Go Forth By Faith – Genesis 11-12

“Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’” Genesis 11:1-4

The Lord mentions the whole earth having one language because that commonality is about to change. The people migrated from the east to the west until they arrived in the plain of Shinar. Shinar is located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the area known as the fertile crescent. Rather than spread out and fill the earth, they wanted to find the most ideal location on earth and concentrate themselves in that place. They planned to make this location theirs by building a tower whose top reached to the heavens.

They did not say to themselves, “God has been so good to us. What can we do for His glory?” Noah offered sacrifices to God after the flood ended. They want to build a tower to make a name for themselves. In other words, they wanted their collective name to be the name that everyone thinks about and glorifies. Plus, they did not want to spread out and fill the earth as God told them to do.

Serving and honoring God is contrary to our flesh’s desire. It wants the best of everything including the glory that belongs only to God. But whoever builds on a foundation other than on the bedrock of God’s Word is building a future that shall fail. Though their work may yield praise for them for a season, it will ultimately sink just as the “unsinkable” ship Titanic sunk.

“But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, ‘Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So, the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” Genesis 11:5-9

It would have been better for them to willingly obey the Lord and spread out over the earth by His Spirit’s leading and with His abundant blessings of provision. Now, they must be cast out as our first parents were cast out from the Garden of Eden. Scattered because they disobeyed and competed with the Lord rather than serve Him!

Thus, the people ceased building their idolatrous tower, formed groups according to their languages and spread out to the ends of the world.

Babel symbolizes a city or nation of people who want to exist in denial of and contrary to God. The chief social engineer of this planning is Satan. He denies God and wants to be God. He is doomed. God has set an expiration date on him. Revelation 20:10-14 say that he and all his followers will be cast in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.

Hebrews 11:10 says that people of faith “look for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

In Genesis 11:11-26, the Lord provides for us the genealogy and timeline of Shem’s descendants from Arphaxad his son until Abraham and his two brothers. By using numbers provided for us by God in this genealogy and the genealogy recorded in Genesis 5, we can conclude that the years between God creating Adam and bringing the flood are 1,656 years. The years between the flood and Abraham’s birth are an additional 352 years. So, people have been on earth for 2,008 years by the time Abraham is born.

“This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Then 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 the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child. And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. So the days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.” Genesis 11:27-32

Abram, Sarai and Lot are about to become central characters in the Bible. God tells us that they were born in the land of Ur of the Chaldeans. This is the area now called Iraq. The Chaldeans were the ruling class in Babylon. Ur was located in the fertile crescent area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Lot is Abram’s nephew. Lot’s father died before his grandfather died. Thus, when Abram’s father, Terah, moved from Ur to Haran, Terah took his grandson Lot with them. Terah, Abram, Sarai, and Lot moved to Haran. Sadly, Abram and Sarai were unable to provide a grandchild for Terah before he died.

“Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” Genesis 12:1-3

The Lord calls Abram to leave the land of his father’s descendants. The Lord promises to lead him to the new land but does not tell him specifically where it is. He and his wife have no children, but God promises to make from him a great nation and a great name, and to bless him. This was what the people who set out to build the great tower wanted. They wanted a great nation and a great name. The Lord told Abram that He will give Him these by a blessing.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” God doesn’t say that Abram has done anything for God at this point. No, God is doing something for Abram. The Lord tells Abram, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Galatians 3:13-16 says this promise of God is fulfilled in Abram’s descendant Jesus Christ. It is in Christ that all the families of the earth shall be blessed. It is in the Name of Jesus Christ that the curses of sin are broken off people. It is the Name of Jesus Christ that we must not curse.

“So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So, they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.” Genesis 12:4-6

The last time in the Bible that someone willingly went somewhere for the Lord was in Genesis 8:18. In Genesis 8:15-16, the Lord told Noah to go forth from the ark with his wife, his sons and his daughter-in-law’s. They did so. Like Noah, Abram has a personal relationship with God. God speaks to him and he speaks to God.

Abram takes Sarai and Lot with him, as well as all their possessions, and their servants. They pass through Shechem which is about 30-35 miles north of Jerusalem on a major trading route. It is a fertile area. The descendants of Ham, the Canaanites, are there.

“Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the Name of the Lord. So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.” Genesis 12:7-9

The Lord appears to Abram. He is now standing on the land that his descendants will inherit. Abram builds an altar to the Lord – a place to make offerings to the Lord and to worship God. After that, Abram moves within 10-12 miles north of Jerusalem to a place which was originally called Luz but was renamed Bethel (House of God) by Abram’s grandson Jacob. This place was destined to become a significant religious and strategic city in the hill country of Samaria. Here, Abram doesn’t build a tower to make a name for himself. No, he calls on the Name of the Lord. Afterwards, he keeps moving southward.

“Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, ‘Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore, it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.’” Genesis 12:10-13

Two tests have come to Abram. First, a severe famine is in the land. They must find food for their growing community of people. Secondly, in Egypt, where food is available, the people with power are apt to kill him so they can take his beautiful wife Sarai away from him. He asks his stepsister and his wife, Sarai, to say to the Egyptians that she is his sister. He hopes that even if he loses Sarai, his life will be preserved, and that God’s promise to him of having innumerable descendants shall still come to pass.

“So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.” Genesis 12:14-16

Sure enough Abram was right about the Egyptians. They took Sarai from him. Instead of killing him, they gave him livestock, servants and transportation animals.

“But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and said, ‘What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister?’ I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.” So, Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.” Genesis 12:17-20

God’s ways are higher than our ways. God doesn’t need human help to ensure that His promises come to pass. The Lord wants us to trust Him in this regard. In 2 Corinthians 5:7, Paul wrote, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” Hebrews 11:27 says of Moses, “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.” Rather than gauging likeliness of occurrence by favorable circumstances, we should be mindful that God is God. He created us not vice versa. God is above all else. One believer plus God is a majority.

God plagued Pharoah with great plagues. God will do this again during the days of Moses. After experiencing divine plagues, Pharaoh lets the one who represents the future nation of Israel go. Abram got his wife back. They left Egypt with more treasures than when they arrived.

Praise God, He intervened for Abram and Sarai, and for us! Messiah was eventually born from Abram’s family line.