And they're off!
Genesis 10:1 · Vern Peterman · May 11, 2008
Genesis, No. 18
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492611167057

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning and happy Mother's Day wishes to all the mothers here with us this morning. We're going to be looking at, of course, Genesis chapter 10. And one of the questions I would have for you, do you enjoy studying your family's genealogy? Anybody out there find that of interest? I do personally.

One of the things that's of interest to me, there's a fellow great-great-great-great-grandfather, two generations there, great-great-grandfather, Dr. Dale Avern, came through Denver. There was a painting done about the same time he came through, not by him, but here in Denver in 1859. I'm not quite sure where this is located. The Four Mile House was built in that same year.

So all those little things are fascinating details for me to dig into. But you might look at it and say, that's nice. That's all about your ancestor. Well, let's take a look at one here. This is a genealogy they'll be looking at today. Every single person in this room is impacted by this genealogy. So we'll take a look at that. You have on page one of your handout, the first slide, these words here.

It tells us about, and as Courtney read for us in the first verse, tells us about the immediate descendants of Noah's three sons and their wives. The three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Two generations are given after each of both Ham and Japheth. We get each of those sons and then the next generation and then the following generation for those two. For the generations of Shem, however, we have more generations than that.

Why? It's the line of the Hebrews. It's the people from whom the nation of Israel, the descendants of Jacob all came, and so that's, I think, why the detail shows up there more particularly. Additionally, this chapter does something that a number of the other places in scripture where we have genealogies doesn't do. And what it does is it says, where are these people settled? Well, we're going to find that this chapter as a genealogy has some distinctions. in contrast to other places in Genesis that we have encountered and will encounter, and that it doesn't look at some of the details. But one of the things it does do is talk about more where these people settled, where they ended up.

This genealogy is also a biggie. It's an important one. It's about how this present post-flood world began. It includes all the key people. And places and pivotal events. The pivotal events are something we'll take a further look at next week, next Sunday.

We have here in broad outline, and this is only a generalization, we have in broad outline the direction that each of the three sons headed. In general, Japheth and his clans headed off in the direction of what we now call Europe. Shem settled at Middle East and farther east and Ham some in the Middle East but then towards the continent of Africa. So each of those clans and families and their patterns of migration are indicated here in this Genesis chapter 10.

Every one of our lives, every one of us here this morning, has begun and been impacted by what this chapter records. As a matter of fact, I would venture to say, if there's somebody here this morning that isn't impacted by this chapter, you're probably not human. Just thought you'd need to know that. All right.

Here's Shem, Ham, and Japheth in a larger satellite picture. I'm sure that's something they would have appreciated seeing, but only we get to do that. Here in the land of Canaan, what we know today as Israel, we find a kind of a common geographical area between those three groups and the descendants of each of those sons.

Genesis chapter 10 actually records the roots of the Gentiles. Why do we say that? The Gentiles are the first of three major people groups that are identified in Scripture. These three people groups, and I say first chronologically, the first one being the Gentiles, their source outlined here in Genesis chapter 10. The next group that we will arrive at by the time we get to the latter part of the book of Genesis is Israel. And then the group only revealed explicitly in the New Testament is the church. So those three people groups.

So the Gentiles revealed here in Genesis chapter 10 is the first of those groups chronologically. Gentiles is an ethnic distinction and notice that comes out strongly in this chapter. Here are the families and clans and people groups. And one of the things we'll see in the next chapter is also along with that, languages that go along with each of those groups. It is an ethnic distinction. This is kind of the beginnings of cultural anthropology, right?

The Gentiles as a group are called actually several names in the Bible, and as you proceed through Scripture all the way to the very last chapters, you'll see reference here, one of the words is Gentiles. And let me just say clearly, for some folks that word Gentiles is like, what's a Gentile? It has nothing to do with being gentle. It is rather a statement, a Gentile is a non-Jew, or one who is not descended from Jacob, who is also called Israel. A Gentile is defined by not having that lineage.

So, it includes a great number of people, myself included. Nations is another term that is used in this chapter and is carried on into the final chapters of Revelation. That is another word that is used for the Gentiles. The Greek word used in the New Testament and the Greek Old Testament, including in the Greek Old Testament version of Genesis chapter 10, is the ethnos. We get our word ethnic from that. The ethnos is the name for the Gentiles. Peoples is another synonym that is used. Frequently what you'll find if nations is used Peoples is used almost in a poetic fashion, rhyming, if you will, the words.

And finally, in some parts of the New Testament, the word Greeks is used for the Gentiles. Why? Because among those Jews who were in Israel, the largest Gentile group surrounding them were the Greeks. So sometimes the word Greeks is used as a synonym for Gentiles as a symbol of the larger group.

Ultimately, what's interesting, God will call all of these groups, the saved of each of these groups, My people. He will call them His own people. He will call those who believe of the Gentiles, He will call those who believe of Israel, and the church, all of whom believe, He will ultimately call them My people. In the Gentiles, one place we see that is Zechariah chapter 2, verses 10 through 12. The Gentiles, the non-Jews, are called My people. Israel, several places, we noted this when we were going through the book of Isaiah, is also called My people. Those who believe of Israel and of the Gentiles are called My people. And finally of the church, 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10. All who believe of any of those groups are called My people, the Lord says.

You have, and this is one of those things where you have to turn sideways, okay? On the bottom of page one, you have this chart here. I don't expect you to read it all off the screen unless you have very good eyes, better than mine. But what this does is it takes the entire chapter, and other than a few comments here about location and particularly a couple personalities we'll look at shortly, basically the entire chapter is put to one chart. You see Noah, you see each of the sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, each of the immediate sons after that, and then the subsequent generations are outlined. So you have the entire chapter detailed there. This genealogy, unlike the others in Genesis, particularly if we looked at chapter 5, we will look next Sunday at chapter 11, doesn't give the ages of the father at the birth of the offspring. as was done, for example, even with Noah in an earlier chapter, nor at depth. Instead, it gives geographical information about the ethnic groups and about their initial migrations. One of the things that is interesting is people study cultural anthropology and where the different groups have migrated.

There's been all kinds of mixing. As it turns out, I'm told I have somewhere back there that there was a Jewish woman in my lineage. All the rest of the people, so far as I'm aware, are descendants of Japheth. But then we have here kind of an initial outline. I think next week what we'll do is have maps like this made available so you have something as a supplement.

But this is the initial directions that they headed. Essentially, Japheth off in the direction of Europe, Shem in the Middle East and farther to the east, and then Ham in the Middle East and then moving towards Africa. So these are the larger directions of those migrations of those groups.

One of the things that comes out in here, you notice we have just two generations of Japheth and Ham. So just those two generations. When you get to Shem, which is the line that Israel descends from, that's where you see multiple generations, essentially five generations deep there. And so this is one thing that comes out just looking at this.

There is indeed an intentional focus upon Israel, providing more detail for Israel. These are the people who would end up being the authors of most of scripture. These are the people from whom our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, would descend. So more detail is given in Israel. This genealogy focuses on Israel.

The five generations there are given in the line of Shem. Two for Ham and Japheth. The families that would populate the land that would later be the place where Abraham would come and be told that this is the place that he's to go to, those families are detailed more fully in Genesis chapter 10. And it ultimately had years, centuries, millennia of consequence for Abraham and Abraham's descendants as to who was in this land and who lived nearby.

One of the things we also see here in Genesis chapter 10 are pivotal personalities. Only a couple. Aside from the key names of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, certainly those are biggies, Genesis chapter 10 adds to that genealogy with a few additional details about a couple of men. These pivotal personalities include Nimrod, And it says there in Genesis chapter 10 of him, he became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. So Nimrod was one who was famous as a hunter and ended up, as we'll see in the next chapter here, becoming notorious as a leader and a founder of cities.

And that's why we have the picture of the Tower of Babel there. What we'll find is here's Nimrod and now the next personality is Peleg. Now it's Peleg, not Pegleg. Peleg, we read, for in his days the earth was divided. For in his days the earth was divided, I have no idea about his hair.

Nimrod and Peleg had a connection, both of them, with the Tower of Babel. As we'll see as we study this next Sunday, it's interesting that the two men who have particular details added, besides just this person begat this one and this is the place where they went geographically, the two men who have details added, each of them have a part in this Tower of Babel incident. And that's one reason this chapter is an introduction to the Tower of Babel incident recorded in the next chapter, chapter 11, that we'll study next Sunday. And that's where, in this case, we find people and regions, but we'll see next Sunday when we look at the Tower of Babel as the origin of the different languages.

Ever heard the expression, don't be a Nimrod? Now, it's really strange. I tried to find the source of that. expression. And it's very quizzical because usually the thought is Nimrod, used in that way, was an expression, don't be an idiot. Don't be foolish. Don't be silly. That's usually the way we think of it. And I tried to think of, well, he's not necessarily portrayed as foolish or an idiot or stupid in the Bible. Where did that come from? And so I tried to find out where did it come from. And I have to tell you, this is not the last word. But I'll just tell you what I found out.

As I understand, Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord, right? Well, sometimes Elmer Fudd went out hunting. And of course, he was foolish and stupid. And so then came the expression, don't be a Nimrod. That's what I heard. What the name actually means is, we shall rebel, which is exactly what you see, as we'll see in the passage in chapter 11 coming up. Nimrod is the leader of a rebellion against God's order to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, distribute yourselves, disperse yourselves out among the earth. He certainly gained notoriety, but it's his leadership in this rebellion that brings him to a place of particular note in this chapter and also in the next chapter when we get there. So don't be a Nimrod, whatever that means.

Okay, we're also told about Peleg and we're not given lots of detail other than his life was a time marker. Now one of the things we found out in the book of Genesis as we've gone through it is that there are particular people that are used as time markers. One of the people we talked about previously who was a living time marker was Methuselah. Methuselah was the one who lived the longest of any of those recorded in the Bible.

And his name meant, when he dies it comes. Uh-oh, what comes? And it was right after he died, shortly after he died, that the flood came. Peleg is a similar kind of personality in that we're not told much else other than It was at his time that things divided in addition. His name means division. So he is a person who serves as this pivotal time marker.

It is interesting that the Lord has used people and people's names. When we went through the book of Isaiah, that was one of the things that we found. Some of the names that are some of the most difficult to say have the most significance, right? Like Isaiah's son, Meher Shalal Hashbez. You don't need to name any of your kids that.

We'll study more on these men in the next chapter because again Nimrod will be a leading personality and Peleg will be a living time marker. A living time marker. In his day, the earth was divided. This distribution of languages, this confusion of tongues took place in his time as a time marker. So why would God include a whole chapter on genealogy? You notice I didn't have Courtney read the whole thing? Just the first verse was good enough? Just going through so-and-so begat so-and-so, and so-and-so, and so-and-so, and so-and-so, and so-and-so, and they moved here and lived there. And you go through the whole chapter, it's like, man, wow! How come we have a whole chapter on this stuff? Well, good question.

This is a particularly valuable chapter, first of all, because it tells us the roots of every person on the planet. Now, while I enjoy studying genealogy, I don't have anywhere near enough time to do so, I don't know of anybody yet who has traced their family lineage all the way back to this chapter. Let me know if you find anybody who does.

But for the Hebrews, this gave them the history of their extended family. because it was not only who am I related to, but who are my neighbors and how did they get there. It was a chapter, though it impacts and tells the history of every single one of us here. I'm assuming no aliens. It tells about every single one of us here, but also particularly for the Hebrews, it tells them this is who you're related to and these are who your neighbors are. Now, to know who all these people were and where they had moved tells us something about ancient travel and communication. Think about this.

In those days, you couldn't just grab your cell phone and say, can you hear me now? Right? And you couldn't call up and say, hey, Javan, how are you doing over there? Oh, I'm doing fine. I'm in this place they call Greece. No, there wasn't an ability to do that.

So think of the coordination and travel and communication required in order for this to be recorded for us. Isn't this amazing? You think of all those people and this one went here and this one went there and this one went here. Somebody had some tremendous amount of communication going on in order to track where different people went. So this is a kind of an amazing statement of communication and travel and coordination and gathering of information during this ancient time.

One of the things we'll take a look at in subsequent Sundays is look at some of the evidences of technology and intelligence during this post-flood period. There is a tendency for people to look upon those who lived during these ancient times as some sort of rather primitive, poorly developed group of people. They were not, let me assure you. And we'll take a look at some rather amazing devices and technologies that they developed. All right.

The land of Canaan, later Israel, is the geographical center of all these. One of the things you find is if you plot where all these land, there is a Kind of an overlap right there in the land of Canaan. Isn't that interesting? Right in this area where that ultimately was the place that the Lord would promise to Abraham. Two chapters from now, okay? The Lord would promise to Abraham and the Lord would ultimately bring the Jews back into this land. And what is astounding is within the lifetime of some people here this morning, to ultimately bring the Jews back thousands of years later to this very same land.

One of the things that has taken place just within, matter of fact, this is the 60th anniversary of the nation of Israel coming together as a nation again. It has been asked, what one evidence could you bring that would prove that there is a God. And the answer given is look at Israel. That's proof that there's a God. No other nation, no other group of people has been sustained and in fact come back into existence as a political entity after such a period of time.

How many Amalekites have you run into? Have you run into any Philistines lately? Ever have any foreign exchange students from among the Philistines? Anybody named Goliath of Gath? You see, what's happened is there were people who were significant people in ancient times who have just plain disappeared. And yet these people, identified here in the book of Genesis that we'll be continuing to study in the weeks ahead, these people are people that the Lord has sustained and preserved.

The Jews count for something less than 5% of the U.S. population, but one in every five Nobel Prizes. They've been brought back together as a nation miraculously 60 years ago this year. And in Genesis chapter 12, we're going to see that just two chapters from now, we'll see how God brings this land into global focus here with his promise to Abraham, the land that I will show you, that one, the specific land, that one that I'll show you. Even today, God is faithful to his promises to Abraham. You wonder why Israel became a nation again after being out of existence for about 19 centuries? Promise to Abraham, okay? You wonder why doesn't God just kind of wind everything up and say, hey, you know, we've had enough people, enough time, and just call it good? It's a promise to Abraham. He's faithful. He will fulfill the promise that he made. He is the promise keeper.

All the pivotal individuals, the key places, momentous events of ancient times are still impacting us here today. One example, Courtney's son-in-law, Matt Kirby, was stationed for part of his tour in Iraq. In Mosul, that is Nineveh. That's mentioned in Genesis chapter 10, verse 11. The ruins of Nineveh are still there. And it's just one brief example.

What began in Genesis 10 is impacting us right now. The political discussions we're having right now are impacted by what occurred here and what's recorded for us in Genesis chapter 10. The details impact our foreign policy, military commitments, where our tax dollars are spent, who our friends are, and who our enemies are. All those are impacted by things that are recorded here in Genesis chapter 10 and as we'll see in subsequent chapters.

If there was anything that I could wish for our political and military intelligence leaders, I wish they would read Genesis. I'm serious. I wish they could read Genesis. By the time we're done here, you will know more. about the essential and critical things that underlie the history of the Middle East and the world than the folks in the CIA do. And I'm not kidding. This is critical stuff impacting us today.

The reason, however, for these nations and boundaries need to be kept in mind We have various geographical limitations of different kinds. There's limitations of certain peoples. There's national boundaries. There's continental geography and included within that all the oceans and mountains and rivers. They're all about space and time here, aren't they? Things here on planet Earth. But they're not just accidental. Those limitations are not just random. They're not the end of everything here on planet Earth, even though they're about planet Earth. What do I mean by that?

All these definitions and limitations, all these things that put constraints on people have been put in place by God Himself. That's right. Put in place by God Himself. In order that we would seek the Lord, that's the reason for the limitations that we have in our geography. That's the reason for even national boundaries. I can't go here or I have difficulty going there. I can't do this without some particular obstacle being in the way or some threshold of effort or expense. Those limitations are put in place in order that people might seek the Lord. It's not the only thing to cause people to seek the Lord and to see the Lord, but it's one of the things the scripture makes clear.

And that's a part of what's laid out here in Genesis chapter 10. You look at this group went there, that group went there. We're going to see next Sunday languages confused. Why? So that people might seek the Lord. They might realize, hey, we don't call all the shots. I do not have boundless capability and capacity.

People realizing those things are drawn then as a part of the Lord's causing us to seek the Lord. Here is where Paul spoke to the Areopagus. It was a group of kind of philosophers representing a lot of the best thinkers of the Greek pagan culture there. This is looking down from the Acropolis. The Acropolis is something you may have seen in the Olympics that was in Athens, shown frequently. Just looking down from that Acropolis in Athens, you can see this place right here.

Paul met with this kind of council of philosophers. And when he did so, we have recorded for us by Dr. Luke these words in the book of Acts, in Acts 17. And I'm going to draw from a particular portion because it has a special relevance to our passage that we're looking at here in Genesis chapter 10. One of them, he starts off in verse 24, in chapter 17, he says, The God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth.

You see, the Greek philosophers, there were two particular kinds of philosophers there. Both of them believed that the earth was eternal and the gods were not. Both of them believed that there were things that were contoured and configured the way that they were on the earth because gods had died and because the gods had some incidental influence. But they believed the earth was eternal. Basically the universe was eternal.

So what does Paul do? He corrects their worldview by telling them There is a God, just one, and He made the world and all things in it. He was first, not the world. He was the one who made things. The gods did not result from this world that was already there. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. Put those together, it's the Jewish expression for Lord of everything. The Jews believed, of course, and He was expressing here. right out of the first chapters of Genesis, something quite contrary to what the Greek philosophers believed, and that is really the gods could be subject to the earth and subject to the universe. He says no, he is Lord of heaven and earth. He is the one who is sovereign and in charge.

The next part that stands out there, since he himself gives to all people life and breath and all things, that's out of Genesis chapter 1 and 2, right? And he made from one man, which man? Adam, okay? Every nation of mankind, there's nations from Genesis chapter 10, okay? To live on all the face of the earth. Here's the first chapters of Genesis that we're studying.

He's summarizing them to give these people the right worldview for them to understand the gospel. What does he go to next? Having determined, this God, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation. God sets limits to human beings to where they can go and where they can live and how far they can go. And He sets those limits so that people might seek Him. So that people might seek Him. that they would seek God if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us.

He's going to present real quickly in this passage. He says, you know, there is someone who died for you, and he was buried and he rose again. And he's not far from each one of us. Why? All you've got to do is believe. That's the thing that he wrote to the Corinthians about. I've kind of summarized in 1 Corinthians 15, the first 11 verses here. This is the basics of the gospel that he has laid out.

It is what people are to be driven to by the limitations of life. And boundaries are just one of those limitations. Have you noticed, folks who have gotten some decades behind him, that this body doesn't keep doing the things it used to? You notice that? That at times it doesn't cooperate. And I see a specialist to go deal with this or that problem, and that's to get some relief, but not necessarily to have fixed the whole situation.

But here it says, And now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preach to you, By which also you are saved, for I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and so you believed."

That's the gospel. It's that simple. It's that easy. Do you believe it? He died for your sins. He was buried. He rose again. Do you believe it? You're saved. I've got good news. If you believe those things, and it didn't take me a minute to say them, if you believe those things, we're spending eternity together with the Lord. That's the marvelous good news. The gospel is that simple. I can remember when I was four and a half, coming home from Sunday school, and they talked about Jesus a lot, but I really didn't have it clear. And I think we had a 55 Chevy wagon, leaning over the seat, because no seat belts, right? Leaning over the seat and looking at my parents and saying, how did you become a Christian?

And I think they said something like, well, you've got to wait until you get a little older. So I waited. fell after bedtime. I wasn't laying over the seat by then, but I kept thinking. I got out of bed. I went in and woke up my mom. I said, I'm done waiting. And all she had to do was this simple presentation here. Christ died for your sins. He was buried and He rose again. Do you believe it? Yeah. Good. Let's talk to the Lord about it now. And that was it. It's as simple as that. Isn't that great? It's fantastic.

At four and a half, I could understand that. In fact, I desperately wanted to understand that. As we look here this morning, we're going to be seeing a few people baptized. And I just wanted to have us see that, that the Lord has caused these constraints of oceans and rivers and mountains and boundaries between people so that people might be drawn to Him to believe a very simple gospel, an entirely gracious gospel.

It's all about what He's done. And so as we have baptisms here this morning, I think there will be three, unless I'm surprised. As we have baptisms here this morning, what are we doing? We are picturing, we'll have a living illustration of what the Lord has done in the lives of those who believe. And it's going to be two primary things.

The word baptism means to immerse with the idea that what is immersed is permanently changed by that immersion. And it means to identify that whatever it is that's being immersed into the liquid, identify that object with the liquid. Let me give you a couple examples that were used in New Testament times.

One way that they would baptize an object was when they would make the Roman swords. They would pound out the sword and get it into the shape. But then when they got it right towards the end, they would put the sword into the hot, hot, hot furnace until it got white hot. And as soon as it was very, very hot, they would plunge it quickly into the water and baptize it.

Why? It would be an immersion into that water to be permanently changed as a result of that immersion. Another thing that they would do is they would have a dye vat, and they would take the cloth Usually white and they would put it into the dye in order that the dye would be permanently changing the color of the cloth. Always to be something different after that immersion. What we're picturing here is a change that takes place permanently. We're going to simply place people in water but picturing that radical total transformation that takes place ever to be different. What takes place?

A person is placed into Christ, identified with him in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. And the other thing is that person is baptized into, placed into the body of Christ. Those are the things that we're picturing here. And so as we go shortly into this baptism. Keep that in mind. That's what we're picturing here for those three people who will be baptized today. There are those who have already been saved because they believed and we're illustrating that in front of all of you. You get to be witnesses to this. Let's take a moment to pray.

Lord, we do thank you as we've looked at this chapter, as we've looked at what you are illustrating before us, and as we've seen this, we thank you. The gospel is just astoundingly simple and overwhelmingly gracious. And we thank you that as we look at this living illustration, that we can count upon all of what you've done in glory and rejoice in it. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.