Genesis (Part 18)
Bible Study Time 10-12-08
(From James Roberts 12-1-96)
Bible Study Time 10-12-08
(From James Roberts 12-1-96)
Last week in our Journey Through the Scripture, we saw Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. We saw that these three sons and their descendants were all in one place, and they all had one language and one speech. In Romans, Chapter 1, Paul said that God was restraining the evil ways of these people by the revelation that He had given of Himself through the creation.
However, the people did not want anything to do with God’s revelation of Himself. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God and made images like unto man and four footed beasts and creeping things. They began to worship the creation rather than the creator, who is blessed forever.
These descendants of Noah were guilty of gross idolatry and gross immorality, so God withdrew the restraining power of revelation that He had given of Himself through the creation, and He confounded their speech. It seems as though He gave each of the different families of Shem, Ham and Japheth different languages so that the different families went into different parts of the earth. This resulted in the various nations that are present on the earth today.
Before this confusion of languages, the people all met together at a place called Babel, which has always played a very important role in God’s dealings with the nations of the earth. This is especially true for the nation of Israel.
In Revelation, Chapter 17, we read about the great tribulation period and about God’s dealings with the nation of Israel during that time. This will be the time when the antichrist, the man of sin, will be ruling and reigning over the earth, and the system through which he operates will be “anti-Christ.” His system will be religious, political and economic, and a part of this great system is referred to in Revelation, Chapter 17, as Mystery Babylon the Great which is said to be the mother of all harlots and the mother of all of the abominations on the earth.
Now, how is it that this Mystery Babylon will be the mother of all of the abominations on the earth? Well, when the descendants of Noah all gathered together at Babel, they followed after a common idolatrous system. When God scattered them abroad, each family took this system of idolatry with them. Therefore, all through the ages we have seen vestiges of this idolatrous system showing up in various times and places. During the tribulation period, this idolatrous system will once again be united under the antichrist. The religion of the antichrist will have its roots in the idolatrous system of Babel, and it will most certainly be anti-Christ.
Even today we are starting to see the reemergence of this system. Today, we see a great emphasis upon inclusiveness, where people want to believe that all religions have validity. More and more, people rebel against the idea that there is only one way to gain access to God. But the Bible is very clear that Jesus Christ said:
John 14:6
6 . . . I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.
All of the religious systems of the world have their own approach to God, and this includes the Christian religion, if you just consider the Christian religion as a whole. But the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, revealed Himself in the word of God as the only way to the Father. If you want access to the Father, you must come the narrow way, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through faith in His death, burial and resurrection.
What we find in the New Age movement today is really not new; it had its beginning in Babylon. But in the new age movement today we see the infusion of eastern religions and all of the various idolatrous practices that were spread out over the world after the tower of Babel. These practices are now starting to have an impact on the Christian religion here in America in regard to its view of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even in the Christian religion, it is hard for people to accept that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father.
In Genesis, Chapter 10, we find Nimrod, the grandson of Ham. It was Nimrod who started the city of Babel and who undoubtedly started the idolatrous practices of that city. But then, in Genesis, Chapter 12, we find the promise of a descendant of Shem who would come through Abraham and who would bring blessing to all the families of the earth. This, of course, was a veiled promise concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Keep in mind that all of the descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth were idolatrous, including Terah who was Abraham’s father. There are passages in the Bible that describe Abraham before he met the Lord. They describe him as being a Syrian who was ready to perish. He was an idolater and he lived in an idolatrous family, even though he was from the family of Shem through whom the righteous line was promised.
In Genesis, Chapter 11, we find that Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans where he was born, but Terah took Abram and Nahor and their families from Ur of the Chaldeans to a place which they named Haran. In Genesis, Chapter 12, we find that this was not according to God’s plan. Verse one says:
Genesis 12:1 NKJV
1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.
Along with these instructions, God also gave Abram these promises:
Genesis 12:2-3 NKJV
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.
3 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."
So Abram departed from Ur of the Chaldeans but did not do so in accordance with God’s instructions. God had instructed Abram to separate himself from his father’s family. Instead, Abram left Ur of the Chaldeans with his father and all of his father’s family, and they went to a place which they named Haran. This is the place where Terah, Abram’s father, died.
I remember listening to Dr. De Haan as he taught on this passage many years ago. He stated that Terah was a picture of the old nature, that is, the corrupt nature with which we are born. God had revealed himself to Abram as the God of glory, and He had told Abram to leave his father, Terah, his old way life, and move on to a new life without Terah. In other words, Abram was to separate himself from his old way of life.
Well, Abram was like many of us. When God calls us and saves us, we are often reluctant to give up our old way of life. We are willing to become a child of God, but we may also want to bring along with us the Terahs and the Lots of the old life.
Dr. De Haan said that Terah is a picture of the old man and that Abram could not go into the land of promise until Terah died. Then he added, thank God the old man died. Dr. De Haan showed so clearly that until the old nature is reckoned to be dead indeed unto sin and until we reckon ourselves to be alive unto God, we can never enter into the full blessings of God. Until we reckon the old man to be dead indeed unto sin, we can never walk in newness of life.
Abraham had obeyed, but it was an incomplete obedience. Arthur Pink gives the definition of the word Haran and says that it means parched place. Abram had to live in a parched place until the old man died. Only after the old man died was Abram able to leave the parched place and move on into His place of blessing. Oh, what a difference it made when the old man died!
May I just say this to you? What a beautiful picture this is for you and for me. If you have never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ and have never received the revelation that God has given to us in His word, I trust that you will listen to what God is saying to you today.
God loved you enough that He sent His son into the world. The Lord Jesus loved you enough to leave His realm of blessing and fellowship with the Father, where He lived in equality with the Father. He left that realm of blessing to come down to this earth and be born as a baby, to live as a man. He was God, manifest in the flesh, Immanuel.
In His body of flesh, He went to the cross and there He died, the Just One for us, the unjust. He knew no sin, but He was made the sin offering for us. He did this so that we might become new creations, so that we might become new born children of God, so that we might, as it were, leave our father’s house and leave behind the old nature, putting it in the past, so that we might go on to the place of blessing.
I wonder today if there is one listening to this broadcast who has never trusted Christ. If you have never trusted Christ, I pray that you will come to know Jesus Christ as your Savior, so that you can become a child of God.
I wonder if there are those of you who are listening today who are like Abram was in the initial stage of his walk with the Lord. Abram wanted to carry with him much of his old life, so that he had to dwell in Haran, the parched place. Are you dwelling in Haran today? Are you dwelling in a parched place? Or are you willing to leave behind the old life and move on into your place of blessing with the Lord?
Well, I see our time is gone. The Lord willing, we are going to continue in our Journey Through the Scripture next week. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.
Church links:
However, the people did not want anything to do with God’s revelation of Himself. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God and made images like unto man and four footed beasts and creeping things. They began to worship the creation rather than the creator, who is blessed forever.
These descendants of Noah were guilty of gross idolatry and gross immorality, so God withdrew the restraining power of revelation that He had given of Himself through the creation, and He confounded their speech. It seems as though He gave each of the different families of Shem, Ham and Japheth different languages so that the different families went into different parts of the earth. This resulted in the various nations that are present on the earth today.
Before this confusion of languages, the people all met together at a place called Babel, which has always played a very important role in God’s dealings with the nations of the earth. This is especially true for the nation of Israel.
In Revelation, Chapter 17, we read about the great tribulation period and about God’s dealings with the nation of Israel during that time. This will be the time when the antichrist, the man of sin, will be ruling and reigning over the earth, and the system through which he operates will be “anti-Christ.” His system will be religious, political and economic, and a part of this great system is referred to in Revelation, Chapter 17, as Mystery Babylon the Great which is said to be the mother of all harlots and the mother of all of the abominations on the earth.
Now, how is it that this Mystery Babylon will be the mother of all of the abominations on the earth? Well, when the descendants of Noah all gathered together at Babel, they followed after a common idolatrous system. When God scattered them abroad, each family took this system of idolatry with them. Therefore, all through the ages we have seen vestiges of this idolatrous system showing up in various times and places. During the tribulation period, this idolatrous system will once again be united under the antichrist. The religion of the antichrist will have its roots in the idolatrous system of Babel, and it will most certainly be anti-Christ.
Even today we are starting to see the reemergence of this system. Today, we see a great emphasis upon inclusiveness, where people want to believe that all religions have validity. More and more, people rebel against the idea that there is only one way to gain access to God. But the Bible is very clear that Jesus Christ said:
John 14:6
6 . . . I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.
All of the religious systems of the world have their own approach to God, and this includes the Christian religion, if you just consider the Christian religion as a whole. But the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, revealed Himself in the word of God as the only way to the Father. If you want access to the Father, you must come the narrow way, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through faith in His death, burial and resurrection.
What we find in the New Age movement today is really not new; it had its beginning in Babylon. But in the new age movement today we see the infusion of eastern religions and all of the various idolatrous practices that were spread out over the world after the tower of Babel. These practices are now starting to have an impact on the Christian religion here in America in regard to its view of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even in the Christian religion, it is hard for people to accept that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father.
In Genesis, Chapter 10, we find Nimrod, the grandson of Ham. It was Nimrod who started the city of Babel and who undoubtedly started the idolatrous practices of that city. But then, in Genesis, Chapter 12, we find the promise of a descendant of Shem who would come through Abraham and who would bring blessing to all the families of the earth. This, of course, was a veiled promise concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Keep in mind that all of the descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth were idolatrous, including Terah who was Abraham’s father. There are passages in the Bible that describe Abraham before he met the Lord. They describe him as being a Syrian who was ready to perish. He was an idolater and he lived in an idolatrous family, even though he was from the family of Shem through whom the righteous line was promised.
In Genesis, Chapter 11, we find that Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans where he was born, but Terah took Abram and Nahor and their families from Ur of the Chaldeans to a place which they named Haran. In Genesis, Chapter 12, we find that this was not according to God’s plan. Verse one says:
Genesis 12:1 NKJV
1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.
Along with these instructions, God also gave Abram these promises:
Genesis 12:2-3 NKJV
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.
3 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."
So Abram departed from Ur of the Chaldeans but did not do so in accordance with God’s instructions. God had instructed Abram to separate himself from his father’s family. Instead, Abram left Ur of the Chaldeans with his father and all of his father’s family, and they went to a place which they named Haran. This is the place where Terah, Abram’s father, died.
I remember listening to Dr. De Haan as he taught on this passage many years ago. He stated that Terah was a picture of the old nature, that is, the corrupt nature with which we are born. God had revealed himself to Abram as the God of glory, and He had told Abram to leave his father, Terah, his old way life, and move on to a new life without Terah. In other words, Abram was to separate himself from his old way of life.
Well, Abram was like many of us. When God calls us and saves us, we are often reluctant to give up our old way of life. We are willing to become a child of God, but we may also want to bring along with us the Terahs and the Lots of the old life.
Dr. De Haan said that Terah is a picture of the old man and that Abram could not go into the land of promise until Terah died. Then he added, thank God the old man died. Dr. De Haan showed so clearly that until the old nature is reckoned to be dead indeed unto sin and until we reckon ourselves to be alive unto God, we can never enter into the full blessings of God. Until we reckon the old man to be dead indeed unto sin, we can never walk in newness of life.
Abraham had obeyed, but it was an incomplete obedience. Arthur Pink gives the definition of the word Haran and says that it means parched place. Abram had to live in a parched place until the old man died. Only after the old man died was Abram able to leave the parched place and move on into His place of blessing. Oh, what a difference it made when the old man died!
May I just say this to you? What a beautiful picture this is for you and for me. If you have never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ and have never received the revelation that God has given to us in His word, I trust that you will listen to what God is saying to you today.
God loved you enough that He sent His son into the world. The Lord Jesus loved you enough to leave His realm of blessing and fellowship with the Father, where He lived in equality with the Father. He left that realm of blessing to come down to this earth and be born as a baby, to live as a man. He was God, manifest in the flesh, Immanuel.
In His body of flesh, He went to the cross and there He died, the Just One for us, the unjust. He knew no sin, but He was made the sin offering for us. He did this so that we might become new creations, so that we might become new born children of God, so that we might, as it were, leave our father’s house and leave behind the old nature, putting it in the past, so that we might go on to the place of blessing.
I wonder today if there is one listening to this broadcast who has never trusted Christ. If you have never trusted Christ, I pray that you will come to know Jesus Christ as your Savior, so that you can become a child of God.
I wonder if there are those of you who are listening today who are like Abram was in the initial stage of his walk with the Lord. Abram wanted to carry with him much of his old life, so that he had to dwell in Haran, the parched place. Are you dwelling in Haran today? Are you dwelling in a parched place? Or are you willing to leave behind the old life and move on into your place of blessing with the Lord?
Well, I see our time is gone. The Lord willing, we are going to continue in our Journey Through the Scripture next week. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.
Church links:
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