January 5, 2018: Day 11 – Genesis 11

Once again we find ourselves in two different stories within Scripture and each of them is crucial to the history of God’s salvation.  We will handle them one at a time.  The first is the Tower of Babel where we read that because people had gathered to build a tower so that they could be like God, God came and confused their languages.  We find an explanation as to why everyone on the earth just doesn’t speak the same language.  It would be so much easier.  You need to see that this sin, of trying to become like God, is not unique to chapter 11.  It is the same sin that Adam and Eve were guilty of, thinking that if they were to eat the fruit they would be like God.  Trying to be like God and knowing good and evil and trying to reach God by building a tower lays the foundation to what in essence is the definition of sin: doing that which places us in a position to want to be like God and acting on that desire.  This is sin.

The next account is the introduction of Abraham.  Notice that we have another genealogy, but this is the one that leads directly to our Savior Jesus Christ.  We find the introduction of Lot, and Abraham, and his wife Sarah.  I am using their common names, names that we recognize, and not the names that are in this chapter.  Abram will have his name changed to Abraham and Sarai will have her name changed to Sarah.  We will go over that when we get there.  But we find that Abraham has moved from the East, along with all the other people from the tower of Babel, and with his father they settled in the land of Haran.  This now sets us up for a true introduction of Abraham and the covenant that God will establish with him there.  Get ready to meet Father Abraham, who actually didn’t have many sons.