Eber fathers Peleg at age 34. Eber is the focal figure of this genealogy — his name gives Hebrew its name, and his descendants include Peleg (in whose time the earth was divided at Babel) and Joktan (the ancestor of Arabian peoples). The genealogy thus branches at Eber: one branch through Peleg leads to Abraham and the covenant line; the other through Joktan leads to the nations of Arabia. The narrowing of the covenant line is not a rejection of Joktan's line but a focusing of the promise. Galatians 3:8 anticipates that all nations — including Joktan's descendants — will be blessed through the covenant line that runs through Peleg and Abraham. The application: God's narrowing of focus in the covenant line is always in service of the widest possible blessing. What God narrows, he narrows in order to make the blessing reach further.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse