12: Genesis 10-12

Genesis 10

• Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood.
• The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.
  • Why did he start with Japheth? He was the youngest… so that he could end with Shem and go into the story of Abraham.
  • Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan – (Gawan is like Younan aka Greece). You see Tarshish which is where Jonah wanted to go (Spain)
  • So Japheth is father of the Europeans
• The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. 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.” And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city). Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines and Caphtorim). Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn, and Heth; the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite; the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were dispersed. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; then as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. These were the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands and in their nations.
  • Meanings
    • Cush is Ethiopia
    • Mizraim is Egypt (Misr)
    • Put is Lebanon
    • Canaan is Palestine
    • Assyria is south of Iraq and Nineveh is in it
  • What do we benefit from all these names?
    • It’s a historical record – anyone who wants to know the origin of their people, can come back to this record. It’s important to know how different nations are related, where they came from, etc.
    • It’s showing the result of God’s commandment – be fruitful and multiply
  • Ham populated Africa and parts of the Middle East
• And children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder. The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. Arphaxad begot Salah, and Salah begot Eber. 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. Joktan begot Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. And their dwelling place was from Mesha as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east. These were the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, according to their nations.
  • Eber – this is where “Hebrew” comes from (3aber in Arabic – 3ebraneyan). He’s the grandfather of Abraham
  • Shem is most importantly the father of the Hebrews and his descendants were in the Middle East and Asia Minor
• 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.

Genesis 11

• Now the whole earth had one language and one speech
  • Those who study languages are able to trace languages back – so for example they say Latin is the father language of French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese (Romance languages – come from Rome/Latin).
• 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. 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.
  • Now they are starting to have ideas for inventions – we had a sort of invention before with the Ark but that was designed and commissioned by God. This came from their own minds.
  • The fact that humans can invent is an indication that they are made in the image of God, the Creator
  • Inventions can be used for good or bad – like the cell phone
• And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens;
  • Pride – why the top of the heavens?
  • Many have understood it as “if God wanted to do another flood, we could escape it and be higher than any mountain.”
  • Or “let us go and see what God sees”
• let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
  • “build ourselves” – “make a name for ourselves”
    • God is no longer in their mind or in their plans.
    • After the Flood, they started to go back to a life of forgetting God
• But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
  • Another human expression used for our benefits as humans to understand
• And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.
  • Does God hate building? Of course not. But man always has two options
    • To glorify God in all that you do
    • To glorify yourself or to seek out your own glory
  • They have one language and this is leading to one goal which is bad
  • “nothing they propose will be withheld” – the devil will make it easy for them
• Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
  • God wants us all to be one and in unity but in Him. As Christ says “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us” (John 17:21)
• So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.
  • When we remember this, we remember an opposite event – Pentecost. When all the nations were gathered and the disciples spoke in tongues.
• Therefore its name is called Babel
  • Babel in the Bible is going to be a symbol of evil – Babylon. We’ll keep hearing about Babylon until the end of Revelation.
• because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth;
  • Many times people live in the same house but don’t know how to communicate with each other. Most of the problems we have in the world come from miscommunication – a husband and wife can’t communicate: marital problems; a manager and an employee can’t communicate: work problems; a father and his son – father says “when I was your age” and son is thinking “that was 30 years ago! What do I care!” (speaking different languages).
  • Confusing the language or miscommunication can destroy a relationship
  • The same thing can happen in my relationship with God. If I am not listening to the Word of God, I am lost. If I don’t know how to pray I am not communicating with God
  • Communication is the basis of love. Communication doesn’t have to be with words – when I look you in the eye, I’ve communicated to you. And you can tell through it if I’m happy or sad or mad or whatever. If I shake your hand, you can know from the shake if I like you or not. So communication doesn’t have to be with words, but it is the basis of love. We should focus on “is the meaning he wanted to convey – the same as the meaning I understood?” OR “is the meaning I want to convey – the same as what he understood?”
• and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
  • God’s judgment in the Old Testament is in many ways
    • Adam was judged with dead
    • Noah’s generation was judged with a flood
    • Babel – scattering over the face of the earth (which leads them to war with one another even until today – it is the result of the evil that they chose)
    • Sodom and Gomorrah – fire and brimstone
• This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. After he begot Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.
  • Notice here that the length of man’s life is starting to get lower. Noah lived 950. Shem 600. Arphaxad 438. Salah 433. Peleg 239. Reu 239. Serug 230. Nahor 148.
  • Many attribute this to the Flood causing a disturbance in the physical nature of the world as well as man starting to eat meat (these being ways that God carried out the limitation)
• Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and begot Salah. After he begot Salah, Arphaxad lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters. Salah lived thirty years, and begot Eber. After he begot Eber, Salah lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters. Eber lived thirty-four years, and begot Peleg. After he begot Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters. Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu. After he begot Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters. Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Serug. After he begot Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters. Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor. After he begot Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot Terah. After he begot Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years, and begot sons and daughters. Now Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
  • The whole point of this genealogy is to bring us to Abraham
  • This man Abram is just one of tens or hundreds of thousands – this is just one direct line of Shem – all of these had sons and daughters. And Ham and Japheth also had similar lines. And out of all of these people, the only one who we’ll see finds favor with God, is Abram.
• This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
  • Haran died early and left Lot as a child – so Abram, who didn’t have children, took Lot as his own child and his responsibility.
  • Ur of the Chaldeans is a place in Iraq – it is the origin of the people of Abraham or the people of Israel
• Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child. And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there.
  • The first migration that we read about is the migration of Terah’s family – he took Abram and his wife and Lot and they left Ur of the Chaldeans heading for Canaan – but they didn’t get as far as Canaan. They stopped in Haran and dwelt there.
• So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.

Genesis 12

• Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
  • The Lord said to Abram – we haven’t heard this phrase in a while. Since Noah – hundreds of years before! Why did we stop hearing it? Did God stop speaking to man? No… man stopped listening. Until Abram came. And Abram listened.
  • The first characteristic of a man of God, or a man of faith – he listens to God.
    • God speaks through your conscience – do you listen to your conscience?
    • God speaks through the people around you – do you listen to a good word from someone around you?
    • God speaks through the situations in your life
    • God speaks to us constantly – but we may not be listening.
    • “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. IF anyone hears my voice…” – this “IF” could take years – no one is focusing on God.
    • The beginning of your relationship with God is when you open the Bible and read His word and say “this word is for me. God is speaking to me here.” – when you say “Lord, speak. Your servant hears.” As Samuel said. When you tell God “tell me what to do! I want to hear your voice! I want to do your will!” – This is the beginning of your relationship with God: when you focus on God and shut your eyes to what is outside.
  • There are three degrees of separation
    • “Get out of your country” – Separate yourself from your land
    • “From your family” – Separate yourself from the people around you
    • “From your father’s house” – Separate yourself even from your family
  • Why did God ask Abram to leave and separate from EVERYTHING he knows, and not even tell him why?
  • How did Abram know that it was God’s voice speaking to him? Faith
    • Faith is when you don’t know, but you follow anyway. You don’t know what will happen, but you have trust in God that He will take care of you.
    • People who keep asking God “why?” and “when” and “how” – their faith is weak
    • People who cannot make any move unless they know for sure and expect God to answer all their questions – their faith is weak
    • God’s way is to give the invitation and whoever trusts in Him, and trusts that God will take care of him and provide for him and only have good intentions for him, will follow.
    • It’s the same way Christ called the apostles – he went to Matthew the tax collector and said “follow Me.” He didn’t say “I will make you great”, He didn’t say how He would be able to pay him, He didn’t say that He would take care of him. All He said was “follow Me.” And Matthew – because he had faith – followed Christ and never looked back and now he is great among the apostles. Same thing with Peter – Christ did the miracle with the fish in Luke 5 and then told Peter “come with Me. I will make you fishers of men.” – Peter didn’t ask “what will I get paid” he didn’t ask “what about my wife or my mother in law.” He had faith and he followed. And look at him now.
    • “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:8)
  • “I will make you a great nation”
    • This doesn’t just mean the nation of Israel – but it refers to a spiritual nation – those who have faith are of the nation of Abraham, the man of faith.
    • Remember the parable of the rich man and Lazarus – Christ mentions Lazarus’ spot in heaven is in the bosom of Abraham
  • “I will bless you”
  • “I will make your name great”
    • Abraham’s name is great now – “Abraham your beloved” as we say in Tasbeha and the Agpeya
    • Abraham could have lived like the people around him… not following God, but their names are not known.
  • “And you shall be a blessing.”
    • Not just I will make something of you, but the more you follow Me, you, YOURSELF will be a blessing to those around you
    • It’s like when a bishop visits us and we say that he has blessed us – because he is walking in the way of God, when he visits us, we are blessed. Same as Abraham
  • “I will bless those who bless you”
    • See how big this is - those who say a good word to Abraham or about Abraham, even THEY will get a blessing
    • Those who follow Abraham – even THEY will be blessed
  • “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
    • Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
    • You don’t have to be Jewish to be a son of Abraham… this is why we call him “Father Abraham” – because we are his sons by being of faith
  • Blessing
    • Anyone who follows God gets all these same blessings – I will bless you, you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”
    • What is blessing?
      • It does not mean you will have no worries on earth, or you won’t have tribulation. God has never made such a promise to anyone in the OT or NT. Even to His closest disciples He told them “in the world you will have tribulation.”
      • It means that you will go to heaven and you will be a source of good to those around you
    • The idea of intercession is related to blessing – the saints followed God and had blessing. I will bless those who bless you – in this way, when we venerate the saints, we receive blessing
• So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him
  • “As the Lord had spoken to him” – we will see this a lot with Abraham. Everything God told Abraham, he did it.