And He Died: Genesis 11:10-32
All who walk with God can live forever with God. That is God’s big promise and it is the underlying reason for the entire message contained within the Bible. If we trust in Him, if we live according to His righteousness and His faithfulness, if we repent of our sins and receive His mercy and grace, then we will know eternal life with Him. We don’t need to fear anything in this world – including death – because nothing can take us away from His hands of care.
We quickly come up against another lineage section. This may seem odd, having just come off a whole chapter that was a genealogy chapter. One might ask why these two genealogy sections weren’t combined into one section. That would be a phenomenal question to ask.
Reading through this section of genealogies, there are two significant differences to note. In chapter 10, the genealogy of Shem lists all his children and gives the broad perspective of where Shem’s descendants headed into the world. The chapter 11 version of Shem’s genealogy focuses specifically on Shem’s son Arpachshad.
The differences between these lineages is not a case of one being right and one being wrong. The chapter 10 genealogy is written to show how the earth becomes more populated after the flood. The chapter 11 genealogy is written to show the connection between Noah and Abraham. The chapter 10 genealogy demonstrates God’s desire to fill creation and bring it to completion; the chapter 11 genealogy demonstrates God’s desire to keep his promise of a redeemer.
To illustrate these differences, notice the subtle change in how the details of people are stated in the genealogies. Going back to the chapter 5 genealogy that takes us from Adam to Noah, we hear the phrase “and he died” repeated specifically. This illustrates the typical human mindset on life. We are born, we live for a certain number of years, we accomplish a certain list of things, and then we die. Human beings tend to focus on death as a termination point.
When we get to the genealogy written to demonstrate God’s promise of redemption in chapter 11, the phrase “and he died” doesn’t appear a single time. I don’t mean to imply that the ancestors of Abraham didn’t die. Certainly, the ancestors of Abraham died. All human beings eventually come to the end of their years and die. The focus, however, is not on their death.
When we walk with God, death is simply a part of the process. God redeems us. He wants us to live with Him. God makes it possible to be born, to live, to die, and then to step through death into life with Him. Yes, death is a reality. Death is a significant reality. People that I care about who have died are currently beyond my ability to relate to. That doesn’t mean, though, they are gone forever. All who walk with God can live forever with God.
