Genesis 11:1-12:9

Daily Reading for Saturday, Week 1

Genesis 11:1-12:9 (English Standard Version)

Genesis 11

The Tower of Babel

¹Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. ²And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. ⁴Then 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." ⁵And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. ⁶And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all 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. ⁷Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech." ⁸So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. ⁹Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

Shem’s Descendants

¹⁰ These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. ¹¹And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹²When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah. ¹³And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber. ¹⁵And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg. ¹⁷And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu. ¹⁹And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁰When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug. ²¹And Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

²²When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor. ²³And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁴When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. ²⁵And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁶When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Terah’s Descendants

²⁷Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. ²⁸Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans.²⁹And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife,Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.

³¹Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. ³²The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

Genesis 12

The Call of Abram

¹Now 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. ² 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. ³I 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."

⁴So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. ⁸From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.⁹And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Pastor's Commentary:

The people who built the tower of Babel thought they were making a name for themselves. Yet the name they got was "babble" quite literally. God confused their language. Communication has since been a terrible problem for people across cultures. Even people who speak the same language often misunderstand one another, and sometimes these misunderstandings can be tragic.

What God did at the tower of Babel, God undid for a time on Pentecost. Everyone heard the good news about Jesus in their own language. The apostles were speaking, and everyone heard the message in words that made sense to them. It was a gift of the Holy Spirit.

When we try to exalt ourselves above our God, we are only confusing ourselves. God is not our servant, for us to order around with our prayers. But God has resolved to have mercy on us through Jesus Christ, through His suffering, death, and resurrection. This, of course, may sound like a broken record, all this talk about Jesus. But God the Holy Spirit is still speaking through God's Word, bringing and strengthening faith in our Savior to all who will listen.

God gave faith to Abram. God came to Abram and caused him to believe after just a brief word. Abram left his home and journeyed to a land that he did not know. God showed him the land he would inherit. In Abram the entire world would be blessed. Why? Because Abram's descendant would bless the entire world. The rest of the Old Testament is the way that God worked this promise out through Abram's descendants. The whole thing points to fulfillment in Jesus Christ, our Savior.