More genealogies, but this time there’s a punchline—the list ends with someone who became God’s friend.
Genesis 11 begins with a rebellion against God, but people who fight Him never win. Cuando Dios confundió su lenguaje—oh sorry, that’s Spanish—when God confused their language, they were forced to scatter. So we read, “they ceased building the city” (v 8). But the chapter ends with someone else abandoning a city, too. When we get to verse 11, we find ourselves in another of the ten family lists in Genesis. This time it’s Shem’s; we’re especially interested in this one, because it will lead to our Savior. But near the end of the chapter, we read about a man named Terah who, with his family, left the city of Ur, about 130 miles southeast of Birs Nimrud—the ziggurat thought to be ancient Babel, which is now named after its first ruler, of whom Scripture says, “Nimrod the mighty hunter…And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel” (Gen 10:9-10). The temple to the Moon god in Ur was constructed in—get this—the 21st Century…BC! Why are we interested in Terah? Because of his son, Abram. As Stephen explains in Acts 7:2-3, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia…and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’” This is the pivot point of the Old Testament! We’re halfway between Adam and Christ, about 2000 BC. The first 11 chapters have rushed through to get to this point. Now God begins to work out His plan of salvation. We’re excited to read in Romans 4:16 that salvation is not by good works, but “of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be…to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.” Are you a child of Abraham by faith? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).