Life is made up of many pieces, like a puzzle. Here I attempt to put them all together.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Genesis 11

1. Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 
2. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3. They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used bricks instead of stone and tar for mortar.
4. Then they said "Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
5. But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.
6. The Lord said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
7. Come let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
8. So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
9. That is why it was called Babel - because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
10. This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad.
11. And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
12. When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah.
13. And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
14. When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber.
15. And after he became the father of Ever, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
16. When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg.
17. And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
18. When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu.
19. And after he became the father of Rue, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
20. When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug.
21. And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
22. When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor.
23. And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
24. When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah.
25. And after he became the father of Terah,  Nahor lived 119 years and had others sons and daughters.
26. After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27. This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.
28. While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth.
29. Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Naohor's wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.
30. Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.
31. Now Terah took his son Abram,, his grandson Lot son of Harn, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his sonAbram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.
32. Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.

My Thoughts:
As I was typing this chapter I was drawing a total blank on anything to write about it. Genealogy is really not my thing, and there's an awful lot of it in this chapter. I know it's there for a reason and that it's necessary but I always struggle to get through it. Then verse 31 jumped out at me, especially two words - "they settled." They started out for Canaan, the land God had chosen for his people, but before they got there, they settled. They never reached the destination they had set to reach.

How often do I settle for something less than ideal? Maybe because I am afraid of what's ahead that I cannot see. Maybe because I think I'm satisfied with where I am and do not want to put forth the effort to push on to a better place.

 But God always has something good in store for me (and for you) if we refuse to simply "settle" and instead walk with Him to the Promised Land he has for each of us.

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