Genesis 10:1-11:3

If you’re interested in the details of man’s population of the earth, you could look at the work of H. S. Miller, who, using Genesis 10 as a basis, has built an amazingly complex chart.

It covers the threefold division of the human family through these three sons of Noah: Ham, Shem, and Japheth.

Now, this and most other reputable studies of the human family reveal that neither the sons of Japheth nor the sons of Ham ever formed what some religious organisations call the lost ten tribes of Israel.

Let’s read from Genesis chapter 10 and verse 1, “Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood. “

First, we see the genealogy of Japheth in verses 2-5, then the genealogy of Ham in verses 6-20 and finally the genealogy of Shem in verses 21-32.

Notice that throughout the Bible God follows a pattern.

He gives the accepted line, the line that leads to the Lord Jesus Christ last and the rejected line first. Once the rejected line is dealt with we don’t hear of it again unless there’s a place where it affects the accepted line.

We read in Genesis 10 verse 2, “The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.”

According to H. S. Miller’s chart, fourteen nations are found in Japheth’s genealogy. They are;

From Magog … the Scythians, Slavs, Russians, Bulgarians, Bohemians, Poles, Slovaks and Croatians.

From Madai … the Indian, Iranic, Mede, Persian, Afghan and Kurdish peoples.

From Javan … the Romance peoples (also called Latin peoples or Romanic people), the Greeks, Romans, French, Spanish, Portuguese and others.

From Tiras …  the Thracians, Teutons, Germans, Angles, Saxons and Anglo-Saxons or the English peoples.

In general, these were the light-skinned and European peoples whose territories ranged from the Caspian Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.

You won’t see the nations that come from Tubal, Meshech here. Many Bible scholars and ethnologists believe these two lines intermingled with Magog and became Russia or Turkey

Now, verse 5 tells us this, “From these (that’s the descendants of Japheth) the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, every one according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.”

It’s helpful to remember that this spreading out and having separate languages came after the events surrounding the tower of Babel in the next chapter, Genesis 11. Until that time, all the people of the earth were concentrated in one region and spoke one language.

Now we’ll jump to verse 6, “The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.”

As you can see, Ham had other sons, but the curse that we saw in the last chapter was only upon Canaan and we don’t have the details of why. Perhaps he was involved somehow in the strange incident of Noah’s drunkenness.

Thirty nations are found here in the descendants of Ham.

Among the descendants of Ham were many of the dark-skinned peoples, the majority of whom lived south of Palestine. Most believe that Canaan, however, the son who was cursed and told that he would be a servant of servants to his brethren, was not dark-skinned.

Why mention this?

Well, there used to be a lot of people, not so much nowadays, that made a huge mistake in believing that black African people were the ones cursed. But clearly, it was not the case because the black African nations descended from Ham and it was Canaan that was cursed and he wasn’t the father of the black-skinned peoples.

Ham hasn’t been given a fair go by many people who’ve briefly looked at this son’s descendants.

From him came two of the world’s earliest and greatest civilizations, the Egyptians and the Babylonians.

Now we have some details regarding Ham’s descendant Cush.

In chapters 8 and 9 and we read, “Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth.

He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.”

This doesn’t mean that he was a wild game hunter. He wasn’t shooting sparrows with a slug gun or hunting wild game in Africa.

The thought behind this passage is that he was a hunter of men’s souls.

Now just a quick sidebar here. Can you see the purpose behind these bible genealogies? They’re not just to inform us of how the earth was populated. They certainly do that but they also lead us to the people who would have the greatest impact on the human story. We see all through the bible which families all these people came to us through.

This man Nimrod changed the earth forever. His influence is strong right up to today. He’s known as the first whole-world dictator.

Look now at verse 10, “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.”

He was the founder of those great cities in the land of Shinar. Babel we know of as Babylon in modern day Iraq.

Many parts of Nimrod’s kingdom will eventually become powerful enemies of Israel. These include kingdoms such as Assyria and Nineveh.

Nimrod’s story is a fascinating one. It was Nimrod who was responsible for the Tower of Babel which we’ll get to soon.

He attempted to bring together the human race after the flood and unite them into a nation in which he could become the great world ruler.

He was the rebel, the founder of Babel, the hunter of the souls of men.

He was the lawless one, and he’s a shadow or a type of the last world ruler, the Antichrist who’s yet to appear. He won’t be a reincarnated Nimrod, nor will he necessarily be related genetically to the Nimrod. But in terms of the role he’s going to play the last world dictator will turn out to be a real Nimrod.

His name even means rebel or rebellion.

So, we see here that the first great civilization, therefore, came out from the sons of Ham.

You see now, we’re following the pattern set by the Holy Spirit in which He gives the rejected line first and then drops it.

We’re going to turn now to the line that’ll lead to Abraham then to the nation Israel and finally to the coming of Christ into this world.

It’s this line which we’ll follow through the Old Testament and on into the New Testament.

God’s laying aside the rest of humanity for the time being, but He’ll be coming back to them later on.

It’s as if God makes a loving farewell to all the nations of the earth by saying, “I’m leaving you for a while, but I’ve ordered your future, and all your different genealogies are traced.”

In chapter 10, fourteen nations are from Japheth, thirty come from Ham, and twenty–six come from Shem. This makes a total of seventy nations listed in this genealogy.

 

It seems that God’s showing us what He’s done with the nations of the world. Even the skin colour of these nations has had its day.

In the beginning, it was the black man, and the coloured races, that were the prominent, powerful civilisations.

Then the sons of Shem made a huge impact during the time of David and Solomon. Others came from Shem such as the Syrians, the Lydians, the Armenians and the Arabians. These great nations appeared next.

We seem to be currently in a period in which the white man has come to the front. However, all these civilisations have one thing in common. Regardless of whether they’re a son of Ham a son of Shem or a son of Japheth, they’re totally incapable of ruling this world. God seems to be graphically demonstrating this to us.

Now let’s go to Genesis 10 verse 21, “

And children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder.”

And we’ll skip to verse 25, “To Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan.”

Now, there are lots of weird interpretations of what’s meant by “the earth was divided.”

Some say that it refers to a physical splitting of the earth and that the earth had undergone some tremendous physical catastrophe. However, Moses is simply anticipating the next chapter where he’ll give us the account of the Tower of Babel.

So many times it’s the simple interpretation that people miss, but you and I shouldn’t miss it.

Now let’s go to the final verse of this chapter, verse 32, “These were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations; and from these, the nations were divided on the earth after the flood.”

You can see from this verse what value a deeper study of chapter 10 offers. It’s easily one of the great chapters of the bible. If you really want a history of the human family this remarkable chapter is unmatched for that purpose.

Now we come to Genesis chapter 11. Where we learn about the building of the Tower of Babel and see the generations from Shem to Abraham.

And we read from verse 1, “Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.”

If we accept God’s Word that mankind has a common origin in Adam, then this simply makes sense: that there was a time when humanity spoke one language instead of the hundreds on the earth today.

Although there’s a lot of speculation around we’re not told what language the population of the earth spoke, only that everyone spoke the same language.

Whatever that language was it’ll more than likely be the language that’ll be spoken in heaven and will be much better than we have today. I think we’ll be able to put into words phrases and songs and stories and communicate in a way that would be impossible for us to imagine while we’re here on Earth.

In verse 2 now, “And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.“

The land of Shinar; Shinar was a term used for Babylon as we saw in Genesis chapter 10 verse10. The multiplied descendants from the ark came together to build a great city and tower, in rebellion against God’s command to spread out over the earth. We also saw that God told them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth in Genesis chapter 9 verse 1.

Notice that they journeyed from the east.

Mankind was apparently moving toward the west. “They found a plain in the land of Shinar.” This is in the Tigris–Euphrates Valley.

 

In verse 3 we hear, “Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.”

They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar because in that area there’s no stone,  so they had to make bricks.

Archaeological research has revealed that this type of kiln-fired brick and asphalt construction was common in ancient Babylon.

It reveals a lot about their buildings. Brick is a widely used building material because there were no stones so brick was both practical and necessary.

Also, by using baked bricks and asphalt for mortar, men built a tower that was both strong and waterproof, even as Noah used the same material in waterproofing the ark in Genesis 6:14. Later Moses’ mother used the same material in waterproofing Moses’ basket in Exodus 2:3.

In verse 4 we see, “And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

Notice that they said, “Let us build us a city … let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad.”

The purpose of this tower was for a rallying place for man.

I’m going to assume that you guys are all smart enough to realise that this doesn’t mean a tower that’s high enough to reach heaven.

These people aren’t stupid. They’re not going to try to reach into heaven physically. That’s just Sunday school colouring book stuff.

We’ve got to be careful not to become victims of this world’s little pictures. Romans 1:22 tells us that the ungodly of this world are, quote, “Professing to be wise, they became fools..”

These are the ones who would have us believe that ancient man was “dumber”, much less intelligent and sophisticated than we are today. Friend the reality is the opposite. We see all over the ancient world the evidence of a vastly more intelligent society than today. Yes, the technology that we have today obviously wasn’t available, but the raw ability and thought processes along with the capacity to learn were vastly superior to today.

The Tower of Babel was a ziggurat. It was a shrine or a temple.

The same human structures that attempt to reach God are everywhere in every culture on earth today.

There’re many ruins of ziggurats in the Tigris–Euphrates Valley. They’re made of brick, solidly constructed, with a runway around it that goes to the top.

Apparently, on top, there was an altar on which, in certain cases, human sacrifices were offered. Later on, children were offered. They were cruelly put in or onto a red–hot idol.

All of this was connected with the ziggurat in later history.

At the time of its construction, the Tower of Babel represented the rebellion of mankind against Almighty God.

Because of the motivation for building the tower and the materials used to build it, we can see that it was not only disobedient to God’s command to fill the earth in Genesis 9:1, but it also shows that man just didn’t believe God’s promise to never again flood the earth. A waterproof tower was made to protect man against a future flood.

It was Nimrod who led this movement. He was the builder of the city of Babel and evidently of the Tower of Babel also. It was to be the place where he’d start his world empire that was in opposition to God.

Two things were essential to realize his ambition and to make his dream come true.

First, he needed a centre where the population could be united, a headquarters.

He needed a capital, a place to assemble, a place to look to.

The city of Babel became that place.

From here he’d carry out his dream of a world empire dominated only by him completely separate from God.

Secondly, he needed a rallying point, a monument that would represent his authority over the world and a place of control. So this was the purpose of the Tower of Babel.

When he said “Let us make us” it was defiance and rebellion against God. “Let us make us a name” reveals an all-encompassing ambition.

It was a strong statement of self against God.

God had said to man that He should scatter him over the earth and replenish the earth. But man answers, “No Way. We’re not going to scatter; we’re going to get together. We’re finished with You, God.”

Now let’s see what the Tower of Babel was not. It wasn’t built above the flood plain as a place of refuge in times of high water. Some people suggest this was its purpose although as we’ve said it showed a rejection of God’s covenant promise never to send another world-destroying flood.

This tower revealed the arrogant, defiant, rebellious attitude of man against God.

The Tower of Babel was against God.

How stupid of man to think he can actually shake his fist at God and go ahead and do what God says don’t do and have it turn out alright.

This is God who is the source of and who holds together every tiny element of the universe. Without this ultimate power man and this universe would evaporate into oblivion. How true is Psalm 14 verse 1, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”

Today we live in a world where The Word of God, the Bible, is largely rejected and ridiculed. We who’ve come to believe that the Bible really is the Word of God to mankind should not be at all surprised at this. 1 Corinthians 2:14 tells us, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.”

The one thing we can’t do as a believer is accept parts of the Word and reject other parts. It’s all or nothing.

When we read these verses in Genesis, and if we’re honest, we’ll come to places where what’s written is completely out of place with our lives in this current day world.

Many people believe they can take these texts and rationalise them or twist them to make them fit into something more acceptable in today’s world.

I would like to say that this is a terribly dangerous practice because we’re basically pitting our knowledge with God and making a decision that we’re smarter than Him. He somehow lacks the knowledge that we have.

In fact, we’re doing exactly what the people at the tower of Babel did and what caused man to fall into the state of sin in the first place. We’re putting our hopelessly limited insights, above the knowledge of Almighty God. It’s called pride. We know better than God.

If you’re a person who doesn’t accept the Bible as the unadulterated Word of God, no problem. That’s your choice and we can still be friends. But you must reject ALL of it. It simply can’t be half right. Which half is right and which half is wrong? By what authority do you make that decision?

No, there’re only two ways to handle the knowledge within the Bible pages, either we reject it entirely or we accept it entirely. There’s no grey areas.

My hope and prayer is that all who listen to these episodes accept the Bible as God communicating to mankind, to us. When something’s at odds with our current day thinking we simply set it aside and we tell God that although we don’t understand what we’ve just read we trust Him more than we trust our own knowledge and we ask Him to reveal to us that which we don’t understand. He always will!

In the next episode, we’ll see how God handles this rebellion at the Tower of Bael and completely upends the plans of Nimrod and all who followed him.