Meet the Unknowns


From Shem to Abram
10 This is the account of Shem’s family line.

Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. 11 And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

12 When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. 13 And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. 15 And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. 17 And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. 19 And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. 21 And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. 23 And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. 25 And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

26 After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

Abram’s Family
27 This is the account of Terah’s family line.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 28 While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. 29 Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah. 30 Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.

31 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.

32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran Genesis 11:10-32

This is the first we hear of Abram, Sarai, and Lot. Two of those three are central to the Old Testament going forward. And Lot? Well, his wife is remembered more than he is. It took us hundreds of years to get to this point. Society was fairly mature, cities were being built, and what we call the Mideast was fairly well populated.

Notice, though, that the average maximum age at which these people lived is starting to diminish from 900+ years. Still, 200 years old is quite old.

Another interesting tidbit in these verses is Terah. He was the father of Abram, but we don’t hear a lot about Terah. Terah is someone we should know about but don’t. What did he to train up such a godly man, the Patriarch? What about Terah’s other children, do we know anything about them?

So, within these short verses we have famous people, infamous people, and countless unknown people. It’s sort of like a cross-section of our society as well. Most of the people you meet are relative unknowns. They are known within their circle of influence but that’s it. Then you have the few people who you really don’t want to claim as knowing but because they’re family, it’s always an issue. Lastly are the very small percentage of famous people. They are the rich and glamorous. They don’t look down on us unknowns. Despite the hoops they had to jump through to get where they were, they now wear sunglasses so people don’t recognize them on the street. These people are part of the “do you know who I am” crowd.

Most of us are in the unknown crowd, but that’s not a bad thing. Nor are you just average if you’re in this group. You can be great at what you do and still be in this camp. It’s where the cool people hang. Enjoy being an unknown.

You are known to the Father, and that’s what counts.

Never forget that.


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