The sermon titled 'The Straight Line to Abraham' explores the biblical genealogy from Shem, Noah's son, to Abraham, emphasizing its significance in leading to the promise of Jesus. The speaker discusses the previous week's topic on the Tower of Babel, highlighting humanity's vanity projects versus God's plans. The genealogy in Genesis 11 is compared to Genesis 5, showing a direct lineage without branches, focusing on key figures like Eber, whose descendants are linked linguistically to the Hebrew people. The sermon notes the drastic reduction in lifespans post-flood, contrasting the pre-flood longevity. The speaker introduces the idea of the city of man versus the city of God, examining the rise and fall of empires like Babylon against the enduring promise of God's plan through Abraham. The genealogy is portrayed as a testament to God's faithfulness in fulfilling His promises, ultimately leading to Jesus. The sermon concludes with a call to recognize the significance of Scripture, emphasizing its role in providing confidence in God's long-term plan.

The title of the sermon is the straight line to Abraham. That's what we have in today's text. It's a straight line to Abraham. Last week, the title of the sermon was the tower to make a name. So God had said, fill the earth.

And the people said, no, we'll stay together and rally around a vanity project. And the Tower of Babel to make the Tower of Babel to make a name for themselves. But in the end, it's God's word that stands and he confuses the language. So last week they started with one language among all the people. Noah, of course, spoke the same language of him and his three sons.

And they had descendants, they all spoke the same language. But God came down and supernaturally divided the languages and divided the people into language groups that didn't exist before then and he scattered the people according to their language groups, making people groups. This week we have another genealogy or family tree. Kids, genealogy and family tree really means the same thing. This week's sermon is titled, The Straight Line to Abraham, because it is like chapter 5.

Chapter 5 had a long genealogy, and in Chapter 5, the family tree isn't given any branches. We really just have a stick sticking up out of the ground. No branches. And only one son is named all the way down. So a father begets a son who begets a son, who begets a son, who begets a son, who begets a son, who begets a son, and it says they have other sons and daughters, but you never get another name, you never get any branches on the tree.

The purpose of chapter five was to get us from Adam to Noah and the generation of the flood, So no chasing rabbits, no other children names, just a straight family line with no branches. The purpose of our text today is very similar. It's to get us from Shem, the son of Noah, to Abram who will be named Abraham. So no other branches, no other children names, just a straight family line that gets us to Abraham. Alan Ross, I've been quoting him week by week, I've really enjoyed his commentary And Alan Ross says this about today's illustrious text.

It is very unlikely that an expositor would devote an entire exposition to this genealogy, Even if there were the luxury of an unlimited number of expositions. It would be best to explain it as a connecting link between Shem and Abram but to relate it to introductory remarks for another exposition. So we've at least found one expositor who's going to try it. So here we go. God, I thank you for your word.

Thank you for the profitability of all that's here. And it is a more difficult piece of the Word of God to stand and preach to the people of God, and yet there's a lot of profitable things here. I pray that you would help me to do it justice in Jesus' name. Amen. Two weeks ago, the text put Eber on my radar Ebers not really a name I've spent one minute of time in my whole life thinking about I started thinking about it two weeks ago and I put Eber on our collective radar.

So as I read this first subsection verses 10 through 15, be on the lookout for Eber because we're going to start with him. So follow along as I reread Genesis 11 verses 10 through 15, Shem to Eber. This is the genealogy of Shem. Shem was 100 years old and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. After he begot Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and begot sons and daughters.

Arphaxad lived 35 years and begot Salah. After he begot Salah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and begot sons and daughters. Salah lived 30 years and begot Eber. After he begot Eber, Salah lived 403 years and begot sons and daughters. So Two weeks ago when Eber was put on my radar and so I put Eber on our collective radar, why was that?

Why do I think he's so important? Let me remind you of the three reasons. Reason number one In chapter 10 verse 21, we see the claim to fame of Shem. Now just stop right there. So Noah is a giant of Scripture.

You're going to name ten names in the Bible. Wouldn't Noah be somewhere in there? Probably so. He's a giant. And so this is a son of Noah, three sons, all the nations came from them, all the peoples came through these three sons.

So Shem is important in scripture in his own right and he has a claim to fame. What is his claim to fame? Verse 21 says, Shem's claim to fame is this, that he is the father of all the children of Eber. So who cares? Why does that matter?

Because Eber isn't his son Eber isn't his grandson Eber is his great grandson so if the claim to fame to a prominent man in Scripture is that he's the father of the children of this great-grandson. This great-grandson must be something else. He must be something special. It would be like saying that my dad, we affectionately call my dad Peepaw. That's his grandfather name.

Like my dad's, Peepaw's claim to fame is Ben. Where are you Ben? I said I was going to mention you. Peepaw's claim to fame is that he is the father of Ben's descendants. Okay, wherever they may be.

I get skipped, not a word about me. Anna, you get skipped, not a word about you. Poor us. Pippa's claim to fame has nothing to do with us. It has to do with Ben and his descendants.

So that is a somebody in scripture. This is pointing out that the children of Eber have a very special place. Reason number two. Eber has two sons. He might have more than two, but only two are named Jock Tan and Peleg One son Jock Tan was traced out in chapter 10.

So we get the descendants of Joktan through several generations in chapter 10. And then there's a doubling back here in chapter 11, and the other son, Peleg, his children through many generations are actually designated. Nobody else is treated like that. So get this we have genealogy we have a lot of names. One guy has two sons who are named and both sons get their own branches delineated.

Nobody else is treated like that. So you're getting another signal. Eber is in a class by himself in these genealogies. Third reason, many scholars believe the term Hebrew, Jewish people, comes from this man Eber. There are linguistic links from the word Eber to the word Hebrews.

In Genesis chapter 14 verse 13, Abram is called Abram the Hebrew. The word's never been used before. It's not introduced as a term. It's not explained as a term. And you have these linguistic links.

So I'm satisfied with the many scholars who think that Hebrew actually means the descendants of Eber through this one line. So Eber is a really significant person and we find him here in this subsection verses 10 through 15. Now to our text, we're back to the sons of Shem for the second time, okay? We have sons of Shem in chapter 10, now we have another genealogy and We're back to the sons of Shem for the second time. Okay, we have sons of Shem in chapter 10.

We now we have another genealogy and we're back to the sons of Shem and that's different than the other sons of Noah. In this section, Shem, our fax ad, Sala, Eber, four names. For each name, we're told the age of that person when he begot or fathered the one single son that is named. Remember, no branches, just a straight line. One single son is named.

So you get the age of the dad when he fathered the one single name. And then the age of that when he becomes a dad and so on. And then we get how many years he lived afterwards so that we can calculate the total lifespan. You don't get the total lifespan. You have to add 1 plus 1 equals 2.

And we get that he begot sons and daughters with no names of the other sons, no names of the other daughters, and we're left with a tree with no named branches. Straight line. Shem, 100 years old, fathered Arphaxad, lived another 500 years, that equals 600 years. Shem lived 600 years. Arphaxad lived 35 years, fathered Salah, lived another 403 years, that equals 438 years total lifespan.

Salah lived 30 years, fathered Eber lived another 403 years, that equals 433 years. That's Salah. We'll pick up Eber in the next subsection. What is the importance of these men? In terms of Bible history, They get us to Abram.

That's it. Abram will be renamed Abraham. The importance of these men in terms of Bible history is simply that they get us to Abraham. They make us ready for chapter 12 and so forth. The personal history of Abraham goes on a long time in Genesis.

So it's chapter 12, 13, 14, 15, so on. We don't know anything else about the lives of Shem, Arphaxad, Salah, Eber. We don't know the names of any of their other children. Just says they had sons and daughters. The great example of this is Shem.

In chapter 10, it's the table of nations, so it's a very different purpose. It's not just a straight line. You get other sons' names. In chapter 10, Shem is said to have five sons because we're now dividing out into nations. Different purpose here.

In 1st Chronicles 1, Nine sons of Shem are named. So my guess is that's the complete list of the sons named in 1 Chronicles 9, a subset here in chapter five. And now just reduced to one because The purpose is different here in our chapter. Now, one trend line I want to introduce, because it continues in the next section, is the trend of total lifespan, how old these people were when they died. Before the flood, remember we had genealogies before the flood, before the flood it wasn't uncommon for a person to have lived 900 years or more.

We top out with Methuselah at 969 years, but there are multiple people who are said to have lived into their mid 900s Yeah, my dad's old he's in his mid 900s Shem the son of Noah who had one foot before the flood one foot after the flood. He really sort of straddled these two eras. He got on the ark and he got off the ark and nobody after that was going to be able to say that except for his brothers lived to 600 so that's old but it's no 900 those listed here who were born after the flood who didn't get on the ark but were born after they came out the ark, only lived into their early to mid 400s. So we're seeing a trend line. Nine hundreds before the flood, Shem straddled the two eras.

He lived 600, which is old, but not 900. And now their children are now living into their early to mid 400s. Okay, now verses 16 through 25. Eber lived 34 years and begot Terah. After he begot Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and begot sons and daughters.

Here in this subsection we have Eber to Tara, straight line getting us to Abram. The names are Eber, Peleg, Peleg is this son of Eber, it's traced out here, Reu, Serag, Nahor, Tara. There are five new names in this subsection. Like the first section, each begot sons and daughters. We don't get any of those sons names, any other daughters names.

We're just following right along the track, and we can calculate the total lifespan. Eber lived 464 years, Peleg lived 239 years, Reu lived 239 years, Serag lived 230 years, Nahor lived 148 years, Terah, if you go to verse 32, it gives you the answer to that when you don't have to do math. It just says he lived 205 years. So now the total lifespans have gone from the 900s before the flood to 600 with Shem who lived before and after the flood to the early to mid 400s now to the low to mid 200s with Nahor only living to the mid 100s. Poor guy only got to 148 years old.

So this goes without comment in the text. In other words, it gives you the information, but it doesn't draw any conclusions from it. It doesn't even comment on it. You just get this rapidly descending lifespans. So, no comment.

God is doing something very dramatic with the lifespans of his image bears across just a very few generations. This is not that many generations, and the lifespans Come down fast. By the time of Moses, our author of Genesis, Gary read this this morning. He walked in, Gary walked in in the room this morning and said, you going to Psalm 90? I said, yeah, but only one verse and won't steal my thunder at all.

Psalm 90 verse 10, Moses says, the days of our lives are 70 years, and if by reason of strength they are 80 years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow. So he's talking about life under the curse. However many years you get, you experience labor and sorrows. And at the time of Moses, he said, yes, lifespan 70 years, if you're strong, 80. Moses himself lived to 120, so he was exceptional.

But that's really how it is today. People live into their 70s. If they're strong, the 80s, it's unusual to live, it's a little unusual to live into your 90s. So what Moses is describing is really what our experience is. Listen to this note from the ESV Study Bible.

This isn't the most important thing I'm going to say, but this is the most fascinating thing I'm going to say. If you zoned out over all the names and stuff about genealogy, zone back in for a minute. This is fascinating. It's worth your attention, believe me. This is from the ESV Study Bible.

This is amazing. Listen to this. ESV Study Bible has this note. This is similar to the pattern found in a clay tablet from Mesopotamia, from the Mesopotamian city of Uruk. So when we hear Mesopotamia we should think Babylon.

We think Babylon, we should think Babel. So this is region around ancient Babel, Mesopotamia. They found a clay tablet in this area of Babel called the Sumerian King List. It was inscribed by a scribe during the reign of King Utuphegal about 2100 BC. Oh, it's 2100 BC, around the time of Abraham.

Okay, so their historians, archaeologists are dating this clay tablet to the same spot that we're studying, Babel, and roughly the same time period, the period of Abraham, a little before Abraham, which is this genealogy. This is amazing. Now listen to this. What do you find on that stone or that clay tablet? Here's what you find.

It tells of kings who reigned for extremely long times. A flood then came and subsequent kings ruled for vastly shorter times." Unbelievable. If you have this clay tablet that you can date to this time and this place. It says, we used to have kings that reigned for really long periods of time, and then a flood came, and after the flood our kings only reigned for really short periods of time. It's like the Bible.

Just another one of those archaeological finds that's pointing saying like, this is true. This is true. This is true. It's wonderful. Once again, what is the importance of these men in terms of Bible history?

They get us to Abram renamed Abraham. Same purpose for these men being named. They don't know anything else about their lives or any of their other children. One last verse. Verse 26.

Now, Terah Now, Terah lived 70 years and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Now so far, all the way up to this point we have this tree with no branches taking us in a straight line from Shem the son of Noah to Abram who will be renamed Abraham but Now this is the exception right at the end of the list. We get a few branches. Tara has three sons who are named instead of just one son who is named. Abram Nahor Horan.

Why? Why are we getting some branches? I? Think it is very simple and very obvious our author Moses is Introducing them to us Because each of these three Abram Nahor and Haran have a part to play in upcoming Bible history. We're going to see them again.

They're going to have important roles to play, and so Moses is taking the opportunity right now to introduce them like these are sons of this man and they'll play a role later. He's setting us up for chapters to come that we'll never make it to because we're bailing out in a couple of weeks. Abram, renamed Abraham, is obvious. And if there weren't two other branches here, Abram would be the one named. So if you say, This is a man, he only gets one son to be named in this genealogy.

You would have to drop the other two and keep Abram because the whole point is to get to Abram. He is the father of the Hebrew people, the father of the nation of Israel. Haran is the father of Lot who will travel with Abram into Canaan and who will be the center of the story, the history of Sodom and Gomorrah. So introducing him here. Nahor is the patriarch of the family line when Abram wants a wife taken for his son Isaac, doesn't want a wife from the daughters of the Canaanites, so he's going to send a servant back to his family to take a wife for him there, and It will be descendants of Nahor.

Rebekah will be brought back as a wife for Isaac. And then when the trouble happens a generation later with Jacob and Esau and Jacob flees the wrath of his brother Esau and goes back, Then Laban will be the dad of Leah and Rebecca and these are descendants of Nahor. So you have to know Abram for obvious reasons, but you have to know Haran because he's the father of Lot and he's going to be prominent. You have to know Nahor, because his descendants are going to be all intermarried with the people in the Bible. That's why they're reduced.

So Moses, you did it. Moses did it. He got us from the generation of the flood to Abram. And this sets the reader and the student up for chapter 12 and following the life history of Abraham. Conclusions and applications, let me give you three.

Number one, this is actually about Jesus. I haven't said his name yet but I'm saying it now. This is actually about Jesus. How so? Chapter 3 verse 15, God promises that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.

These genealogies catalog the keeping of that great and precious promise. You can reach back to chapter 315, where bad things are happening, and men and women are gonna live under the curse, but even in the middle of that, you've got a great and precious promise, in time, in the fullness of time, at the right time, The seed of the woman is going to come and crush the head of the serpent. So the serpent has gotten the upper hand in Genesis chapter 3, but he's not always going to have the upper hand. He's going to have his head crushed by the seed of the woman. These genealogies catalog the keeping of that great and precious promise.

Listen to Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry says put chapter 5, Genesis chapter 5, chapter 11, Genesis chapter 11, and Matthew 1 together, and you have such an entire genealogy of Jesus Christ as cannot be produced for aught I know concerning any person in the world out of his line and at such a distance from the fountainhead. What's he saying? He's saying, you can only do this with one person in human history. Okay, so take Genesis chapter five in the genealogy and add to it Genesis chapter 11 in the genealogy and bring in Matthew 1 in the genealogy and you can track Jesus back to Adam and you can't do that with anyone else in human history.

Why is that? Because he's the seed of the woman who was promised to come and crush the head of the serpent. Sorry, I couldn't get that out of my mouth fast enough. Slurring my words. I'm not under the influence of cough medicine this week.

You can't do this for anyone else in human history. There's one person you can trace back to the first man who ever was given life. Chapter five gives us Adam to Noah. Chapter 11 gives us Noah to Abraham. Matthew one takes us from Abraham through King David to Jesus.

That's number one. This is actually about Jesus. Why is this here? Because God is telling us about a family line thousands of years before its fulfillment to give us confidence that this is the fulfillment of the promise. Can't make this stuff up.

Two. Chapter 10 and chapter 11 and the genealogies and family trees that they introduce are the Genesis pun intended Or beginnings of a great theme of the entire Bible. So I'm taking the genealogy of chapter 10, the genealogy of chapter 11, and saying this is the start of one of the great themes in scripture. What is that? City of man, city of God.

How so? One son of Eber, Jopton, brings us to Babel, a mighty city founded by the world's great empire builder Nimrod the mighty hunter. The father of the great empires of the ancient world, the father of Babylon, the father of Assyria. And yet in the final analysis it all comes to nothing. Those empires rise, men take on their vanity projects, God puts them down and now there is nothing left but to read about them in the history books.

They are in the dust bin of history. The other son of Eber brings us to Abram. Abram, an idolater and son of an idolater. More on that next week. Come back.

Who God as an act of bare grace, meaning you can't add anything to grace, it's bare, there's no other reason except just grace, He took an idolater who was the son of an idolater and claimed him for himself in order to keep his promise to send a great Savior. City of man, empires rising from the labors of great men, dustbin of history. Then this man, Abrams, not going to build an empire. Abrams only going to own a burial plot in the land of promises. The only ground he's going to own in the promised land is a place to bury his loved ones and be buried.

God is going to claim it for himself. He won't be an idolater forever. He's going to worship the one true God of Scripture. God's going to raise him up to keep his promise to send a great Savior. This is Babylon, the city of man, and Jerusalem, the city of God.

And they appear throughout scripture. When you're reading the prophets, you're going to hit Babylon a hundred times, and you're going to hit Zion. Zion is Jerusalem a hundred times. The Bible ends with them both. Revelation 18 a great angel comes to declare the end of great Babylon.

Revelation 19 says, her smoke rises up everlastingly. The smoke of Babylon will rise up forever. Revelation 21, the second to the last chapter in the Bible, the new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven like a bride prepared for her husband. It's the city of God. In the final analysis, I am a citizen of Babylon or a citizen of Jerusalem and nothing else matters.

This is what you need to hear about this sermon, about this genealogy. Chapter 10, chapter 11, chapter 10 brings us to Babel, that's the city of man. Chapter 11 brings us to Abraham, the city of God, and you are either a citizen of Babylon or Jerusalem and in the end nothing else will matter and there are no other choices. Proverbs 14-12 says this, There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Friends, Friends, and I am your friend, I say this as a friend, beware the city of man and its vanity projects that will occupy you.

Steal your life away and in the end it will all be in the dustbin of history. But little things that are happening here, there, and everywhere are actually the things that matter on planet Earth. And in the end, they'll be seen as the things that matter. And it'll be the people of God. God just doing little things in what seems to be their little lives, but oh, they're so consequential.

Rush to the city of God. I just, please, if there's anybody here who's a citizen of Babylon, rush to the city of God. Number three, all scripture is profitable. This is a famous text, but it can't be famous enough. 2nd Timothy 3, 16 and 17.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Even the genealogies are so profitable because They give us confidence that God has made these promises and that God has put things in place through generations upon generations upon generations to keep every promise. There are promises in this book that haven't been fulfilled yet. Okay, just know, just like we're studying here, God's a thousand years ahead in keeping those promises. God is putting, possibly, if Jesus tarries for a thousand years, If Jesus tarries for another thousand years, he's putting things in place today to keep the promises that will be fulfilled on the day that he returns, a thousand years ahead of us.

So, don't fret. I know I've said this a number of times in our studies of Genesis, But this is one of the things we should be taking away. Don't fret. God's a thousand years ahead of us. He's got things in place just as they need to be.

Just as they need to be. Have confidence in God. Let's pray. God, thank you for the profitability of Scripture, and I thank you for Genesis 5, Genesis 11, Matthew 1, that gives us something else we don't have for any other human that's ever lived, the ability to Trace all the way back, all the way back, and see that this is directly related to the promise that you made to send a Savior. We thank you in Jesus name, amen.