moon. See, how do you know that? Well, they live in Ur. Ur is a very important center for the worship of the moon god by the name of Sin. Now, the Bible's, you know, I'm not making a point by saying sin.

That's His name. It has nothing to do with sin. That's the moon god's name. Sin. And when they head for Canaan, this family settles in Haran, which is another extraordinarily important center for the worship of this moon god. And I ask the question, God is going to use a man who cannot break the grip of idolatry to accomplish His purposes?

He's going to get a man? He's going to use a man in the line of promise who's an idolater? Who can't seem to break the grip of that? Isn't He in the line of Shem? Yeah. Then what's He doing worshiping the moon God?

I mean, Lord, You're picking the wrong guy. And on top of that, when you look at the two wives' names, Sarai is the name of the female partner, the consort of the moon god Sin. That's her name. Milka is the title of Ishtar, who is the daughter of the moon god. Alright? Right?

What is going on here? Some way somehow God going to accomplish His redemptive purposes through committed idolaters That what blows my mind He's going to accomplish His redemptive purposes through these people who are committed idolaters. And to top it all off, what's the one thing that the author says here, that the writer says here about Sarai? She is barren.

She cannot produce children. How is the Lord going to raise up the conquering seed of this woman? How is He going to raise up the conquering seed of the woman when this woman has no capacity to bring children into the world? Seed of the woman? Are you kidding? Do you see?

And He mentions that on purpose. What in the world is God going to do with this guy and his wife? it seems we've actually reached a dead end. It doesn't seem like the beginning. It seems like the end of God's redemptive purposes. Idolaters, right? An idolater married to a woman who can't produce children.

Wow! It doesn't make sense. Exactly! That's exactly right. God is in the habit of accomplishing His purposes in ways that we cannot comprehend. In fact, I would go so far, in ways that are just impossible or downright foolish.

Would you do it this way? No. Of course we wouldn't. We would never do it this way. When you want something done, you don't go out and find the least qualified person to do it, do you? But that's because why?

That's foolish. So God goes out and gets the least qualified people to accomplish His purpose. But then what did we read this morning? The foolishness of God. The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Not saying that God is foolish, or that God is weak, But making the point that the things we call weak and foolish, that's what God's going to do.

That's what God's going to use. And that exactly what He does here The very things that seem to thwart the purposes of God will actually propel his purposes forward as we read the story of Abram and Sarai The fact that he's an idolater and becomes a man of faith, and the fact that she is barren and produces a child from whom a great nation will come. That's how God works.

It doesn't make sense. But that's how He's prepared this line. Now, is this just a history lesson, or does God want you to see something more? Obviously, God wants you to see something more. God is surely at work even when you cannot see it. God is at work even when you cannot see it.

When the times seem dark and unbearably long without help from God, God is at work. You need to mark it down. You need to write it down. It doesn't matter where you are and what you're suffering. It doesn't matter how dark are the days or how long those dark days are. God is at work.

And I don't know everything that's going on in this congregation. And some of you may be in the midst of a midnight day, but God's at work. Some of you may just be starting and you don't know it yet. You need to know now, God's at work. God is at work to accomplish His purposes. God is at work even when it seems that those purposes have reached a dead end.

Even when to your way of thinking it looks like it's a dead end, God is at work. What's happening in your life right now? It may not be dark yet. It may not be long. long or short, dark or bright, God is working His purposes to accomplish His redemptive purposes in your life as well as the life of the world. How do you know that for sure? You say, Pastor Tim, great.

Great inspiring sermon. How do you know that for sure? How do you know God's at work in the darkest and the longest of days? How do you know that? I'll tell you how I know because when it seemed that God redemptive purposes had reached a complete dead end God was actually working Think about this When Jesus hung lifeless on the cross is there any greater dead end than that for God's purposes?

Jesus hanging lifeless on the cross. At that moment, redemption had been accomplished. At that moment, redemption had been accomplished. At that moment, God then had in His possession a people that had been bought by His Son from the tyranny of sin, from the forces of evil. At that moment, the deal was sealed, where God had in His possession now a people for His own.

And you weren't even born yet. but you had been purchased and God's work on your behalf and for His glory is as good as done. You see that? You're not even born yet. But God had already purchased you at that moment where it seems like everything was at an end. And God working in your life is as good as done. Because the death of His Son is the promise that He won't give up on you.

In a world that seems lost in chaos, confusion, hatred, and rebellion, God is at work. Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Abram and Sarah. And Lord, even in this genealogy, it's phenomenal to see that you work in ways that no one would ever dream of. Ways that seem foolish to us. Ways that seem impossible to us.

You then turn to be used for your glory and our good. Lord, I earnestly pray that your people here have heard that today. No matter where they are, no matter how dark the day is, no matter how unbearably long it seems, Lord, help them hold on to the fact that You are at work. Father, I thank You for Your Son. Lord, for those who have never believed in Him, that are sitting here today, I pray that they would see the glory of God.

Jesus crucified. That it looked like God's purposes were at a complete, total end. You were indeed at work. Father, help us again to be like Abraham. Be people of faith. We're confident in Your work.

God help us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.