Genesis 10&11
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Well good afternoon everyone. It is Wednesday night at Bellshire which means for the time being we are going through Genesis with me. I am super pumped about it and love it. We are going to at least attempt 2 chapters. Both 10 and 11. So let’s get to it. We are not going to do the typical Wednesday night where i let yall read because quite honestly there are a lot of names right here and I am possibly going to mess them up myself and I don’t want to put any of you all through that anxiety. lol
1 These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.
Which kid is the oldest? Which kid has the greatest impact? Now in this chapter they will be listed out in their genealogy from least to greatest but when they are list in name they go from greatest to least. You with me. So we are going to see Japheth kids first then ham and then Shem. Also because Moses does this, he is going to mention events in chapter 10 that he will actually explain or actually happen in chapter 11. The purpose of this chapter is given here in verse one and in verse 32. It is to be an atlas and historical account of how the earth was repopulated. Not everyone will be mentioned. So let’s get into the weeds.
2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.
3 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
4 The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
5 From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations.
We only get 7 sons and 7 grandsons from the list. Again the reason behind that is because of their importance to the story. This group would have been considered the outliers. They moved the furthest away from what would have been OT Jews.
The general areas is from the upper Tigris and Euphrates through Asia minor and south Russia (Magog), to Cypress Greece and Carthage in North Africa. Mostly Gentiles. Generally agreed to people types are Greeks. There is some debate but the general agreement. Now Ham
6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan.
7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.
8 Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man.
9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.”
10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
11 From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and
12 Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.
So we are starting the lineage of the son gone wild. It gets really bad with them. There are a ton of problems with this lineage. Many of these would be located around Libya, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and the Sudan. Do you hear any familiar names that may be running concurrently with today’s world. So because of the curse it doesn’t go well.
The most important is they become the land of Canaan.
Within this text we get the name Nimrod. I have heard this term so often and used it myself. You nimrod. We will find out where this comes from. Nimrod is just an allowed cut down if you are a Christian because there are so many other names that we can’t use. lol
If we look at 10 in particular. The beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom was…Babel.
Now that’s important because Moses takes a moment to give us this commentary. So he probalby had some political power. We believe that Nimrod kingdom ends up being Nineveh. I didn’t think Nimrod was a negative at first but after looking at it, it should be used to describe someeone that is arrogant and thinks they are better than god. He perceived himself to be great if you break it down in the hebrew. They are too proud to be blessed by God.
Let’s continue.
13 Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim,
14 Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines and Caphtorim).
15 Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn, and Heth;
16 the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite;
17 the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite;
18 the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were dispersed.
19 And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; then as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.
20 These were the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands and in their nations.
Any name jump out of you through these verses? So you remember what I said about Ham and his father last week. Why the curse on Canaan? There was a lustful thought or even action that he had. Now what major cities come from his lineage. What was a sin mentioned in those towns? Hello. What wasn’t dealt with in Ham was a key point of life in the destruction of the two cities.
A lot of ites right here. Sidon was also destroyed by God. Gaza! Hello.
21 To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born.
22 The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.
23 The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.
24 Arpachshad fathered Shelah; and Shelah fathered Eber.
25 To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan.
26 Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,
27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba,
29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan.
30 The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar to the hill country of the east.
31 These are the sons of Shem, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
So first connection is Shem to Eber. A complete connection to a future person. Abraham comes from Eber. We will get into that into Chapter 11. Again listed last so that we know His importance.
Look at the name in verse 25. Peleg means to divide. So we see here is where the split happens. The divide of this centralized family and nation into what we see today. it is a foreshadowing of 11.
Let’s look at location in verse 30. Now these places right here. No one knows where they were. There is a lot of opinion or theories but no real consensus or agreement. Through time and changes of names and kingdoms etc this one we dont know.
32 These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.
Sound familiar. So Moses begins and ends this with the same line. Through this we get some great points.
Jehovah is the God of the Nations
All nations are the SAME RACE…HUMAN.
God has Purpose in all nations
God is concerned with all nations
Encouragement to the chosen nation
Now we are going to get how they were divided. This is what the bible said happen so we must believe it.
Man proposes, God disposes. Or better…Man does what he can, God does what He will. Or Solomon said it better
21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
So everyone is in one place and someone comes to take charge. Nimrod. Here is the problem. WE DECIDE THAT WE ARE OUR OWN GOD. We don’t want to follow his commands. We don’t want to listen to what he has to say. We think we know better. Some worship songs today, elude to that. You realize that God does not worship us. We are not above him or even equal to him. We do not bring anything to the table. You see him even having some sort of regret to how we reacted. He just grieving to the way we responded to being created.
1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
4 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.”
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.
6 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.
7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
9 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.
Archaeologist have found these buildings. They have found this place.
ziggurat
They were called ziggurats. The plan was build a city and a tower and make a name for ourselves. What was the instruction given to them when they came off the ark. So they were to fill the earth. Which means separate. Move around. Right. What do they say in verse 4. They knew the instruction and said We don’t want to do that. We are not going to disperse. We are going to overthrow God and make a name for ourselves and say we are better. We are going to stay right here and make it awesome city.
Now verse 5. The Lord came down. How funny is this. They build this thing to make it to the heavens and they think they are so special and man we are in the heavens now. God had to come down to even see the city. Now we know he didn’t really have to he is God. Moses though is putting this in here because he wants us to see the huge discrepancy between us and god. They haven’t gotten any where near where God is. The euphoria seems to go south. We find that God is not aloof to what is happening and they are attempting to make plans and do things without Him. Any one ever do this. Every plan without Him ends in disaster. Everyone listen, if we do not include Him in your plan, you are planning for disaster!!! They say look what we can build. Look at how good we are. You never hear let’s consecrate this to God. Let’s honor him. All they can talk about is themselves. They didn’t pray on instruction. This is them planning something that has nothing to do with God.
The God said verse 6.
Now look at
11 But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity.
12 The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them;
13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.
God said I made humanity and I made them perfectly well. If they are going to have these kinds of plans and it was pretty nice. But the wicked they can produce if they are all together will be so overwhelming, that I must stop it now. So how long did it take for God to shut this down? I mean you see what I am talking about. We act like it talking 6 days to create, 40 days for a flood and here He is without hesitation or time frame. He decides I have to stop this. And he says let us go down. Trinity.
Stop building to glorify yourself. Stop looking at ministry as an opportunity to build yourself up. How many ministries have fallen because of that. FYI we are all in ministry if we are a christian. So I am not talking about preaching behind this pulpit. The ministry you do. There is no difference in sacred and secular to the believer. It is all sacred. Your ministry is your life. Are you building it for his glory or yours. But we can hearken to church ministry. How many ministries that have fallen and the people started out with that as the intent. No they started out and the people said they were genuine. They were after God. they were real. Then it took a turn.
God will not share glory. He will not all anything to take his fame or his worship. When someone gets to that, he shuts it down. And he does it when he is ready look at this.
19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”
Romans 1 tells us the same. God just reveals that the most intelligent thing you know. The most intelligent person on the planet Solomon and God would laugh at it. You think you know something. We can do marriage better than you. our career better than you. life better than you. It is laughable.
So God makes it impossible for them to communicate. Now so this is the moment then when men were separated. Never able to come together like this again. Right?
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.
7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?
8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?
What?! God took away the ability for us to come together under one language because without him we would be able to accomplish all kinds of evil. Then when Holy Spirit comes, it embeds that power once again with us, connected to him so that in unity we can accomplish all kinds of good for His kingdom. You thought that he just gave a language that was for you. Oh it does build up the most holy faith but I don’t know if the most holy faith is about you individually. Maybe the heavenly language that we pray in individually is all about connecting us to the body in which we are all connected to collectively.
Speaking in tongues while a gift is not a gift to us as individuals it is given to us as his church. So that we can remain in unity.
Now the narrative for the next huge part of Genesis. I mean the next 14 chapters are dealing with this family.
Genesis is going to really slow down here. Creation moved fast. Boom boom boom for our reading perspective but now he is about to slow it really down.
10 These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood.
11 And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
12 When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah.
13 And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber.
15 And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg.
17 And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu.
19 And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug.
21 And Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor.
23 And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah.
25 And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
26 When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
This is the part where everyone zones out. I know. Just stay with me.
27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot.
28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah.
30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 Terah 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.
32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
Ok so here we go. Here is the part where I blow your mind with some type of huge epiphany. But really it is just that we must get this because we are going to spend a lot of time with this family.
So Haran dies. His boy Lot is the grandson of Terah. They have formed a relationship and Lot attaches himself to Terah and Terah accepts it. Then Terah make a decision. Look at 31.
Where were they headed. Huh? So it would appear that Terah was drawn to or called to the land of Canaan that will be eventually what Abram is called to and given to the Israelites.
Could it be that Terah was supposed to be the one to inherit the land but then he gets stopped or comfortable where he is and doesn’t make it.
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