Terah's tragedy

Gen. 11:26-32 

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

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.

Out of so many people listed in the first genealogies in Genesis 4-5 and 10-11, only a few were truly noteworthy.  Some of those few were marked by abhorrent wickedness, such as Cain (Gen 4:1-11 murder of brother Abel and, Lamech (Gen 4:19-24 murder and adultery).  Others lived in extraordinary righteousness, such as Enoch (Gen 5:21-24  walking with God and never experienced death) and Noah (Gen 6:8-9, 22, 7:5 did everything God had commanded for building the ark and saving His creation).  Most names passed yawningly by without even a note about what they had achieved, except for having “other sons and daughters.”  However, Terah’s family was sadly significant due to the three tragedies that had fallen on him.  He experienced the death of his son Haran, which only 2 fathers written in the Bible had experienced, Adam and Jared (Enoch’s father).  The death of a child is one of the most heartbreaking trials a parent could ever experience, no matter what age.   Was Haran’s death from a mysterious fatal illness, a vengeance-filled murder, or an unfortunate accident?  We may never know.  Secondly, his daughter-in-law Sarai, Abram’s wife, was the first woman noted in the Bible to be childless.  While everyone else’s families were blessed with many sons and daughters, Abram and Sarai bore the daily stigma of childlessness. Terah could not enjoy being a grandfather to children of his oldest son Abram.  Perhaps to escape the wagging tongues and prying eyes of all the neighbors and relatives, or perhaps to flee from the many painful memories, Terah decided to take Abram and Sarai, and his grandson Lot, and move from Ur to Canaan.  But they never made it.  Instead, they settled in Harran, and there Terah died.  He never completed his goal of reaching Canaan. 

If the accounts in Genesis were an early indication of the state of the human race, then only a few of us live a life of significance in God’s eyes.  All this misfortune had caused Abram to seek the face of God and hear His voice.  From the long list of mundane lives, Abram’s life stood out.  God had turned Terah’s tragedy into a great spiritual blessing, both in reaching Canaan, the promised land, and for giving Abram a son named Isaac, and the godly lineage that followed, ending with Jesus the long-awaited Messiah. What kind of life do you choose to live?  What is your response to the tragedies that you faced in your life?  May you resolve to live a significant life before God.

 (Thanks to my husband Tim, for his matchless spiritual insight into this passage!)