Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

January 13, 2026 - Genesis 11 & Psalm 11

• Josiah Smith - Compass Bible Church South Valley

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Genesis 11 & Psalm 11 demonstrate the faithfulness of God in the midst of mankind's failures. It's the faithfulness of God that makes him a worthy refuge! 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, lead pastor of Compass South Valley. Today is Tuesday, January 13th, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Genesis 11. 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 make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and butamen for mortar. Then they said, 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 have 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. These are the generations of Shim. When Shem was one hundred years old, he'd fathered Arpakshad two years after the flood. And Shim lived after he fathered Arpakshad five hundred years and had other sons and daughters. When Arpakshad had lived thirty five years, he'd fathered Shela. And Arpakshad lived after he fathered Shela four hundred and three years and had other sons and daughters. When Shelah had lived thirty years, he fathered Eber. And Shela lived after he fathered Eber four hundred and three years and had other sons and daughters. When Aber had lived thirty-four years, he'd fathered Peleg, and Aber lived after he fathered Peleg four hundred and thirty years and had other sons and daughters. When Peleg had lived thirty years, he'd fathered Ru, and Peleg lived after he fathered Ru two hundred and nine years and had other sons and daughters. When Ru had lived thirty two years, he fathered Sarug, and Ru lived after he fathered Sarug two hundred and seven years and had other sons and daughters. When Sarug had lived thirty years, he'd fathered Nahor, and Sarug lived after he fathered Nahor two hundred years and had other sons and daughters. When Nahor had lived twenty nine years, he fathered Terra, and Nahor lived after he fathered Terra one hundred and nineteen years and had other sons and daughters. When Tar had lived seventy years he fathered Abram, Nahor and Haran. Now these are the generations of Tarah. Tarah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Tarah in the land of his kindred, and Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milkah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milh and Iska. Now Sarai was barren, she had no child. Tarah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Tarah were two hundred and five years, and Tarah died in Haran. Psalm eleven. In the Lord I take refuge. How can you say to my soul, flee like a bird to your mountain? For behold, the wicked bend the bow. They have fitted their arrow to the string, to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked, and the one who loves violence. Let him rain coals on the wicked, fire and sulfur, and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous, he loves righteous deeds. The upright shall behold his face. So today in Genesis three, we read another perversion of the commands to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. If you remember from Genesis six, seven, and eight, talking about the flood and how they were multiplying in the wrong direction, we see another instance of that here in Genesis 11. They wanted to fill the earth, and that's what God commanded them to do be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. They wanted that. They wanted to fill the earth, but instead of filling it with the glory of God and God's name, they wanted to fill the earth with their name and their glory. And so we see another instance of the sinfulness of man on full display here in Genesis 11. And that's even what they said amongst themselves, as they're kind of giving the rationale for what they're building and why. It says in verse 4, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. Let us reach the highest heights, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. So rather than building something and creating something and really practicing dominion for the glory of God, they're doing it for their own name. And I want you to recognize that this has been the plight of mankind from the beginning. Seeking to dethrone God from his rightful place as King of the universe, seeking to tear down the name of God in order to elevate mankind's own name. This is a sin struggle that hits close to home to all of us because, in one way or another, we all struggle with idolatry. We all struggle at times with not wanting God's name to be the thing that we are seeking to proclaim and make much of. We we at times in our flesh and in our sinfulness, we want to make our name great. And so my encouragement to you as you listen to this podcast is to heed the warning of Genesis 11 that God's name will be made great. And the purposes of man, whatever they might be, and the intentions of man's heart will never thwart the purposes of God. And we should have the same mentality as John the Baptist has when it comes to glorifying God. We should be saying in our hearts each and every day, I must decrease, but he must increase. And what we see here in Genesis 11 is the natural bent of the pridefulness of man's heart to want to tear God down's name, uh God's name in order to build up man's name. Now, one other thing that I want you to notice is the pattern that we're seeing form in Genesis. In Genesis 5, we had the first genealogy that we read where we talked about that is the double helix of death and life, where this person had this son and this many children, and they lived this many years, and then they died. So there was a genealogy in Genesis 5 that really culminated in Noah. And Noah became a prominent figure in Genesis when he is arriving on the scene and given this command by God. He's seen as a righteous man, but he's given this command by God to build an ark because of the coming flood, and ultimately he becomes a means by which the world can continue to expect the promise of God that was made in Genesis 3:15. So we have a genealogy in Genesis 5 that culminates in Noah, and we see that narrative unfold where Noah builds the ark and God floods the earth in judgment. We see something similar here in Genesis 11. Uh, towards the end of Genesis 11, we have another genealogy. It actually reads exactly the same way as Genesis 5. This person lived this many years and fathered this many people, and then they uh died. And what we see is just like Genesis 5 culminates with a main character, Noah, that ultimately God makes a covenant with Noah. Remember the Noahic covenant where God is stabilizing the stage that of which he is going to perform the rest of his promise keeping in the unfolding chapters of scripture. Genesis 11 culminates in another main character, and that is Abram. And this is setting the stage for tomorrow's chapter in Genesis 12, where we're going to see God make another covenant that's going to again advance the promise that he made in Genesis 3.15. So we have this pattern that we can see. Genesis 5 culminates in Noah, uh, Genesis 11 culminates in Abram. And I want you to see just the grace of the Lord, even in the shape of this narrative of Genesis that we've been reading. You see, because God's promise of life, God's promise of victory, God's promise of an offspring that would crush the head of the serpent continues after man's failure. And in fact, that's exactly how we read of it in Genesis. Think back to Genesis 4. What do we see? We see Cain murdering Abel. We see sin crouching at the door. We see a man who does not want to give God his full heart in sacrifice and in worship to him. And what follows that? Right after Genesis 4, where we see the first murder happen, Genesis 5 is next with this genealogy that culminates in Noah, who, in in some sense, provides uh relief from the toil of the ground. That's uh that's Lamech, uh Noah's father, that's his desire for his son. And we see in some sense Noah fulfilling that because he is the means by which God preserves the promise. So, right after man's rebellion, right after uh one of the most heinous things that we could think of as humans, murder, taking another life in Genesis 4, God comes right after in Genesis 5 and provides a man named Noah to continue to preserve his promise. And we see that exact pattern repeated again in Genesis 11. Genesis 11 begins with the sinful, prideful tower of Babel where people are seeking to make a name for themselves rather than uh make God's name great. And so we see that the sinfulness of man on full display, but what is that followed up with? It's followed up with a genealogy that leads to Abram. And we know, beginning in chapter 12 of Genesis, there's going to be a covenant made that Abraham is going to bless the nations. And through him, it says all of the nations will be blessed. And why is that? Because ultimately the offspring would come through the line of Abraham. And so while we were still sinners, we see what Paul talks about in Romans on full display: this love that God has for his creatures. While we were still sinners, even think about how this applies to the gospel. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. If we're going to put it in the context of what we're reading, while we were still in Genesis 4, giving into uh the murderous thoughts or the sinful thoughts in our hearts and in our minds, Christ died for us. While we were in Genesis 11, being prideful, wanting to make our name great rather than the Lord's name great. Christ died for us. God is providing for his people and he continues to be faithful even in the midst of man's failure. What an incredible demonstration of the grace of the Lord. Though we are sinful, the sweetness of the gospel is that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And the truth and the beauty of the gospel is that though you were dead in your trespasses and sins, if you believe in Christ, you can be made alive together with him, and by grace you can be saved. And we see just traces of that beautiful reality here in Genesis. We see Genesis 4, a murder, a sin, rebellion. And then we see Genesis 5, Noah, who's going to be one of the remnant that God uses to preserve the promise, or Genesis 11. We see pride and rebellion again against God through the Tower of Babel. And then God provides Abram, Abraham, who He's going to make this covenant with, through whom there's going to be an offspring, and all of the nations are going to be blessed. Even go back further than that. Think about Genesis 3 in the garden where Adam and Eve rebelled against their creator. What does God do? He clothes them with the skin of an animal. He provides a covering for them to cover their sin and their shame in that way, in that foreshadowing way that we saw in Genesis 3.15. This is the pattern. We see the remnants of grace all over the book of Genesis. And so I want you to be encouraged as you read these stories, as you read these genealogies. This is what the book of Genesis is pointing our attention to, the goodness and loving kindness of God, the grace of God to keep and preserve his promises, even in the midst of man's failure and sinfulness. Now, as we transition to Psalm 11, I want to just begin with a simple question. Where do you run for safety? Where do you find comfort when things are difficult? When your heart is prone to anxiety? Is it the relationships that you have, the friendships that you have made? Is it your spouse and you run to them to feel safe and comfort comfort comfortable? Is it your status? Is it your achievements? Or maybe more relevant here in Idaho, is it your guns or is it your money? What do you run for safety? Well, in Psalm 11, we see David say in verse one, in the Lord I take refuge. And that word refuge, there's that sense of safety, that sense of comfort. And he's doing this in the midst of being uh attacked, of uh of immense danger. He says, In the Lord I take refuge. We don't know all the details for the background of Psalm 11, but it seems like there's some very real threat of violence. He talks about in verse 2 Behold the wicked bend the bow, they have fitted their arrow to the string. And so there's a sense in which David's life is being threatened, but where does he go for comfort? In the Lord, he says, I take refuge. And he's even questioning these counselors. We don't know who they are, but these counselors who perhaps mean well, he says, How can you say to my soul, flee like a bird to your mountain? There are people telling David, you need to run, you need to hide, you need to find refuge uh somewhere other than God. And David says, No, in the Lord I take refuge. He says in verse 4, the Lord in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven, his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. And so again, I ask, well, where do you run for safety? Where do you run for comfort in the midst of danger and trouble? Psalm eleven is going to encourage you today to run to the Lord. He sits on his throne in his holy temple. It says in verse 7, the Lord is righteous, he loves righteous deeds, the upright shall behold his face. Run to the Lord. Now, is it wrong to have good and godly friends or to have a sense of comfort in your spouse or anything like that? Well, no, of course not. Those are gifts from the Lord. But we're talking about where do you run to first? Where do you find true and ultimate comfort? What do you see as your refuge? Who do you see as your refuge? I want to encourage you and I want to be encouraged as well from Psalm 11. We need to find refuge in the Lord. We need to see where do we go in times of trouble and times of danger? We go to the Lord. He is our help. He is in his holy temple. He sits on his throne. And I pray that you, as you listen to this, as you wrestle with the truths here in Psalm 11, I want you to be encouraged. In seasons of good and plenty, in seasons of difficult, uh, get to difficulty and lack, run to the Lord. He sits on his throne in his holy temple. Well, thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.