with Elder Elico Manenji
1️⃣Genesis 11:1-9: Tower of Babel and confusion of languages
There are ten generations from Adam to Noah and another ten generations from Noah to Abraham, so there are twenty generations between Adam to Abraham without any interruption in language.
Speaking one language, the people mobilized themselves under Nimrod, their king to build a tower that reached the skies to make a name for themselves.
God saw the defiant people and the city of rebellion they built, He came down and confused their language
As they were of one language and speech, they united and resolved
to make a great monument to their own glory and thought to frustrate an original law of God thus breaking a positive rule of our being.
The primary principle of all religion is that we should seek first the glory of our Maker, so because of their false unity, God breathed upon their work and it was crushed as they sought their own praise instead of the praise of God.
Key Text: "For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation on his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense." (Isaiah 59:17-18).
In His eternal counsels and resolve of the Eternal God concerning this matter,
He did not come down merely as a spectator, but as a Judge and as a Prince to look upon these proud men and abase them.
The Lord said to the patriarch Job, "Cast abroad the rage of your wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him. Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret. Then will I also confess to you that your own right hand can save you."(Job 40:11-14)
2️⃣Genesis 11:10-26: Genealogy of Shem to Terah his sons Abram, Nahor, and Haran
The descendants of Seth settled around the region of the Ark, the region beyond the river Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Asia, not very far from the remembrance of God's mercy upon His people.
So out of Adam’s three sons, God selected one to be the progenitor of the seed of the woman. Out of Noah’s three sons He again selects one.
And now out of Terah’s three sons, He selected Abram and among the two first sons of Abram, God chose one children of this one in keeping with the holy family.
He will choose a second one, and among his a third one before He reaches the holy family.
Doubtless this gradual mode of proceeding is in keeping with the hereditary training of the holy nation, and the due adjustment of the Divine measures for Out of Adam’s three sons He selects one to be the progenitor of the seed of the woman.
Out of Noah’s three sons He again selected one. And now out of Terah’s three sons He selected and from Abram's two first sons,
He selected one in keeping with the hereditary training of the holy nation in due adjustment of the Divine measures until the bringing again of the Gentiles in full measure of the everlasting covenant of God's everlasting peace in Jesus Christ, the Holy Seed or seed of the woman.
From Shem to Abram, we see a general deterioration of years in keeping with God's gradual promise He made that mankind's number of years were to be shortened to one hundred and twenty years, so Nahor who begot Terah lived one hundred and nineteen years.
Key Text: "O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit." (Jeremiah 16:19)
Here we have a genealogy which ends with Abram, the friend of God which leads further to Christ, the promised seed, who was the son of Abram for from Abram the genealogy of Christ is reckoned.
Matthew one of the gospel writers notes, "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."
(Matthew 1:1)
3️⃣Genesis 11:27-32: The genealogy of Terah, Abraham's father and his son's wives.
Terah was seventy years old he begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran (which is inclusive birth record and seems to tell us that Abram was the eldest son of Terah), yet he(Abram) was the youngest son of Terah but according to God's choice and in keeping with His covenant, He was first in faith and belief in the Eternal God.
Haran, the oldest and father of Lot was the oldest, yet he died before his father Terah died for death does not go by seniority or taking the eldest first.
The patriarch Job says, "A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness." (Job 10:22)
Abram married Sarai, who was barren as a test of faith of the couple. His first test of faith was his call to depart out of Ur of the Chaldees, with his father Terah, his nephew Lot, and the rest of his family, in obedience to the call of God to which received and obeyed.
Terah, the father of Abram was an idolator, both himself and his children were ignorant of the true object of worship as revealed to Abram, they did not retain that knowledge of the Holy God, so God allowed him to die and rest in the land of Charran so he could not disturb the faith of his son Abram.
Joshua recorded, "And Joshua said to all the people, Thus said the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelled on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods." (Joshua 24:2)
Key Text: "And you shall speak and say before the LORD your God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous." (Deuteronomy 26:5)
Death is no respecter of persons, no respecter of age, no respecter of condition, no respecter of character.
We are separated from parents, brothers, sisters, close friends and relatives by death but we need to consider faith as the key to life everlasting.
Even so, Abram was willing to follow the Word of God so he could be a friend of God all for the Lord’s sake.
The Apostle Paul says, "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." (Romans 1:17)
Appeal
Like Terah, many reach to Charran and yet fall short of Canaan, they are not far from the kingdom of God and yet will never make it because of their choice of lifestyle which is against God's laws and commandments.
Those who will reach heaven)Canaan) as Abram will only get there
in obedience to the call of God.
The Apostle Paul says, "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."
(Galatians 3:6)
Amen!!!
Elico Manenji
(+263712952704)
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