An Unlikely Chosen Man

Keeping Hope Alive

(Genesis 11:27-32, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, September 21, 2014)

[27] Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. [28] Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. [29] 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. [30] Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.

If we were to summarize the Bible for a newcomer, we would do well to make the most obvious division between the Old and New Testaments. Though these ancient covenant documents form one whole book for followers of Christ today, both Old and New become more understandable if we think for a moment about each one. The Old Testament is the story of the Hebrew people as a unique group from whom God would provide a Savior for the entire world. The New Testament is the account of the coming of that Savior and the conflict that ensued between Jew and Jew concerning the earlier statement I just read about the Old Testament. In other words, in the first century AD one group of Jews was pitted against another. One believed that the Hebrew Bible prepared Jews for the arrival of the Savior of the world. The other group did not agree with that interpretation. We belong to the first group. We have come to believe that Jesus is Lord.

Much of the Book of Genesis is laying the groundwork for us to understand who it was that God would rescue out of Egypt and lead into the Promised Land. For the remainder of Genesis we follow the story of one troubled family chosen by God. We are interested in Abram because he was the grandfather of Jacob, from whom came the Jews. Terah was Abram's father, and Nahor and Haran were his brothers. Haran died young—before Terah his father. “Haran died in the presence of his father.” Now Haran's son, Lot, would be brought up as a part of his uncle Abram's family circle. In that family circle there was a very important woman, Sarai, the wife of Abram. Here we immediately learn this second sad fact beyond the untimely death of Haran— “Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.”

[31] 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. [32] The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

After this very brief introduction to Abram, Sarai, and Lot, individuals that will be central to the next several chapters of Genesis, we learn that this family was on the move, first under the leadership of Terah, but later by the Lord's direction to Abram recorded in the next chapter. They came from a city in southern Iraq called Ur and they were headed toward Canaan, the area that would become the Promised Land. But under Terah's direction they did not reach their destination. Instead they stopped at an important crossroads city on an ancient trading root, Charan, that worshiped the same false God as the people of Ur. There Terah would die, and Abram would be alone with a wife who could not have a baby and with a nephew whose father had died. Not a very hopeful start to the people group that would be central to all of the Old Testament story. Without the Word of God giving birth to hope, the story of Abram and Sarai ends with death, barrenness, dislocation, and sadness.

Put the Word to Work: We begin the story of the Old Testament patriarchs with family pain. Even today a sad world stands in need of a good Word from heaven. God speaks and hope lives.

Memory Verse from the Songs of Ascents—Psalm 122:9 – For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good.

Gospel Reading—Matthew 14:1-12 – The death of John the Baptist