Nuggets of Gold in the Ho-Hum of Life

Having begun again on January 1 to read through my Bible, I again encountered the genealogies of Genesis.  As I read, I don't study them for hours on end, but I try to find some aspect of them to focus on as I read through.  After several times through the Bible, more and more can be gleaned from these 'ho-hum' passages of God's Word.  This time?  In the genealogy of Noah, I saw that Shem lived 500 years after he begat Arphaxad.  Then Arphaxad had children at 35 years old, and I got to thinking how many 35 year generations would fit in a 500 year span of time that Shem lived.  Round figures? 15 generations.  So I started my mental math calculations of which generations Shem would have been able to know personally.
Genesis 11:10-26
Shem --100 yrs. old begat
500 yrs.  Arphaxad --35 yrs. old begat
       403 yrs.     Salah --30 yrs old begat
                403 yrs.  Eber --34 yrs old begat
                    430 yrs. Peleg --30 yrs. old begat
                          209 yrs.  Reu --32 yrs. old begat
                                 207 yrs. Serug --30 yrs old begat
                                     200 yrs. Nahor --29 yrs. begat
                                        119 yrs. Terah --70 yrs. begat
                                           135 yrs. Abram --100 yrs. old begat
Shem was 490 years old when Isaac was born.
Isaac -- lived 180 years
According to the Bible, Shem, the son of Noah, died about 30 years before Isaac died.  Isaac was 150 years old when Shem died.  Isaac had the opportunity to know his great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather Shem.  Yet, Isaac was 35 when his grandfather died, 30 when his great grandfather died, did not know his great, great grandfather, or his great, great, great grandfather.  13 when Arphaxad died, 43 when Salah died, and 74 when Eber died.
Abram had left his country and his kindred, so Isaac probably did not know many in his family.  On top of that, I believe the Tower of Babel happened in the days of Peleg.  Which means that Even if Isaac had the chance to know Peleg, Eber, Salah, Arphaxad and Shem, we don't know if he would have even known their language.

So what's the nugget of Gold?  Well, all of these men lived before the days of the written word of God.  Moses is still 400 years from being born, and yet these men were faithful to God.  Their faith was passed down generation to generation.  Granted, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob received special revelation from God, but these generations were faithful to pass along God's truth to their children.  With all the truth we have available through the printed Word of God, our task is easier.  If these men in these generations could be faithful, we have no excuse but to pass God's truths on to the next generation.

Maybe the numbers aren't as exciting to you as they are to me, but I hope you will be encouraged by God's preservation of His truth through Shem's generations and encouraged that God will always preserve His Word.

"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

- Matthew 5:18