who are lived 29 years and begot Tara, after he begot Tara, Nehor lived 119 years and begot sons and daughters. Now Tara lived 70 years and begot Abram, Nehor and Heron, the word of the Lord. Let us pray together. Again, Father, we do give you thanks for your word and we give you thanks for this particular portion of it. Thank you for these names, these real people who lived at a real place in real time. People who gave rise to sons and daughters who in turn begot sons and daughters who give rise to more sons and daughters so that down to our day, there is this line of faith. Father, be with us as we consider this portion of your word and instruct us from it. And I pray for your people as they gather this morning that their hearts would be greatly encouraged by this list of names. Take this truth and seal it to our hearts. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. You probably wonder about this list of names here, these names that I can barely pronounce. I didn't realize I was going to have to say our Fox side so many times. What is this list of names all about? And why is this list of names included here in the Scriptures? Over the course of the years, you I'm sure like me have purchased new appliances, a new toaster, a new microwave oven, or maybe a piece of mechanical equipment, a new lawn mower, or maybe a new piece of high-tech equipment like a CD player or a television set or a computer or something like that. Whenever you get one of these appliances or one of these pieces of mechanical equipment or one of these high-tech pieces of equipment, one of these machines, you always get an owner's manual with it. And if you open the owner's manual, the first thing that you encounter usually when you open the owner's manual is a warning. And the warning goes something like this. Don't plug this in. Don't put these two pieces together. Don't do anything until you first read the entire owner's manual, right? Now, I don't know how many times I've started putting something together or plugged something in before looking at the owner's manual to read about all the things that can go wrong or all the things that you're supposed to do when you get this new appliance or piece of power equipment or this new computer or some other newfangled gizmo of some kind that's supposed to make life easier for me. But I've done it. I think I've learned my lesson. I quit doing it. I've glued too many things together and had to tear them apart and start over. I plugged in too many things and had accidents. I've learned my lesson. It's always important to read the owner's manual before you proceed. You come to this list of names and this list of names could be like an owner's manual or it could be like the introductions to letters in the new testament, Paul's letters or Peter's letters or something. You think this is the sort of incidental stuff they don't really need to pay attention to. You can kind of pass over this lightly and you can move on to the good stuff. You can plug the machine in or you can stick the batteries in or you can start blue and stuff together. Let's get on to the good stuff. Now admittedly this genealogy is a link. It's a link. It connects what precedes with what follows this particular link. It connects these things together. It ties Abram who is to come who is one of the sons of Tara. The last name in this genealogy who then gives rise to these three sons. This genealogy connects Abram to the people who have preceded him. It connects him to Shem and it connects him to Noah and it connects him before Noah to the Sethites and it connects him to Adam, the first born of all the creation. It serves as a connector but it's not an incidental connector. It's not an inconsequential connector. It's not something that you can just sort of pass over without reflecting upon. You think about a link in a chain. We say that the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. This link could better be a strong link if the chain is going to be a strong chain and it is a strong, strong link.
What's the nature of this link and where's the strength in this link to be found? Well first of all let's say something about genealogies. Genealogies throughout the Bible, you've got them all over the place. You've got them in Genesis. You've got them in Chronicles. You've got them in the New Testament in Matthew and Luke. A genealogies do serve to connect the generations. They do serve to give people a sense of who they are and where they are and that sort of thing. But they also serve theological purposes. These lists of names that you find in the Bible aren't just lists of names. If you look at Matthew's gospel and the genealogy of Jesus, you get another list of names but when you come to verse 17 of that genealogy there is an explanation, a brief explanation of the significance of those names. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations from David until the captivity in Babylon are 14 generations and from the captivity of Babylon until the Christ are 14 generations. So you see what Matthew under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit has done with this genealogy. He has constructed it in such a way as to connect Christ to Abram. Now the significance of that is going to be borne out when we get to Genesis 12 and we unpack the promise that Abram received from God that he Abram and through his seed would be a blessing to all the nations. So you see there's something of great theological significance being established in this genealogy and Matthew that Christ is the fulfillment of the promise that was made to Abram. There's a connection made between Abram and Christ. It's not just the list of names but there is profound significant theology present in that list of names connecting Christ to Abram. But there's more to it than that. This is sort of like Joseph's code of many colors. It's sort of like a rainbow. There's this diversity of color that you see in this genealogy. It looks to you like black words on a white page but I'm telling you there's color there. The thing is also structured in these three groupings. These three significant periods in history. It's almost like period one is the time of conception and gestation. The conception and the gestation of the nation from Abram to the time of David but then at the time of David the nation really comes into its greatest existence and its greatest glory and then there is the time of the kingdom under David but then there's this decline through the course of Israel's life. The period of the kingdom gives way to the time of exile in Babylon and that's the second significant period in the life of Israel but then after this exile after these centuries and centuries of oppression and frankly a meager attempt at restoration back to Jerusalem. A meager and paltry attempt to reclaim the glory that was Israel's under David and even more so under Solomon. After that time of darkness and where there were no prophets who appears on the scene but the Christ the Christ who will reestablish the glory of David and who will establish that glory in such a way that it's not localized to a particular place but it becomes worldwide. There's a great progression in this genealogy. Great theological significance and then there's one more sort of set of colors a little bit more color that's added to this if you take these three segments of history these three segments of 14 generations and you think about them a bit differently the three 14s become six seven six individual periods of seven you know anything about about the number seven and the significance of it it's the sabbatical number. What happens at the end of the seventh day the end of the seventh day God rests from all of his labor and he delights in his finished work the work is done it's finished and now there's rest and there's blessedness and there's peace that reigns over the whole of what God has made and here in this genealogy and Matthew we come to the end of six periods of seven generations each and what does that suggest it suggests that the seventh period is a pumice and in the seventh period in Messiah the Christ comes and the Christ does another work and in the course of this seventh period of time he accomplishes a work which leads to a real Sabbath rest the final rest of God the consummate rest of God he accomplishes his work not only that he might delight in it but that you his people might delight in it but you might rest not from your labor but from his his labor in your behalf genealogies have some significance some great theological significance they're not just lists of names but they're great teaching points for us so now having looked at that genealogy what about this genealogy what's the significance of this genealogy again it's more than lists of names this genealogy tells Israel who she is God wants his people to know who they are God wants Israel to know her place in the world you remember from a couple of weeks ago that when Bob preached through the table of the nations in Genesis chapter 10 he suggested that that table of nations is like a big arrow directing Israel's attention to where she is this is where you are Israel you are in the midst of all of these nations and as you will see through the rest of Genesis it's not just that they are a nation in the midst of the nations but they are the special nation in the midst of the nations they are the people of God the singularly blessed and set apart people of God in the midst of the nations this is where you are Israel and this is who you are Israel and the genealogy reinforces that remember that Israel is between Egypt and Canaan wandering in the wilderness it's a barren desolate and dangerous place it's filled with snakes and scorpions and there's nothing to eat and no water to drink I'm learning some things about what it means to be hot and tired and exhausted and desperately needing a liquid I'm learning some things about that and all of this running foolishness that I'm engaged in and in the midst of that wilderness wondering God gives Israel this genealogy and as we've suggested Israel learns from this genealogy that Abram her father the father of all of the sons and daughters who would flow forth from his loins all of those sons and daughters would become Israel the nation Abram would give rise to a son Isaac and Isaac would give rise to a son Jacob and Jacob would give rise to 12 sons and there would be these 12 tribes which would make up the nation Israel and all of that people is connected back to Abram who received this promise from God that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed and Abram received the promise which had first been spoken to Adam that one from Adam one from Eve would come forth who would champion the purpose of God who would crush the serpent under his foot and who would inaugurate a reign of peace and blessedness restoring what had been lost by Adam's disobedience you see Israel is connected to Abram and Abram is connected to Adam this is who you are Israel and from you Israel will come forth this one who will be a blessing to all the nation now whenever we've talked about Israel I think whenever maybe not every time but certainly many times when we've talked about Israel have encouraged you to remind yourselves that you are the Israel of God so who are you what are your roots remember this show roots it was almost 25 years ago that this this mini series was broadcast on one of the major networks and it's the story of a man Kuntakintay and his roots who he was where he came from and I remember the one scene in the film where the father of Kuntakintay when Kuntakintay was born the father took him outside and held him up held him up in that before the heavens in the vast expanse of space and the stars cast across that canvas held him up before those stars pointed him in the direction of the gods and in effect said Kuntakintay this is who you are this is where you come from you know who you are as the Israel of God the anointure connection is the note that Abram is your father the Abram the one who received that promise a promise first given to Adam that promise is your promise do you know that the seed of the loins of Abram has come for you
to redeem you to rescue you to take away your sins to deliver you out of this wilderness wasteland into the eternal rest of God be know that so you are that's why genealogies are important you may not be the literal physical descendant of Peleg Array but if you're a Christian today you're a daughter of Abram you're a son of Abram you're an heir an heirace of all of the riches of the kingdom of King Jesus you know who you are you think through the implications of that you begin to you begin to realize don't you that nothing else really matters that there's only one thing that is really worth possessing there's only one thing really worth owning a birth certificate that doesn't say citizen of the United States of America but a birth certificate that says son daughter of Abram child of the living God this genealogy tells Israel who she is but it also tells her what she has it's striking if you go back to Genesis chapter 5 and you compare the two genealogies the one in Genesis 5 with the one in Genesis 11 there are some significant similarities there are 10 generations listed in each of those genealogies and each of those genealogies linear genealogies gets fragmented in a sense at the end the one genealogy in Genesis 5 ends with Noah's three sons my three sons ham shem and jaffa and then the 10 generations some of you don't remember my three son that's all right then the other genealogy the one in chapter 11 ends with three more sons the sons of Tara Abram Nehor and Heron lots of similarities between these two genealogies but there is one striking difference do you see it I love to sit around and do a sort of an inductive Bible study until we all sort of saw what the difference was there's a phrase that you find in Genesis chapter 5 repeated again and again and again you see at the first time in verse 5 so all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died and he died and he died and he died and he died and he died and he died and he died 10 times you don't find that phrase in the genealogy of Genesis 11 in fact that is what is so striking about Genesis 11 you don't see that phrase we read an article last fall for world magazine those asked to do it it was an article that I was asked to write after that plain crashed in that field in South Dakota killing some very popular and very famous people people who in fact were friends of this congregation and in that article I referred to Genesis 5-5 the first time these words were ever written ever uttered ever spoken and he died they should be in big bold letters in your Bibles and he died they were never seen before never heard before never experienced before but every moment of human history from Genesis 5-5 till that plain crash in that field in South Dakota and for all of the rest of human history will be characterized by those three words and he died and she died death is the characteristic the principle the chief characteristic of life death stops you in your tracks death is the great enigma death is the great riddle death is the thing we try to fend off and fight off death is the word we don't want to use we use euphemisms promoted to glory past away but the euphemisms don't take the sting out of the harsh reality of the enigma that death is it is around us all the time no amount of running is going to overcome it no volume of fat free foods is going to stay its hand you remember where you were those of you who were on November 22nd 1963 you remember where you were I was in Ed Polarsky's science class 7th grade the date at John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated do you remember where you were and the challenger exploded do you remember where you were when you learned of the death of Princess Diana I remember each of those moments why because death death was so untimely in each of those cases but folks it's always untimely and he died people puzzle over the long lives of the anti delusions those people who lived before the flood they asked questions did they live that long how do we account for this the answer is simply yes they did live that long every one of those years that's referred to and every one of those texts is a real year how do we account for this we account for it very simply in this way the farther removed you are from Eden whether if you think about it theologically or you think about it chronologically no matter how you think about it the farther removed you are from Eden the more death eclipses life these increasingly shortened life spans that move from a thousand years down to a mere hundred or so years by the time you get to the generation of Abram in the subsequent generations that is a reflection of the curse upon the whole of the earth which results from the sin of Adam which produces the fall and all of that is characterized by death but do you see in Genesis 11 that that phrase does not exist what is God telling Israel God is telling Israel that there is a line there is a line in Israel where life prevails there is a place in the world where death is overcome that permanently in this world but someday everything that is suggested by this genealogy everything that is promised in the promise to Abram everything that God says to Israel in passage after passage after passage will come to its great and consummate and glorious conclusion and life will eclipse death and the place where life is to be found is not out there but it is right here in the line of Seth in the line of Shem in the line of Abram that's where life is to be found that's where the threat of death begins to be minimized that's where hearts begin to be encouraged that's where faith can exist and be strengthened and flourish because it is here in this line the line of Seth the line of Shem the line of Abram the sons and daughters of Abram the line of Christ that's where life exists be through Deuteronomy sometime
it's striking the number of times that God says things to Israel about life Deuteronomy is Moses sermon to Israel before he dies it's a long sermon to be sure it's the second law it's a recap of the law but it's Moses preaching to Israel encouraging Israel it is Moses rehearsing the word of the Lord to Israel it is Moses admonishing Israel to pay heed to listen
to obey these things why so that she might know life listen to some texts Deuteronomy 516 honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you that your days may be long and that it may be well with you Deuteronomy 532 and 33 therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left you shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you that you may live and that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess Deuteronomy 6 too this is the commandment these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you that you may observe them in the land which you were crossing over to possess that you may fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command you you and your son and your grandson all the days of your life that your days may be prolonged and it go on and on and on and when you get to the Proverbs the theme is rehearsed again Proverbs 3 my son do not forget my law but let your heart keep my commandments that's a sermon that's a sermon let your heart keep my commands for the length of days and long life and peace they will add to you Proverbs 410 hear my son receive my sayings that the years of your life may be many
you see what God is saying in this genealogy the absence of that phrase is an absence a silence which speaks volumes God is not only telling Israel who she is where she fits in the world but he's telling her what she possesses that by virtue of her communion with him she possesses life by virtue of being his covenant people she possesses life the promises the promises are replete in the scriptures encouraging Israel again and again and again the pay attention so that you might know life it's not only do you know who you are folks but do you know what you possess the Christian today if you are a Christian you possess life life that can never be taken away life that is eternal
life that Jesus says is abundant and you've only begun to taste the riches of that abundance do you know your roots do you know who you are do you know what you possess I pray for myself I pray for you I pray for all of us as a congregation that we might know these things that we might know as God's people that we live in the corridor of blessing we live in the heritage of blessing we live in the stream of blessing we are the heirs the inheritors the participants in the owners of life because we belong to Jesus thanks be to God let's pray together father I pray for these folks pray that they might know who they are pray that they might know what they possess
and God I pray that these things would permeate their being penetrate their consciousness God make these things more than truths to be recited or platitudes to be mild make these things that sustain us and that fill us with joy and that give us great comfort and encouragement and lord I pray for anybody here anybody who might not know these things who might not know who he is or who she is somebody stumbling around in the wilderness trying to drink from dust trying to be fed by scorpions and snakes pray for that person that you'd work in that person's heart and she'd open blind eyes unstop deaf ears and cause a concrete block of a heart to beat and draw that one two or three or who never to the well spring of life which is Jesus may they taste things they've never tasted before and no matter where we are who we are would you minister to us would you encourage us if that's what we need would you draw us to yourself if that's what we need but do this for the sake of your own name and Jesus name we ask