Terah, the Settler

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to Genesis 11, Genesis chapter 11 for our time of study in the word this morning. By the way, I need the clicker. we are doing a verse by verse study through the book of, Genesis, and as we continue in our study this morning, we come to Genesis chapter 11 verse 10, and our goal this morning is to cover verses 10 through 32. And make our way all the way to the end of, of the chapter.

And I had a, thank you so much. I didn't know it was over there. I, there's a title that is on your insert and we're going to change that title. I think it says Abraham's father, on your, in your bulletin insert, but we're going to entitle the message, Tara, the Settler.

Tara, the settler. Tara was Abraham's father, and we're gonna call him a settler today. I don't know if you guys have seen this. There's a, a, a series of commercials on, TV lately that feature a family called the Settlers.

How many of you have seen that commercial? they live in modern-day America in a neighborhood that looks very much like the neighborhoods that you and I live in. Yet they live as people lived in pre-industrial times, and they also have cable TV. Go figure.

which is so much more primitive than DirecTV. That's the point of the commercial. But they are OK with just having cable because they are settlers. And one of the commercials features the man's wife approaching him, one day while he is cobbling or repairing a shoe in his house, and she humbly asks, dear, why don't we switch to DirecTV?

The man responds by saying, Now, Mother, we are settlers. I have settled for cable all my life, he says. But she politely pleads, DirecTV has been #1 in customer satisfaction over cable for 15 years. He replies by saying, we find our satisfaction elsewhere.

He points to his children, his son and his daughter who are playing, and he says the boy has his stick and hoop, and the girl has her faceless doll. Then he turns his head toward a large pile of cabbages and says to his wife, and you have your cabbage. Amazingly, this line of reasoning seems to resonate with her. Encouraged by these reminders of all of the wonderful things that they have, the wife smiles at her husband with satisfaction and contentment and says, and you have your foot stomping.

And he says, I sure do, while he stomps his foot and slaps his thigh in a hoedown way. the point of the commercial is to show the silliness of settling when in fact there is something. So much better available. Whenever I see that commercial, I always laugh, but then sometimes after and while I am laughing, I'm left asking myself if I too am a settler in ways that I should not be.

If you're here today, and you do not have salvation through Jesus Christ, you are a settler. And my message to you is don't be a settler. Switch your allegiance over to Jesus Christ and call upon him to be your Lord and Savior. Why would you want to live another day apart from Jesus Christ, when you can have the forgiveness of sins and everything else that Jesus gives to you, and is purchased through his shed blood?

But I also know that we as Christians, including myself, can be settlers too. Christ has given to us all that we need for life and godliness. He has given us power to, to walk in freedom from sin, to walk in community with others, to walk and to live in relationship with Him, to enjoy his word, to enjoy the privileges of communing with Him in prayer. He is prepared.

good works for us to walk in so that we can experience the joy of being engaged in good works that will bless others and glorify God and enable us to bear fruit for eternity. And yet, we often settle for living apart from the enjoyment of such things, and we settle for living for our puny selves and living in sin. We settle for living in locations that are somewhere short of the fullness of all that God calls us to be and to do and all that He has provided for us. CS Lewis in his essay, The Weight of Glory says it this way, we are half-hearted creatures, fooling about when infinite joy is offered to us.

Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased. That's counterintuitive. We think people are too difficult to please, but he says actually, when you look at what you settle for, instead of experiencing the fullness of joy that is yours in Christ, you're actually far too easily pleased.

That's his way of saying that we are settlers. We're far too content to settle. For something short of what God wants for us and calls us into. And I, I wonder if the same thing could be said of Tara.

who is Abraham's father, who we're gonna be studying in our passage today. Tarah shows some promise in the passage we'll be looking at today. He's got some advantages that are in his favor. He seems to start off well and with the right intentions, yet he ends up in the end becoming a settler who settled and died somewhere short of the destination that he had initially, by God's leading, set out for.

In our passage today, we see the name Tara 10 times, establishing him clearly as the main character of this section of Genesis 11. And today, what we're gonna do is we're gonna learn about Tara. We're gonna observe 5 facts about Tara. The settler Just a quick review though.

Keep in mind that Genesis 11:19 that we studied a few weeks ago tells us the story of the Tower of Babel. The people of the world had settled in the land of Shinar after the flood and attempted to build a city and a tower that would reach into the heavens. Their goal was to make a name for themselves and prevent themselves from being scattered. Over the face of the earth, God sees what they're doing and he isn't just concerned about what they're doing in the moment, but he's concerned about what all it will lead to.

So God confounds their languages and through that means, he scatters them abroad through the face of the earth. And it is here that the narrative of Genesis 11:10 picks up. And so let me read This passage to you, Genesis chapter 10. Beginning in verse 10.

These are the records of the generations of Shem, who was the son of Noah. Shem was 100 years old and became the father of Arakshd 2 years after the flood. And by the way, this is the last mention of the flood in the Book of Genesis. And Shem lived 500 years after he became the father of Arak Shad, and he had other sons and daughters.

Arak Shad lived 35 years and became the father of Sheila. And Arakshd lived 403 years after he became the father of Sheila, and he had other sons and daughters. Sheila lived 30 years and became the father of Ebert, and Sheila lived 403 years after he became the father of Ebert and he had other sons and daughters. Hebert lived 34 years and became the father of Pelle.

And Hebert lived 430 years after he became the father of Pelle, and he had other sons and daughters, and Pelle lived 30 years and became the father of Reu. And Pelle lived 209 years after he became the father of Reu, and he had other sons and daughters. Rayu lived 32 years and became the father of Sir Rug. And Rau lived 207 years after he became the father of Serra, and he had other sons and daughters.

Sirra lived 30 years and became the father of Nehor, and Sirra lived 200 years after he became the father of Nehor, and he had other sons and daughters. Nehor lived 29 years and became the father of Terra. And Nehor lived 119 years after he became the father of Terra, and he had other sons and daughters, and Terra lived 70 years and became the father of Abraham, Nehor, and Haran. Now, these are the records of the generations of Terra.

Terra became the father of Abraham, Nehor, and Haran, and Haran became the father of Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Tera, in the land of his birth in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abraham and Nehor took wives for themselves. The name of Abraham's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nehor's wife was Mila, the daughter of Haran, the father of Mila and Isa.

Sarai was barren. She had no child. And Tara took Abraham, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, his son, Abraham's wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan, and they went as far as Haran and settled there. And the days of Terra were 205 years, and Tara died.

In Harran. This is the word of God and may God help us to understand. His word to us today. As I said a few minutes ago, we're gonna observe 5 facts about Tara, the settler.

5 facts about Terra, Abraham's father. The first fact that we can observe in this passage is that Tara was a descendant of Shem. He was a descendant of Shem. this point is clearly established in the genealogy that we see in verses 10 through 25.

Here we see the genealogical chain from Shem to Abraham. and to Tara and then to Abraham. Shem is the son of Noah, and then we've read all of the names that show the link demonstrating conclusively that Tara was a son or a descendant of, of Shem. As for the genealogy itself that we just read, this genealogy is similar in some ways to the genealogy that We studied in Genesis chapter 5.

What is similar is that it is a chrono genealogy and that it gives the age of each man when he became the father of the son who gets mentioned. This genealogy is also similar to the one in Genesis 5 in that it tells us how long each father lived after the birth of his son, and it also tells us that he had other sons and daughters. That much is similar to the genealogy of Genesis 5. But there are some, some differences that we can note.

between these two genealogies. first of all, this genealogy does not bother to give us the combined total of years that the father lived, telling us how many before the child was born, after, and then giving us the grand total. The genealogy in Genesis 5 did that with the exception of Tara, this genealogy does not do that, for us. This genealogy also does not feature the repeated refrain, and he died.

You guys remember that when we were in Genesis 5? I think it was 8 times where we read the words and he died. But we don't see that here except with Tara at the very end. It's for this reason that some commentators suggest that this genealogy is less pessimistic.

Than the one in Genesis 5 inasmuch as it features a greater emphasis on life rather than the repeated refrain that these patriarchs died. Another difference is the shorter lifespans of the men in this genealogy. It's evident from the numbers that are given here that man's lifespan on this side of the flood is now getting shorter than it was before the flood. Noah himself lived 950 years, but in this genealogy, you see a gradual descent in the number of years that each of these men lived.

Arak Shad lived 438, or Shem lived 600, Arak Shad lived 438. Sheila lived 433, Ebert, 464, Pele, 239, Rayu, 239, Serra, 230, Nehor, 148, and Tara. the text that we all have says 205. The Samaritan copy of this particular book of the Bible, very ancient, actually has Tara dying at the age of 145.

That may actually be the accurate reading, we don't know that, but we'll just go with the 205 that is listed here. Very clearly, conditions on Earth on this side of the flood and at work in the human body are such. That, life spans are shortening gradually over time. God's decree earlier in Genesis chapter 6 that man's life would be limited to a maximum of 120 years seems to be gradually coming to pass, and this is all the result of sin.

So all in all, Tara has the advantage of being a descendant of Shem, who actually was the most blessed of Noah's sons. If you read Noah's last will and testament at the end of Genesis chapter 9, you see that Shem is the most blessed of Noah's 3 sons. It would be through Shem that the Messiah would come. So he's a descendant of Shem.

Tarah would also have the benefit of seeing the effects of sin and shortening people's life spans on this side of the flood. This should have been instructive for him and caused him to follow God. There's something else we learn about Tara in this passage, and this leads to the next fact that we can learn about him. And that is that Tara had 3 sons who married.

Tara had 3 sons who married. having children changes you. Having children often has the effect of changing a person's outlook and making them more serious about life and about God and about spiritual things, more in tune to the hurts of this world. The sorrows of this world.

And Tara had, we know, at least 3 sons just from this passage alone. Observe what the text says beginning in verse 26. It says Tara lived 70 years and became the father of Abraham, Nehor, and Haran. And the text continues, verse 27.

Now these are the records of the generations of Tera. Tara became the father of Abraham, Nehor, and Haran, and Haran became The father of Lot. Lot is a character that we're gonna get acquainted with soon enough. For now, it's enough to know that Lot is the son of Abraham's brother, Haron.

It is not specifically stated that Haron got married in this passage, but we can presume that he did and that he bore Lot through his wife. But at some point after Lot was born, something tragic happened. Verse 28 tells us this, that Haran died in the presence of his father Tera in the land of his birth and Ur of the Chaldeans. Literally, the Hebrew just simply means he died before Tera, before his father Tera.

All this has to mean is that he died before his father died. But it could also mean what some of our translations say that he died in the presence of his father or before the face of his father. So it could be saying that Tara was present when his son died. His son may have died in his arms or Tara was beholding his son and with his son when he died.

All in all, we don't know how Haran died, but we know that Tara, who was Abraham's father, had to deal with the heartache of seeing one of his sons die before his time, leaving Tara's grandson, Lot, without a dad. This tragedy no doubt shook Tara to his core as we can imagine. Some commentators suggest that it may have fed into the decisions that Tara is going to be making in the coming verses as this passage unfolds. As for Terrace, two other sons, observe what the text says, verse 29, Abraham and Nehor took wives for themselves.

The name of Abraham's wife was Sarai. The name Sarai means princess or queen. Her name is gonna change to Sarah in Genesis 17:15. Nothing is said here about who Sarah's parents were, but later revelation, interestingly enough, gives us some idea as to who at least her father was.

You guys know in Genesis 20, Abraham lies to Abimelech and tells him That Sarah is his sister. in order to conceal the fact that Sarah was his wife, and when Abraham is caught in that lie, he does, defend himself a little bit. He provides some defense of himself in Genesis 20:12 by saying this. He says, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, that's Tara, but not the daughter of my mother.

So what does that tell us about Tara? It tells us that Tara had another wife or a concubine of some sort through whom he had. Sarai So just do that, we can piece together some information about, about Tara. As for Tara's son, Nehor, he got married also.

In verse 29, the text says, and the name of Nehor's wife was Mila, the daughter of Haran. You want to note that the father of Mila and Isa. This means that Nehor actually married. His niece, whose name was Mila.

Perhaps he married her after his brother, Haron died. the mention of Mila and Isa tells us that Haron had at least 3 children before he died, Lot, Mila, and Isa. Now, the information that Moses gives us here about Nehor and Mila is relevant to the Israelites who would be reading this or having this read to them because in Genesis chapter 24, you might want to write this reference down verse 15, it will be told that a certain Rebecca. was born to Bethuel, the son of Mila, the wife of Abraham's brother, Nehor.

Whom Abraham's son Isaac is going to marry. In other words, Abraham's son Isaac will marry the granddaughter of Abraham's brother, Nehor. Does that make sense? I'm feeling like it's complicated up here.

I hope it's clear to you. later in the book of Genesis, Genesis 22:20 to 24, we learned that Nehor had 12 sons. Through his wife Mila and also through a concubine. by the way, when you have that many sons, you run out of names, leaving you with names like Uz and Buzz.

which he named two of his sons, and I, I know exactly what they look like. But anyway, seriously, in a lot of ways, most people would have picked Nehor to be the Son of Promise, given how many children he is having and especially given what is said in verse 30 about Abraham's wife, Sarai. In verse 30, the text gives us one detail about her and it states this detail emphatically, verse 30, it says Sarai was barren. She had no child.

So while Nehor and his wife Mila, and his concubine are having 12 sons and no doubt daughters as well, Abraham and Sarai are having no children. At all. Yet Abraham is the one that God is going to choose to be the father of many nations. So Tara has 3 sons.

One of them dies. Another seems to be getting along just fine and having children and building his family, and another one, Abraham, is married to a wife who is unable to have children. Now observe what happens next. We will see that Tara and his family live in error of the Chaldeans, but in verse 31, they make a big move.

This brings us to the next fact that we learn about Abraham's father, Terra, and that is he took his family and left his homeland for Canaan. He took his family and he left his homeland for Canaan. In verse 31, the text says, Tara took Abraham, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, his son, Abraham's wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan. Now, if this passage is all that we had to go on, here is what we know.

Tara for some reason felt compelled to make a big move and to launch out from of the Chaldeans, and he felt compelled to take some of his family with him. Based on the language here, Tara is viewed as the one who's taking the initiative. He took Abraham and others. He wants to leave his hometown and he's not content to leave alone.

He takes his family with him. He wants his family to go with him where he is going. Interestingly though, in the middle of the verse, the language shifts and the text literally says they went out with them rather than he went out with them, with his family members. The fact that in the Hebrew text, there's the word they.

Saying they went out with them almost certainly indicates that it is Tara and Abraham, who are the two principal actors here and they are taking Sarai and Lot with them as they leave toward Canaan. Why did they leave Ur? The text tells us that they went out with them from Ur, and here's their goal, here's the destination in mind, in order to enter the land of Canaan. The language here makes it clear that Tara's intention in leaving her.

is for the purpose of entering Canaan. To end up in Canaan is the stated goal of this move. By the way, archaeological discoveries show that the city of Ur that they are leaving here was truly a great city from a worldly standpoint. It had everything that anyone would want.

As one writer says, Ur was a great city with a high civilization. Including a great library even before Abraham's time, but it was also a very idolatrous and wicked city. Evidence also shows that Ur was a major center for the worship of the moon god and that the city was dominated by a massive three-stage tower that was devoted to the worship of the moon god. Evidence also indicates that the worship of the moon god involved human sacrifice.

In all of its awfulness, as its worshippers would worship the moon god and other deities there. In fact, many commentators point out that the name Tera is akin to the word Yira, which is the word for moon. Serai is close to the Acadian word Shiratu, which is the female partner of the moon god, and some suggest that's why Sarah was named Serai, and the name Mila is essentially the same as the name of the goddess Malkattu. who was believed to be the daughter of the moon god.

These names probably indicate a culture that is awash in the worship of the moon god, thoroughly infecting this family. And you say, well, Tara was an idolater. Well, we actually know that he was at some point in his life, because in Joshua chapter 24, verse 2, listen to what Joshua says to the children of Israel in that passage. He says to them, from ancient times, your fathers lived beyond the river, speaking of the, hang on, I'm lost here.

Did I pass it up? There. There we are. OK.

from ancient times, your fathers lived beyond the river, which is speaking of the Euphrates River, namely Terra, the father of Abraham and the father of Nehor, and they served other gods. So very clearly, This statement is being made that Tara was an idolater at some point when he was living beyond the river. So Tara is an idolater, yet for some reason, he gathers up his family and leaves this idolatrous and moon worshiping city, and he travels in the direction of Canaan with the hope of getting out of Ur and getting into Canaan.

There's a hint in the passage with the word they went out with them that Abraham is something of a co-actor in this move, but that's as far as the text goes.

We're left without any indication of what would have prompted this huge move. But fortunately, other scriptures give us a deeper understanding of what is happening here in our passage today, letting us know that God was involved in this. God was the cause of the move. In fact, in Genesis 15:7, God says to Abraham, I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.

So we know with certainty that God was involved in initiating their departure from Ur, but how did he do that? Well, fortunately, we have inspired commentary in Acts chapter 7, when Stephen is preaching to the Sanhedrin. And he gives this perspective as to why Tara was leaving Ur with his family and wanting to go into the land of Canaan. Listen to what Stephen says.

He says, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia. That's Ur of the Chaldeans, before he lived in Huan. And said to him, leave your country and your relatives and come into the land that I will show you. Then he left the land of the Chaldeans.

Now based on what Stephen is saying, Let's, let's say it this way, Genesis 11 tells us that Tara left E of the Chaldeans and took Abraham and his other family members with him. Acts 7 lets us in on the fact that the catalyst for this move was that God had actually appeared to Tara's son Abraham and told him to leave his home country and to come into the land that God would show him. According to Stephen, it was after that appearance of God to Abraham, after this call was delivered that Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans with his family.

Evidently, God appears to Abraham.

And gives him this call to leave his homeland. Abraham shares this call with his father, Tara, and Tara says, what, you should obey this call, and I want to go with you. In fact, I will lead the expedition to Canaan. As one writer says, God's initial revelation of Himself to Abraham was of such a powerful and convincing nature that Tara was not only persuaded to join the pilgrimage but actually took the lead.

Tara's initiative here shows a significant level of respect for the true God and for how God had led his son, Abraham. You say, wait a minute, God doesn't call Abraham until chapter 12. That's the next chapter. Actually, the call of God upon Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 is the call upon Abraham to move from Haran to Canaan.

Genesis 12 is essentially the 2.0 version of God's call upon Abraham. It's a restatement of the earlier call that is not recorded. That God would have delivered in his appearance to Abraham when he was in Ur of the Chaldeans. So we know that Tara was at least an idolater at some point prior to God appearing to Abraham back in Ur.

Perhaps his worship of other gods persisted, but it seems safe to assume that what happened to Abraham served as something of a turning point in Terra's life. It caused him to get up and to leave the idolatrous city of Ur with the goal of entering Canaan. That's a big deal. And it seems like This tells us something good about Tera.

It's interesting to note that the text does not tell us that Teerra took his son Nehor. With him. He just took Abraham and Sarah and Lot. It seems that Nehor stayed behind and later passages in Genesis make that clear.

So Tara and his family make this move in response to revelation from God. Their goal is to leave her and to end their journey by entering into the land of Canaan. And so they travel toward Canaan and in their travels, they get as far as the city of Haran, and it is here that they do something interesting and this brings us to the 4th fact about Tara that we observe in this passage. And that is he got as far as Harran.

And settled there. He got as far as Harran and settled there. That's my creative wording. To reflect the wording of the text which says they went as far as Harran.

And settled there. If you look at a map, you will notice that Huron is north of the land of Canaan, which might cause you to wonder how in the world would Terra, if he really wanted to go to Canaan, would end up there. But it actually makes sense when you consider the fact that Terra and his family would have likely followed the curve. Of the fertile Crescent in their travels, which would have taken them precisely on a route that would easily run through the city of Huron.

If they made a straight path from Ur to the land of Canaan, it would take them through desert, and most people did not make that journey. So they, took the loop of the fertile crescent in their travels and they came to the city. Of Harran. Apparently after arriving in Harran, Tara took a liking to the city and decided to settle there.

Harran was a wonderfully strategic city located on an important trade route in that part of the world. There was much to commend the city. such that Tara decided to stay in Iran and to give up his dream of going to Canaan. Maybe his initial thought was I'll just stay here for a couple of weeks, but day led on to day and week led on to week and months to years, and Tara ended up settling permanently in Iran.

Archaeological evidence reveals that Haran, get this guys, was another major center for the worship of the moon god, who was the chief deity of the city of Haran back in this day. So perhaps that was the biggest attraction that caused Terra to settle in Harran. Joshua, in the passage I quoted from Joshua 24, tells the Israelites that Tara worshiped idols beyond the river. keep in mind that Haran is still beyond the river.

Speaking of the Euphrates River from the vantage point of the promised land. So it's quite possible that Tara is still an idolater in Iran. As one writer suggests, it's possible that Tara did not successfully carry through the break with idolatry as it was practiced in these lands. Another writer suggests that Abraham.

after God spoke and appeared to Abraham, that Abraham convinced Tara to leave with him, but when they got to Haran, another center of moon worship, Tara would not budge. We don't know for sure that this was the cause of Tara staying. But it's a solid speculation. What we do know though, is from the language of our passage here in Genesis 11, that Tara initially intended to go to Canaan.

That's clear in the passage, but he ended up settling in Huan, which was somewhere short of where he had originally intended to go. And we know, guys, that this is true enough to human nature. We often set out to achieve some good and godly goal that God has led us to, to move towards, but we get distracted from that goal and we end up settling for something less than what we know God is calling us to. We're often too content.

To Exist in a settled for existence rather than walking in the fullness of God's best. For whatever reason, Tara's New Year's resolution as it were, was to go to Canaan, but he never kept that resolution because he got sidetracked. And the same thing happens in my life and in all of our lives. As Matthew Henry says, many, many reach Haran.

And yet falls short of Canaan. There's a positive and a negative here to ponder. For a minute or so, the negative is that Tara and perhaps Abraham with him is falling short of what God wanted for him at this point in time and his family is affected by that. The positive is that Tara obeyed God's call to leave his homeland.

That's huge. And another positive is that Tara did get a little bit over halfway. To the land of Canaan. Though he came short of his goal, he was farther along than he would have been had he never left in the first place and set out for Canaan.

In the next chapter, we're gonna see that Abraham leaves Huan and sets out for Canaan and his journey from Haran to Canaan is much shorter than it would have been from Ur to Canaan. Sometimes it happens that the full journey. To God's best does not happen in one generation. Sometimes it takes 2 generations.

And Tara at least maybe deserves some credit for At least getting Abraham half of the way toward the goal. Just as a parent, I found myself thinking about this and I would ask you this question, parents, what will God in some future day call your children to do? Where will he call them to go? And what are you doing in this day, in this generation, to take them with you as far as you can, so that their journey to where God calls them to go is as short as possible.

Think about this also. Tara settles for half the distance to Canaan. And as the story unfolds in the book of Genesis, we see Abraham having a tendency to settle for half measures. Also, twice, he settles for just speaking half truth to kings in order to protect his hide, and on one occasion he has sexual relations.

With his wife's handmaiden in order to help God fulfill his promise. And yeah, it's not exactly what God had promised, but it's halfway there. It involves a child being born to me, Abraham, even though it's not involving my wife, that's half of what God wanted, right? And so this tendency to settle for half measures, we actually see in Abraham, we see actually in his father Terra.

Leading me to say, parents, be forewarned. That your tendencies toward compromise, your half measures will be highly contagious. To your children Anyway, the passage tells us that Tera settles in Iran. What happens next?

This brings us to one final fact about Tera that we will observe in this passage, and that is he died in Iran. He died in Iran. Says the days of terror were 205 years and Tara died. In Iran.

This is a big deal. In Genesis 5, we see the refrain, and he died 8 times. Here in this genealogy, this is the one and only time that we see these words and it feels like a downer, and I think that's intentional. What's unique is that Moses adds a little phrase telling us that he died in Huan.

And none of the references to someone dying in the genealogy of Genesis 5 is the location of their death ever stated, but it's stated here. Moses, the writer of this, really wants us to know where it was that Tara died. He didn't die in the land of Canaan, which was the original target destination. Tara died in Iran.

Which was somewhere short of the goal. The original goal. Based on revelation from God that he had set out for. By the way, when you run the math, you realize that Tara settled in Iran for at least a few decades.

This was not some brief stopover during which, he happened to die. It didn't say he was on his way to Canaan and he died. No, he settled and then he died and he was there for quite some time. And in the end it turns out that Tara died where he settled.

Perhaps when he first stopped in Huran, he figured he would eventually pack up and continue on toward Canaan, but he never did. He died. Where he settled. Think about the next, think about that the next time you wish to settle someplace short of where that God wants you to be.

Wherever you're thinking about settling for a little while, ask yourself the question, would I wanna die here? Would I want to die here? And if you wouldn't want to die there, don't settle there. Even for a minute.

Just wrapping things up this morning. This passage sets us up. Beautifully, it sets the stage for us to pick up with the story of Abraham. In Genesis 12, we've learned a lot about Abraham's background as we've studied his father in this passage today and we'll pick up next week in Genesis 12.

But our focus today is on Tara. And I have to confess to you that I see myself in this passage. In unfortunate ways, and I am benefited by the reminder that is here of the dangers of settling. Sometimes we choose to settle in locations that are somewhere shy of where we know God wants us to be.

And when we settle, we don't plan to stay there forever. We don't wanna spend the rest of our life there. We just wanna settle for a little while and enjoy this place that is less than God's best, and then maybe we'll pick up and we'll surely journey on later. Maybe we settle into a relationship that we know is wrong.

But we think this won't be permanent. I'll just enjoy this for a little while and then, and then I'll move on. I'll walk, I'll walk on. At some later point, maybe it's a sinful habit and our thought is I won't engage in this for the rest of my life.

I'll just behave this way now. But one day I'll move on, I'll, I'll change my ways. When I get married, I won't do this thing anymore. Maybe it's bitterness.

We think I won't be bitter for the rest of my life, but for right now, I'm gonna settle here. And savor my anger and my bitterness for now, today at least. But one day, one day, one day soon I'll get up and I'll, I'll move on from my bitterness. We comfort ourselves in the thought that we won't stay in such places permanently, but day leads on to day and week leads on to week and year leads on to year and before we know it.

We are in a rut that we cannot imagine getting out of. And we look back And we realized that we have become settlers and too much of our life got spent dwelling in places. That we're somewhere short of what God had called us to. We started well with God.

God genuinely worked in our life and we launched with excitement. We took some good steps in the right direction toward where God had called us to go, but We're not finishing well. And guys, just, just mark my words, Satan is gonna do everything he can in your life and in my life to keep us from leaving our former life and heading to the place where God is calling us to go. But if he cannot succeed, In keeping you from making that journey, he will do all that he can.

To get you to settle for halfway. To stop, just, what, tomorrow you can continue on, just settle here for today, for this week. You can move on later. But day leads on to day and week leads on to week, and our life, too much of our life gets spent in places where we should not be.

And so I ask you this morning, are you settling in places where that you should not be? Husbands, are you the husband you should be, or are you content to just be half the husband you should be? Well, I'm better than some Wives, I'm asking you the same question. Are you the wife that you should be?

Are you doing what you should be doing toward your husband? Are you content to just be doing half of what you're supposed to do or even less than half? Are you a settler? Are you settling in places where you should not be, and have you, looking back, have you been settling in those places for longer than you anticipated?

Some of you are stuck. And some places that you thought you were just stopping by and you'd be moving on, and it's been years and you're still stuck. And you're settling And if you are settling, it's time to pack up and And pick up the journey to those places where that God wants you to be and to start doing those things that God wants you to do. And I urge you, don't wait until tomorrow.

Pack up and leave those places you've been settling today and journey on. And what guys, here's some motivation for you. In Jesus Christ, you have a savior who left his homeland, which is heaven, and he obeyed his Father's call to launch from heaven. To leave his heavenly home and to come to earth to be your savior.

And what? Jesus didn't just start off well. He ended well. He didn't just settle at some halfway point.

On his journey, but he went the full distance all the way to the cross and to glory. In a way, Jesus did halt in the Garden of Gethsemane for an agonizing season of prayer. He recoiled. From the idea of the cross and experiencing God's wrath on that cross, but after praying, sweating as it were, drops of blood, he pressed on and he went all the way to the cross and through the cross to glory.

And those of us in this room who are believers in Jesus, and who enjoy the forgiveness of sins through Him, we are daily the beneficiaries of a savior who did exactly what his father called him to do, and he never let himself be sidetracked. are sidelined or to settle anywhere short. Of that goal He never let himself settle for partial obedience. Had Jesus done all the many righteous, wonderful things he did throughout his life and ministry and then in the garden of Gethsemane, he decided, I've done enough.

I'm gonna stop here. All of us in this room would be bound for eternity in hell. Without remedy Jesus was not a settler. And that's why you don't have to be either.

Let's pray together Lord, you Speak to us through your word. Your Spirit is at work in our hearts. We thank You, Lord, for the convicting work of your Spirit. That conviction.

is, is actually a sign of life. If anyone in this room is feeling any conviction and feeling challenged and feeling the weight of that, that's, I pray, Lord, that you would encourage them with the thought that that's a sign of life that you're working in their life and that you've not abandoned them. I'm encouraged in the thought that even though Abraham settled with his father in Haran, God, you were faithful to speak to him. And Harran once again and say, get up and go, get up and go.

And you speak to us today in our places of settling, and you say to us, get up and go. To the places where I have called you to be. Stop being A settler. Help us, Lord, to walk in fullness.

To pursue full obedience and not halfway measures and half obedience. Half truths, partaking of half of what you want for us. Help us, Lord, to gorge upon all that you have provided for us in Christ. To feast.

And to go the full distance. Toward the places that you have called us to. Me. We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to give our offerings to you this morning.

Receive these funds and do much with every penny that is given for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, and all God's people said, Amen.