‌*Below is Pastor Andrew’s teaching outline from Sunday’s sermon, not a word for word manuscript. This is meant as aid in seeing the thought and direction of the sermon.

I. The Content:

‌A. Placement (Before ch 11)

-What happened (People were dispersed)

So in this text we have the reality that all the people of the earth started from one family line and then disseminated throughout the world.

As we will see this chapter is not like any other in scripture or even any other ancient text.

It deals not with the people of God singularly but with the origin of all the nations

We shouldn’t also come to this text and think of these nations as we see today, these are not people with defined borders and militaries, these are people with a shared heritage and language you live and function as one entity. We tend to call them people groups today and there are many of them around the world and in many places overlapping each other.

This text instructs to Israelites entering the promise land that the God they serve is the God who created and rules over all of the nations. he is not a local deity he is the God of all and as such the founder of all peoples. even if they have lost sight of their true God.

-SO 10 is set here to tell us that the people were blessed by God as he said they were fruitful and did multiply, and will eventually fill the earth.

-Why it happened (People were dispersed for sin

Chapter 11 will then fill us in on why they were dispersed. How they developed new languages and people groups

For our purposes God is simply instructing us that he was the one who blessed these sons to fill the earth and in this moment we see that the very decree of God is fulfilled. Next week we examine the specifics.

So lets dive into then the content of our text a little more:

‌B. The Sons of Noah:

1. The genealogy before us is not like any other in scripture. It both covers people, lands and people groups

-The ending im and ite refer to a people not a singular person.

2. Each brother is listed in order of least familiarity just as we have seen previously

A. Japheth: 14 named in His line:

​Genesis 10:2–5 ESV

The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations.

His descendents would be associated with the people of Greece, Crete, Turkey, as far as Spain and southern Russia.

Most of these tribes will have little contact with Israel outside of their naming here.

As such the have the smallest number of names int he list.

B. Ham: 30 named in His line

​Genesis 10:6–20 ESV

The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. Egypt fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim. Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites dispersed. 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. These are the sons of Ham, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

Cush-Ethiopia, Sudan, around the red sea

Egypt-would be the tribes along the nile river

Put- Modern day Libya

Canaan- the land from Lebanon to Gaza

Nimrod: who would build great cities in the land of Shinar -Where we will see next week the people gathered)

Nimrod

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-Now he could either be a great hero of the line of Ham, or the greatest villain of all history

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-His name means purely let us rebel. (so you could say that is evil)

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-But his description as a mighty hunter before the lord is structured in the same way as Noah being before the Lord as well as others through out scripture.

Either way he is a mighty leader who found some of the greatest cities and future empires the ancient world had ever known.

He builds a kingdom

He was great hunter (A trade that became synonymous in the ancient world with military power and God’s blessing

-What is so interesting is the word today does not carry that kind of wait or significance. Rather it carries the opposite, and we have the Bugs bunny to thank for that.

in the 1940’s bugs use to refer to Elmer Fudd as a “poor little nimrod”

Now back to the text we see the creation of these new cities that will be historically significance to the life of Israel, some we will see in Genesis some we experienced in 1 & 2 Samuel, others we won’t experience until you dive into the later texts of Israels history,

C. Shem 26 named in his line

​Genesis 10:21–31 ESV

To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born. The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. Arpachshad fathered Shelah; and Shelah fathered Eber. 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. Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan. The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar to the hill country of the east. These are the sons of Shem, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

(Next week we will return to Shem’s line in a more classical genealogy)

These are the people that will make up the primary focus. These are the Semitic and Arab races.

-Eber will be the primary father of the Hebrew people, but that is not significant in this telling. Here the point is to show God’s multiplication of the people and the subduing of the land they have occupied.

-Peleg is given a brief description in that it was during his life (or maybe he was born around that time) that the people of the earth were scattered.

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-Some think this could also refer to a great earth quake that shook the people or divided the continents, but looking at the genealogies next week the dispersal of the people from Babel seems the most likely occurrence.

‌ 3. Some Scriptural Significance:

Lastly in the content of our text I want to show you two numerically significant parts of the text:

A. Use of Clans, their language, theirs lands, their nations

Use of 4 in scripture has a theological meaning reflecting the whole earth:

-4 corners, 4 angels, four living creatures

​Revelation 5:9–10 ESV

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

B. The total number of Families: 70 (14-J, 30-H, 26-S)

(72 in the LXX)

70 tends to fins itself in scripture also symbolizing a full representation of the people:

-Decedents of Israel:

​Exodus 1:5 ESV

All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt.

-There are said to be 70 elders with Moses on the Mount

​Exodus 24:1 ESV

Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar.

This number will take on more significance in a moment as we apply the text.

‌II. The Application

One Foundation & Divine Plan

​Genesis 12:3 ESV

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

The nations of the World are God’s possession and it is through the son of God all the nations will be blessed:

-We see that from these nations a specific family is chosen who will in time bring grace and forgiveness to all people.

In 2 weeks when we get to chapter 12 the key here is that God will bless theses people through this one family. God is again not a local deity, while he has a focus here on Israel that focus is to bring grace and forgiveness to all nations. His name and glory are to flow from Israel and how he works among them.

For all the nations have a common father. From Noah all the nations come and spread to the four corners of the earth, and it is this same father who we just say was as sinful as the first that these nation inherited.

We still have sin that didn’t end in the flood, it was only mitigated form what it was.

‌The Heart of Christ:

​Luke 10:1 ESV

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.

– 72 is the originally LXX reading of Genesis 10

-There are manuscript controversy over whether this can be read 70 or 72

-Luke has historically been the Gospel of the gentiles

-It was written for a gentile audience to reveal the heart of Christ for all people.

-We share in that mission to the nations

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