Now, these are the generations of the sons
of Noah, and as we get into chapter
10, this chapter has been called the Table
of Nations.
And here you have the beginning of all
of the various nations of the world, the
various ethnic groups with these sons of Noah.
These are the generations of the sons of
Noah.
Seth is probably the one who put these
generations together.
We follow for a little bit the line
of Ham, a little bit the line of
Japheth, and then when we get to the
line of Shem, we continue to follow the
generations from Shem, because it is from Shem
that Abraham will come.
It is from Abraham that the nation will
come.
It is from the nation and Abraham, of
course, that the seed Christ will come.
And so we'll continue to follow the line
down to Christ.
But the others will follow for a few
generations to establish their ethnic groups that sprung
from them.
Then we'll leave them go, because the whole
message really is centering and zeroing down towards
Jesus Christ.
So many names are not given.
Many of the families are not named at
all.
It isn't intended to be a complete historical
record, but only a record that will lead
us to Abraham, which will lead us to
David, which will lead us to Jesus Christ.
Once we've come to Jesus Christ, it wasn't
necessary to keep the genealogies anymore.
God has proven that Jesus Christ was as
promised, the son of David, the son of
Abraham, the son of Adam.
So that's all that's necessary, to follow that
line that leads to Christ.
Now the sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog,
Mediah, Javan, Tubal, Meshach, and Taras.
Gomer was more or less the father of
the ancient Sumerians.
Magog were the Scythians, the area of Russia.
And Mediah was the father of the Medes.
Javan, the Greeks.
Tubal and Meshach, they believe that Meshach actually
is the ancient Muscovy, modern-day Moscow.
And Tubal, the modern Tobolsk.
And Taras, of course, is the Thracians.
And so we see that basically you're getting
into the Asian-European nations as descendants from
Japheth.
Now we take one of the sons, Gomer,
the first one listed.
And we have the Germanic people, Ashkenaz.
And Ripha and Togarma.
Togarma is thought to be the Armenians.
But the Ashkenaz, more or less the Germanic
people, coming again from Japheth.
And by these were the islands of the
Gentiles divided, actually Tarshish and so forth.
So you're getting into the area of Europe,
Scandinavia.
Of course, on into ultimately England, all the
descendants, the Caucasian race, descendant from Japheth.
Now the sons of Ham, Cush and Seba,
Havila, Sapta, Rama, and all of these various
names.
We're not going to try and go through
them all.
But they basically went south and populated the
areas of Africa.
Also, a portion of them, the descendants
of Canaan were Sidon, which were the Phoenicians.
The sister city of Sidon, of course, the
city Sidon upon the northern coast of the
Mediterranean.
The sister city of Tyre, which were the
Phoenicians.
The Jebusites, who inhabited the area around Jerusalem.
And in verse 17, there's Sinaites.
Now it is felt that some of the
inhabitants of the Sinaites moved east and were
the Chinese descended from this particular branch.
And it is interesting that the Chinese are
still called Sino people.
And you read of the Sino-Japanese War,
for instance.
And the name is still holding.
And many of the Chinese names beginning with
this Sin.
So, from Ham, Africa on over into the
far east and the area of Canaan.
Now he does stop with one of the
descendants when he gets to Kush, beget Nimrod.
And he began to be a mighty one
in the earth.
Instead of a mighty hunter before the Lord,
it should be translated, he was a mighty
tyrant in the face of the Lord.
The hunting was the hunting of men's souls.
Nimrod became a leader in apostasy, a developer
of a great religious system, later to become
known as the Babylonian religious system or the
Mystery Babylon.
That whole religious system was begun by Nimrod.
Now, his mother, Semiramis, was later to be
called the Queen of Heaven and to be
worshipped.
It was her claim that Nimrod was actually
born without the benefit of a father, that
he was born while she was a virgin.
Nimrod was known for his hunting prowesses, a
great man with a bow.
In those days, the people were probably, because
of their primitive type weapons, very fearful of
the wild animals, the lions and the tigers
and leopards and so forth.
And he was known as a protector of
the people because of his ability and skills
in hunting.
But one day while hunting boar, a wild
boar turned on him and gored him.
And he supposedly was dead for three days,
lying there in the woods.
And after three days, his life returned.
And so, they began to celebrate his resurrection
by coloring eggs and having great festivities in
the springtime of the year.
Incidentally, his birth was December 25th.
And they usually celebrated his birth by giving
of gifts, drunken orgies, and cutting trees and
decorating them with silver and gold in their
homes.
And this is just a few generations after
Noah.
The worship of his mother, Semiramis, Queen of
Heaven, the whole thing, Satan's counterfeit of
God's intended work, began with Nimrod.
And when you start reading the history of
the Babylonian religion, the way they set up
the celebrations and all, you will be absolutely
shocked at the historic church and
how much of the activities of the historic
church were borrowed directly from Nimrod, who was
also known as Tammuz and Marmaduke, several names,
Ashtar, Semiramis, the various names for his mother
who was worshipped.
And actually, the name Easter coming from Ashtar.
It's amazing that this Babylonian system could have
so thoroughly infiltrated the church.
But God brings Nimrod into the record here.
And the beginning of the kingdom of Babel,
verse 10, and it was he who inspired
the people to build this tower that would
reach into heaven.
It was he who began to inspire them
to the worship of the stars, the beginning
of astrology, and all of these things began
in this ancient Babylonian religion.
The tower really, literally not to reach into
heaven, but the tower was to worship.
It was an observatory where they would go
and worship the stars, the constellations, and so
forth.
And many such towers have been uncovered in
the archaeological diggings there in the Babylonian plain.
They were areas of worship.
So, the descendants of Ham, then in verse
21, we come to the descendants of Shem,
also the father of all the children of
Eber.
It is from Eber that we get the
name Hebrae, or the Hebrews.
So, Abraham was not the beginning of the
idea or the name of the Hebrews.
It came from Abraham's ancestor Eber.
And so, Shem, the brother of Japheth, the
elder, even to him were children born.
The children of Shem are listed here for
you, and then the children of Aram.
And we're going to narrow down to Eber,
because we want to follow Eber.
Eber had two sons.
The name of one was Peleg, and in
his days was the earth divided.
And his brother's name was Joktan.
Now, this idea of the earth being divided,
there are some who try to relate this
to a current scientific theory of the continental,
the continents dividing, you know.
The continents have been drifting apart that originally
there was only one landmass, but this continental
drift theory that is a current theory in
some scientific areas.
And they, some of them point to this
reference of Scripture, and it was in the
times of Peleg that the earth was divided.
However, if you'll follow the chronological charts and
all, you'll find out that Peleg lived in
the days of the Tower of Babel.
And it was at the Tower of Babel
that the earth was really divided into the
ethnic groups.
And so, that is probably what the reference
is to.
The division of the earth into the ethnic
groups following the Tower of Babel experience, rather
than a scripture that would somehow lend support
to the continental drift theory.
So, that's the way it is.
It could refer to continental drift, but more
than likely the reference is to the division
of the earth from the Tower of Babel.
Among the names here in the Descendants, we
do find the name Jobeb, which could very
well be the Job of the Scriptures.
And so, I guess that's a little further
down when we get into the Descendants of
Abraham.
Now in chapter 11, the whole earth was
of one language and one speech, probably Hebrew.
Because in the earlier record of the book
of Genesis, the names of the people were
Hebrew names that have Hebrew meanings.
And so, the original language was perhaps the
Hebrew language itself.
But the whole earth was of one language,
one speech, and it came to pass as
they journeyed from the east, that they found
a plain in the land of Shinar, and
they dwelt there.
And they said one to another, let us
make brick and burn them thoroughly.
Now, this is an interesting thing because it
shows that very early after the flood, they
had brick kilns.
And rather than just building their houses out
of rocks, they were advanced to the state
of making bricks and putting them in the
kiln, burning them thoroughly.
So, rather than just adobe kind of buildings,
they were now using a mortar with a
cured brick or a burned brick.
And they began to build, of course, the
city of Nineveh, the city of Babylon, all
began to be built in this period by
Nimrod himself.
And so, they said, let us build a
city and a tower whose top may reach
into heaven.
And let us make a name, lest we
be scattered abroad upon the face of the
whole earth.
Now, God's command was to actually fill the
earth.
It's an attempt to sort of countermand God's
commandment.
Lest we be scattered abroad throughout all the
earth.
Let's join together.
Let's just, you know, congregate in this area.
And the Lord came down to see the
city and the tower which the children of
men built it.
Now, again, we're describing the activities of God
in human terms, as though God were coming
down and looking things over.
In reality, God is omnipresent.
He was watching the thing the whole while.
The Lord said, behold, the people is one.
And they all have one language.
And this they begin to do.
And now nothing will be restrained from them
which they have imagined to do.
The developing of this religious system.
Now, it is very possible that originally God
placed the stars in the heavens for signs.
And that the gospel is actually given in
the Zodiac, the Virgin, the Lion.
But as Satan has always taken the things
of God and twisted them and perverted them.
So, from the original message that God had
placed there in the heavens of his plan
for the ages, that there was that perversion
of it into what is the modern astrology.
Which began way back again in the Babylonian
era.
Here in Babel, where they were going to
build this tower as an observatory to observe
the constellations and so forth of the sky.
But, it is quite possible that originally the
gospel was there indeed in the stars.
As far as the message of God to
man.
Now, it would seem that the Magi who
came from the east to find the Christ
child were reading correctly the heavens.
We have seen his star in the east.
We've come to worship him.
And that they were reading truly the signs
that God had placed there.
Now, the Bible says that God has placed
the stars for signs and for seasons.
And it is very possible that originally there
was indeed the message of God in the
stars.
But has been perverted as I say into
the modern astrology.
And the perversion began way back there.
Where they began to look at the stars
for the influence over their lives.
Rather than looking to God.
And so, God in his word puts down
the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators.
Those who sought them to govern their lives
by the influence of the stars upon them
and so forth.
And God really speaks out very heavily against
that in the prophecy of Isaiah.
But, it is an ancient, ancient thing.
The horoscopes and all.
But, as with so many things it is
possible that in the beginning it was pure
and had a true message of God.
But, it has been perverted as time has
gone on.
And so, God seeing this development said, let
us go down and confound their language.
That they may not understand one another's speech.
And so, the Lord scattered them abroad from
thence upon the face of all the earth.
And they left off building the city.
Therefore, its name was called Babel or Babel.
Whichever pronunciation you prefer.
It really is a word that just sort
of, it was a word that was adapted
because of what the sound sounded like.
Just like the word barbarian is a word
that was developed by the Greeks.
And the word barbarian in Greek literally is
barbar.
And anybody who didn't speak Greek was a
barbar.
Because your language sounded so funny.
So, anybody who didn't speak Greek, they just
considered them uncultured and said, oh they're a
barbar.
You know, it just means that they talk
some other language rather than the cultured Greek.
And so, from that we get the word
barbarian.
But, it originally was just a sound that
they made, an unintelligible sound by which they
were sort of mimicking any language other than
Greek.
It's barbar.
Oh, he's a barbar.
And so, this Babel is the same thing.
It's mimicking a sound that was not understood.
Babel.
Just, it's somewhat like the barbar, Babel.
And it's just an, you know, I don't
understand what you're saying.
What do you mean Baba, you know, or
Babel.
And so, the word has come to mean
confusion, lack of understanding.
And so, they called the name of the
place Babel.
Because the Lord did there confound or confuse
the languages of all the earth.
And from thence did the Lord scatter them
abroad upon the face of all the earth.
And so, at this point, the people who
were speaking.
And of course, this was a tremendous miracle,
indeed, the development of all of these languages.
Now, the interesting thing about languages is that
many times we think that the English language,
because we grew up with it, you know,
it's such a excellent language in communicating ideas.
And we think, you know, people who are
living in, say, primitive cultures, in Stone Age
cultures, surely they must have a primitive form
of language.
Ours must surely be a highly cultured form
of language, the English language.
And they must have very primitive language.
But it is an interesting thing that many
of the primitive cultures have the most complex
languages, highly complex languages, much more so
than English.
And thus, there is great difficulty in translating
into many of these languages of primitive people.
You think, oh, it would be easy to
translate, you know, the man went to church.
But some of these primitive cultures have so
many words for man.
So, you'd have to know if the man
was one that you knew well or you
knew slightly, because they have one word for
man that you know well and another one
for a man that you know slightly.
Then, they'd have to know whether you liked
the man or not.
And then, you'd have to know whether or
not you respected him.
And actually, they have maybe 20 different words
for man.
So, you'd have to know all kinds of
things about this man before you'd know which
word would fit the text or the translation.
Now, the word, he went.
Did he go once in his life?
Or did he go occasionally?
Was it something that he was accustomed to
doing or something that was rare for him
to do?
And so, even in the verb, you have
so many different words that would describe it
that you'd get into the translating and really,
you'd want to throw up your hands and
quit, because these languages are so many times
so much more complex.
I have a friend who was translating the
Gospel of Mark into the Choco dialect in
Panama.
And he came to the place where he
was working with his translating helper and he
came to the place where Jesus spit in
the ground and made mud and put it
in the blind man's eye and told him
to go to the pool of Siloam and
wash it out.
So, in translating this word, spit, the native
said, but how did he spit?
You know, there's many different ways to spit.
Well, we only have one English word, but
the Choco Indian has so many different words.
You have a different way of spitting.
And of course, how do you know which
word it is?
You know, we don't know what word it
is.
And because, you know, they have so many
different words.
He said, well, he said, did he, did
he spit?
Or did he pick up the, did he
pick up the dirt in his hand and
just spit and mix it up?
Or did he spit on the ground and
mix it up?
Or did he put the dirt in his
eye and spit in his eye and mix
it up?
And he would have a different word for
each action.
Well, we don't know what Jesus did.
But this development of language.
Now, it is interesting that man has in
any and every culture no matter how primitive,
highly complex method of communicating of ideas.
And I don't care how primitive or ignorant
that particular culture may be.
Their languages are highly developed in the ability
to communicate their ideas, whether they do it
through grunts, through a sing song or whatever.
They are able to communicate their ideas no
matter how primitive their culture.
This certainly is something that separates man from
the animal kingdom.
There is nothing in the animal kingdom that
even approximates a complex form of communication of
ideas.
But yet, in the most primitive culture of
man and in every culture of man, there
is a language communication.
So, this was the beginning of the separation
of languages.
Now, after the separation into the basic language
groups, there, of course, have become modifications even
within the same language or generalized language.
We find the Romance languages and similarities between
the Spanish and the Portuguese and the Italian
and the French.
We find that there is certain similarities between
the German and Scandinavian.
We find that English is a language that
has borrowed much from Latin and from Greek.
So, there have been developed languages from the
basic language systems.
But God divided their languages and instantly they
no doubt got together in groups that they
could communicate to.
The family groups and so forth, where they
could communicate to each other, but it caused
the division and the separation and that spreading
out then into the world and scattering abroad
upon the face of the earth as it
is described.
Now, we're going to zero in down to
Abraham because that's where our story must move.
So, these are the generations of Shem.
Getting now again a repetition of the generations
of Shem, but moving definitely just down towards
Abraham.
He was a hundred years old and he
begat Arphaxad two years after the flood.
He lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred
years and he begat sons and daughters.
So, he lived to be about six hundred
years old approximately.
Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, begat Salah and
he begat Eber and we follow down to
Abraham and actually that's the one where we're
coming to.
So, let's go on to verse twenty-six.
Terah lived seventy years and he begat Abram,
Nahor, and Haran.
Now, whether or not this is the order
in which they were born, we do not
know.
Whether or not, you know, how old was
Terah when Abraham was born, we do not
know.
Maybe he was the third son.
We have no way of knowing, but he
lived seventy years and he had these three
sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Now, he lived after that for many years
also.
Now, these are the generations of Terah.
Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran and Haran
begat Lot.
And Haran died before his father Terah in
the land of the nativity, in the area
of the Chaldees.
And Abram and Nahor took them wives.
So, their brother Haran died early, having married
and born one son, Lot.
He actually bore some daughters too.
And they took wives.
The name of Abram's wife was Sarah and
the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, for
she was also the daughter of Haran.
So, he married his niece and the father
of Milcah and the father of Iscah.
But Sarah was barren and she had no
child.
And Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot,
the son of Haran.
So, with Haran dead, Lot being his son,
Abram sort of adopted Lot, because Abram didn't
have any sons of his own.
So, he sort of adopted Lot and Lot
became a journeyer with Abram.
But they all together went from the Ur
of the Chaldees.
Now, it was in the Ur of the
Chaldees, in this area where this false religious
systems, pantheism and polytheism and all began to
develop and the perverted religious systems.
And so, they left the Ur of the
Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan.
And they came to Haran and dwelt there.
Now, the fact that they all left to
go to Canaan means that in the beginning,
it could be that Abram's father also received
the call of God to leave and get
out of this area that had begun to
become religiously polluted and to come into a
whole new area.
But Terah, they came as far as Haran
and there they dwelt.
And the days of Terah were 205 years
and Terah died in Haran.
Now, there is a seeming contradiction of Scripture
here.
When you get into the New Testament and
Stephen is talking about Abraham being called of
God to leave the Ur of the Chaldees
and to go to Israel.
How that after he said Terah died, Abraham
then went on to Canaan.
But when you start putting the ages together,
you find that Abraham actually left.
If Terah lived to be 205 years old
and he was 70 years old when Abraham
was born.
Then, and Abraham was 75 when he left.
The 75 and the 70 makes 145 years
and yet he lived to be 205 years
old.
So, you have a discrepancy in mathematics here.
So, what is the solution or what is
the answer?
There are a couple possible suggestions.
Number one, Abraham may not have been the
first born son.
They may not be listed in the order
of their births but in the order of
the precedence of their sons.
And Abraham could have been born many years
after, in other words, 70 years.
And maybe Haran was born when he was
70 years old.
And it doesn't give his age at the
time of Abraham's birth.
That's one possibility.
So, that Abraham was sort of a late
child.
And that indeed by the time he was
75, his father was 205 years old.
It's very possible.
Another possibility is that Stephen is talking in
sort of a spiritual sense that he died.
You remember one day a young fellow came
to Jesus and said, I'll follow you but
allow me first to go bury my father.
And Jesus said, let the dead bury the
dead.
Come and follow me.
Now, the let me first bury my father
was a common term.
It didn't mean that his father was dead.
It isn't that Jesus is showing a disrespect
or a father who had died.
It's just a term of procrastination or putting
something off until later.
In other words, I want to do it
later.
Wait till my father dies.
Your father can be alive and healthy.
He may be good for another 50, 60
years.
But it was a term of procrastination.
A common term of procrastination.
Now, knowing the use of Jesus in this
term and the ideas that were given by
it, it could be that Stephen is using
it in the same sense.
And that Tara, when they came to Haran,
died spiritually because Tara began to actually apostatize
and became also a worshiper of false gods.
So, it could be that he's referring to
the spiritual death of Tara when he turned
into spiritual apostasy.
And it was at that point when Tara
spiritually was dead unto God that Abraham realized
he had to make his journey alone.
And he took off with Lot and the
servants and so forth and his wife, Sarah.
And they began then to journey on to
the land that God had promised to show
him.
Actually, going from the area of the Ur
of the Chaldees, going to Haran, they were
going about 600 miles north west.
It was about 400 miles from Haran down
to the land of Canaan, to the area
of Shechem, where he was ultimately to end
up.
But Abraham started off journeying in obedience to
God from the Ur of the Chaldees.
They stopped with his father.
It could be that his dad said, hey,
this is good.
Let's settle here.
Let's settle in this area.
It's nice.
It's, you know, it's productive and all.
Let's settle here.
And there was a spiritual death of Tara
for the call of God and awareness of
God.
There was a spiritual death.
And Stephen could be referring to that when
Tara died.
Then that spiritual death, Abraham realized that he
had to leave now his father and that
family and journey on by himself.
To the land that God had promised to
show him.
So don't cast off your faith because of
a bit of mathematics here.
There are possible explanations for it and which
one is correct.
Of course, we don't know.
Now, the Lord had said unto Abraham, get
thee out of thy country and from thy
family.
So Abraham really wasn't totally disobedient at this
point.
And this to me is interesting because Abraham
is always held as the model of faith
in the New Testament.
The model of a man who believed and
trusted God.
He's the prime example of a man who
believes.
And so many times when we read about
faith and the exploits of faith, but I'm
so weak and I've blown it so many
times.
Surely I can't do it.
It's good to know that Abraham wasn't perfect.
Or was his faith perfect?
It's good to know that you don't have
to be perfect and your faith doesn't have
to be perfect for God to honor you.
So God said, get away from your family.
He took his dad with him.
From the year of the Chaldees to Haran,
it was a incomplete obedience.
Stopping at Haran was incomplete obedience to God.
So even men noted as men of faith
have their moments.
And just because you slip back and have
your moments, doesn't mean that God won't honor
you and honor your faith or that God
doesn't love you and wants to still work
in a powerful way in your life.
Just because you blow it and you stop
at Haran, it doesn't mean that the call
of God is going to be removed and
there's no chance for you to go on
and fulfill that which God has laid upon
your life and your heart to do.
Many people have stopped at Haran, but the
time came for him to move on, which
he did.
Maybe the time has come for you to
move on from your Haran.
The Lord said, get thee out of thy
country, from thy father's family, from your father's
house to a land that I will show
you.
So by the very virtue of the fact
that Terah went with him, it could be
the old man was saying, oh, no, don't
leave.
No, well, I want to go with you
somewhere.
It could be Abraham was just saying, well,
okay, dad.
All right.
You know, and he could have been weak
in this area.
But then his dad began to drag him
down and slow him down until his father
died spiritually following after the pagan practices.
And Abraham moved on.
I will make of thee, God said, a
great nation.
Now God is establishing covenant with Abraham.
Get away from your family, your father's house,
a land that I'll show you.
I'll make you a great nation.
I will bless you.
I will make thy name great and thou
shalt be a blessing.
All of these promises, God fulfilled the Abraham.
He made of him a great nation.
God has blessed him and made the name
of Abraham great.
It's honored and respected and thou shalt be
a blessing.
And I will bless them that bless thee
and curse them that curse thee.
And in thee shall all the families of
the earth be blessed.
And from that is the promise that the
Messiah would come from Abraham.
In thee, all the families of the earth,
not just the Jews, but all the families
of the earth will be blessed from Abraham's
progeny, even Jesus Christ.
So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken
unto him.
And Lot went with him.
And Abraham was 75 years old when he
departed out of Haran.
And Abraham took Sarah, his wife, and Lot,
his brother's son, and all their substance that
they had gathered and the souls that they
had gotten in Haran.
And they went forth to go to the
land of Canaan.
And into the land of Canaan they came.
400-mile journey, which in those days, with
all the annals and everything else, must have
taken quite a long time indeed.
And Abraham passed through the land unto the
place of Shechem, unto the plain of Moriah.
And the Canaanites, or the descendants of Canaan,
were then in the land.
And the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said,
unto thy seed will I give this land.
And there he built an altar unto the
Lord who appeared unto him.
Now the promise of giving the land to
Abraham's seed at this point would also include
the Palestinians.
Because the Arabs also were descendants of Abraham
through Ishmael.
So at this point, the land is promised
not just to the Jews, but also to
thy seed, which would include the Arabs, Palestinians.
But later on, when God repeats it to
Jacob, it excludes the Arabs.
And he removed from thence unto a mountain
on the east of Bethel.
And he pitched his tent, having Bethel on
the west and Hai, or Ai, on the
east.
Now when Joshua came in later to conquer
the land, he came up from Jericho and
conquered Ai and then on to Bethel.
Abraham now has a favorite spot there near
Bethel and between Bethel and Ai.
It's the highest part of the land in
that particular area.
It gives you just a fabulous view.
It's about 10 miles north of Jerusalem and
about 20 miles or so from Shechem.
But from there, you can see down into
the Jordan Valley.
You can see up towards the area of
Samaria.
You can see Jerusalem and the area south.
You can look over towards the Mediterranean.
It just is a beautiful vantage point in
that mountainous area between Bethel and Ai.
And when Abraham came to this area, he
built an altar.
And the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said,
unto thy seed, I give this sign.
And he built this altar unto the Lord
and called on the name of the Lord.
And Abraham journeyed going on down now to
the south.
And there was a famine in the land.
So Abraham went down into Egypt to sojourn
there.
For the famine was grievous in the land.
So there was a drought in the...
And of course, he went on south towards
Beersheba.
There's always a drought down there.
The place is really dry.
It's deserty.
And it came to pass when he was
come near to Egypt that he said to
Sarah, his wife.
Now here's our great man of faith.
Our example.
Behold, now I know that you're a beautiful
woman to look upon.
Hey, that's saying a lot to your wife
when she's 65 years old.
But because of the longevity at 65, you
were still really, you know, in your prime
of youth, in a sense, or beauty.
Abraham lived to be over 160.
So at 65, you're really not that old
yet.
In those times.
But it does, you know, when you think
of 65 years old and talking about her
great beauty, does sound indeed very interesting.
I know that you're a beautiful woman to
look upon.
Therefore, when it comes to pass, when the
Egyptians will see you, they will say this
is his wife.
And they will kill me and keep you
alive.
They'll take you into their harems.
Now, this was a common practice among the
Egyptian kings.
Is to just, if a man, if he
saw a beautiful woman, he'd kill her husband
and take her as his wife.
And so he said, I pray that you'll
tell them that you are my sister.
That it might be well with me for
thy sake and my soul shall live because
of thee.
Hey, this is our great man of faith,
Abraham.
You see, even great men of faith have
their weaknesses and their moments.
Now that encourages me for some silly reason.
Because I also have my moments of weaknesses.
But I have the concept that when I
get weak, God just says, all right, that's
it.
You had your chance, you know, wipe out.
But not so.
God continued to honor Abraham.
God continued to bless Abraham.
He wasn't perfect.
God doesn't use perfect people because they don't
exist.
So don't worry that you're not perfect.
Don't think that God is going to reject
you because you're not perfect.
Don't think that God can't use you because
you're not perfect.
God blessed Abraham.
God used Abraham, though he had his lapses
of faith.
Just like we have our lapses of faith.
So it came to pass that when Abraham
was come to Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the
woman that she was very beautiful.
And the princes also of Pharaoh saw her
and they commended her before the Pharaoh.
And the woman was taken into the Pharaoh's
house.
And he treated Abraham well for her sake.
And he had sheep and oxen and asses,
men servants, maid servants, she has his camels.
And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house
with great plagues because of Sarah Abram's wife.
And the Pharaoh called Abraham and said, what
have you done to me?
Why didn't you tell me that she was
your wife?
Why did you say she is my sister?
I might have taken her to be my
wife.
Now, behold, your wife, take her, go your
way.
And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him.
And they sent him away and his wife
and all that he had.
So he came under then a special protective
edict of the Pharaoh.
So that he would not fall prey to
the men in order that they might take
Sarah, his wife.
So an introduction now to Abraham.
We're beginning now to follow and we will
from now on follow Abraham as we come
on down towards Christ as the Bible now
is the developing of the nation and from
the nation, the coming forth of the Savior
of the world.
So next week, we'll continue on beginning with
chapter 13.
Shall we stand?
God bless you and enrich your heart and
your mind and the things of the Spirit,
giving you understanding of His Word.
And may God increase your faith and your
knowledge and understanding of Him.
God go with you and bless you and
watch over you and keep you in all
your ways.
Strengthening you and ministering to you through His
love in Jesus name.
This is the end of side two and
the end of this message.
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