Sovereignty masterfully plays the world’s greatest love song on the broken strings of countless human hearts.
The growing world population had originally stayed together until the debacle at Babel, during the lifetime of “Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided” (1 Chron 1:19). This generation was not only scattered, but also subjugated by the worship of inanimate forces. This led to the selection of Abram and the plan to raise up a nation of monotheists who could be used to restore the race to a relationship with God. Thus we are reminded that these people not only begat sons but also established nations (vv 11-16). We see this in the patriarch’s name change (v 27). Abram, “exalted father,” becomes Abraham, “father of a multitude.” As noted, this process of bringing the Savior into the world through the line of Abraham required a series of pinch points: the whole world’s population eliminated and only Noah’s sons spared (v 4), Abraham’s son and grandson, Isaac (v 34) and Jacob (2:1-3), chosen, with the process finally settling on “David the seventh” (2:15), scion of the royal line leading to the Lord Jesus. But more, we see the many glitches in the program that might have thwarted the plans of anyone but God. This was not a simple process of connecting dots. There was Adam and the Fall, the murder of Abel, the Flood, the rebellion at Babel. We have the misstep with Hagar (1:28), Esau despising his birthright (v 34), and the many disqualifying sins of men from Cain to Coniah. We see death’s interruptions (vv 44-50), the complication of concubinage (v 32) and childlessness (2:30, 32), and brothers killing brothers in the ongoing palace intrigues. Which forces the question: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” ( Job 14:4). Only the God of miracles could—and DID!