measures, for at length bringing the fulness of the Gentiles in the covenant of everlasting peace." (Murphy.) We learn further III. The gradual narrowing of human life. As a judgment upon the sin of the old world, God determined to contract the duration of human life. That judgment was not inflicted at once. The threatened limit was but slowly reached. God is not in haste to inflict penalty. His justice proceeds with a solemn majesty of movement. In this history, which shows how the span of life is gradually narrowing, it would appear as if the old energy does but slowly leave the children of men. "In the manifold weakenings of the highest life endurance, in the genealogy of them, there are, nevertheless, distinctly observable a number of abrupt breaks-(1) from Shem to Arphaxad, or from 600 years to 438; (2) from Eber to Peleg, or from 464 years to 239; (3) from Serug to Nahor, or from 230 years to 148; beyond which last, again, there extend the lives of Terah, with his 205, and of Abraham, with his 175 years. Farther on we have Isaac with 180 years, Jacob 147, and Joseph 110. So gradually does the human term of life approach the limit set by the Psalmist (Ps. xc. 10). Moses reached the age of 120 years. The deadly efficacy goes on still in the bodily sphere, although the counter-working of salvation has commenced in the spiritual."-(Lange.) SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES. Verses 10, 11. The general title is expressed thus, "These are the generations of Shem." Of these Moses was speaking, chap. x., so far as Peleg, whose name being given him upon the occasion of dividing the earth; by way of parenthesis, he includes the history and cause of this earth's division, in the former part of this chapter. He now returns to draw up the line full unto Abram, about which this title is set in the front. Consider the use of all these mentioned in the title. 1. To point out where the Church of God was after the flood. 2. To show God's Providence in singling out some generations in the world for His Church, these and not others. 3. To make known to us the state of the Church either for truth or for corruption at this time. 4. To continue to us the right chronology of the world, not for speculation only, but for pious practice to us, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 5. To make us better understand some passages of the prophets mentioning these persons or their conditions. 6. To show us the true line of Christ, and to confirm the New Testament given by Him. Every generation in the Church from the flood is but to bring Christ nearer.— (Hughes.) A second Kenan is inserted after Arpakshad in the Septuagint, and in the Gospel according to Luke. But this name does not occur even in the Septuagint in 1 Chron. i. 24, where the genealogy of Abraham is given. It is not found in the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Targums, or the ancient versions. It does not appear in Josephus or Philo. Neither is it found in the Codex Bezae in the Gospel of Luke. It must therefore be regarded as an interpolation.—(Murphy.) MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.-Verses 27-82 THE DAWN OF ABRAM'S HISTORY. Here we have the commencement of the sixth document, indicated by the usual preface, "These are the generations." This portion is intended to bring Abram before us, and therefore goes to the roots of his history, showing us from what a source so eminent an example of righteousness sprung. The history is brief, but it may be considered as a condensed outline of Abraham's life. Here we find him— I. Possessed of great moral courage. Terah, the father of Abram, was an idolater (Josh. xxiv. 2). Both himself and his children were ignorant of the true object of worship, or if they had any knowledge of this, they did not retain that knowledge, but suffered themselves to be led away by the impiety around them. Such is the hole of the pit from whence this sublime character was digged. Abram is the next great name in the sacred record to Noah, and their moral histories are very similar. Noah passed through the flood, and through an age of extraordinary wickedness to the victory of faith; and Abram passed through heathenism to become the chief example, in those early times, of belief in God. Abram had the moral courage to leave these idolatrous associations. In verse 31 Terah, his father, is represented as the leader of the migration to Canaan. But it is probable that the history in chap. xii. is anticipated, and that Abram, listening to the Divine call, persuaded his father also to obey. The courage of the father of the faithful influenced all his family, and they were ready to follow the leading of the Providence of God to better things. The great moral revolutions of the world have been brought about by the influence of men to whom God had spoken. By obeying the early suggestions of the Divine Spirit, men have been led on to glorious results, of which at the first they had no suspicion. Here also we find Abram II. Under the shadow of a future trial. (Verse 30.) Sarai's barrenness was, no doubt, a great trial to him, in that early age when men naturally desired a numerous offspring. But in his subsequent history this circumstance was not only a natural cause of regret, but it raised a difficulty in the way of his faith. This fact stood in his way, and for long years he had to endure the conflict of hoping against hope. The shadow of a coming trial now rested upon Abraham in order that his faith might prove itself strong by encountering difficulties. SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES. Verse 27. The present paragraph is of special interest for the coming history. Its opening word and (A. V. now), intimates its close connection with the preceding document; and, accordingly, we observe that the one is merely introductory to the other. The various characters brought forward are all of moment. Terah is the patriarch and leader of the migration for part of the way. Abram is the subject of the following narrative. Nahor is the grandfather of Rebekah. Haran is the father of Lot, the companion of Abram, of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, and grandmother of Rebekah, and of Iskah. Iskah alone seems to have no connection with the subsequent narrative. (Murphy.) Small hath the line of the Church been from the beginning, in comparison with the line of the world.-(Hughes.) If we seek for the origin of some of the greatest religious and social revolutions which the world has known, we often find it in a small group of men. Verse 28. Properly, in his presence, so that he must have seen it; it does not, therefore, mean simply in his lifetime. The first case of a natural death of a son before the death of his father, is a new sign of increasing mortality.— (Lange.) Death is described as the land "without any order," and truly without any order does he snatch away the sons of men. He strikes down the children before the face of their parents. Providence ordaineth the land of the nativity of some to be the place of their expiring.—(Hughes.) Verse 29. Sarai was, according to chap. xx. 12, the daughter of Terah by another wife than Abram's mother, and was ten years younger than her husband (chap. xvii. 17).—(Alford.) Verse 30 . The subject spoken of, Sarai; she that was to be the mother of the Church, of whom, purposely, the Spirit writeth this which followeth to show forth the power of God. 2. The condition spoken of her-under two expressions. (1) She was barren, i.e., naturally she was so, and that from her youth and first marriage-the fitter object for God to work upon by His power. (2) To her was no child. That is, hitherto she had no child, when she was now taking her journey with her husband and grandfather. God records the trials of his saints, not for their reproach, but for His own glory.(Hughes.) Long and silent trials are often the portion of the greatest saints. Verse 31. It is evident from chap. xii. 1, that this expedition was undertaken in consequence of the Divine call to Abraham to come out from a land of idolaters; but from the deference paid to the head of a family, Terah is here represented as chief in the movement, though really acting in obedience to the monitions of his son. Nahor and his wife Milcah, it would appear, were unwilling to go, at least at present; yet as we find them in the course of the history settled at Haran, and Abraham and Isaac sending to them for wives, we may conclude that they afterwards "repented and went." Thus the whole of Terah's family, though they did not go to Canaan, yet were probably preserved from Chaldean idolatry, and fixing themselves in Haran, maintained for a considerable time the worship of the true God. The narrative suggests to us, that while the most exemplary marks of respect are due from children to parents, yet parents themselves may sometimes be called to follow their children as leaders, when they have obtained clearer light as to the path of duty, and go forth at the evident call of God. But even in such cases a proper spirit of filial reverence will give as much precedency as possible to parental actions.-(Bush.) A godly man in the performance of the highest duties will consider the claims of natural propriety. St. Paul does not scruple to refer the Corinthians to the teaching of nature, and to urge them to have regard to what is seemly. Religious duty can be performed so as not to interfere with the claims of natural relationship. Terah's migration to Canaan (1) Its spirited beginning; (2) its failure to go on. Abraham and his kinsmen— (1) He was probably the author of the movement; (2) they, probably, the cause of his tarrying in Haran.— (Lange.) St. Paul tells us that Abraham went forth "not knowing whither he went." Here it is stated that the "land of Canaan" was the object and purpose of this migration. So it was in the Divine destination, but not as a definite resolve of their own. The historian evidently writes from the standpoint of subsequent facts. They went forth under the leading of Providence, having just light enough for each successive portion of the journey-the end not yet revealed. Faith asks not to see the whole of its course spread before it, but only light enough to take the next step. He who gives that faith will take care of the whole course, and secure the success of the end. They came to Haran, and dwelt there. Broken down with fatigue, he halts for a season at Haran to recruit his wasted powers. Filial piety, no doubt, kept Abram watching over the last days of his venerable parent, who, probably, still clung to the fond hope of reaching the land of his adoption. Hence, they all abode in Haran for the remainder of the five years from the date of Abram's call to leave his native land. (Murphy.) Verse 32. Time and place are appointed to die as to be born in. It is good to be ready in every place.— (Hughes.) Terah was two hundred and five years old. If Abram, therefore, was seventy-five years old when he migrated from Mesopotamia, and Terah was seventy-five years old at his birth, then must Abraham have set forth sixty years before the death of Terah. And this is very important. The migration had a religious motive which I would not allow him to wait till the death of his father. As Delitzsch remarks, the manner of representation in Genesis disposes of the history of the less important personages before relating the main history. The Samaritan text has set the age of Terah at one hundred and forty-five, under the idea that Abraham did not set out on his migration until after the death of Haran. The representation of Stephen (Acts vii. 4) connects itself with the general course of the narration.— (Lange.) Terah, like Moses, failed to enter the Land of Promise. God had provided for him a better country, where the purposes so incompletely fulfilled here will reach completion. There are no broken and rudimentary structures in the city of God. We are forcibly reminded of our pilgrim state by the fact that many of God's people have died on journeys. However imperfectly we may have realised our ideal of life, it is well to be prepared for that last solemn journey which we must take alone, and where no help can avail but the rod and staff of God. The history here given of the postdiluvians has a striking resemblance in structure to that of the ante-diluvians. The preservation of Noah from the waters of the flood is the counterpart of the creation of Adam, after the land had risen out of the roaring deep. The intoxication of Noah by the fruit of a tree corresponds with the fall of Adam by eating the fruit of a forbidden tree. The worldly policy of Nimrod and his builders is parallel with the citybuilding and many inventions of the Cainites. The pedigree of Abram, the tenth from Shem, stands over against the pedigree of Noah, the tenth from Adam. And the paragraph now before us bears some resemblance to that which precedes the personal history of Noah. All this tends to strengthen the impression made by some other phenomena already noticed, that the book of Genesis is the work of one author, and not a mere pile of documents by different writers.(Murphy.) ILLUSTRATIONS ON CHAPTER XI. The Divine goodness appears like a rainbow spanning the dark cloud of human pride and ambition. There is the "Tongue Tower" ruin, but it lies in Gen. ix. as the plant lies, out of whose root springs a more vigorous stem and beautiful flower than before the wind and storm broke its first shoot. It reminds us of the savannah of the west which the fire bas scorched-upon whose brown bare bosom the showers of rain fall, to make the wilderness and solitary place glad, and the blistered desert to bloom as the rose. Divine gentleness revealed! Such is the primary (we do not say the only) motive in Gen. ix. REV. WM. ADAMSON. Motive in History! Ver. 1-9. (1) It has been suggested by Hopkins that the primal disobedience of Adam and Eve is stated not to show forth its strangeness, but to disclosein the several scenes which were its immediate consequents-the wondrous affectionateness of Him who had been disobeyed. And this is done with the pen of a master. And so with the homicide of Cain, and the vices of the antediluvians; they are used as a foil to bring out a vivid illustration of the Divine gentleness. It is true that these all reveal to us that God is a consuming fire towards sin, and wilful, obstinate sinners; but even these revelations are like the dark background which the artist places to set out more conspicuously his "designs of fair colours." (2) Why may we not suppose that the same paramount purpose stands out in bold relief all along the Mosaic book, and thus includes the Babel narrative? "Then let us sing, our shrouded way thus wending, Life's hidden snares among, Of mercy and of judgment sweetly blending, Earth's sad but lovely song."-Macmillan. Word-Witnesses! Ver. 1-9. The long-lost records of Babylonia and Assyria promise, when fully examined, to throw a flood of light not only upon Divine Revelation, but upon the history, religious and social status of great primeval nations, whose names, and some of whose acts, are mentioned in Scripture. Very much, says Professor Porter, has yet to be done by the traveller and the excavator before the sources of information contained on sculptured slabs and inscribed tablets have been reached. When that is done, a still more difficult task will remain in the classification of the materials and the deciphering of the records. But we look forward hopefully, and may confidently anticipate the most complete success. Testimony clear and indisputable will then be furnished to the matchless truthfulness of the Word of God by the ruins of "Bel's cloud-capt tower, her gorgeous palaces, Her solemn temples, her Tongue-Tow'r itself." Genesis and Chaldean Legends! Ver. 1-9. (1) Before the Chaldean discoveries by Smith, those who wished to believe the Genesis narrative a myth roundly asserted that it was a chimera of some crazed mind, or the creation of some corrupt one. No sooner, however, was the discovery made, and the correctness of the cuneiform inscription cipher attested, than the same enemies, whose wish was father to the thought, asserted that the Chaldean accounts were legendary, and that the Genesis narrative was also legendary because derived from these same Chaldean historical myths. (2) The simple brevity of the history in Genesis is familiar; whereas, Gardiner points out that the Chaldean inscriptions are obscure, verbose, and swelling out at every point with the monstrosities of early mythology. It is as if a modern scholar should sit down to pick out the grains of truth in the prehistoric myths of ancient Greece, and having set them down soberly, should then be told that his work must itself be legendary because derived from legendary sources. (3) Even though Abraham did analyse these Chaldean legends with matchless skill and penetration, and drew from them for our use the simple history out of which they had gradually grown, this would not affect the truthfulness of his work. And if we add that Abraham (or Moses) was divinely inspired to recover the original truth from this mass of legend, the truthfulness and trustworthiness of the Genesis narrative is placed beyond dispute. "Whence, but from heaven, could men unskilled in arts, In several ages born, in several parts, Babel Bricks! Vers. 2-4. These emigrants to Shinar were evidently dissatisfied with a patriarchal life, and desirous of founding a great monarchy. I. Ambition, or the Perversion of the divinely-implanted principle, "Excelsior." It (1) cautions us to beware of our own hearts, and (2) counsels us to be careful of the Divine Will. II. Assumption, or the Pre-supposition of man's independence of God. It (1) cautions us to remember our entire dependence, and (2) counsels us to regard the Divine pre-eminence as essential to our happiness. III. Association, or the Persuasion that human unity means human perpetuity. It (1) cautions us against forgetting that God must come into any scheme after unity, and (2) counsels us about fulfilling the Divine Ideal of unity in Him. Lessons: (1) Moral Towers of Babel (great or small) should be erected in God's name, and carried through in God's strength; (2) Moral Towers of Babel (great or small), if not so attempted and accomplished, tend to dishonour God's name, and to disown God's strength; (3) Moral Towers of Babel (great or small) thus dishonouring Him, are sure, sooner or later, to be overthrown by God, who has all forces at His command; and (4) Moral Towers of Babel (great or small) conceived in God's name, constructed by God's strength, and contributing to God's glory, are certain of the Divine permission and per manence. Thus, "Scripture, in this life-history, unfoldeth Some lessons sweet to me; God's goodness in reproof my eye beholdeth, And His severity." Shinar Site! Ver. 2. (1) Noah's sons would come down from the high lands of Armenia and settle in the warmer plains below. Journeying from the valley of Araxes, they would travel along the eastern side of the Koordish mountains, without finding a good place to cross them until they were almost as low down as Babylon. That is the course which the caravans take from Tabreez at this day. Coming to Kermansheh, they would turn short about, and pass through the mountains towards Bagdad. Thus between the Tigris and Euphrates we have the land of Shinar, where Nimrod built Babel or Babylon. (2) 66 Descending," as Wylie observes, "from the lofty mountains which form the northern rampart of Asia Minor, the Tigris and Euphrates hold on their course to the south till they arrive on the rich and level plains around the ancient city of Bagdad. Here they unite their streams, and flow through a valley which bears marks of having, in ancient times, been perhaps the richest and loveliest region on the earth, and which is still surprisingly fertile, though quite neglected. There may have been design on the part of Nimrod in seeking to establish his empire's metropolis in the region where Paradise was supposed to have stood. Design or no design, Nimrod's "Cities have been, and vanished; fanes have sunk, Heaped into shapeless ruin; sands o'erspread Fields that were Edens; millions, too, have shrunk To a few starving hundreds, or have fled |