Genesis 11:10-26 (ESV)
10 These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood.
11 And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
12 When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah.
13 And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber.
15 And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg.
17 And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu.
19 And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug.
21 And Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor.
23 And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah.
25 And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
26 When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Now again, you might be wondering, why does the Bible continue to put in all these weird genealogies that seem to mean nothing to us today? But really here we need to recognize that the Bible, you know, it's not like the authors were writing an essay and were trying to pad the word count. What's happening here is that there is a tracing of God's covenant line from Noah, from Noah to Shem and then from Shem to Abraham, who would soon become Abraham.
And so there's this kind of narrowing lens that happens after the Tower of Babel story. So we've seen the table of nations. We've seen how God scatters the people throughout the earth. But now the story of the promise of God restoring the world is zooming in on one family, the family of Abram, who would ultimately become the people of Israel. God's rescue mission is going to happen through this family.
Now what's interesting about this particular passage, even though it sounds kind of boring, is that we need to notice the trend that is happening throughout this passage. The ages of people, the time span for which they live, drop from 500 years to roughly about 100 years. There is this corrupting influence of sin that is becoming more and more obvious. Sin is spreading throughout the world and human lifespan is getting shorter and shorter as a result of that. And yet life still goes on under God's guidance and under his patience.
The other thing we need to think of is that this passage is a historical story. It's not a myth. It's history. In the ancient world, it was very important to keep track of who begat whom, and it forms a kind of family identity. And so as Moses writes this, he's saying, you know, this stuff actually really happened. These are your people. This is who you come from. And it forms the identity of the people of Israel ultimately because they can track their genealogy through to these people.
Now why does this actually matter to us today? Well, it shows us that God here is working through ordinary families. He did it back then and he continues to do it today. So often we see God doing amazing things through just ordinary people. The disciples were 12 ordinary men living in a very ordinary kind of town in a very ordinary kind of time.
So too today God continues to use ordinary people like you and me to continue his plan and to work out his rescue plan. You know, you don't need to trend on TikTok for the Lord to be able to use you. There is a great dignity in the kind of quiet faithfulness that happens with families as they pass on the stories of God around the dinner table to their children. It shapes the future of those kids as they become also bearers of the promise as they grow up knowing the Lord.
And so it reminds us that our story of who we are sits inside a much bigger story. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't really tend to think of Peleg and Reu and Serug as these great Bible figures. And yet their lives were part of the story that God was writing. Their story, right from when they were born, through getting married, through having children, and all the things that they did throughout their lives, was part of a bigger story.
You and I live in a world that is kind of obsessed with creating this self-curated identity. You know, we show people only the bits we want them to see so that they would see us as we want to see ourselves. We curate our sense of identity based on our achievements and all kinds of things today. But scripture here is reminding us that actually we are part of God's long running plan. There is in this particular passage, you know, there's a couple of thousand years maybe even between the various ages of the people that are being mentioned here. Our story too sits inside a bigger story that God is writing.
And that's really good because that gives us hope. You know, our family trees might be quite messy. If we have complicated relatives, well, so did Abram. God's plan wasn't derailed by family drama and by family brokenness. You know where you come from and you know who the black sheep in your family are. Maybe you are the black sheep of your family. And yet it doesn't matter in the scope of what God is doing on the earth.
There is a responsibility for us to pass on God's story, his promises. So whether we are parents or youth leaders, whether we are just friends at school, we are all kind of links in the chain of the story that God is writing. And that means that we have to hand on the gospel intentionally. We need to actively share the story of God.
Because one day our story too will come to an end. When you read this passage we read again and again that such and such lived for another X amount of years and then had other sons and daughters. In the end we will all die. We all face mortality. Life is short. In this case, 500 years doesn't seem short to us, but it is short when we consider eternal life.
Now Jesus ultimately came so that we who have these short lives would have eternal life with him. He offers us life that cannot be touched by death. And so even in this passage we are reminded that because life is short we should look for and seek what is eternal.
Where do we find this kind of life? Obviously only in Christ Jesus. When we seek him and trust in him for the forgiveness of our sins, we are given his righteousness and we will live with God forever. And that's something to look forward to.
Let me pray.
Lord, thank you for, I guess, kind of weaving salvation throughout these ordinary generations of people. Help us to see our lives as part of your bigger story. Teach us to number our days so that we will invest in what is really important, that we will invest in others and pass on the hope that we have in Jesus. May our families, whether that is our biological family or our church family, help us point the next generation to Christ. And help us be patient when your plans seem to go slow. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
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