Genesis 11:16-21: a reflection

16Eber lived thirty-four years, and became the father of Peleg. 17Eber lived four hundred thirty years after he became the father of Peleg, and became the father of more sons and daughters. 18Peleg lived thirty years, and became the father of Reu. 19Peleg lived two hundred nine years after he became the father of Reu, and became the father of more sons and daughters. 20Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug. 21Reu lived two hundred seven years after he became the father of Serug, and became the father of more sons and daughters.

This is a genealogy, a chain of names, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, each living, fathering the next, and dying, generation after generation with nothing dramatic to report. It comes right after the scattering at Babel, and it seems to go nowhere in particular. But it is going somewhere: this line leads, within a few more names, to Abraham, the man through whom God would promise to bless all the families of the earth.

Notice what God is quietly doing through this unremarkable list. He is advancing his redemptive purpose through the ordinary succession of generations, moving history, one birth at a time, toward the promise he would make to Abraham and, through him, toward Christ. Nothing in these verses looks like the plan of salvation, and yet the plan is proceeding, hidden in the plain passing of the years, in people who did not know they were links toward a promise.

There is quiet reassurance in that about how God works. His purposes often advance not in dramatic leaps but in the ordinary flow of ordinary lives, one generation to the next, in ways no one recognizes at the time as the outworking of his plan. If your own life feels unremarkable, a plain link in a chain that seems to go nowhere, remember these names between Babel and Abraham. God was moving his purpose through them, and he is moving it through the ordinary faithfulness of ordinary lives still, including yours.

Lord, through a dry chain of names you were quietly moving history toward Abraham and the promise, one generation at a time. When my own life feels unremarkable, a plain link that seems to go nowhere, remind me that you advance your purposes through the ordinary flow of ordinary lives, and that you are working through mine too. Help me be faithful in my link of the chain.