City Life Starter

Written by Paul Lane

The Word

These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood. 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.

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. ¹³ Egypt fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, ¹⁴ Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim.

¹⁵ Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, ¹⁶ and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, ¹⁷ the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, ¹⁸ the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites dispersed. ¹⁹ And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. ²⁰ These are the sons of Ham, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

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.

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.

Genesis 10:1-32 (ESV)

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

1 Peter 2:9-10 (ESV)

Reflection

Today the task is to read the phone book, so do not try to read it as if it were the latest C. J. Box novel or even the latest comic book in the MCU.  It is a record, the recorded history of a people, of all people.  While it is a record that points to the genealogy leading to Jesus, it is also a record of the genealogy leading to all people.  The Bible claims that we all come from the same family line, so there are no outsiders.  There are no special people, no insignificant people, no obscure people.  What God promises, He promises to all His family.  What is presented in this chapter is known as “The Table of Nations”. [Insert trumpets here]

There are at least two things you should notice here.  First, as I mentioned, there are a lot of names in this chapter and very little story.  That is because the purpose of this chapter is to be a record of the family tree.  As you read other genealogies in the Bible you may notice that the lines presented here are not just copies to their places.  One reason is that the lines recorded are not just father-son.  Some are grandfather-grandson, some are great grandfather-great grandson, etc. This practice is quite common throughout the Bible. Remember that the important thing was to trace the line, not necessarily to record every name.  As a result, what is found here has been used “by professionals” to trace the origins of the nations.

[Note: Here presented is a simplified table of the dispersed people groups.]

Japheth’s Kids (Europeans)

Gomer –> Cimmerians/German

Magog –> Russia

Madai –> Medes/Persia

Javan –> Greece

Ham’s kids (Africa/Asia)

Cush –> Ethiopia

Egypt –> Egypt

Put –> Libya

Canaan –> Canaan

Shem’s kids (Arabia/Asia)

Eber –> Hebrews –> Jews

Arabs

[Source: Genesis 10 in 90 sec (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po8LxGDBn5E&t=7s)]

Second, in this chapter it says that each of these people groups had their own language, however, you will see that the next chapter starts with all the people speaking the same language.  How can this be?  Well, as with most things like this in the Bible, it is complicated.  But one way to look at it is that Chapter 10 is a kind of a table of contents for future books and stories.  In Chapter 11 you will get a straight genealogy, but before that you will get the story of the confusing of the languages, and Chapter 10 is the setup for telling that story.  So, perhaps it is a bit of a spoiler, but providing this information prior to telling the story could also be seen as the Shakespearean Dumb Play; a very simplified play performed at the beginning of the play to help the audience take in the story. 

Application

I can trace my family lineage through all three lines (American Indian/Asia, European, and African), but this can be just a human activity of self-reflection. It was God’s intention that man should cover the whole earth, so that His image could be spread throughout the world.  The Table of Nations is a record of that starting to happen, but for some reason it was not happening initially.  So, God had to do something to kick start the process.

Today the challenge is ingathering, the bringing of the family together again.  There are no new continents to discover on the surface of the Earth, but there are unreached people groups who do not know that their names are written here.  In reading this, you should not think that these unreached people are only of a distant island in the middle of the South Pacific somewhere.  You should be thinking much closer to home.  Start with your neighbor and start by listening for confused language and minister to that.

[Confused language]

Prayer

Dear Lord, thank You for the Table of Nations.  It tells us that we are not only not alone, but that we belong.  While the traditions of men may exclude us, You have provided a promise and a way for us to be accepted.  Please give me the grace to take this message to those who need it.  In Jesus name, amen.