The Patriarchs and Their Desperate Housewives: Abraham & Sarah

Episode 2 - Part One

Hello, and welcome to this special edition of In the Lighthouse: your safe harbor from the storm. This is Daphne Collins, your Lighthouse Keeper, welcoming you back as I present another installment of “Heroes of the Old Testament.” Today, I’m pleased to introduce Part One of Two of our series entitled “The Patriarchs and their Desperate Housewives,” and our first featured patriarch is Abraham and his wife Sarah.  Centuries following the Great Flood, the Lord God began to set into place his plan for the salvation of humanity as he promised to Adam and Eve before they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. It was the descendants of their son Seth, who “called on the name of the Lord,” that God directed his attention. The longevity of human life on the planet during the “antediluvian period” ended with Noah when God once again issued the directive to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). Noah had three sons: Shem, Japheth, and Ham. It was through these sons that the nations of the earth were formed. Noah’s youngest son Ham, whom Noah cursed when he saw his father’s nakedness and spoke about it to his two brothers, became the grandfather of Nimrod, a man known as a “mighty hunter before the Lord.”

Nimrod was responsible for establishing and becoming the king over the Babylonian cities of Babel, Uruk, Akkad, and Calneh, and then turned his eyes to Assyria and, there, built the cities of Resen, Rehoboth, and Calah, including the marvel nearest to the Tigris river—the great city of Nineveh.  The Genesis narrative continues with the people’s intent to build a great tower at the Plain of Shinar. In Genesis 11:1-8 the story explains:

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, . . . let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 

So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

The sin of pride was not washed away in the Great Flood, it was on display in the biblical narrative of Nimrod, a man who believed in his own invincibility and prowess. Pride was evidenced in the disobedient people who did not obey God’s command to “be fruitful.” They chose instead to build a tower high enough to reach heaven. Its construction would ensure that they would “make a name” for themselves and establish their presence in the land permanently. When God saw from heaven their work on this tower and the wicked reasons for its construction, he confused their language so that they could no longer communicate with each other. Their plot was thwarted, and the people dispersed to other lands based on their ability to understand their spoken languages and continue God’s directive of being fruitful. God’s interruption of their wicked schemes allowed for the formation of ethnicities and racial groups on the planet. It is possible that different ethnicities existed before the Tower of Babel, but it is absolutely certain that the confusion of tongues promoted the dispersion of these ethnicities based on language. Enculturation is the means by which people learn their collective values, norms, and behaviors through experience, observation, and instruction through generations. It shapes all aspects of a person's life, including their traditions and religious beliefs. We will now turn our attention to the city of Ur of the Chaldeans located in southern Mesopotamia, and there, we will bear witness to God’s call on a descendant of Noah’s eldest son, Shem. His name is Abram, the first patriarch. Okay, let’s get started!

Show Notes

All Scripture references have been taken from the ESV Bible (www.biblehub.com )

All music themes used in this story are licensed through Envato Elements

Opening Theme:  Heroes of the Old Testament

1.     Theme 1:   Persian Sunset by MatthewPablo

2.     Theme 2:   Nimrod’s Folly by Envato Music

3.     Theme 3:   Sahara Vocal by LukePN

4.     Theme 4:   Egypt by rasberrymusic

5.     Theme 5:   Middle-Eastern Flute Solo by Orchestralis

6.     Theme 6:   Ancient Egypt by iCENTURY

7.     Theme 7:   Middle-Eastern Female Vocal by Orchestralis

8.     Theme 8:   Middle Eastern by iCENTURY

9.     Theme 9:   Desert in Egypt by iCENTURY

10.  Theme 10: Persian Streets by tunestogo

Transcript of “Abraham & Sarah - Part One by Daphne Collins

Transcript of “Divine Discipline” by Melissa Saenz