A Tale of Two Cities

As confusing as some of the genealogies can be, this is the Word of the Lord.

And it's the Word that God has for us this morning.

And I thank you guys for doing your best to read that.

It amazes me sometimes when I listen to the audio Bible and they read that like anything else.

And it's pretty amazing the skill that they have.

Some people say that the world only has two types of people.

You guys have heard this, I'm sure.

However, they say that there's followers and leaders.

There's dreamers and doers.

The users, the creators.

And of course, all the people who say that and divide the world into these two categories think that they belong to the latter category.

The people who create, the entrepreneurs, the visionaries, the doers and go-getters of this world.

But Genesis 10-12 envisions a far more fundamental category that divides the world.

It teaches us that we're all city builders.

We're all building cities.

And we're building one of two cities.

Either the city of man or the city of God.

And which city we're living for changes everything about our lives.

And what this passage teaches us is that God calls us to be sojourners journeying toward the city of God.

Not settlers in the city of man.

We are called to be sojourners journeying toward the city of God.

Not settlers in the city of man.

So we're going to talk about it in those terms.

First, we'll talk about the city of man, chapters 10 and 11.

Then we'll talk about the city of God in chapter 12.

If you look at the list, the genealogy in chapter 10, verses 1 to 32,

if you count them up, the number 7 stands out as prominent.

There's a lot of number 7s in this list.

So Japheth has 7 sons, according to verse 2, as well as 7 grandsons.

Egypt is said to have 7 sons.

And more importantly, all the sons, all the nations here descended from Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

If you count them up, it adds up to 70.

And 70 is a traditional round number used by Jews and Jewish writers to refer to a large number of descendants.

You see that in Genesis 46, 27.

All the persons of the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were 70.

You see that in 2 Kings 10, 1, it says Ahab had 70 sons in Samaria.

So the fact that this is not supposed to be an exhaustive list,

but rather kind of a symbol, a representative number,

is seen in the fact that repeatedly it says that the nations spread from these people groups.

So all the nations of the world came from these groups.

So 70 is really the representative number.

It's not an exhaustive list, but it does represent the whole world.

All the nations of the world came from this group, descended from Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

And in the midst of this so-called table of the nations, there is this group that is particularly prominent.

It's the Hamites, the sons of Ham.

And the reason for that is because, as you remember from the end of chapter 9,

Noah blesses Shem.

And Shem, the descendants of Shem are what we know as the Jewish people.

It's Shemite is where we get the word Semite, right?

Semitic people.

And then the descendants of Ham, the most prominent of them is Canaan.

So Canaan is the son of Ham that Noah curses for dishonoring him

by making a spectacle of his nakedness.

When he was drunk, he got drunk and got naked.

His son Ham dishonored him by making a public spectacle of him.

And so he cursed Ham's son Canaan.

And that was included in that narrative to show us, to tell the Israelites

that it is their God-given destiny to go and conquer Canaan,

that that's the land that God has given to them.

And so that's why, because these nations descended from Ham

have a particularly close relationship with Israel,

they're given particular attention in this genealogy.

And that's why in verse 19 it tells you exactly what the boundaries of Canaan are.

So the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar

as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma, and Zeboim

as far as Lasha.

These are the boundaries.

Why does the Bible include that?

That doesn't mean anything to us, it seems, as we read it.

Why is it there?

Because to the Israelites, the original audience who's hearing this, reading this,

for them, this is their instruction.

This is the land.

These are the boundaries.

It is your job to go and conquer it, because God has given it to you.

And even in the list of the Hamites, one particular individual stands out.

If you look at verses 8 to 10, it says,

Cush fathered Nimrod.

He was the first on earth to be a mighty man.

He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.

Therefore, it is said, like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.

The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Iraq, Akat, Kalna, in the land of Shinar.

Now, the fact that Nimrod is described as a mighty man is not necessarily a compliment,

because if you remember, the last people who were described as mighty men, heroes, were the Nephilim, right?

The people who, the human daughters who intermarried with angelic beings, fallen angels,

and gave birth to Nephilim, who were known as heroes, warriors, men of renown.

Now, there isn't an explicit connection made here between them and Nimrod,

but the fact that he's described as mighty men, it does have nuances that are not good.

And he's described as a mighty hunter before the Lord.

The phrase before the Lord doesn't mean that he was a godly hunter, that he hunted before the Lord.

It's just a superlative.

It means that there's no one under heaven that was a hunter like him.

So he was the mighty hunter before the Lord.

And so it seems, I mean, that makes sense, right?

I mean, if someone is a warrior or a hero, it translates well to hunting, like game.

So he seems to have been there.

And these two characteristics, being a mighty warrior on the one hand and being a great hunter,

were the two traits that were most prized in Mesopotamian kings.

And so he's kind of being, Nimrod is here being described as kind of the ideal kind of pagan king,

the ancient Near Eastern king.

And it seems that he was quite an influential and powerful king,

because he says that he went on to found some of the major nations and kingdoms in the ancient Near East.

And the most relevant for us, of course, is Babel.

It says he's the one that started Babel in the land of Shinar.

Babylon is very possibly the earliest foundation of Mesopotamia

and certainly the most prestigious among all the kingdoms in the ancient Near East.

And the word Babel means the gate of the god.

You can see their human hubris in the way they named the city.

In other words, they're saying this is the closest you can get to heaven.

This is the gate of the gods.

This is where the gods dwell and come.

And so they're saying this is the mightiest civilization.

And so Babel in the land of Shinar is where we turn to in chapter 11.

Verses 1 to 2 begin this way.

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

They migrated from the east.

This expression actually means toward the east.

That's how it's translated in chapter 13, verse 11, about how Lot journeyed east.

And that makes more sense geographically as well.

So they're not coming from the east, but they're going toward the east.

And if you think about it that way, then you also, it makes connections to what happened earlier in chapter 3, 24, chapter 4, 16, where Adam and Eve are banished from the garden of Eden to go toward the east, further east.

And then Cain likewise is banished from the land to go east of Eden.

So the people, humanity is constantly traveling east, away from the presence of God, the garden of Eden.

And Babylon is another example of that.

And after they have settled, the people decide to build for themselves a city and a tower.

Verses 3 to 4.

And they said to one another, come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.

And they had brick for stone and vitamin for mortar.

Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens.

And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.

Now, this is well crafted, literally.

So if you read the words in Hebrew, a lot of the same consonants as the word babble,

so the B sounds, the L sounds, and the P sounds that sound like B, just all over this passage.

So it's almost like right when these guys start to talk, they start to babble.

Everything that they say, it sounds like babble.

And the babble, the word, it also sounds very much like the Hebrew word for folly.

So it's describing these literary devices that are being used to portray the Babylonians as full of folly and babbling, the hubris.

And so in the words, they're saying they're bringing a city and a tower.

That's an example of a hand diatist.

It's basically a literary device.

It's a figure of a speech when you use two different words connected by an and to convey a single concept.

So, for example, when we drink a cup of coffee and we say, oh, that's nice and hot.

So two separate words, nice and hot.

But we don't mean that the coffee is nice and that it's hot separately.

No, we mean that it's hot to the nice degree.

That's what we mean, right?

So two words form a single concept.

And that's what a city and a tower mean.

So we could better translate it as a city tower or maybe a towering city.

They're building an entire city.

This is an urbanizing enterprise.

And you can tell even just from the narrative that that's how those two words are being used.

Because if you look at verse 8, after God's punishment, it simply says that they left off building the city.

And the tower is not mentioned.

So they form the same idea, same concept.

They're building up a city that reaches to the heavens.

And they're saying that basically, you know what?

You think the gods only dwell in the heavens?

We can dwell there too.

We are the Babylonians and we dwell in the gate of the gods.

But it's kind of reminiscent of Cain, right?

Because Cain's the first one to build a city.

So he's exiled, banished by God to fruitless labor and wandering.

And in order to counteract that curse, he builds a city so that he could survive, right?

Now, just like Cain, then these Babylonians are also building this city, building this towering city.

Not for good reasons.

They're building it without any reference to God whatsoever.

In fact, their goal is just like Adam and Eve's when they reach out and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that were forbidden to them.

Their goal is to become like God, right?

So that's what you see here.

It says, let's build a towering city with its top in the heavens, right?

So it's a sacrilege, really, what they're doing.

And then they say they want to make a name for themselves.

That's the goal.

And to protect themselves from being dispersed over the face of the whole earth.

So in other words, they want two things.

They want glory and they want security.

So humanity is once again seeking to usurp divine prerogative.

It's God who is glorious and it is God who is prerogative to provide and protect the people he created.

Yet they are taking things into their own hands.

And so God deliberates within the Godhead and then decides to intervene as he did with Adam and Eve.

And the story of Babel is structured chiastically, again, like the story of Noah.

So it has corresponding elements in the two halves that match each other.

And verse 5 is the centerfold of that structure.

It's the hinge where the story begins to turn and it says this,

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built.

Now, it's easy to miss this.

But if you read that again, this is just dripping with humor and irony.

Right?

Because these guys are building this great towering city saying,

We'll reach the heavens.

The top will reach the heavens.

And then, but that towering city is so small and short and insignificant that it's barely visible to God that he must come down in order to see it.

That's what's going on.

He says,

The Lord came down to see the city and the tower.

That's the ultimate insult to what the Babylonians are doing.

And the Lord issues his verdict and meets out his punishment in verses 6 to 8.

And the Lord said,

Behold, they are one people and they all have one language.

And this is only the beginning of what they will do.

And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Come, let us go down.

And they confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech.

So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth.

And they left off building the city.

Now, at first glance, it might sound like God feels a little bit insecure.

Right?

Or threatened by what humanity's limitless potential.

But that's not at all what's going on.

And verse 5 should give us a hint that that's not what's going on.

Because the Lord God has to come down to see it.

Right?

What's going on instead is very similar to what happened to Adam and Eve in the garden.

Remember, they take of the tree of the knowledge, good and evil, eat.

But then God says,

Lest they also take from the tree of life and then live forever.

Right?

He banishes them.

God's concern is that they will live forever in that state of alienation from God.

Separation from God.

In that sin.

So he banishes them.

And their mortality lives as a perpetual reminder of the fact that something in the world is not right.

That they need to be reconciled to God.

Restored to him.

To have eternal life that they were created for.

So in the same way, that's what's happening here.

So God says,

Nothing is impossible for them.

They're going to build a heaven.

So God confuses our language.

Lest they, in their humanity and in their unity, accomplish all that they set their mind to.

And then decide, oh, we don't need God after all.

We can do everything on ourselves.

So again, the limit imposed on humanity is there as a perpetual reminder that something is not right in the world.

So all the divisions in the world, the cultural differences,

the things that prevent us from all uniting together to accomplish everything,

those are perpetual reminders for us.

Something is not right.

We need God.

We need to be reconciled to him.

That's the only way we can be reconciled to one another.

And God's punishment, of course, fits their sinful rebellion, as it always does.

So their goal was that they would not be scattered by building a city.

And God's punishment, of course, is to scatter them, to disperse them.

In verse 3, they said,

Let us make bricks.

And in verse 7, God says,

Let us confuse their language.

And the Hebrew words behind let us make and let us confuse are almost identical.

They look and sound almost identical.

So God's, again, giving a punishment that fits their crime.

And the Babylonians had named their city Babel, saying this is the gate of the gods.

But instead, Moses compares it to the Hebrew word balau, which means to babble, to be confused, to mix.

You think that's the gate of the gods?

No, it's confusion.

It's folly.

That's the end of your enterprise.

At this point, we have to ask ourselves the question, why does God care that humanity has decided to live together in a concentrated area?

What's wrong with that?

Right?

Right?

He created us for community.

What's wrong with cities?

What's wrong with urbanization?

What's wrong with these people staying in Babel?

The clue is given throughout verses 8 to 9 because the word earth is repeated three times.

And it highlights something because if you remember Genesis 2, 8, chapter 2, verse 8, God says to humanity, commands them,

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.

That's their call.

That's their God-given mandate to fill the earth, to go forth and fill the whole earth with the image of God.

And by doing so, bring glory to him.

And the Babylonians are saying, no, we're not going.

We're digging their heels and saying, we're staying right here and make glory for ourselves.

Not spread the image of God.

Spread our glory, our image, right here in this city.

But, of course, it's God's plan that ultimately prevails.

And it's really fascinating.

In Luke 10, 1 to 12, when Jesus sends out his missionaries, it says he sends them out two by two.

And it says that he sends out 72 disciples.

Have you ever wondered, why 72?

That seems like such an odd number, right?

It seems to be a pretty random number.

But there's a reason for that.

Because the Greek translation of the Old Testament in Genesis 10, actually, instead of 70 nations, it lists 72 nations.

The table of nations that had, it lists 72 nations.

And, in fact, there is a textual variant for the Luke passage as well.

And some of them say that Jesus sent out 70 disciples instead of 72.

So, I mean, which one was original?

I mean, that question is not as important as the fact that the biblical writers are intentionally making the connection between Genesis 10 and Luke 10.

Is that God created all these nations.

There are 70 nations in the whole world.

And that's why Jesus sends 70 disciples out to go to spread his gospel.

Because the goal of Jesus' mission is not to save one nation, one people group, one race, but to save every race and every people group and every nation.

That's why Jesus does that.

And that's our God-given calling.

To be part of that cosmic enterprise.

And let me ask you, what city are you building?

A city of happy marriage and a family.

A city of high-paying job and comfort.

A city of invention and innovation that will improve the human condition.

A city of scientific discovery that will improve the prognosis of certain diseases.

A city of social justice that will help the marginalized.

All of these things are well and good.

But what are you doing these things for?

Or better, whom are you doing these things for?

Because if the purpose for which you do these things is the same as the man of Babel, let us make a name for ourselves.

So that you might be praised as creative and innovative, just and compassionate.

So that you might be sought out by others for advice.

So that you might make a mark on history.

Then God's not impressed with what you're doing.

He'll have to come down to take a look at what you've done.

No matter how lofty your accomplishments, God will have to condescend to even witness it.

And his evaluation of your work will not be favorable.

Augustine, the esteemed 5th century Christian theologian, wrote his magnum opus, City of God, after the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410.

And that sack of Rome left the Roman Empire reeling because they were in disbelief and shocked.

The fact that this sprawling empire could fall.

That Rome could fall.

And in that light, when Christians were confused because they were starting to identify kingdom of God with the Roman Empire.

And in that time, Augustine wrote that the city of God is not the same as the city of man.

The Roman Empire is not the kingdom of God.

And in this writing, he says this about the virtues of pagan Rome.

He describes the virtues of pagan Rome as splendid vices.

Wonderful phrase.

Splendid vices.

They're not true virtue.

They're splendid because they're virtuous deeds.

But they are vices because they are carried out for non-virtuous reasons.

In a man-centered, man-glorifying rather than God-centered, God-glorifying way.

And that's not pleasing to him.

Think about it this way.

Imagine an ambassador for the United States of America.

Let's say he operates with all the pomp and glory and power that an ambassador is supposed to function with.

He confers with other heads of state and he makes decisions of national and international import.

And so what if this guy, this ambassador, he goes to Russia and he encourages Putin to take over Syria

so that he could open up business opportunities for himself in Russia.

What if this ambassador goes to North Korea and then he gets millions of dollars in exchange for giving away U.S. trade secrets, military secrets,

teaches them how to put nuclear warheads on a long-range ballistic missile?

I mean, he's functioning as an ambassador, all right?

Right?

He's got tremendous power and influence.

But is he doing his job?

He's a completely useless ambassador.

Likewise, we could accomplish all the great things in this world,

but if we are not representing the God who created us,

if we're not doing it for the glory of the one who made us,

we're being useless creatures.

We're not fulfilling the purpose for which God created us.

Are you building the city of God or the city of man?

And this is not a relevant message for non-Christians only.

Every Christian needs to hear this message also.

Check.

In chapter 11, verses 10 to 26, we get a fuller genealogy of Shem,

which transitions us to the story of Abram.

But before we get to Abram, we find this in verses 31 and 32.

It says,

Terah is from the chosen line,

and the line of Shem.

It seems that his family has, by this point,

likely strayed from worshiping the Lord God.

And you can see this from several clues,

but the name Terah is most likely related to the Hebrew word for moon.

And the names of his daughter-in-law, Sarai and Milka,

both come from lunar worship, moon worship.

So, for example, there was a moon god named Sin.

Saratu was his wife, and Malkitu was his daughter.

So it sounds very much like Sarai in Malkitu.

And this is all the more plausible because Ur of Chaldeans and Haran

were both areas where moon worship was prominent.

So it seems that they were involved in this,

and they are being kind of called out of that.

Maybe God called Terah out of that.

And that's why later God calls Abram specifically.

So Terah, it says that he started to journey toward Canaan,

to go into the land of Canaan.

But when they came to Haran,

it says they settled there.

The implication of the narrative is

they should have kept going to Canaan, the promised land,

but instead they settled in Haran.

And settling anywhere outside of Canaan,

the promised land,

is a bad thing in the book of Genesis.

It's always the people who are outside of God's chosen line,

the promised, His grace,

that settle outside of Canaan.

Let me give you some examples.

Cain settles in the land of Nod, Genesis 4.16.

It's the inhabitants of Babel that settled in Shinar,

chapter 11.2.

In Genesis 13.12, it says that

while Abram settled in the land of Canaan,

the promised land,

Lot settled among the cities of the valley

and moved his far tent as far as Sodom.

And we know what happens to Sodom,

judgment and death and destruction.

Ishmael, not Isaac,

Ishmael settles in the wilderness of Paran.

Genesis 36.78 says that

Jacob and Esau,

that the land of their sojournings

could not support them

because of their livestock

because it was so big.

So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir.

Esau is Edom.

This is contrasted intentionally with Jacob.

It says Genesis 37.1 of Jacob,

he lived in the land of his father's sojourning,

in the land of Canaan.

Unless you're in the land of Canaan,

you're not supposed to settle.

Until you're there,

you keep sojourning,

you keep going,

you keep journeying,

you're not supposed to settle.

The only time when the chosen people of God

are said to have settled outside of Canaan

is later in Egypt.

And you know what happens there?

Enslavement.

So that God must once again rescue them

out of Egypt

to take them back to Canaan.

So settling in a land other than Canaan

is a sure way to exclude yourself

from God's promise and favor.

And it says Terah settled in Horan.

Who knows why he settled?

Maybe he just found a good community there.

Or maybe he was just wary

of living the pilgrim's life.

But we know this is not good

because immediately,

the next thing we learn about Terah

is that he died in Horan.

Where you settle is where you die.

The days of Terah were 205 years

and Terah died in Horan.

Genesis tells us 31 places,

31 people dying.

He says they died.

But only three times they tell you

where they died.

It's because it's important.

He says he died in Horan.

Now if you are a Christian,

let me ask you,

where have you settled?

Perhaps when you first gave your life to Jesus,

you were zealous

and you wanted to do everything for him.

But since then,

you have settled.

Perhaps God has called you to marriage,

but you have settled for living together.

Perhaps God has called you

to singleness and chastity,

but you have settled for serial dating and voyeurism.

Perhaps God has called you

to radical generosity toward the church

and toward those in need.

but you have settled for giving just 10%

or the spare change that happens to be in your wallet

at that moment.

Maybe God has called you to excellence in your workplace,

but you have settled for mediocrity,

for doing what is passable.

Perhaps God has called you to be an intercessory prayer warrior,

to daily bring before God the needs of his saints,

but instead you have settled for praying five minutes a day

or just for moments before your meals.

God has called you to be an intercessory prayer,

God has called every single one of us to be his missionaries,

to be his agents in seeking and saving the lost,

but maybe we have settled

for just

hanging out with our comfortable group of Christian friends.

God has called all of us to live every single moment of our lives

for him and for his glory.

But maybe we have settled for giving him few minutes a day

and a half day a week.

C.S. Lewis writes about this in his book,

Screwtape Letters.

The book is a series of imagined dialogues

between Wormwood and Screwtape.

Screwtape is the uncle who is advising Wormwood

on how to lure and seduce man to hell.

And he advises him in this particular insightful dialogue

to use small sins and pleasures

instead of big sins and pleasures.

And he writes this,

You will say that these are very small sins

and doubtless, like all young tempters,

you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness.

But do remember,

the only thing that matters

is the extent to which you separate the man from the enemy.

It does not matter how small the sins are,

provided that their cumulative effect

is to edge the man away from the light

and out into the nothing.

Murder is no better than cards

if cards can do the trick.

Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one,

the gentle slope, soft underfoot,

without sudden turnings,

without milestones,

without signposts.

Where you settle is where you die.

Where have you settled?

As far as our personal spiritual state is concerned,

adultery is no worse than lust

if lust is enough to edge us away from God.

Murder is no worse than anger

if anger is enough to edge us away from God.

Voyeurism is no worse than Netflix

if Netflix is enough to edge us away from God.

Militant atheism is no worse than cynicism

if cynicism is enough to edge us away from God.

Don't ever settle down.

Regularly take inventory of your spiritual life.

Daily repent of your sins,

small and large,

and seek to give every ounce of your energy

to live for Him.

I love Jonathan Edwards' resolutions.

I don't know if you guys have read that.

When he was very young,

he wrote a series of resolutions

for how he has resolved to live for God.

And some of those say this,

Resolved, I will do whatsoever I think

to be most to God's glory

and my own good and profit and pleasure.

That go together.

Resolved never to do any matter of thing,

whether in soul or body,

less or more,

but what tends to the glory of God.

Resolved never to do anything

which I should be afraid to do

if it were the last hour of my life.

Resolved to live with all my might

while I do live.

Don't settle.

God has not called us to be settlers

in the city of man.

Instead, God has called us to be sojourners

journeying toward the city of God.

And we find a fine example of that in Abram

starting in chapter 12.

With Abram, we find a turning point in history

from primeval history to patriarchal history.

And so far, we've seen a recurring pattern

in the book of Genesis.

God creates.

He shows his grace

and he blesses creation.

And then creation mucks it up.

They sin and mess up.

So God punishes and judges

and then again continues his grace.

That's the pattern we've seen

over and over again.

That's what we see here again.

God blessed the line of Shem

to be prosperous

and to grow and to multiply.

And then after that,

we find the sin of Babel.

And then God once again shows grace.

And this time it's through Abram.

Verse 1 begins,

Now the Lord said to Abram,

Go from your country

and your kindred

and your father's house

to the land that I will show you.

Notice how God's call to Abram

becomes progressively more demanding

and narrow.

First he says,

Go from your country.

Okay, I mean, I could leave my country.

That's not that hard.

And then he says,

Leave your kindred,

the people who are like you,

your cultural group,

your ethnic group,

the people you are akin to.

And then it escalates further,

Leave your father's house,

your very own family.

Leave them.

Your closest relations.

Isn't this exactly what Jesus has in mind

when he says,

Whoever loves his father or mother

more than me is not worthy of me?

Our highest allegiance is to the Lord.

And anything that's in the way,

we have to forsake

to follow him.

And inversely parallel

to the progressively narrowing call of God

on Abram

is God's promise to bless him.

God's promise to bless him

is increasingly wider.

And you see that in verses 2 to 3.

And I will make of you a great nation.

And I will bless you

and make your name great

so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you

and him who dishonors you

I will curse.

And in you,

all the families of the earth

shall be blessed.

The word blessed

is repeated five times here

and the consonants of the word blessed

sound like Abram.

So Abram is intricately tied

to all of God's blessings here.

And at first,

God says,

Abram alone is blessed.

Abram,

I will bless you.

And then second,

God says,

his name will become

a synonym,

an embodiment,

a byword for blessing

for others as well.

And then third,

he says that those who bless Abram

will themselves be blessed.

And then fourth and finally,

all the families of the earth

will be blessed through him.

It gets larger and larger,

expands God's blessing

as Abram obeys.

And in order to understand

God's promise to Abram well,

we have to compare it back

to what God did to Babel,

the people of Babel.

Because if you notice,

the very first word

that people of Babel say

is what?

Come.

And the very first word

that God says to Abram

is go.

At Babel,

it says that men wanted

to make a name for themselves.

And in here,

it is God who promises Abram,

I will make your name great.

At Babel,

the people did not want

to be dispersed

over the face of the earth.

But here,

God promised Abram

that he will be a blessing

to all the families

of the earth.

It's again a reversal

of all the things

that the people of Babel

were trying to do.

Abram is called

to do the opposite.

He's the model of obedience.

And we see this clearly

in his response

in verses 4 to 9

of chapter 12.

God's first word

to Abram was go.

And Abram's first,

the first verb

attributed to Abram

is that he went.

He obeys right away.

So Abram went

as the Lord

had told him.

And Lot went with him.

Abram was 75 years old

when he departed

from Haran.

So it seems like

since Lot's father

died,

his father's name

was Haran.

Lot's father died

prematurely.

He died before

his father did.

It seems that

he takes on his nephew

to take care of him.

That's why Lot

comes with Abram.

And it says

that he takes his family

and he journeys

to the land of Canaan.

And unlike Terah,

he gets there.

And he goes

from Shechem,

the northern part,

the northern boundary

of the promised land.

And he goes

to Bethel

and then to the Negev,

which is the southernmost

boundary

of the land of Canaan.

So this shows

that Abram

is obeying God

and actually traversing

the entire land

of Canaan.

And verse,

but however,

it's the promise

to Abram

that God made

doesn't seem

immediately to be fulfilled.

We don't know exactly

how it's going

to be fulfilled

because if you look

at verse 6,

it tells us

at that time

the Canaanites

were in the land.

This is the land

that God promised

Abram to show,

that he would show him,

but God,

it's already occupied.

So there doesn't seem

to be a prospect

for land there

for Abram.

And not only that,

what did God say

in verse 7?

He said,

to your offspring

I will give this land.

Now that's such

an outlandish prediction

because not only

does he not have

the land,

he told us earlier

in chapter 11,

verse 30,

that his wife Sarai

was barren.

She had no child.

So what God promises

Abram is basically

a pipe drink.

Offspring?

You want to give

this land

to my descendants?

But Abram lives

by faith

and not by sight.

And so at the end

of verse 7

it says,

so he built

there an altar

to the Lord

who had appeared

to him.

He builds

an altar

in the land

of Canaan

and worships

the Lord God

there.

He's spiritually

staking out

the land

for himself.

Yes,

I don't own this

right now physically,

but by building

the altar there

he essentially owns it.

He's taking possession

of it.

This is the land

God promised me

and I will build

an altar

here.

That's why

it says in Hebrews

11,

8 to 10,

by faith

Abraham

obeyed

when he was called

to go out

to a place

that he was

to receive

as an inheritance

and he went out

not knowing

where he was going.

By faith

he went to live

in the land

of promise

as in a foreign land

living in tents

with Isaac

and Jacob

heirs with him

of the same promise

for he was looking

forward to this city

that has foundations

whose designer

and builder

is God.

He was looking ahead.

He was sojourning

toward the city

of God

not settling

in the city

of man.

And the land

of Canaan

of course

it's a type

of the promised land

of heaven

of perfect communion

in relationship

with God

and so it's

pointing to

that ultimate reality

and Abraham

was in faith

even looking

forward to that

and that becomes

a paradigm

for all the future

followers

to walk

by faith

and not

by sight.

God calls

us to be

sojourners

journeying

toward the city

of God

not settlers

in the city

of man.

Are you living

as a settler

in the city

of man?

Or are you

still journeying

toward the city

of God?

The Bible

repeatedly tells us

our citizenship

is not here

on earth

it's in heaven.

1 Peter 2

11 says

Beloved

I urge you

as sojourners

and exiles

to abstain

from the passions

of the flesh

which wage war

against your soul.

It's because

we are sojourners

we're here on earth

as it is now

it's only

our temporary home

so if we begin

to feel

at home

here

then we're

beginning to

become aliens

in the promised

land.

And we have

no excuse

because Abraham

or Abram

at this point

he's still Abram

he lived

in the age

of promise

but not

in the age

of fulfillment.

he was promised

all these things

but he did not

yet see all

these promises

come to fruition.

So why is

the story

of this Jewish

man

from the third

millennium B.C.

important

to us?

Why do we read

about Abram?

We live in the

third millennium

A.D.

And most of us

are not even Jewish.

Why do we care

about Abram?

Because

it is through

Abram

his line

through his descendants

that Jesus Christ

the Savior

of the world

comes.

And that's

the genealogy

that Luke 3

23-28

makes.

He connects

Abram

to Adam

and he connects

Jesus

to Abraham.

So the promise

to Abram

that God made

that all the

families of the

earth will be

blessed

is fulfilled

in Jesus.

And that's why

even though

there's a very

persistent

misunderstanding

of the Old

Testament

when people

look at the

Old Testament

we think

oh man

God used

to be a

little bit

insecure,

narrow,

particularistic,

favored the

Jews and

rejected everybody

else.

And then

finally when

New Testament

came he was

a little bit

more enlightened

and compassionate

and gracious

toward the

other nations.

That's not

what's going

on.

We think

that when

God chooses

Abram

and makes

these promises

to Abram

that it was

to the exclusion

of everybody

else.

No,

but in

reality what's

going on

is that

Abram

is the

means by

which all

the nations

will be

blessed.

The reason

why God

cares so

zealously for

the Jewish

people,

the reason

why he

cares and

protects

Abram

so compassionately

and tenderly

and intimately

is because he

knows that

that is the

line through

which the

salvation of

the world

will come.

It's because

on that line

hinges the

salvation of

the world.

So for that

reason,

with Jesus in

view at the

line,

at the end

of that line,

he protects

and preserves

the Jewish

people.

And it's

only he that

can save us

because Abram

will fail.

You'll see in

the ensuing

narratives,

he's not

perfect.

And Abram's

descendants

will fail.

In fact,

they're so bad.

In Exodus,

God says,

you know what?

Moses,

step aside.

I'm going to

wipe them out.

I'm going to

start over

with you.

The people,

the great

nation that

he promised,

he threatens

to wipe out.

And thankfully,

Moses intercedes.

So the Israel

is preserved.

But no one

can fulfill

what God

wants humanity

to fulfill,

to live for

him and

to represent

him,

to fill the

earth and

subdue it

for his

glory.

No one

can do that

except for

Jesus because

he's a son

of God and

son of man.

He fulfilled

it perfectly

for us.

And because

he's a son

of God,

he can represent

God and

vindicate us

from divine

judgment and

wrath.

But because

he's a son

of man,

he can represent

us and

die for our

sins.

And that's

what he does

on the cross

when he dies

as an atoning

sacrifice for our

sins and

rises again.

And our

default state

is to be like

the people of

Babel,

to lift,

to make a name

for ourselves.

And it's only

when we turn

from our own

ways to turn

toward

living for

God,

for his

glory,

and to

let him

make a

name for

himself.

That's

when we

enter the

promised land.

That's when

we become

recipients of

this promise

that was

given to

Abram.

And when

we do,

Jesus helps

us and he

fulfills it

in a wonderful

way.

We see an

example of

this in

Acts,

in chapter

2,

at Pentecost.

You guys

remember at

Babel,

people had

one language,

but it

was

confused

so that

they could

no longer

understand each

other.

When Jesus

ascends and

sends the

Holy Spirit,

at Pentecost,

everybody speaks

different languages,

come from all

different cultures,

but they're given

one language,

a tongue,

and now everybody

understands each

other.

It's a reversal

of the curse that

came on humanity

that happens in

Acts 2.

Jesus,

his ministry,

is the beginning

of the reversal

of all that

is wrong

and corrupt

about this

world and

about ourselves,

and we get

to be a part

of that

mission.

There's

nothing mundane

or boring

about the

Christian life.

We get

to be a part

of God's

world-reaching,

history-spanning,

eternity-shaping

mission.

That's

our calling.

God calls

us to be

sojourners

journeying

toward the

city of God,

not settlers

in the city

of man.

As your

pastor,

as I pray

for you,

my greatest

fear is not

that you'll

fall into

some kind

of spectacular

wickedness

or sin.

That's not

my fear.

My fear

is that

little by

little,

with small

compromises

and little

sins,

you're edged

away from

God,

that you

settle.

Let me

conclude by

reading just a

couple stanzas

from this

stirring poem

written by a

British missionary

to China.

His name is

C.T.

Studd,

Charles Thomas

Studd.

It goes

this way.

Only one

life,

the still

small voice,

gently

pleads for

a better

choice,

bidding my

selfish aims

to leave,

and to God's

holy will

to cleave.

Only one

life,

twill soon

be past,

only what's

done for

Christ will

last.

Only one

life,

twill soon

be past,

only what's

done for

Christ will

last,

and when I

am dying,

how happy

I'll be

if the

lamp of

my life

has been

burned out

for thee.

Let's pray

together.

O Father,

let your

word pierce

our hearts

today,

and let

your spirit,

the fire

of God,

so inflame

us and set

us on fire

so it burns

away the

dross,

the sin,

from our

lives,

so we can

persevere

to the end,

saying that

we have

burned

every

millimeter

of our

wick

to glorify

you,

serving

you,

loving

you with

all our

heart,

soul,

mind,

and strength.

Lord,

do that

for our

church.

Fill us,

O God.

In Jesus'

name we

pray.

Amen.