2019.06.01 Hopewell @Home ▫ Genesis 11:10-32

Read Genesis 11:10-32

Questions for Littles: Whose genealogy does Genesis 11:10 begin? What happens to the lengths of the lives between Genesis 11:10 and Genesis 11:25? How many sons of each generation are specifically named? How many of Terah’s children are named (Genesis 11:26)? What does Genesis 11:27 begin to tell about? Which grandson does verse 27 name? Which son dies before his father (Genesis 11:28)? Where? Who take wives in Genesis 11:29? What fact is noted about Sarai (Genesis 11:30)? Whom does Terah not take with him in Genesis 11:31? From where did they begin? To where were they going? But where did they end up? How many years, total, did Terah live (Genesis 11:32)?

Some Bible genealogies are more selective than others. Sometimes, they are giving an overview of a tribe or a clan. This one is much more focused. It’s a treasure hunt for the Seed, from Genesis 3:15, who will crush the serpent’s head. Yes, the earth is being populated, but it’s not really about that. Not like in chapter 10. Each generation is like a multi-directional intersection, and the route to God’s promised Redeemer must turn down just one of them.

And how we need that Redeemer! Five hundred. Four hundred. Two hundred. One hundred. The Holy Spirit is not giving us the “and he died” of chapter four, but that much is made perhaps even more obvious by the rapidly dropping length of life. Man has sinned, and the wages of sin are chasing him down.

When we get to Genesis 11:26, and three of Terah’s sons are named, we have a clue that something big is coming. More of Genesis will be spent on Abraham than what has been written the rest of human history thus far. We’re about to take a big step in understanding how God plans to redeem sinful man.

Indeed, lest the children of Abraham who first received this book be over-proud, one part of how God plans to save is already coming into focus: through weakness. Obviously, if He is planning to save through the Seed of the woman, it will have to be through weakness. The seed of the woman are dying younger and younger!

This is reinforced by that short-but-not-subtle announcement in Genesis 11:30: “But Sarai was barren; she had no child.” This next “big step” in the plan of salvation is going to have to be despite man’s weakness, not through any illusion of his strength.

And when the Holy Spirit gives us the humility to be honest with ourselves, these features of today’s Scripture resonate with us. Because we are not the redeemer. Only Christ is. And, in fact, we don’t really give Him something to work with, but in ourselves, we are challenges that He gloriously overcomes.

Why do you need Christ? Why must it be Christ, specifically, that you need?

Suggested Songs: ARP98 “O Sing a New Song to the Lord” or TPH265 “In Christ Alone”