June 26, 2026:

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.” (Genesis 11.31)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

As we read and study the Word of God, I would ask you to consider the rhythm and pattern of how its moves across the face of the earth and highlights the cycle of life. We, as believers in God and as mighty ones of Christ, speak of “the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.” We also recognize that in God we find “He who was, is and will forever be” before the Beginning and After the End. He is eternal! AMEN. In His Word for us as those invited and created to excel as being followers of His Word, there is a pattern which fosters the fullness of achieving life in the image of Christ, God’s only begotten Son. [Please note: the phrase we cling to as the disciple/apostle John’s descriptor of how we have received salvation speaks of “only begotten Son” to highlight that we are made as sons and daughters of the Most High God not by blood but by Spirit.] This is our charge and our goal: to attain to the full measure and stature of Christ. (Ephesians 4.13) See how powerful the rhythm and pattern of the Word of God is?

Now I invite you to see and consider the pattern in Genesis 11. It reveals a cycle of life indicating closure and a new beginning. It comes with questions we can ask ourselves as we consider what is the Word of God saying to us. I am speaking of the phrase reflected upon yesterday: they settled there. (Genesis 11.31) If we will remember, that phrase had already been presented in Genesis 11.2, “As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.” Who were these people? Were they not the descendants of Noah’s three sons: Shem; Ham and Japheth? We think of the migration of the Hebrews who had been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years to be a Paramount Production (reference Cecile B. Demile). Some scholars say their number was most likely 2.5 to 3 million people (based on scripture’s presentation of 600,000 men plus families.) That would seem to those in the desert to be “the whole world.” Even today, when things aren’t going our way, we have a tendency to think “the whole world is against me.” Of course, it is an exaggeration. It is also a mentality that has some truth in the way we perceive ourselves and everything else. Imagine the descendants of those three boys (yes, not Jacob’s twelve sons, mind you) on the move. Where were they going? Here we are not told a destination as with Terah later in the chapter who is taking his family to Canaan. What we know is that they were headed east. When they reached the plain of Shinar, they settled. They stopped. They rested. They set up camp. They set up life. They put down roots. They became entrenched and served the needs of their families. They collaborated. They confederated. They became a part of the landscape and sought to have dominion “over the whole earth.” Wow, that is pretty serious business- this settling. It also led to a real interesting decision- the Tower of Babel. Is this what happens when there is no clear goal and objective? Were those on the Westward Trail in the 19th Century stymied by the ocean and decided to settle there? If there had been no ocean, how far would they have continued to travel? Would they have circled the globe and end up right where they started? There, too, is a cycle of life.

So, in Genesis 11.31, we hear that Terah and his family settled in Haran. How far is it from Shinar to Haran? It is about 250 miles, travelling distance. Haran is about 700 miles from Ur of the Chaldees. They may have had to pass by the Valley of Shinar and seen the ruins of what was intended to be humanity’s greatest achievement. The stories would have been repeated and embellished. Warnings would have been given to not dishonor the One True God which Terah and his family worshipped and served. And then arriving at Haran, where perhaps other family certainly lived such as Lot’s father and family, “they settled.” They planted themselves. They became a part of what already was. And in the midst of it we know that Terah died. Is this, too, the lesson of settling? When we give up the dream, the vision, the aspiration of accomplishing what God has established and commanded, we just die. It is not a glorious death. It is the passing of a life like a plant or one of the herd. It is a tragedy in and of itself but it is just a moment in time. Is that all we are mighty ones of God? Are we just a moment in time? Do we just settle for this? Or do we believe that we have been made for a time such as this. We are imbued with God’s Spirit, fashioned in God’s image and informed by God’s vision for what is yet to come. When God created the heavens and the earth, was that the finished product or merely the beginning of a journey whose end inspires us and challenges us to “what comes next”? Dare we settle for less than what God has ordained? That is our question as we proceed in the family of God through every age.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.