THE GOD OF GENERATIONS

And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters – Genesis 11:25

King Nebuchadnezzar declared concerning the Almighty God: “…His dominion is from generation to generation” (Daniel 4: 3b). From Adam to Noah was nine generations, and from Shem to Abram another nine generations. Down the ages, the fathers must have told their sons and daughters a sequence of stories: the story of Eden, the story of the fall, the story of the Seed – of the promise of redemption, the story of the flood, the story of Babel and of the scattering. Every new generation added just a bit to the tapestry of time, but only Jehovah could capture the entire Big Picture from His eternal perspective. We are people of situations and locations. We run our bit and pass the baton. God is the Owner of generations. Our countable decades are like a drop in His Ocean of Eternity!

Through Noah’s sons – Shem, Ham and Japheth – the genealogy elongated and the human family-tree expanded. Here in Genesis 11:10, the list of names took a deliberate turn to focus on the lineage of Shem, through to Nahor, the father of Terah, and ending in Abram, the friend of God. It would ultimately lead towards Christ, the promised Seed, “the Son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matt.1:1).

Another point to ponder: all that is recorded in quick succession are names and ages of men and how “they begat sons and daughters.” It appears as if the Holy Spirit was hastening through the generations to an appointed time, place and person – Abram. However eventful or impactful the lives of any of those in the interlude might have been, only eternity can reveal! Such is the transience and temporality of Man! How little we know of our ancestors except the fading stories we were told by our fathers! How quickly and swiftly the “glories” of men vanish, except those whom the Lord-God chooses to separate for His eternally-impactful purpose! May His Mercy count us worthy to live lives that would count eternally!