28 While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth.
It is unusual for a son to die before his father. And yet, this is exactly what this verse points out. What is strange is that it points it out at all. In the middle of this string of fathers and sons, here is a son who dies before his father. The thin thread of details that strings generations together leaves out so many details. All the other “sons and daughters” are not important to the story line. They are mentioned only in passing as an “Oh, by the way.” They are not central to the story. In fact none of these father-son pairs is really that important to the story. They are simply the thread that connects the past promise to the future fulfillment. They are the way to connect Adam & Eve to Jesus. Without the genealogy, we would not be able to prove that Jesus was connected to God’s promise to Adam & Eve. Remember, Jesus had to be from a specific family in order to fulfill the promises made. But in this verse a death is what is important. That is because a young son named Lot is left without a dad and someone has to assume parental responsibilities for this boy. And the person who assumes responsibility is central to our story. That person is Abram. God later changes his name to Abraham. The interplay between Lot and Abraham creates some of the interesting twists in the history of God’s people, and that relationship is born out of death. The death of his father created a relationship that affected all of us. We would not know about Sodom and the judgment that took place there unless Lot had moved there with his family. And the debate about sexual behavior rages today, much of it affected by what took place in Sodom and our religious and cultural understanding of that event. And by the way, that is exactly why those who support that lifestyle go back to the Bible and try to rewrite and reinterpret what took place there to fit their own viewpoint. They recognize that the connection between Lot and Abraham is central to Western civilization in defining sexual behavior. And all that took place because of Lot’s father’s death. If his dad had not died, he would not have traveled with Abram to a distant land, and the story would have been very different indeed. The small details of life can have profound impact on our future, so be careful what you do with those small details. Honor the Lord and the details will honor you.
The Arnold Journey 