Genesis 10
The Seeds of History

Review: The Story so Far

In the previous chapter, Noah pronounced a blessing on two of his sons, Shem and Japheth. And he pronounced a curse on Canaan, the child of his other son Ham. From that vantage point we looked back in time. We considered again the first curse that God ever pronounced - his curse on the Serpent for deceiving Eve. And in that curse he put enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, predicting triumph for the seed of the woman.

This enmity was to play itself out in enmity between the children of the devil and the children of God. History followed that course from Adam to Noah. There was enmity between the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the woman from then on. Cain, the seed of the serpent, rose up and killed his brother Abel, the seed of the woman.

That battle would culminate in the battle between Christ and Satan, and between the followers of Christ and the lovers of this world.

The curse on Canaan redrew those battle lines. The children of Ham - and Canaan in particular - would be the children of sin, imitating the sins of their father. The children of Shem would be the children of God, in covenant with him, and they would overcome the children of Ham. And the children of Japheth, though not as blessed as the children of Shem, would one day be brought into Shem's tent and would share with him the blessing of God.

We thought, last week, about Israel hearing these words and recognizing in them their own history. For they, the children of Shem, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had been called by God to holy war. They were to destroy the inhabitants of the land of Canaan in fulfilment of this ancient prophecy, in obedience to God, sharing God's abhorrence of the sins of the Canaanites, for they had multiplied the sins of their father Ham a thousand fold.

Imagine what it must be like to read these ancient, musty sayings and to realize that you are a part of their fulfilment. Imagine, and believe that it is so.

For the Israelite conquest of Canaan is not the end of the story. But Israel must enlarge its tent and let the sons of Japheth in. From the four corners of the earth they would be called. They would stream in, a vast and countless host, embracing the God of Shem, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. People from far off would say "Let us go to Jerusalem to seek the Lord of Hosts."

Together they would take up the battle against Canaan, a battle in which you and I take part. For this battle is no longer physical but spiritual. We carry no swords; we shed no blood. But we are nonetheless the armies of heaven following him who is faithful and true. We are a countless host going out to battle behind our Savior, his robe dipped in blood. out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

To that end, we are given Chapter 10, the list of the nations descended from Noah, according to their ancestry, from Japheth, or Ham, or Shem. We are given in this a miniature history of redemption. The sons of Japheth are dispersed to the ends of the earth and will there await the call of the gospel. The sons of Ham become great nations with familiar, evil names. These nations would go to war against Israel, the descendants of Shem, and some of them would enslave the people of God.

  1. The Descendants of Noah
    1. The Descendants of Japheth
      1. We are told the least about these.
        1. They are not as important to the present story
        2. Their destiny is remote.
        3. They will not fulfil the prophesy Noah made about them until Christ comes and the Gentiles are included in the covenant.
      2. They are the most geographically remote as well
        1. The nations mentioned here are from far away
        2. Gomer and his descendants - North of the Black Sea and all the way to "the uttermost regions of the north" according to Ezekiel
        3. Magog - Far North as well
        4. Madai - East of Assyria, itself far east of Israel
        5. Javan and sons - The Greeks. The Mediterannean islands, possibly as far west as Spain
        6. Tubal Meshech - Modern Day Turkey
      3. These nations will not even begin to interact with the descendants of Shem until around 500 years before Christ.
      4. Then the first of them will come and begin to fulfil Noah's ancient blessing
        1. Cyrus the Mede - That is from the area settled by Madai, descendant of Japheth - will come and conquer Babylon.
        2. Babylon, or Babel as it's named in verse 10, a city settled by the descendants of Ham.
        3. Thus Babylon will be at enmity with Israel and will capture the people of God and enslave them.
        4. Don't miss this for all the names.
        5. Ham enslaves Shem. Japheth rescues Shem by crushing Ham.
        6. The descendant of Japheth, Cyrus the Mede, will free Israel from Babylon.
    2. The Descendants of Ham
      1. Cush, Mizraim (Egypt), Put, Canaan - it's a veritable hit list of bad guys, the arch-enemies of Israel.
      2. All these nations are cursed in Scripture for their disobedience to God and their persecution of God's people.
      3. Mizraim (Egypt) in particular, will enslave Israel, the descendants of Shem
        1. The Israelites hearing this know the history. They've just been brought out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery
        2. Egypt will continue to plague Israel for the next 1000 years and will be cursed by the prophet Isaiah along with Cush and Put for their treachery against God's people.
      4. Cush will at last be overthrown, by Ahasuerus, a descendant of Japheth.
      5. Do you see the pattern? Enmity between Ham and Shem, with Japheth off to the side, entering the game late if at all.
      6. Nimrod (v. 8)
        1. More time spent on him than anyone else
        2. His name in Hebrew means "Let us rebel"
        3. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel
        4. Next week we'll look at that story in detail.
        5. Here is a rebel against the Lord God.
        6. As in the days of Noah when there were giants in the earth, so now.
        7. He strides about as a giant on the earth, boasting of his strength.
        8. He is like Lamech the descendant of Cain, like all the seed of the Serpent.
        9. He characterizes all the sons of Ham; they trust in themselves and boast in their might
        10. We will see his type again
          1. In Goliath, a descendant of Ham and Canaan, boasting against the armies of Israel, asking who dares to fight him.
          2. In Rabshakeh, a descendant of Ham, boasting on behalf of Sennacherib, King of Assyria - "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29 Thus says the king: 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. 30 Do not let Hezekiah make you rely on the LORD by saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.' 31 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: 'Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of you will eat from your own vine and your own fig tree, and drink water from your own cistern, 32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey, that you may live and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, The LORD will deliver us. 33 Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered its land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Sammaria out of my hand? 35 Who among all the gods of the countries have delivered their countries out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?' "
        11. He is called "a mighty hunter before the Lord"
          1. But this is irony, it's sarcasm
          2. He tries to build a tower to heaven so he can be like God. God laughs and scatters all his people.
          3. He may have seemed great in the eyes of men, but he is nothing before God.
          4. So it is with all the descendants of Ham.
        12. Note as well that no descendants are listed for Nimrod.
      7. The descendants of Canaan are listed as well, the races to be obliterated by Israel in the promised land
    3. The Descendants of Shem
      1. Not much is said of them.
      2. Not all the descendants of Shem are to be blessed
      3. God is still refining this line to produce Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
  2. The Blessing and the Curse
    1. They are being fruitful and multiplying
    2. But the dispersion is not a blessing
      1. We'll see more clearly next week that the dispersion of the nations is a result of the curse of God.
      2. They should all remain one, one family, one faith, one God.
      3. Instead they are scattered and end up at war with their brothers.
      4. They have been dispersed from before the face of God
      5. They are like Cain wandering the earth.
      6. Israel, hearing this, must also remember God's threat
        1. If they fail to keep his commandments, he will scatter them to the nations
        2. And so he does when Assyria attacks Israel and scatters its people.
      7. Who will gather them up? Who will bring them all back?
  3. The Remedy of the Gospel
    1. Christ came to reverse this dispersion
      1. There are 70 nations listed here, covering the face of the earth.
      2. When Christ comes, he sends out 70 disciples, two by two, telling them, "He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
    2. He will call in his people from every land
      1. This is the promise made to Abraham "and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring.
      2. This is what Isaiah prophesied - Enlarge the site of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. 3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will possess the nations and will settle the desolate towns.
      3. Mk 13.27 - Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
      4. Peter even calls the Gentiles to whom he writes "the dispersion", a term normally used for the scattered people of Israel.
      5. Yet these Gentiles are being called out of their dispersion to become citizens of the one true city which God is building.
      6. This is what the book of Acts is all about.
      7. Rev 7:9-11 - After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
      8. We get the benefit of this, we ourselves have been called from the ends of the earth.
      9. Let us give glory to God who has so richly provided.
      10. Let us engage in extending that call
        1. Take pity - These are your brothers and sisters according to the flesh, for God made us all from one blood
        2. Plead with them that they may turn back from the nations to which they've been scattered and come to the City of God.
      11. When the last of them is called in from the north from the south from the east and from the west, then the one continuing city, the new Jerusalem shall appear and we shall see our Savior face to face.

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