New Beginnings Part 16

Why does the author of Genesis plop this long list of names down in the middle of his post-flood narrative? Who are these people? Where did they come from? And most importantly, what difference does it make?

The place to begin in answering those questions is the first verse of Genesis 10.

If we remember we are post flood, new beginning, with 8 people. Noah and his wife, their 3 sons and their wives. From those eight people came the entire population of the world. Genesis 10 is going to tell us how it happened:

The last verse of Genesis 10 summarizes the chapter: So Genesis 10 describes what happened when Noah and his family left the ark and reestablished civilization. The three sons moved in three different directions.

Those who have studied this chapter in detail remark on its amazing historical accuracy.

If you enjoy history and geography and anthropology, and if you like to make connections between the ancient world and the 21st-century, then you’ll enjoy Genesis 10. And all of us can gain something from this chapter because this is where we came from. This is our family tree!

Descendants of Japheth v. 2-5

Genesis 10:1–5 NIV

1 This is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, who themselves had sons after the flood. 2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshek and Tiras. 3 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah. 4 The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites and the Rodanites. 5 (From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.)

14 names

After the flood, the descendants of Japheth spread out to the north and west of the Middle East.

Less is said about the descendants of Japheth because they lived in regions remote from the Promised Land. Since they do not largely figure into the Old Testament story, they are given very little mention in Genesis 10. The Japhethites will figure prominently in the expansion of the gospel in the New Testament.

Descendants of Ham v. 6-20

Genesis 10:6–20 NIV

6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan. 7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteka. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. 8 Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in Shinar. 11 From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah 12 and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah—which is the great city. 13 Egypt was the father of the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, 14 Pathrusites, Kasluhites (from whom the Philistines came) and Caphtorites. 15 Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites, 16 Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, 17 Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, 18 Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites. Later the Canaanite clans scattered 19 and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, as far as Lasha. 20 These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

30 names

After the flood, the Hamites moved south and west.

Verses 8-12 mention a son of Cush named Nimrod. He was a mighty warrior, a hunter, a man of considerable skill, and a man of rebellious spirit. Nimrod means “rebel.” He was the Rambo of the Old Testament, a despot with enormous leadership skills and great military prowess. He founded (or took over) Babel (later to become Babylon) and Nineveh (later to become capital of the Assyrian empire).

It is noteworthy that the Babylonians and the Assyrians were the greatest enemies of Israel in the Old Testament. Nimrod is thus responsible for establishing vast empires in rebellion against God, filled with idolatry and greed, and kept in power through military might and unspeakable cruelty.

One other note about those Canaanite tribes mentioned in verses 15-18. Large and powerful in Joshua’s day, the Canaanites descended from a wicked father, inherited an awful curse, possessed a large area, and established a massive power base. They prospered for a long time. Only slowly were they conquered and ultimately destroyed in fulfillment of Noah’s words in Genesis 9:23-27.

Descendants of Shem

Genesis 10:21–31 NIV

21 Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber. 22 The sons of Shem: Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram. 23 The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether and Meshek. 24 Arphaxad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah the father of Eber. 25 Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his time the earth was divided; his brother was named Joktan. 26 Joktan was the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29 Ophir, Havilah and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan. 30 The region where they lived stretched from Mesha toward Sephar, in the eastern hill country. 31 These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

26 names

From Shem come the Assyrians, the Hebrews, some of the Arab tribes, and tribes that lived in parts of Turkey, Syria and Armenia.

The careful Bible student will note that the descendants of Ham and Shem in many cases lived side by side in very close proximity. We should not be surprised that they are continually at odds throughout the Old Testament.

By far the most important fact about Shem is that the Messiah will be his direct descendant. Genesis 3:15 predicts a coming “seed of the woman” who will one day crush the serpent’s head. This will much later be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Genesis 10 lists the descendants of Shem last to emphasize that God’s promise will be fulfilled in the line of Shem. That line looks like this: Shem, Arphaxad, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Genesis 11 will continue the line from Peleg, climaxing in the birth of Abraham.

Genesis 10:32 NIV

32 These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.

By the end of Genesis 10, the human race is hopelessly divided into a bewildering variety of tribes, nations and empires, separated from one another and from God. But even while rebellious humans separate from each other, God continues to keep his promise alive across the generations.

Here’s what Genesis 11:1 says

Genesis 11:1 NIV

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.

Now how can that be?

We just went from Genesis 10 telling us all the nations have different languages and are scattered and dispersed and now chapter 11:1 is telling us they have one language and are relatively together.

Well for you type A, straight line loving, chronological worshipping people let me warn you, this wasn’t written in order.

So chapter 11 is written sometime in between 100 and 150 years post flood and chapter 10 is even after that.

The reason it’s written this way is because it would have caused the Israelites to first see the dispersion of peoples to trigger in them this question of how did we get this way, which chapter 11 will then answer.

So in short, chpt 10 takes place after 11 but is put before in the Torah to set up what happens in chpt 11.

So here’s the story, pre chapter 10, in chapter 11, about how they ended up dispersed like we see in chpt 10

Genesis 11:1–4 NIV

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

So the people were all together and had one language and one common speech and they make this plan to build this city with a tower in it that would reach to the heavens.

Now if we were just reading this account of Genesis and we got to this point and stopped and didn’t move any further we may be enticed to think that just maybe mankind has “figured it out.”

If we just read straight through this part we may think this looks good. They are together, speak the same language, nothing is really pulling them apart, everyone seems to be good right?

But then we keep reading and realize that surely isn’t the case

Genesis 11:5–9 NIV

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

So apparently something is wrong here right?

First we have to remember that they were commanded in chpt 9 to scatter and fill the earth so they’ve already broken that by wanting to gather and build a city and tower.

but then we see that the Lord comes down, which is kind of ironic because it’s supposed to be this big tower that reached to God and yet it’s still so puny compared to God that He has to come down.

And he realizes the intent behind the action. He knows that they don’t want to build this because they really want to be with God, they build this city and tower...

To make a name for themselves.

This goes beyond them wanting to be remembered.

Really at the core of what they wanted was the same thing that made Adam and Eve fall. They desired to be God

They thought that if they could build this tower to the heavens they would gain access to the gods and powers of heavens making themselves gods.

They desired to be in charge in deciding what was good and what was evil.

So the Lord sees this and He comes down

“Let us” in vs 7 is plural referring to the divine counsel/angels/divine court

They come down and confuse mankind so that they can’t understand each other and then are forced to do what God intended them to do from the beginning…scatter and fill the earth.

Now let me speak just a second to verse 6 because that can cause some theological confusion.

It says “Then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.”

Literally translated it would say “all they plan to do will not be withheld from them.” or “restrained from them”

Essentially it means that because they had all these things in common and were together in all that their disobedience knew no bounds. They were limitless in their sin.

So God steps in and puts an end to that and forces boundaries once again for their protection.

And so finally we see humankind do what God intended for them from the beginning....scatter and multiply.

There’s also some correlation here between what we see in Jesus say in Matt 19 when He says that with God all things are possible and in Matt 28 where he tells us again to scatter but this time to fill the earth with disciples of Jesus.

Now typically what I do is give you guys a “Bid idea” at the beginning of the message and then a Today’s Truth at the end.

Well today I’m gonna give you them back to back

Big Idea: We are really good at building

Just like our relative were good at building towers we are still good at building things

Not like construction but...

Jobs/Careers

Bank accounts

Achievements/accolades

We are even good at building church and religion.

Today’s Truth: God’s good at it all

He most certainly good at building things up

But what He’s also really good at tearing things down

See we are really good at building all these things for all the wrong reasons

And God steps in and says, “Yea that’s nice but none of it is about me or for me. So, I’m going to tear it down to protect you from yourself

To protect you from thinking that you can build a name for yourself

From thinking that it’s the building that satisfies

Or it’s the praise or the achievement of it that brings you peace

So He does these things so that we will realize that our building, our efforts, what we can get from this world doesn’t compare to what we gain from Him.

We want to build up

and He says no build down, I’m the well that never runs dry

We want to build a name for ourselves

and He says I’ve given you a name that is better than any you could ever achieve on your own…I call you son and daughter of the most high God

We want to work to prove to ourselves that we are worth something and worthy of something

And He says you are worthy because I say you are

You are valuable, you are made in my image

Formed in your mother’s womb

Marked with a plan and purpose

To bring you good and joy and hope and peace and life

That’s what He has for us

So I encourage you this morning to really examine your life...

What are you building?

Why?

Is it time to tear it down?

Let’s not build for our kingdom let’s build for His kingdom

To reach the world around with the good news of the gospel to make disciples of every nation.

Related Media

Related Sermons