ENCOUNTERING GOD’s PROVIDENCE—Genesis 11:10-32
Attention:
The House that Jack Built—All things are tied to others so that their relation one to another cannot be fully discerned.
Need:
Genesis records the immediate familial path to Abram.
We continually walk within the paths of God’s providence.
Where do we encounter God’s providence?
3 encounters within God’s providence.
PROVIDENCE:
“The continuing action of God by which He preserves in existence the creation which He has brought into being, & guides it to His intended purposes.”...It is the governance of God by which all events in the universe “fulfill His plan for it.”—Millard Erickson
“From the beginning God has ordered the course of events toward Jesus Christ & His incarnation.” “...the world & our lives are not ruled by chance or by fate but by God, who lays bare His purposes of providence in the incarnation of His Son.”—T. H. L. Parker in EDT
*Minimally 3 Players in Providence’s continuance:
-Freedom—Individual & Group(familial to global) choices & decisions.
-Actions—God can Prevent, Permit, Direct or Limit activity(Christ-honoring &/or sinful).
-Circumstances—Good & bad—Governed by any means perceived & unperceived.
BACKGROUND:
Much of the wording of this genealogy is reminiscent of Adam’s genealogy in chapter 5.
However there is one glaring difference...there is no specific mention of death except :28, 32! Chapter five is interlaced with the words, “& he died.” This may be a hint that the world was wholeheartedly moving toward an inevitable death with the Flood. By contrast, the obvious sparsity of a specific mention of death in 11:10-32 may signal mankind’s movement toward life thru God’s promises.—John MacArthur
This is a more focused genealogy of Shem than in 10:21-30.
10:21-30 follows Shem thru Joktan.
11:10-32 follows Shem thru Peleg.
10:22 recognizes 5 sons of Shem—
“The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, & Aram.”
It concisely mentions Shem’s grandsons thru Aram.
It also follows Shem’s lineage thru Arphaxad to his son, Salah...Salah to his son, Eber..& Eber’s sons Peleg & Joktan. Peleg’s progeny is not mentioned & Joktan thus becomes the focus of this(Gen. 10:25-30) genealogy.
11:10-32 follows Shem’s line through Arphaxad only. There is no mention of siblings as these have been dealt with in 10:21-31. Thereby 11:10-32 brings only a cursory mention of other children stating in :11 only that, “After he begot Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years, & begot sons & daughters.” Besides this, the focus of this chapter is to bring us to Abram so that we know his beginnings, as he is of vital interest to the remainder of the story of mankind in relation to God. Abram is indeed not mythical but is the same as you & I as will soon be reported in following chapters & indeed thruout the rest of Scripture.
“This is the elect line, the covenant line. And it reminds us again that God is sovereignly controlling, moving history, people, events to fulfill His will. So here is the line of the promised seed.”—John MacArthur
Here(11:10) we are also told that Arphaxad himself was born “2 years after the Flood.” It is thereby to be inferred that Arphaxad’s birth occurred after Noah’s family departed from the Ark.
“Terah, for example, Abram's father, if you put the numbers together, was 128 years old when Noah died. So Noah was alive for 128 years of Terah's life. He had a firsthand eyewitness who survived the flood. In fact, Noah died probably two years before Abram was born.”—John MacArthur
1—We encounter/touch God’s Providence in/thru...
FAMILY(:10-26+)
Explanation: (:10-26+)
:10-11—“This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, & begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. After he begot Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years, & begot sons & daughters.”
Gen 10:22—“The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, & Aram.”
Shem himself was a son of Noah thru Adam & Eve’s son Seth thru Enosh by whom “men began to call upon the name of the LORD(Gen. 4:26).
Can God bring about His will thru my FAMILY?—YES!
But HOW will He do it?—Largely unknown...yet we have the mind of Christ(1Cor. 2:16).
1Cor. 2:13-16—“These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
“Mind”—nouv—1) The mind, comprising alike the faculties of perceiving & understanding & those of feeling, judging, determining; 2) A particular mode of thinking & judging, i.e Thoughts, feelings, purposes, desires. Nouv is distinctly the reflective consciousness.
Thus we must be very concerned with the presentation of & adherence to spiritual truth surrounding our Families. You may recall Cain’s ‘Legacy of Unrepentance’ which he proffered in Gen. 4:16-24.
Argumentation:
Jn. 1:11-12—“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
These are born of God’s will alone, aligning themselves providentially with God’s design as His family.
Gen. 12:2-3—[God told Abram]“I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.””
Families are the origin, initiation & seat of our foremost influence.
Mt. 10:24-25—““A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!”
Lk. 12:49-53—““I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. “Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.””
The greatest trials for Christian service are lodged within one’s closest relationships—Those of the family.
Illustration:
My great grandfather Cater Joe Justice on my mother’s side was an alcoholic/He would never allow my great-grandmother to leave the property...a horrible abusive existence/Yet thru that familial relationship, my mother’s mother was born thereby producing my mother who would marry my father, who would in turn produce me/God is using me to bring about His will both knowingly but even more so unbeknownst to me, in ways I cannot possibly fathom & don’t need to/I am merely called to be faithful/There is no ‘Karma’ whereby one’s fate is determined/There is only Christian faith within which our final destiny is couched!/My wife & I have produced a family which will make their individual & collective ‘marks on the world’ & vice-versa/How aware & intimate they are in touching God’s Providence remains to be fully seen/We touch God’s Providence thru FAMILY
How many of us know or have known families who attempted to raise their children totally outside the influence of Christianity or religion of any kind?/You know the families we wouldn’t let our kids spend the night with!/Do those families conform to God’s will?—NO!; Susceptible to God’s Providence—YES!/We touch God’s Providence thru FAMILY
Every thinking Christian parent ponders the destiny of their child/children/We encounter God’s Providence thru FAMILY
Thanksgiving is a celebration of God’s Provision/It did not come in the way the pilgrims anticipated/No one left Britain thinking that it would be a good thing if they died in the process of establishing themselves elsewhere/They experienced an overwhelming sense of personal & corporate fulfillment of a God-ordained destiny/No doubt they were indeed thankful that their families had been chosen for such a task/We encounter God’s Providence thru FAMILY
At Thanksgiving our family gatherings take precedence. I suppose it is because our families are where we realize our shortcomings but are also where our shortcomings are overlooked or sometimes paraded with laughter/We encounter God’s Providence thru FAMILY
Application:
?Does Your FAMILY have an awareness of God’s Providence?
?Your life Converge within God’s Providence?
2—We encounter/touch God’s Providence in/thru...
TIME(:10-26+)
Explanation: (:10-26+)History/Reflection
9 generations from Shem to Abram.
~400 years!
Our History just 400 years ago...
Remember those days 1612 AD?...didn’t think so.
I don’t even know who my ancestors were beyond the late 1700’s!
Our future 400 yrs. from now—2412 AD.
Who could have known with certainty(much less imagine) our present world even in 1812(200yrs.)?
Thus we must be very concerned with the spiritual aspects surrounding our Time.
*Time is linear & this is an important concept. We can neither return to the past nor jump to the future(that is the stuff of imagination only).
Thus political & civic history—local to global— is an important player in these things as it plays heavily into God’s hands though He has made us free creatures. Freedom to choose God in Christ or ourselves.
Argumentation:
Rev. 12:12—““Therefore rejoice, O heavens, & you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth & the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.””
If that is true(& it is) then the time of our action & influence is also short/limited
Col. 4:5-6—“Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”
We look at time differently when we are saved. We see different possibilities for that time than we used to see.
*Gal. 3:22-4:7—“But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, & heirs according to the promise. Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians & stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, & if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
Acts 3:18—““But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.”
Acts 7:4—““Then he[Abram] came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.”
This statement spans a bare minimum of 2000 yrs!
Illustration:
‘Ancient’—‘Pre-history’—‘Archaeology’—History, even ‘modern histories’ are all scanty & limited to our interpretations at best!/We touch God’s Providence thru TIME
The historical events which brought us to our country’s presence today/
312-Constantine becomes Emperor
325-Council of Nicea—Trinitarian understanding condemns Arianism.
Separation of Greek Orthodox Church, Coptics,, etc.— Nicene Creed
381-Council of Constantinople—Again denouncing Arianism(Jesus created being) & Apollinarianism(Jesus has Divine mind but Human body).
The Reformation: 1500-1599—thru Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, & John Knox—affirm...1)Holy Scriptures alone, 2)Christ alone, 3)Faith alone, 4)Grace alone, 5)God’s Glory alone.
British integration of Church & State
Pilgrims to America
Colonial Taxation w/o representation
American Constitutional Founders & Framers
Revolutionary War
Independence
Slavery & Taxation
Civil War—1860s
Racial upheaval—1950s
Racial Integration—1960s
Moral upheaval—1970s-Today
*Thanksgiving readily lends itself to Reflection. on TIME!
Application:
?Does Your TIME knowingly Converge within God’s Providence?
?You aware of your life’s Convergence within God’s Providence?
3—We encounter/touch God’s Providence in/thru...
DESTINATION(:27-32)
Explanation: (:27-32)Location—Individuals—Events
That is...What we see as a destination. Though it is actually limited severly by our finiteness.
:27—“This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, & Haran. Haran begot Lot.”
:28—“And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.”
:29—“Then Abram & Nahor took wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, & the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah & the father of Iscah.”
:30—“But Sarai was barren; she had no child.”
What did Sarai see as her Destination being childless?
How could God use that(in her mind)?
:31—“And Terah took his son Abram & his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, & his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, & they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; & they came to Haran & dwelt there.”
Terah took Abram, Sarai & Lot from Ur to Haran purposing to reach “Canaan”(:31).
Why to Canaan? We are not told.
Was this related to Abram’s individual call in 12:1-5?— “Now the LORD had said to Abram:”
“...archaeologists tell us, Haran was the second chief center of worship for the moon god.”—John MacArthur
32—“So the days of Terah were two hundred & five years, & Terah died in Haran.”
Thus we must be very concerned with the spiritual aspects surrounding our Destination.
?Where has God called you?
*?What if God was calling but you were inattentive, lazy, fearful, or just plain defiant?
*?How would His plan be upheld? We cannot know.
*Our concern is to be faithful.
The crux of the differences in Calvinism. They deal with a pre-ordered pre-determination toward election vs. a determination of faith.
*We must ever avoid the conclusion that ‘I have no say-so in my life as its been pre-determined, so therefore I won’t willingly participate.’ This makes you a robot or a pet at best & God a taskmaster.
Argumentation:
Rom. 8:28-31—“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; & whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Acts 2:22-24—““Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, & signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know-- “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose & foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, & put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.”
From the foundation of the world
1Pet. 1:17-21—“And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish & without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead & gave Him glory, so that your faith & hope are in God.”
Rev. 13:1-9—“Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads & ten horns, & on his horns ten crowns, & on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, & his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, & great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, & his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled & followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; & they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” And he was given a mouth speaking great things & blasphemies, & he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, & those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints & to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, & nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If anyone has an ear, let him hear.”
Eph. 1:3-14—“Blessed be the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy & without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom & prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven & which are on earth--in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”
Heb. 4:1-3—“Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”
Acts 4:23-28—“And being let go[Peter & John], they went to their own companions & reported all that the chief priests & elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord & said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven & earth & the sea, & all that is in them, “who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, And the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, And the rulers were gathered together Against the LORD & against His Christ.‘ For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod & Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles & the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand & Your purpose determined before to be done.”
Jesus the Anointed One would not arrive for 28 more generations(Mat. 1:17) beyond David, who penned these words by the Spirit of God.
Illustration:
“Whoa! God brought all this together around me!?”/We are brought to an understanding of how God has Providentially brought about our circumstances to a particular end/We touch God’s Providence thru DESTINATION
Work brought my Momma & Daddy to Rowan County/We touch God’s Providence thru DESTINATION
John & Donna’s house bid/Their rental burned down with most of their stuff/They bid within $5000 on a foreclosure & it was accepted!/We touch God’s Providence thru DESTINATION
From an e-mail I received recently. Don’t know if these are all true but I can easily recognize similar situations involving God’s Providence.
The ' L I T T L E ' Things:
As you might remember, the head of a company survived 9/11 because...
His son started kindergarten.
Another fellow was alive because...
It was His turn to bring donuts.
One woman was late because
Her Alarm clock didn't go off in time.
One was late because...
She was stuck on the NJ Turnpike because of an auto accident.
One of them...
Missed his bus.
One...
Spilled food on her clothes and had to take time to change.
One's...
Car wouldn't start.
One...
Couldn't Get a taxi.
The one that struck me was the man
Who put on a new pair of shoes that morning,
Took the various means to get to work...
But before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot.
He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid.
Now when I am...
Stuck in traffic ,
Miss an elevator,
Turn back to answer a ringing telephone ...
All the little things that annoy me.
I think to myself,
This is exactly where
God wants me to be
At this very moment..
Next time your morning seems to be
Going wrong...
You can't seem to find the car keys,
You hit every traffic light,
Don't get mad or frustrated;
It May be just that
God is at work watching over you.
May God continue to bless you
With all those annoying little things
And may you remember their possible purpose.
Application:
?Your DESTINATION knowingly Convergent within God’s Providence?
?You aware of your life’s Convergence within God’s Providence?
CONCLUSION:
Visualization:
The house that Jack built.
Action:
We encounter/touch God’s Providence thru...
1. FAMILY(:10-26+)
2. TIME(:10-26+)
3. DESTINATION(:27-32)
Presented 11/18/2012am—Thanksgiving Week—to:
Needmore Baptist Church
1620 Mt. Vernon Rd.
Woodleaf, NC 27054
Thanksgiving application made this sermon sing!
