Grace to You :: Unleashing God's Truth, One Verse at a Time

History in the New World Scripture: Genesis 10:1-32 Code: 90-266

Well, you can open your Bible to the tenth chapter of Genesis and tonight you're gonna find outwhether you would like Seminary. Genealogies are very popular today. Now you can find a numberof websites on the Internet where you can trace your genealogy, the most notable source ofgenealogical information of course is the Mormon church, but people seem to be compelled to findtheir origin. From the adopted child who wants to find birth parents, to those who would like to goback into their family tree and find out what their heritage really is.

It seems to be somehow important as a contribution to the chase for self esteem, and this need forpeople to feel good about themselves. And they can feel good bout themselves boosting up theirpsychological self esteem if they can find that they come from some important family, or there issomebody in the background who himself or herself was important.

This whole genealogical effort could lead to a new genre of bumper stickers, I think, like "MyForefathers were Philistines'. Or like "Goliath was in my Family", or "I Come from a Long Line ofHittite Kings", or here's a good one, "My Ancestors Killed Your Ancestors".

Well, one thing is for sure in your heritage file. You descended from the family of Noah. And so youcan say, "My family survived the great flood". Because back in the ninth Genesis 9:18, 19, it says thesons of Noah came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth, and in verse 19, "...These threewere the sons of Noah and from these the whole earth was populated". Noah is in your family treethrough one of these three sons.

We can even do better than Noah, because Scripture indicates for us these three sons, and then inGenesis 10 and 11, we have lines of descent from these three sons. In Chapter 10:2, the sons ofJapheth, and it goes on, verse 6, the sons of Ham, and it goes on to list them, and then in verse 21also to Shem, and it goes on to list them. Now what is this chapter? It is what's called the Table ofNations, or the Family of Nations. It traces the descent of man through the three sons of Noah. Andthere is more of this genealogical tracking found in chapter 11, which we will consider in the future.But it only considers the issue of the children of Shem, because they are the dominant people in thestory of redemption in Scripture.

But for this chapter, we follow the line of human history through the three sons of Noah. Humanhistory kind of goes like this genealogically: Adam to Seth to Enoch to Methuselah, to Lamech, to

Noah. In six names, you get down to Noah. That is Noah's line: Adam, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah,Lamech, Noah. So if you wanna trace your line back from Noah: Noah, Lamech, Methuselah,Enoch, Seth, Adam. The whole human race, then, follows that same line because all of humanitywas destroyed in the flood, leaving only Noah.

So here you have with Noah and his three sons the second starting point for human history. This ishistory in the new world and we can, as I said, all claim Noah as a distant relative.

The next crucial man on the genealogical charts in redemptive history is Abraham. And Abraham isintroduced in the twelfth chapter. We really get into the singular importance of Abraham, the Lord'spurpose for Abraham, in chapter 12, though, his name appears at the end of chapter 11 in thegenealogies. Noah, obviously a critically important person, the next significant person is Abraham.

And so between Noah and Abraham, we have this genealogical record which includes sons ofJapheth, sons of Ham, but most particularly and specifically, sons of Shem because Abraham comesfrom the line of Shem. And from Abraham comes the Jewish race, the Hebrews, the people of Israel;God's missionary nation.

From Abraham came the Jews, to whom God gave covenants, promises, adoption, the law, theScriptures, the ministry, and most importantly, through whom God sent the Messiah, the Conquerorand Destroyer of Satan, and the Savior of the world.

So when we get to Abraham, we are then focused in on the line of redemptive history. FromAbraham comes the people of God, from Abraham comes the great King David, from Abrahamcomes the Messiah who fulfils all the promises made to Abraham, and to David.

But we have to get to Abraham to start with, and to get there, we have to work our way through thisinteresting genealogy of the sons of Noah. This is the only accurate source of this period. This is theonly existing written record. Authored by Moses who wrote the Five Books of the Law, and inspiredby God. At the outset, I want you to know that the listings of the sons of Japheth and the sons ofHam and then the sons of Seth are designed to move toward the people of God. That's why Shem isthe last one listed here. It's as if the Lord talks about Japheth, talks about Ham, gives something oftheir history, and that clears the path to get to Shem. Because it was from Shem that Abraham came,and from him, the people of God and the line of redemption.

The survey is selective. Not everybody is named here. It is not by any means exhaustive, not everyperson, not every family is named. For example, there are sons named of Japheth in verse 2, butonly two of them are followed as to their sons. Five of them are not. So the genealogies areselective. This selectivity, I think, is an important thing. It doesn't in any sense indicate that this is nota legitimate genealogy; it rather, on the other hand, indicates that it is a legitimate record written by

Moses, and these are the people of whom Moses knew. Something of the authenticity of thepassage, then, is indicated by its selectivity. It is true to the knowledge of Moses. And these werepeople who were known to the Children of Israel a the time they were entering the Promised Land.

Remember the first time Genesis was read, after Moses had written it, as when the Children of Israelabout 600 or so years after this were on the edge of going into take the Land of Canaan, and on theway to taking the Land of Canaan which had been promised to Abraham, they heard the Book ofGenesis. They were familiar with something of the genealogy of the people and the history of thepeoples of that time. And the ones that are named here would have been in many cases familiar tothem. So the fact that it is a selective genealogy doesn't speak against its authenticity; rather, speaksto its authenticity these were known to Moses as he wrote under divine inspiration.

There are enough listed here - 70 to be exact - 70 persons, tribes, and families and nations are listedaltogether, to make this a fairly comprehensive early history, and to establish the flow of history toAbraham, and from Abraham later on, of course, to the Messiah.

The listing is also witness to the fact that in chapter 9:1, "God blessed Noah and his sons and said tothem, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth'". This was what God said, this was what Godcommissioned, this was what God pledged and this is what God commanded, and this indicates thatthis was fulfilled. It was fulfilled.

And so what we have here is a listing of people, a listing that is individual people, tribes, nations andeven cities which were associated with people. So that even here today, we that live in Los Angelesare often called Angelinos. So you have these various families of people.

And the design here is to show how they were scattered into the world from that starting point in theMiddle East, which is still the theatre of redemptive history and will be until the very end. It is anotherone of those things that the Hebrew calls a Toladoth. It is another genealogy or generation is theword. Look at chapter 10:1. these are the records or literally in Hebrew, these are the ToladothofShem, Ham and Japheth. This is the genealogy of Shem, Ham and Japheth. That's a familiar deviceused throughout the Book of Genesis back in chapter 2:4, "This is the record of the heavens and theearth", that's the first one that is a toladoth or a record. Chapter 5:1, "This is the toladoth - " or thegeneration "of Adam". Chapter 6:9, "This is the generation of Noah". Now we come into chapter 10,"This is the generation", the toladoth, "of Shem, Ham and Japheth".

So Genesis is largely broken down by generations of people. first of all, the heaven and earth beinggenerated, then Adam, then the next major person Noah, then Shem, Ham and Japheth, and therewill be more to come as the book is broken up into those patterns of records of generations.

Now, I wanna also note for you that the listing in this section is just inherently sad, it's inherentlytragic. We do have a specific indication in verses 8 to 12 about a rebel against God who built the cityof Babel. His name was Nimrod, and I'll say more about that. He's the only individual person aboutwhom much is said. And he demonstrates for us in a specific illustration that humanity is sinkingagain into rebellion and sin and rejection of God. He is a specific illustration of where humanity isgoing.

Dropped right in the middle of the chapter, verses 8 to 12, is this man Nimrod, who built Babel. Andwe'll learn a lot more about Babel when we get to chapter 11. He is a specific individual illustration ofthe deterioration of man very soon, very soon. The son of Ham was Cush, the son of Cush wasNimrod, this is Noah's grandson who leads a worldwide rebellion against the true, living God who isCreator and Judge.

So the story is a story of sadness, both in the specific illustration and the fact that as you follow theselines, and you wind up with all these people and tribes and nations, they're all idolatress. They haveabandoned the true and living God. And what you see here is the hopelessness of humanity. Thewarning of the flood which drown the entire world didn't seem to have any effect on anybody.

Noah lived for 350 years after the flood; they would have had firsthand testimony that he would havegiven to his children and his grandchildren about the tremendous flood, the father of Nimrod, Cush,the great grandson of Noah, would have heard stories about the flood, perhaps from his owngrandfather who survived it. And what you see here is this relentless wickedness of man, in spite ofwhat he can have as firsthand information about the fact that God judged the entire world and drownthe whole earth, all of humanity and everything that breathed still seemingly had no effect. And thegenealogies are really the record of the Romans 1, "Man knowing God and glorifying him not as Godand not being thankful, moving away from God, into idolatry". People and nations hopelesslyscattered all over the earth, away from each other and away from God.

Here and there in ancient times there pops up a Job or a Melchezedic, a priest of the true God, a manwho believed in and loved and served the true God as Job did, but for the most part, apart from theMelchezedics and the Jobs, human history was one sad repeat of the original decline of man.

Finally, God establishes a witness nation. So it's had 600 years of decline, and God calls Abrahamand says out of you I'm going to bring a great people, and this people I am going to give My Law andMy Covenants and My promises and my blessings, and they're going to be a witness nation to theworld. That was God's purpose for Israel. A witness to a world of polytheists and polydemonists andanimists, that there was one true God. And it was Israel that God called into existence to be thatwitness nation.

But as we study the tenth chapter, it becomes apparent to us that life in the new world was just thesame as life in the old world. Why didn't God drown them? Because this was the age of grace, andGod said that He wouldn't do that again. Man was no better, but God decided to be patient andgracious for His own sovereign purposes. Instead of judgment, He sent a people as a witness nation.He gave them His Law, the Scripture. His Covenants, and His promises, to take to the world.

And so this genealogy shows this drift, this decline, and how these nations spread around andoriented themselves around Israel by divine providence. Remember Acts 17:26, God determines thetimes of the nations, and their location.

So here we are at the dawn of world history, number two. And we're going to see these nations inrelationship to Israel, who were hearing this read for the first time as they were about to enter thePromised Land.

Now when you look at a genealogical record like this, it tends to be a blur, so let me help you sortthings out. It's pretty easy to break down. There are three sons, and so there are three sections.There are the sons open source Japheth, then followed by the sons of Ham, followed by the sons ofShem. And that's how the flow goes.

Each of these three sections has three categories. First, the son is listed; Japheth, Ham, Shem;secondly, the descendents of the son are listed; and thirdly, a summary is given concerning theseoffspring. So in each of the three sections the son is listed, his descendents are listed, and asummary is given at the end. It's a one-verse summary; one appears in verse 5, one appears inverse 20, another appears in verse 31.

Versus 1 and 32 basically make the same statement. Verse 1 says these are the generations ofShem, Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, verse 32 says essentially the same thing, these are thefamilies of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies by their nations, out of these the nationswere separated on the earth after the flood. So those statements bracket what is in between.

Now, in order to jump into this with a little bit of velocity, we need to go back to versus 25 to 27 whereI broke off last week. And I'm going to try to do this as rapidly as I can. As I said this morning, I don'twanna do it more than once. We need to finish it tonight.

The only time we have any recorded words of Noah in all of the Bible they are these, starting in verse25, he woke up, remember, from his drunken stupor in which he had made himself naked, and hisson Ham had come in and mocked his nakedness in some way and then gossiped about it to hisbrothers, and so when Noah woke up he knew what his son had done to him, he said, "Cursed beCanaan, a servant of servants he shall be to his brothers", he also said, "Blessed be the Lord the Godof Shem and let Canaan be his servant, may God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents ofShem and let Canaan be his servant".

So here are curses and blessings, the polarizations, they are pronounced upon the sons and there'san interrelation of the sons. Canaan is cursed and winds up being a servant to both Shem andJapheth. Shem is blessed and specific injury served by Canaan, who is the son of Ham. Japheth isenlarged, has a peaceful partnership with Shem, and is served by Canaan who is a descendent ofHam, and we talked briefly about that.

Let me just make a couple of comments so you will understand this. why was Ham not cursed? Weasked that question last time, why doesn't he curse Ham, Ham is the one who saw his nakedness,Ham is the one who went out and told his brothers about it and didn't cover his father, didn'tcontribute to his modesty; but rather, relished in his father's indiscretion, why is Ham not cursed?Answer, you can't curse someone who is God's. Ham was true believer, that's why he survived theflood. Ham believed in the true God and his faith had been accounted to him for righteousness, hewas there for justified by God, he was a believer, back in chapter 9:1, "God blessed Noah and hissons", that includes Ham, and so Ham having been blessed by God cannot be among the cursed,and I believe the reason out of the four sons that could have been cursed, listed in chapter 10:6Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan, Canaan was cursed because he was an unbeliever. I think thatunbelievers are the ones that are cursed, and God perhaps had to move all the way to that last son toattach an appropriate punishment to that family, because the first three believed what their fatherbelieved.

Canaan certainly was an unfaithful and ungodly son, and not a worshipper of the true God, and thushe could be cursed. To give you a footnote on this, God doesn't curse those who belong to him, goback in your mind to Genesis 3, we talk about the curse in Genesis 3. Read carefully versus 14 to17, God actually cursed the serpent, obviously he could curse the serpent, God actually cursed theground, but God did not actually curse Adam, nor curse Eve. They came under the curse. The curseon Satan affects mankind, the curse on the ground, that is the creation affects mankind, but curses assuch are reserved for unbelievers.

And so the curse falls on Canaan. And the curse is that he would be a servant of servants; that hewould wind up enslaved, under the dominant rulership of others. The others, all nations in the world,come from Japheth or Ham, or Shem. And here we find that in God's purposes, children of Hamthrough Canaan would be servants to the descendants of Japheth and Shem. And we'll see in amoment that that in fact did come to pass.

And then the blessing comes in verse 26, Shem is blessed and Canaan is his servant, and Japheth isblessed by enlargement, and peace with Shem, and Canaan is his servant. Now ultimately, thatcomes to fulfillment when the children of Shem, the Semites, the Jewish people, conquer theCanaanites and take over the Promised Land, but there's more to it than that. That's the ultimate,ultimate end of this oracle or this prophesy when the Jewish people take over the land of Canaan.

That explains how Canaan becomes a servant of Shem; doesn't fully explain, however, how Canaanbecomes the servant of Japheth. We'll see that in a moment.

The plan of God, then, was that when the wicked children of Canaan, Ham's ungodly son, producedfamilies and nations, they would eventually occupy the most precious piece of real estate on theplanet, what we know as the Promised Land - the land pledged to Abraham in Genesis 15. In God'ssovereign, providential design, the Canaanites would occupy the land that we call Israel, until thedescendents of Shem, through Abraham, would conquer them, kill many of them, and take over thatland. And so we have the account here.

If there are no gaps, if we take the genealogy at face value, both in chapter 10 and particularly inchapter 11 where the actual genealogy is given down to Abraham - if we follow the genealogy fromNoah down to Abraham, Noah lived almost to Abraham's life. Almost to Abrahams life. And then ofcourse after Abraham there were several hundreds of years until the Children of Israel actuallyformed as a nation, went to Egypt, came back from Egypt, and took the Promised Land.

Now let's look at the final statement in verse 27 of this blessing - God enlarge Japheth. Japheth waspromised expansion, and that Canaan would be his servant. This happened. Let's take the secondpart first. Canaan did become the servant of Japheth, Genesis 14 talks about a king by the name ofTidal, King of Guine. Have you ever heard of that? Jewish people call gentiles Guine. It meansnations, peoples. So it is true, descendents of Japheth under this King of Guine, imposed servitudeon the Canaanite cities of Judah. And as I said later on sons of Shem conquered the Canaaniteswhen the Jewish people took the land, as had been promised to them.

The Canaanites, then, are doomed to perpetual slavery because they followed the moral turpitude oftheir ancestors, Ham and Canaan. It isn't that God punished them by making them evil, it is that theyfollowed the evil of their fathers and thus in the providences of God, were to be cursed and the landtaken from them and given to the people of Israel.

Now all this is background to chapter 10. As we come into chapter 10, we come first of all to Japheth.And I wanna tell you that I'm indebted to a number of writers who have done the tedious work insorting out all this. Eduardo Pracudo, the Hebrew commentator, Dr. Henry Morris, who has writtenextensively on the Book of Genesis and my friend Jim Boyce who's now with the Lord, did a lot ofwork on this family of nations section of Scripture; and all of them have contributed, as well as someother, to my understanding of this.

Let's start with Japheth's line, okay? the sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal,Meshech and Tiras; and the sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah; the sons ofJavan were Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim and the Rodanim; from these the kosh lands of the nationswere separated into the lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into

their nations. So here are the descendents of Japheth listed, Japheth listed first, then the mention ofthe descendents, and then in verse 5, the summary of these people were separated into lands andlanguages and families and nations. Now all of this, of course, assumes the scattering of the Towerof Babel, and won't be described until the first part of chapter 11.

Now, Japheth is the father of what we call Indo-European nations. Japheth's descendents go west,and east; north from let's say Israel, and west and stretch all the way to the east. He is the father ofthe Indo-European nations. From Europe across the north section of Israel, sweeping toward India.It was in the 19thcentury that it became clear that the languages of the East and the West wererelated. Requiring a common language ancestor for centuries, people didn't make a connectionbetween the languages of the East and languages of the West. In the 19thcentury, they made thatconnection.

And one of the earliest languages that is at the base of both eastern and western languages is alanguage that has been extinct for a long time, it's called Sanskrit. Have you ever heard of that?Sanskrit. Linguistic students, even in modern times, go to India to study Sanskrit, because it is theclosest language to this entire range of languages. And what that means is that it's way back early on,the source of many of these languages. And so it wasn't in the 19thcentury that we discovered thatthere is a common source of languages that stretch from Europe all the way toward India. Thisrelationship of East and West of a common language, unsuspected until some of the technical workof the 19thcentury, yet here it is in Genesis.

You will notice that if you have a McArthur Study Bible, you turn the page there's a map of wherethese various people are located. You also will find the same map in color in the back section of themaps at the back of the Bible. But if you're a little bit hard-pressed to trust me, let me help you. Letme quote Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. The Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary states thatthe Indo-European languages "...are the most important linguistic family of the globe. Comprising thechief languages of Europe, together with the Indo-Iranian and other Asiatic tongues. In the 19th

century comparative and historical study of these languages, called also Indo-Germanic or Arianlanguages - established their descent from a common ancestor, and they say spoken in the late stoneage." We can delete that. "They say this language sourced probably in eastern Europe, by a peopleor group of people of unknown, perhaps mixed race - " this is quoting from the dictionary "- theprehistoric dialects of the primitive Indo-Europeans accompany their migrations into India, Persia,Greece, Rome". India, Persia that's east; Greece, Rome, that's west. "And the western borders ofEurope, where they are found at the beginning of history. The parent speech was highly inflected byhistorically the general tendency of the Indo-European languages, has been toward the analyticaltypes such as French or English."

in a table accompanying this rather extended definition in the dictionary, this family of languages isdivided into two types. The dictionary says, "...the eastern languages involving the languages of

India, Afghanistan, Iran, Armenia, the Balkans, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Russia, Czechoslovakia,Poland, parts of Germany, East Prussia, Lithuania and Latvia, and the western division of thelanguages, languages of Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Romania, Cornwall,Whales, Britney, Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia, parts of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgian, andEngland". That's the dictionary.

The Webster's Dictionary understands that languages of Europe, and languages into India are allcoming from the same source.

And I can give you lots of evidence; I don't wanna beg the issue. One little illustration. Greeks tracethemselves back, they trace their heritage back to a Chapitas, a form of Japheth. And you will readabout him in the writings of Aristophanes. People in the east, in India, Persia, trace themselves backto a flood account with a man named Yapetehas their father. Yapeteh, Yapathas, Japheth. And sogo west you find Japheth, go east you find Japheth.

Now let's look at the text itself. Verse 2, we meet Gomer, information from historians Heratapus,Strabo and Plutak indicate that Gomer's people settled north of the Black Sea in an area calledKinera or Crymia - you've heard the word Crymia. And that's where they originally settled, accordingto ancient writers. Sons of Japheth called Gomer went north in the Black Sea area, and even beyondit.

Later they expanded into Europe, settling in France called Gall, in Spain called Galacia, in Britaincalled Celts, even in Whales called Kinre. All of those are very issues of the three consonants inGomer. And there may be some connection to Germany as well, although the consonants areswitched. Some connect the three consonants in linguistics with Cumberland Umbria which isIreland, and so forth. But all of that is in Europe to the north, and then migrating to the west.

Six other sons are mentioned;, Magog is mentioned, hard to identify. You find Magog in Ezekiel 35as well. Magog is symbolic of the end time confederacy that comes to fight against the Messiah inthe last days, but it's hard to know where Magog is. Almost all interpreters in history would say it's tothe north. This is a people in the north. We could refer to those who became known as Cyphians,who went to the north and a little bit east. Some associate them with Mongols and the Huns, whowent east as well. others say they were the people of Gogh, a familiar name around the Caspian andthe Black Sea. Josephus identifies Magog as the place where the people of Gogh lived, around theCaspian Sea. That's the region of southern Russia, the Ukraine.

Then there are a couple of other sons named Tubal and Meshech. We wanna mention thembecause they were also people in the north. Pretty easy to traced these people. We have foundAssyrian monuments. The Assyrians were the people to the north. Remember the Jews alwaysfeared the Assyrians coming down? The Assyrians were in the north, and we have found some -

when I say we I mean those who study history - have found some monuments among the Assyrianruins identifying a people called Mushki, or Mushku, which is a lot like Mishech and another peoplecalled Tubali. These letters show up in Amaskava river, in the city of Moscow, and the Tobal riverand the city of Tobalsk. And several other cities in the Russian area have that derivative name.

They are associated, also, Ezekiel 38 with the name Rosh, which is probably an early name that endsup as Russia in later days. Now in verse 3, we meet some of the sons of Gomer. As I said, not all ofthese sons of Japheth have their lines listed, but two of them do. The sons of Gomer were Ashkenazand Riphath, and Togarmah. Ashkenaz went north to settle, the name is preserved in a place calledLake Ashkenaz, and the people of that area are called in its ancient writings as Homer the Askani.They later moved to Germany so that Jews identified their people, German Jews, as - have you everheard this term - Ashkenazi Jews. Some of you who are Jewish have heard that phrase, and thattitle.

So the Ashkenaz family went north into the Lake Ashkenazi area. They later moved to Germany, andstill have that name identified with Jewish people in Germany.

Then there is Riphath, very hard to trace. Josephus says he was the father of the Pathologonians,and we don't know exactly how they got mixed into the races after that. Togarmah, very interesting,Togarmah we know about. Direct ancestor of Armenians. We have a number of Armenian people inour church, and you probably have heard in your Armenian background, the house of Targum, thehouse of Targum. It's a familiar identification of Armenian descent. Terms like Turkey, Turkistan,Targum, come from Togarmah, the ancestors

Now, it's hard to be exact about this; these are migrating people - moving, mixing - but all agree, theywent north and west. And we find that words like these words, the GMR consonants, Megog,Meschick, Tubal, Ashkenaz, Ripath, Togarmah, appear in those regions. Towns, cities, peoples, bothancient and modern, but still bear similarity to those names.

Now we move from the west to the east; let's go to the Indo part. The Indo part - I know you'rewondering how we're going to get through all this - but this is an important section. We'll cover therest a little more rapidly. The Indo part we wanna look at now.

Look at Madai. The third son mentioned in verse 2, Madai. The root of the Meads, the ancientMeads who lived in Persia, later lived in India and were part of an empire called the Meado-persianempire. Meads.

And then back to verse 2 again, Javan, the fourth son of Japheth, very interesting, very interesting.Father of various Greek peoples; Javan. In fact, when we think of Greeks, writes Jim Boyce, "Wethink they belong to various families; the Helens, the Ionians, the Akkians, the Dorians; but for the

ancient people of the east, they were known by only one name: Yahban, or Ionian. This termscomes from Yeban. Our most inclusive term, with the exception of the word Greek, is Hellas, fromwhich we have the world Hellenist and Halanpoint. Any time we talk about the Greeks, we talk aboutthe Hellenists. Hellas, Hellenist, Hellas Pont, is a derivative, he writes, look back in verse 4, ofElishah, one of the sons of Yeban. So you have in Yeban the Ionian, which is the most generic termfor the Greeks, the next most generic term for the Greeks, Hellas, is associated with Elishah, thenyou have Tarshish listed there as another son of Jevon. Tarshish is a city, you know it becauseJonah tried to escape it when running away from God. It's location is unknown, though many wouldidentify it with Tartasaus in Spain.

And then he had sons from which the Kateem and the Dodaneem came. That's not the name of theson, but the people who came from the son. Most associated Kateem with Cypress and Rodanimwith Rhodes. And so we see these people in the south a little bit, and in the east, with the exceptionof - I should say we see Javan in the west with his people, and the other people moving toward theeast.

Let's go back to the east, I wanna pick up as much as I can. Madai specific injury the Meads, and hispeople were the ones that moved to the east and one other name, Tiras, is included here.

Now again, this appears to be people who settle both in the east and the west. Hard to identify them;some say the Atruskans who are known in the Roman Empire and eventually move to the west andsettle in Italy.

Bottom line, they're all around that area; in the west, in Europe, and some of them drifted to the east,that's as far as we can go. So verse 5. "They were separated into their lands, everyone according tohis language, according to their families into their nations, and that fulfils the prophecy that Japhethwould be enlarged. Now let me get down to where we are.

Those of us who come from European stock most likely come from Japheth. Our forefathers inEurope, obviously, were descendents of Japheth. Even those who come from Russia, even thosewho come across Persia and India. And it is believed that people migrating across Russia, sons ofJapheth very possibly, came all the way to the Bearing Straits, down into Alaska, down into the NorthAmerican continent, down into the South American continent - where else would they come from,they had to all come from Noah's family - and they became the Native Americans. So that those of uswho are Europeans may be close relatives to the Native Americans both in North America and SouthAmerica.

They found their way around the world, but they lost their souls in the process. How sad. Theybecame the great colonizers of the world. most of the world's population, based on this scheme, areJaphethites. And God said they will be enlarged, the students of history will tell you that they occupy

most of the world's land. Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, they went west and east all theway to India, all the way across Russia, all the way down the Americas, huge portion of the earthbelongs to the Japhethites who are enlarged.

Ham's line, quickly. Verses 6 and following, just a quick look. "And the sons of Ham were Cush andMizraim and Phut and Canaan. The sons of Cush were Seba and Havilah, and Sabtah, andRaamah, and Sabtechah and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan."

Now jump down to verse 13. "And Mizraim became the father of Ludim and Anamim and Lehabimand Naphtuhim, and Pathrusim and Casluhim -" from which came the Philistines as a note " - andCaphtorim. And Canaan begat Sidon, his first born, and Heth, and the Jebucite and the Amorite, andthe Girgasite, and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, andthe Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the territory ofthe Canaanites extended from Sidon as you go to Gerer as far as Gaza, as you go toward Sodomand Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboim, even as far as Lasha".

And now we get a look at the whole Hamite club. Ham had four sons; Cush, Mizraim, Phut andCanaan. Cush had five sons and two grandsons from Raamah named Sheba and Dedan, sevennames associated in verses 13 and 14 are families, not individuals; Mizraim - any time you see "im",it's an ending that means a people. and all those ims in verses 13 and 14, and could be ites or ims.Later he changes to ites, but ites or ims, it's the same thing. It's people groups.

So Ham has four sons from Cush come five sons, two grandsons, Cush becomes the father ofNimrod, and then from Mizraim come all the ims that are indicated there.

Now, just a couple of things. Cush is the Bible's name for Ethiopia. So Ham's people went south.We have to conclude that anyway by process of elimination that the Jacobites went east and west.Who populated Africa? Who populated the southern part of the Middle East? And east of that?Cush is the Bible's name for Ethiopia. There was also a Cush in Arabia, and Nimrod, son of Cush,built his world empire in the Mesopotamian Valley, directly east of Israel, what's known as the FertileCrescent, the Tigris, Euphrates Valley.

All the sons of Cush went east. How do you know that? If you would look at the sons of Cush, inverse 7 - I'm not gonna read those names again - all of those names can be identified with places inArabia. Mizraim is Egypt, verse 13, where Mizraim is indicated, and the people who came out of himthus associated with Egypt in that area, Phut is Libia, in North Africa, west of Egypt, and Canaan, thefourth son, was the ancestor of the various tribes that settled in the Promised Land. And thosevarious tribes included the Jebucite, the Amorite, the Girgishite, the Hivite, the Archite, the Sionite,the _________, Zemarite, the Hammethite, and all those families of Canaanites that were scatteredall over everywhere. So the Canaanites were people who descended from Canaan, but they were all

kinds of families. All kinds of families.

And the Hittites, an interesting people. They have sort of a life of their own. The Hittites, you don'tneed to introduce them, it's not important in this text - but in case you're wondering what happened tothe Hittites, they had an empire of their own which today is in the area of modern Turkey. At the timeof Abraham, they were in the Land of Canaan. And they were a powerful people. they were still inpower a thousand years after Abraham, time of Solomon.

Now I wanna just give you a little thought, okay? What about the oriental people? some of you hereare Asian in descent. Did the Japhethites get to China? Did the Japhethites get to Japan? Did theJaphethites get to Asia, Malaysia, or Indonesia or wherever? Doesn't seem that the Japhethites did. Most of theevidence connects the heritage of Asian people to the descendants of Ham. Perhaps the Hittites whocame out of Ham were the ones who populated China.

Let me read you just a thought on this. Hittite empire endured a long time; as I said, over 1,000years. And there are indications of survivors of the Hittite empire fled into China. That they went intoChina, east of Turkey, moving, migrating on a route which Marco Polo took when he opened a newera of commerce many centuries later. And some say it's the Hittites who got the name Katai, whichbrought to the east the name Cathe, which of course, is a name associated with the Orient.

And some archeologists say that the Hittites and the Mongols have very similar features; shoes whichhad toes which turned up, hair in a pigtail, pioneer work in smelting casting iron and the domesticationof horses. That's one possibility.

The other possibility of the origin of the Asians is from the Sinites Look at verse 17. The end of theverse, Sinite. When we talk about American Chinese relations, what do we call those? What do wecall them? Sino-American relations. Why do we call them Sino-American relations? Well, the wordSin, S-i-n, is a common word in the Orient. There is a dynasty, the Sin Dynasty. It's a word thatmeans purebred. Many emperors used Sin as a title. There is the study of China, do you know whatit's called? Sinology. And so it is possible that they came from Ham. But I'll tell you this - they camefrom Noah's family.

There is a Chinese scholar in the church that keeps giving me lessons in the Chinese language, allthrough the Book of Genesis, and showing me how the Chinese letters are really pictures, prove theirconnection. They have words that are connected - demonstrating pictures, the story of the Garden ofEden. The Serpent, tree, Adam, Eve - the whole thing.

But one of the ones that's very interesting that I just discovered is the Chinese word for ship. TheChinese figure for ship, it's not really a word, it's a figure. The Chinese figure for ship is made of a

three components. If I had a board I'd draw it for you. Three components. Component number oneis container. Component number two is person, and they depict a person by a mouth that's open.Because what distinguishes a person is the ability to communicate; speak. So these three figures areall pressed together for the sign of a ship. One of them is a container, the sign for a container; one isthe sign for a person, and the other is the number 8. that's the Chinese word for ship. A ship is how8 people got in a container and survived. That's how the Chinese language - and that's one ofhundreds of illustrations - there's an entire book on this. they take their roots all the way back to theark. And it's most likely that they came either from the Hittites strains of Ham, or from the Sinitestrains of Ham.

Now, for just a brief moment, versus 8-12. Versus 8-12 introduce us to this one child of Cush namedNimrod. He became a mighty one on the earth, he was a mighty hunter before the Lord, therefore itis said "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord". In other words, if you wanted to saysomebody was really powerful, you would say he was like Nimrod. He was the prototypical powerfulguy.

And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and here we're introduced to Babel. Erech, and Accad,and Calneh, in the land of Shinar, from that land he went forth into Asshur, and built Nineveh,Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah, that is the Great City. There's thatlittle interlude, in the middle of this genealogy of man, or this flow of families, we are introduced to thisNimrod person. And he's really important. because this is the first time in the Bible that the wordkingdom is used. There's never been a kingdom before, and the beginning of his kingdom wasBabel, and the beginning of the kingdom was Babel. He is the world's first king. The first worldempire. Even the Lord recognized his power, but he was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Thereforeit is said of Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord, even the Lord noted his tremendous power. Firstgreat world king who built the first great world empire, and we'll find out when we get to chapter 11that the world empire called Babel was idolatress and anti-God and rebellious and wicked.

Now when it says he was a mighty hunter, it doesn't mean he was a hunter of animals, he was a killerof men. A better way to translate that is he was a mighty warrior. He was a mighty soldier. This greatgrandson of Noah, grandson of righteous Ham, wielded deadly power; ruled ruthlessly right in themiddle of the Euphrates Valley, and no doubt conquered all kinds of people and consolidated familiesand people-groups and tribes into his great Babel. Great in power, great in sin, great in idolatry, greatin defiance of God - this was the first real city of man in the new world, built for man's glory.

It was a preview of a later city called Babylon, which is a preview of a final Babylon that will be built bythe Anti-Christ at the end of human history.

Nimrod built Babel. Nebakanezer and Nimrod-like men built Babylon, and the Anti-Christ will buildthe final Babylon. By the way, Nimrod's name in Hebrew - rebel. Rebel. And all of the places of his

kingdom named - I won't go over verses 10-12, see all those names? They stretch from the northern-most point of the Mesopotamian Valley at Minevah, down to the Persian Gulf and the southernmostpoint in Iraq. And all the area in between. This was a massive kingdom. And so we meet the sons ofJapheth, families, tribes, peoples and nations, and of Ham. That clears the path. Now we can get tothe main one.

Verse 21 - just quickly - and also to Shem. "The father of all the children of Eber, and the olderbrother of Japheth, children were born". He isn't listed last because he's the youngest, he's actuallyolder than Japheth. He's listed last because that clears the path for the genealogy and the accountthat leads to Abraham. And immediately, in verse 21, we meet Shem the father of all the children ofEber, and here is the first reference to a word that we use all the time - the word Hebrew. Hebrew. Itis from Shem that the Summites. It is from Shem that comes all the sons of Eber, and gave the nameHebrew to the chosen people.

Now in versus 22 and following, lists the sons of Shem. They all settled in the Middle East. Lud,mentioned in verse 22, is the farthest north, up by the Black Sea, Havilah, Opher, Sheba, and severalothers, were the farthest south - all the way, literally - all the way down to the Gulf of Aiden at the tipof the Red Sea, where it goes into the Arabian Ocean. I mean, this group stretched across theMiddle East from north to south. All the way to Lud in the north, all the way to Havilah and Opher -remember the gold of Opher in the south? And the rest, but bulk of them in the middle in the landsurrounding Canaan to the east. So all the way to the south, the north and east of the Land ofCanaan.

Just a couple of them are mentioned; Elam is mentioned in verse 22, the father of the Elamites, therewas a king - and we'll find out about him in Genesis 14 - named Kedarlaomer, remember him? Kingof Elam invaded Canaan, so that the sons of Canaan served the sons of Shem. They didn't have towait until the Canaanites were conquered by the Israelites; Kedarlaomer was a Shemite whoconquered Canaanites in the 14thchapter of Genesis.

And among the allies of Kedarlaomer was this title King of Goem, the nations, the Havaheim, thecoastline people from Japheth, so in the Battle of Kedarlaomer, Canaan was subdued both by thesons of Japheth and the sons of Ham.

Elamites lived east of Mesopotamia, had their capital in a place called Susa, or Shushan, mixed withthe Meads and made up the Persian Empire. You also notice Asher, father of the Assyriansconquered by Nimrod, they became racially mixed. You have the name Arphaxad, he is in the line ofAbraham, we'll see that over in chapter 11:12; Lud, the father of the Lydians in Asia Minor, Arom, thefather of the Elamayans or Syrians who play a major role in the rest of the Bible history - and by theway, it was the Aramians who developed guess what language? Aramaic. A couple of portions ofthe Bible, Daniel and Ezra are in Aramaic.

Then there was another descendant, the sons of Aram Uz; do you know who lived in Uz? Not thewizard. Job lived in Uz. Job 1:1. one more name, okay? all those other names I kind of eluded to,but there's one name in verse 25. Two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg, for inhis days, the earth was divided. Hmm. What does that mean? Peleg means divided. And I think hewas named for the judgment of God at Babel. We're gonna find out in chapter 11 that when the worldwas one big empire under Nimrod, God came down and judged and divided it. divided them intoseparate locations and separate languages.

Nimrod was a contemporary of Eber. So Babel was built with its tower in Eber's lifetime. And Ebernamed his son Peleg - division - when he saw what God did to Babel. And we'll see that story in the11thchapter. So Eber, whose name came down to the word Hebrew, named his son in those dayswhen the earth was divided.

Well, the rest of those names stretch the children of Shem, the Semites, all across the Middle East -as I said, from near the Black Sea in the north, all the way down to where the Red Sea dumps intothe gulf of Aiden, in the ocean. Extensive range of people, all remaining in the Middle East.,;

So Ham settles the south, Africa, and to Asia. Japheth settles to the north; Europe and into thenortheast Persia and India. And Shem stays in the Middle East. "These", verse 31 says, "are thesons of Shem according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, according totheir nations. Twenty six families are listed from Shem, 30 from Ham, 14 from Japheth, totaling 70.Philistines are mentioned parenthetically to explain to the Jews who were hearing this read hundredsof years later.

What is it a story about? Its' a story about how far man fell and how fast. Go across the face of theearth today and all you're gonna find is that Romans 1 came to pass, right? when they knew the trueGod they abandoned that true knowledge, and they developed all these bizarre, wacky, idolatress,rebellious religions that cover the face of the earth. Idolatry started very early at Babel, it's still goingon, it'll end up ultimately in the final Babylon.

Martin Luther. Martin Luther wrote this many centuries ago. "We have reason to regard the HolyBible highly, and to consider it a most precious treasure. This very chapter, even though it isconsidered full of dead words, has in it the thread that is drawn from the first world to the middle andto the end of all things. From Adam, the promise concerning Christ is passed on to Seth. From Sethto Noah, from Noah to Shem, and from Shem to Eber from whom the Hebrew nation received itsname as the heir for whom the promise about the Christ was intended, in preference to all otherpeoples of the whole world."

Says Luther, "This knowledge, the Holy Scripture revealed to us, those who are without them live inerror, uncertainty and boundless ungodliness, for they have no knowledge about who they are andwhence they came." And so now you know. Now when it says in Romans 1, when they knew Godthey glorified him not as God, this is where that began. Now it stretches across the globe.

Next time we're going to see how God scattered the people from Babel in one of the most fascinatingsections of Genesis.

Lord, thank you for helping us to get through this tonight, and I trust and pray that some of it will stickin our minds, and if it dominate our thoughts, it would be that overwhelming reality that you are theGod of history. And you have revealed yourself, and been gracious to man, who continually under allcircumstances, turns his back and rebels. And you have always, however, reached out; in grace, inmercy, to the repentant sinner, who hears your word and believes. And may you use us to call thiswayward world back to the one they once knew, and have so willfully abandoned. We thank you forthis privilege of being your witness nation in our world, in Christ's name, Amen.

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