Genesis Chapter 10 Verses 1 – 5

• And so the beginning of the repopulation of the earth after Noah’s flood and where the sons of Noah settled gives us spot-on accurately the origins of the different people groups or races that we see today…or that we kind-of see today, I should say. What does that mean? Well this was thousands of years ago. Hundreds of generations ago and so now we really don’t have too many people groups or races left.
• People get caught up in what they can see and there is yet a struggle today with folks…profiling and deciding upon the intents of the hearts of men and women based on what they look like, or where they come from but for the most part, the vast majority of all people on the earth today…there are no longer (possibly in very small secluded pockets but certainly not in America) there are no longer these people groups.
• You see sons of Japheth have married daughters of Ham and daughters of Shem have married sons of Ham and so on and so on and now we are all sons and daughters of all of them, really. All of these people groups that we are going to read through in this chapter, they are all gone and yet they all exist! Virtually in everybody! And so all of these people groups and all of the perceived differences in folks on the street…well now we are just kinda one people group…quite literally…simply the human race.
• Have you ever seen that Ancestry.com commercial where the guy always thought he was Irish and so he did all the Irish traditions and dances and festivals growing up and then he takes this DNA test and he finds out that he’s not Irish at all! That he’s 10% this and 32% that and 5% this…guess what, that’s all of us, man…but where these sons of Noah originally settled gives us clues as to where all of these different percentages came from…and oh by the way, everyone on earth today, we are all decedents of Noah…
• And you might squint your eyes and crinkle your forehead at that in disbelief or confusion…if that’s the case, how can there be so many races, so many differences? It’s actually quite simple. There is such thing as micro-evolution or differences, changes, adaptations within a species. A dog will always be a dog and a monkey will always be a monkey…macro-evolution is a theory and it’s not factual because monkeys stay monkeys but within a species no problem at all with the truth of the observable concept of micro-evolution.
• And so micro-evolution coupled with what’s called natural selection can produce vast differences within one single species or race separated by drastically different external circumstances. Take the Husky and the Chihuahua for example. Both of these pups came from one set of canines there aboard the ark but consider, the Chihuahua up in the arctic, wouldn’t last long would he…he’d be very uncomfortable…and yet the Husky would be right at home…Now take the Husky south of the border and he’d be miserable. Wouldn’t last too long…and so just as an example we can see how certain characteristics create great comfort in certain external circumstances. (sunscreen on a horse illustration)
• Micro-evolution, natural selection, can take place over a relatively short period of time. Just a few generations in that proper characteristics for the environment will prevail and gradually become dominant and then all together externally or physically defines that people or group. No problem whatsoever scientifically or biblically.
• And so Japheth is the father of what is called the Indo-European peoples. People that settled from India to the shores of Western Europe. And what’s interesting here is that the Bible says that they even developed their own languages…their own way of life and founded, the word here is, nations.
• From Gomer came the Germanic peoples, from whom came the nations of Western Europe including the French, the Spanish, and the Celtic settlers. Magog, Tubal and Meshech settled in the far north of Europe and originated the Russian peoples. Folks have poked at that statement because that is prophetically important (Ezekiel 38 and 39) but two things I’ll say on that.
• A historian named Herodotus as early as 400 BC calls the area of Magog, the Scythians which today we know as the Russians and also, the Great Wall of China, (visible from space it’s so huge), do you know why it was built? To keep the western people out and the westerners are Russians. Well the Chinese call that wall the Wall of Magog…
• Madai is the father of the ancient Medes who populated what is now Iran. Javan settled in the area of ancient Greece from whom came the Grecian peoples. The sons of Gomer, Ashkenaz is the father of what came to be known as the Scythians (Russians) and from Togarmah came the Armenians who settled in Northern Turkey. And the sons of Javan being Elishah, Tashish, Kittim and Dodanim settled the areas of Cyprus and modern day Italy.

Genesis Chapter 10 Verses 6 – 20

• Now this is an interesting family of names and peoples and for some reason, Moses gives us more of depth than was given for Japheth. Now Shem will be the most in depth because that line will continue through Abram and on into the Jewish lineage. Now as from Japheth came the western, we could say Caucasian gentiles, from Ham came the southern, the African and the far eastern gentiles.
• Cush settled in the area of Ethiopia and probably most notably, his son Nimrod founded Babel which later would be changed to Babylon…more on him next week as I really want to spend a little time, (a teaching I’ve wanted to give for years), on him. Mizraim is the father of the Egyptians, also an African people. Put is modern day Libya which is also located in North Africa (west of Egypt). Canaan is the father of the people that originally settled modern day Israel and its surrounding areas (later this land would be given to the sons of Shem).
• As for the sons of Cush, really the ones to note in terms of the Table of Nations are Sheba and Dedan who settled in what we know today as Saudi Arabia and they come up later in the scriptures…again in Ezekiel 38 and 39 as Gog, Magog, Rush, Tubal, Togarmah, Gomer, Persia, Ethiopia, Libya all team up and come to invade Israel but Sheba and Dedan stage a protest, why? Because they are right there…It’s Israel, a short trek through Jordan and you’re in Saudi Arabia to the east…and Russia and her allies will turn on (and perhaps invade) Saudi to solve their economic woes in taking the vast resources of that land…
• When will this happen? All we can really say is in the near future…Chuck placed this invasion early…Russia moves to invade Israel and Saudi and that happens right before the rapture of the church. Then the Anti-Christ is revealed…restores order and economic stability and as a result of the invasion (and God’s very obvious presence as detailed in Ezekial 38 and 39), the nation of Israel turns back to God. A complete revival as spoken of in Romans 11. Then the temple is rebuilt, the abomination of desolation occurs at the mid-point of the Great Tribulation and finally the Battle of Megiddo when Jesus touches down upon the earth in His second coming…
• One other people to note…the Sinites who are the modern day Asian peoples.   The most notable son of Ham is Nimrod and Moses spends a few sentences on him but history spends much more on this character…which we will dive into next week…

Genesis Chapter 10 Verses 21 – 24

• Here we are introduced to Eber, the father of the people we now know of as the Hebrews.

Genesis Chapter 10 Verse 25

• Now this is an interesting statement about Peleg because it says that in his day the earth was divided and the word used for earth (erets) doesn’t mean people but actual land. And if you take a globe and smosh all of the continents together they actually kinda fit…and so at one point the earth was one land and that makes sense. How else would the animals get off the ark in that part of the earth and populate the entire globe as we know it today?
• But here’s the thing…and I’m no expert on this…but I find it very interesting, the ice ages…real thing…billions of years ago, not a real thing. The water canopy collapse, the flood, the returning of the water to under the earth, all of these things would cause very rapid cataclysmic environmental possibilities and very smart scientists have laid out perfectly conformed positions (to the scriptures) as to how we have mammoths entombed in ice…where the temperatures are well below freezing and yet they are found with fresh vegetation in their mouths…
• Cataclysmic moments in time as a result of rapidly shifting lands and the world really resettling after the cataclysmic flood…and the Bible says that all of this took place in one man’s lifetime…more for you to go look into yourselves…

Genesis Chapter 10 Verses 26 – 31

• Now interesting, all of the names of the sons of Joktan are associated with the various Arabic peoples and so, (this is so crazy), the actual Arabic people are brothers, literally from the same son of Noah, to the Hebrews…and one in particular, Jobab, many believe this to be Job.

Genesis Chapter 10 Verse 32

• Nowhere else in the antiquities of literate human life do we have an account like this…a full, all-inclusive and comprehensive audit of where all of the peoples of the world originated. Every culture (other than the Jewish culture), their traces back to origination point…we simply don’t have…the answers are nowhere else, other than the Word of God!

• An amazing chapter filled with the very grace of God…because all of these people, these new folks given the earth to repopulate (and God even remodels for them)…they are all sinners and yet God’s grace and provision, man. Just like you and just like me…may His grace be upon you the rest of this week.