The Costs of Compromise

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According to the simple calculation of years provided in the book of Genesis, it is both easy and very interesting to study the overlapping life spans of the patriarchs of the Bible.

Reading through the genealogies, which many people think to be the most boring passages in the Bible, we find so much information which would otherwise be overlooked. Once recognized, it no longer seems incredible that the stories of the Bible were preserved in accurate form through the years, as stories which were told over and over again, generation after generation, by the person who actually lived that experience.

Take for instance the story of creation. Adam and Eve were created by the hand of God in the year zero.

Genesis 5:1-4 tells us that Adam was 130 years old when he had a son named Seth and then lived for an additional 800 years and died at the age of 930 years old.

If we continue studying, making simple calculations provided by the scripture, we conclude that the flood of Noah’s day occurred 1656 years after Adam was. The Bible tells us that at the point of the flood Noah was 600 years old and he lived another 350 years after the flood and died at the age of 950.

Let’s develop this for just a moment as a parenthetical thought for the day.

· Noah lived 350 years after the flood.
· Shem, Noah’s son, lived 500 years after the flood.
· Abraham was born 292 years after the flood.
· Isaac was born 392 years after the flood. (Abraham was 100)
· Jacob was born 452 years after the flood (Isaac was 60)

When Jacob was born, Shem, Noah’s middle son who was on the boat with all the animals, was still alive. Jacob was 15 years old when his grandfather, Abraham, died. Jacob was 48 when Shem, who was the last eyewitness to the flood, finally stopped telling his first-hand accounts and died.

I don’t know about you, but to me this adds perspective to the real accounts of these real people who were facing real situations and making life’s daily decisions.

Ok, now back to the story for this morning … The cost of compromise.

Genesis 11 KJV
26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27 Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

Genesis 12 KJV
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

It would be very easy to overlook the possibility that God may have first called Terah to go to the land of Canaan, before He called Abraham to do so. Now, no doubt God was speaking to everyone in the group on some level, even Acts 7 tells us that God appeared to Abraham before he and his father, Terah, decided to go to Haran. But, while Abram was in Haran, God spoke directly to him apart from his father and told him to separate from his family and continue the journey for himself.

The Young’s Literal Translation of verse one of chapter twelve says:

And Jehovah saith unto Abram, “Go for thyself, from thy land, and from thy kindred, and from the house of thy father, unto the land which I do show thee.”

It seems to the reader at a first glance that Terah died in Haran at age 205 then, after that he died, (Genesis 11:32 & 12:1), is when God called Abraham to go to Canaan for himself. However, that is not the case.

Genesis 11
26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

Genesis 12:1 and in fact he lived another 60 years after Abram left Haran and went into the land of Canaan.

Terah was still very much alive in Genesis 12:1. Terah did not die until Abraham was 135 years old and Isaac was 35 years old. This was about the same time or just after the time in which Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice to God on Mount Moriah - Right about the same period of time in which Sarah died.

Just to keep things in perspective --- or to confuse you a bit more and make you have to go and study this for yourself --- When Isaac was 35 years old, Abraham was 135 years old; Terah, Abraham’s father was 205 years old and in the last year of his life; as well, Shem, the guy on the boat with all the animals, great, great, great granddaddy to the Jewish people, still had another 70+ years to live and give his personal testimonies.

Now consider the scriptures we have read this morning as I tell you the truth about the opportunities God gives a person and the potential costs of compromise.

It is reasonable to assume from scriptures that God inspired Terah to leave his family’s home and go to the land of Canaan right around the time that Noah died, (2006 years after the creation of Adam). You see, God promised and purposed to offer a covenant to one of Noah’s descendants through the lineage of Shem who is the father of the Israelites. This would be the family through which God would one day bring Messiah.

Terah uprooted his family and took his son Abram, and his grandson, Lot, and headed for the Land of Canaan. This would be a journey of almost 1000 miles along the route they chose. They walked northwards, no doubt joining the Euphrates River and continued following its valley through what is now Baghdad and on across the current border into Syria to an area later known as Haran.

Haran sat on the banks of the Euphrates river in a fertile region of Mesopotamia in what is now extreme southwestern Syria, over 350 miles east of the Land of Canaan. Its beauty and comforts of life offered much to be desired to any sojourner of that day. No wonder Terah, whose name many associate with the word, “Delay”, remained in this place.

However, God would not be satisfied until one of Noah’s descendants made it all the way to the Promised Land and established the covenant. This confirms a principle we see in many stories of the Bible which says:

When one person goes as far as they can with God, God will raise up another person to go farther.

When one person has done all they can do or will do to enhance and advance the Kingdom of God … God will raise up another person to go farther and do more.

You may not be the first person God chose, called or equipped to do what He has chosen you to do … but you can be the one who does it.

Don’t stop short of the promise land to live in the land of comfort or compromise.

Genesis 12:1 infers that once Terah was out of the running, God spoke directly to Abram and told him to go for himself, from the land, from his kinfolks, and from his father’s house, into the land of Canaan.

God said He would make Abram into a great nation and bless him and make his name great and make him a blessing. “I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who do not esteem you … and in you Abram, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

But realize, this passage did not start with the phrase, “Now these are the generations of Abram.” But rather,

Genesis 11:27 “Now these are the generations of Terah.”

Evidently Terah was chosen to be the beginning of something great … at least that’s how the Bible is written.

At any rate, Abram took Sarai and all their stuff, their servants and his nephew, Lot and left for Canaan. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran and came to the place known as Shechem, where he built his first altar to Jehovah in the Land of Promise.

Did Terah compromise? We do not know because the Bible only infers his calling and does not speak that specifically. However we do know that Abram did not fully obey the Word of the Lord. Rather, for some unknown reason, Abram decided that instead of leaving all of his kinfolks behind that he would take his nephew Lot with him on this sacred journey.

For the next several years Lot proved to be a difficult burden and even his offspring gave the Israelites much trouble during the Exodus and their wanderings in the wilderness. Many scholars believe that Abraham’s choice to take Lot was a big mistake, a compromise of sorts.

Many also believe, and I imagine it to have merit, that one of the reasons why God continued to promise blessings to Abram but not fulfill them in any expedient manner, was because of Lot’s presence in Abraham’s camp. It was not until 25 years after entering Canaan and receiving the covenant that God fulfilled his promise to Abraham by giving him a son through Sarah, the one who was previously called barren. This occurred only after God finally separated Lot from Abraham’s household.

Have you ever counted the costs of compromise? What is compromise? We compromise when we do not fully follow God to the finish line, get ahead of his timing, or when we begin to add things we want instead of sticking to the things God wants along the way of life.

God won’t hate you for your compromise, rather He will always love you no matter what you do because God is Love. However, compromise can create a loss of opportunity or a delay of God’s blessing in your life.

Stop and consider the costs. Are you settling short of God’s goal for your life? Are you trading the covenant for comfort? Ask God what to do about the compromises in your life today!

God has a plan; He will succeed; and you have a chance to participate!