Genesis 10
Theme: The Sons Of Noah
Key Text: Verse 32
Here
is a chapter of genealogies. To many, it is only a long register
of very unfamiliar names that offer little for profitable meditation.
Yet, as T. H. Leale wrote, “Here we have the ground-plan
of all history.” Beginning with the sons of Noah, this oldest
ancestral table sets forth the universal brotherhood of man, implies
the universal corruption of the human race, and proclaims the necessity
of a universal redemption for man’s malady.
1. The Son Before
According
to a later reference, Japheth was the “elder” son
in the family (10:21). We must assume that this is why
his lineage is first recorded (10:2-5). Although it
is not our goal to identify all the names of his family
tree with various races and nations of the past and
present, it is clear that Japheth was the father of
the Gentile nations of the world (10:5). The enlargement
that was earlier predicted, “God shall enlarge
Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem” (9:27),
would become global and include great world monarchies–a
prophecy not soon fulfilled, but seen more clearly in
our generation.
2. The Son Between
Since
Ham is always situated between the other two in the
Scriptures, we assume he was the second-born son of
Noah. Interestingly enough, of the seventy nations mentioned
in this chapter, thirty of them are of Hamitic origin
(10:6-20). Although their dominion was short-lived,
this race produced the early leaders of civilization,
the most notable and notorious being the mighty “Nimrod” (10:8,9).
The southern portion of the globe, namely Chaldea, Babylon,
and Egypt, the latter even being called “the land
of Ham” (Psa. 105:23, 27; 106:22), became their
habitat.
3. The Son Behind
As
we come to the conclusion of this ethnological record,
we are confronted with the pedigree of the Semitic peoples
of the world–the offspring of Shem (10:21-31).
Immediately and conspicuously, we are instructed that
Shem is the father of “the children of Eber,” or
the Hebrew race (10:21), through which came the oracles
of God and the Messiah! In reality, then, the last becomes
first, not only in the order of each Biblical reference
(it is always Shem, Ham, and Japheth), but also in the
time-table of God’s purposes.
Illustration
We
see the Lord graciously dealing with all three divisions
of the human race in three successive chapters in the
book of Acts. The conversion of the Ethiopian, a son
of Ham, is recorded in Acts 8. The new birth of Saul
of Tarsus, a son of Shem, is set forth in Acts 9. Then,
we read of the salvation of Cornelius, a Gentile, a
son of Japheth, in Acts 10. Thank God! His great love
embraces the world (see John 3:16). His redemptive purposes
reach “every kindred, and tongue, and people,
and nation” (Rev. 5:9).
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