“This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans…And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan…and Terah died in Haran.”

Genesis 11:27-32

As I read this passage I can’t help but notice how rough life was even for the guys and gals in the Bible.

Followed by the introduction of a dad (Terah), and his three sons (Abram, Nahor, and Haran), we go on a rollercoaster ride of news, rising high on emotion as Baby Lot is born to Haran, and then the devastating fall out of Haran’s death. I’m sure Terah was grieved over the fact his youngest died before him. Soon after these events the family is uprooted to a new place. While en route Terah dies, and Abram is thrust into the position of “Head of the Household”. Not only is Abram trying to pick up the pieces of a broken and grieving family, he’s also in a foreign land separated from everything he was once familiar with. To add insult to injury he discovers his wife cannot bear children, bringing the dilemma of not being able to continue the family name (which was a big deal in the ancient Middle East).

Abram was stuck in the territory of Haran, he had followed his father there in obedience and now he is in the place where God, his heavenly father, will begin to command and lead, and Abram will learn to follow his new father.

“Be still, and know that I am God”

Psalm 46:10

Sometimes I find myself forgetting the fact that these biblical heroes got run over by life just like you and I today. It’s encouraging to me to see that even with the difficult life that Abram had, in the end, God worked amazing things from hopeless situations. This gives me a bit of hope in my seeming hopeless situations.

Let’s be real, all of us have had times where it seemed like the whole world was falling apart on top of us, and we get buried alive under the rubble. I’m sure Abram wasn’t exactly stoked in the midst of his current difficulties. However, God had a plan, and He was going to use this broken life and family to establish peace, restoration, and salvation to the whole human race.

“It is only when our lives are hid with Christ in God that we learn how to be silent unto God, not silent about Him, but silent with the strong restful certainty that all is well, behind everything stands God, and the strength of the soul is that it knows it. There are no panics intellectual or moral. What a lot of panicky sparrows we are, the majority of us. We chatter and tweet under God’s eaves until we cannot hear His voice at all-until we learn the wonderful life and music of the Lord Jesus telling us that our heavenly Father is the God of the sparrows, and by the marvelous transformation of grace He can turn the sparrows into His nightingales that can sing through every night of sorrow. A sparrow cannot sing through a night of sorrow, and no soul can sing through a night of sorrow unless it has learned to be silent unto God -one look, one thought about my Father in heaven, and it is all right.”

-Oswald Chambers (If you will be perfect pg.91)

No matter what gnarly situation you might be facing today, remember that God is working the present difficulty together for His future glory… through you. (Romans 8:28) You are part of His plan, and believe it or not He is using you, and your situation, to prepare the way for the arrival of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus essentially takes the broken pieces and returns to us peace. (Jeremiah 29:11)

“I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light…He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy. Even when I cry and shout, He has made me desolate. He has also broken my teeth with gravel, and covered me with ashes. You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity…Through the Lords mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness…The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord…For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.”

-The Lament of the Prophet Jeremiah (Lamentations 3:1-32)