Who really founded North America? Did you know that every country in the world was ultimately founded by a descendant of Noah? Every person who ever lived since the flood ultimately comes from the Ark. Europeans, which we all are if we have white skin, came from the line of Japheth and it was the Europeans who founded Canada and America. Even the native people originally came from one of Noah’s son’s lines, and of course they were the first culture here in North America.
And believe it or not, the first Christian pilgrims as a whole actually got along very well with the native people. Pocohontas was even baptised, and the native people helped the Pilgrims learn to farm, and they celebrated Thanksgiving together. Oh how things changed over time.
Why did the Europeans come to settle here? Well, there may have been economic and political motives for some, but ultimately the pilgrims came and settled because they believed God told them to. They had a complete biblical worldview, they believed what Isaiah 33:22 said, that the Lord is our judge, lawgiver, and king. Our North American culture was founded on religion and morals, including in politics and law, through the constitutions.
They were cold and starving when the ships sailed off, they could have asked to go back to Europe but they wanted their religious freedom. Europe was doing what we have done in North America since, squeezing true Christianity out of the culture. The pilgrims believed they were on a mission from God to keep their religion alive.
The two best selling books in the American colonies in 1776 were the Bible and the New England Primer. Every first grader learned to read and write from this book, and it was completely biblical in its teaching. “A” was for Adam, the Ten Commandments were the main teaching, all the characters were from the Bible, the catechisms were memorized. Every University and Hospital was based on Christian pillars. The destruction of our Christian worldview started with changes in the schools and the area of law.
But Christianity has been slowly sucked out of all the aspects of our culture, much like what kept happening with the Israelites. Christian groups have continually split off to hold to these values, but inevitably, the “world” infiltrates and erodes the cultures that live for the true God.
There is much historical revisionism that has taken religion out of our history, and rewritten history in an effort to remove religion from North America, and the rest of western culture for that matter. You’ll notice that that is not the case in many eastern cultures where their religious traditions and worldview have held strong.
That is actually one of the reasons I believe in Jesus Christ, because no one has tried to eliminate a religion stronger than they have tried with Christianity, and yet it continues to thrive and be the largest religion in the world in spite of the huge opposition and persecution since day one.
So in a way, we came from an attempt to create a new society based on the living God and the Scriptures. Our culture doesn’t need to find God, we need to return to God, just like every other culture that has ever existed on earth. Just like the Jews were called to do over and over again in the Old Testament. This is our connection point to them.
Now let’s look at how this played out in the beginning in Genesis 10 starting with:
I. The Separation of the World’s People into Their Appointed Areas
This chapter is telling us about the generations of the sons of Noah. In essence each of these sons becomes a nation and there is a total of 70 nations which become all the nations of the world at the time, this being a number of completeness in the Hebrew tradition. I’ve included an insert that approximately summarizes what we know about the nations that came through these people. All people spread in all directions from these beginnings.
Next week we’ll look in detail at how God dispersed these people, but the main point is that it was God who did it because He wanted people to seek Him, not each other. In Acts 17 Luke is speaking to the Greeks and says:
“And he (God) made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him.” Kind of implying blindness.
It was God in his sovereignty who set people where he wanted them to be. Hear what it says in Deuteronomy chapter 32:
Remember the days of old;
consider the years of many generations;
ask your father, and he will show you,
your elders, and they will tell you.
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God.
It’s so easy for humanity to believe that we have created all the non-living things on the earth, the geographical divisions, language divisions, cultural differences, family and social differences, and national divisions. But all of it since the beginning has unfolded according to His will. We have done nothing that God hasn’t allowed or directed.
Next we see:
II. The Promotion of Human Achievement Against God’s Authority
Oh how appropriate is the name Nimrod. Nimrod is Ham’s grandson and he is one of the few people that gets attention in this genealogy. He was a mighty man it says, a mighty hunter before the Lord. A proper translation of “before the Lord” is better said, “against the Lord”. This is actually supposed to be an ironic statement. Some have said his name means “to revolt”, which is basically what he did.
Nimrod was a very powerful, rebellious, wicked man from the cursed line of Ham, and he used his power to establish some of the great nations that would be great enemies of the Jewish people. He created the great cities of Babylon, Ninevah in Assyria, both were responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the Jews. And wouldn’t you know, his main territory was smack dab in the middle of what is modern day Iraq.
Babylon was about 50 miles from modern day Baghdad, and Mosul, Iraq is right on top of the other great city Ninevah. We don’t know if Nimrod had anything to do with Sodom and Gomorrah, but we do know that Ham’s line built these cities as well, that were so evil that God himself destroyed them.
Nimrod was not content with what God gave him. He wanted more. This is one of the first times we see man wanting to establish their own kingdom without God. A theme that continues through history, where the Jews were always looking for a powerful King, a worldly strong king, character didn’t much matter. And of course all along God wanted to be their king. This is one of the reason’s the Jews rejected Christ. They didn’t want a humble servant King, they wanted a Nimrod type who would annihilate the Romans.
God specifically sent the Assyrians and Babylonians to destroy Israel and Judah because they had turned from Him. They always ended up wanting to rely on themselves rather than the God who miraculously delivered them time and time again.
This genealogy also shows:
III. The Anticipation of God’s Judgment Upon a Cursed Family
Why does Canaan get so much attention here? His line is so much a part of prophecy. We know that in the future they inhabit the promised land which the Israelites easily take back from them under Joshua when they come back from Egypt. The Canaanites are responsible for the exiles and destruction of Jerusalem that so many of the prophets spoke about. It’s a great lesson of how God gives and takes away regardless of human power. Israel took back the Promised Land, and even more recently in history the Canaanite land of Palestine was given back to Israel.
I don’t think we can avoid the idea here of God’s judgment and his sovereignty. With every great civilization, God gives and takes away, usually because of disobedience. He raises up enemies and then shows his power by restoring his people every time. Now it can’t be any clearer than in the prophetic book of Revelation what God is going to do next. I don’t have time to go into it, but just read the last 17 chapters of Revelation.
Are we going to be like the Israelites, ignoring the prophet’s warnings of impending judgment? We may in our lifetimes see final judgment like never before, all the signs are there, and like the Israelites many are probably thinking, “oh, that won’t happen in my lifetime” or “there will be enough warning signs that I can get right with God before it happens.”
Hear what Jesus himself says about this:
Matthew 24, “There will be false prophets, wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes. These are just the beginning of the birth pains. Then they will deliver you (disciples of Jesus) up to tribulation and put you to death. Many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another (we are even seeing this in the church). Lawlessness will increase and the love of many will grow cold.” Fortunately for the sake of the believers the tribulation will be cut short.
In Luke chapter 12 he says: “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet (which can last several days in this culture by the way), so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. (who does that sound like?)
It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
Revelation 22:7 “And behold I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.
22:12 “Behold I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what they have done.”
22:14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes (by Jesus blood), so that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers, and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”
Remember he also said that his coming will be like the times of Noah, people will be doing everyday, normal things and be completely unprepared.
Any Christian who does not believe in coming judgment is like the Israelites who were destroyed and displaced. What is salvation unless it is salvation from something? Well Jesus makes it perfectly clear, that something is God’s Holy judgment.
We are to believe He is coming soon and be prepared. It’s one thing to believe He is coming some day, but it is of no use if you are not prepared. How do we prepare? Love and practice the truth of His word, don’t practice sexual immorality because it would be just your luck that he comes right in the middle of it, how humiliating and deadly would that be. We would be “Uh, it’s not what you think, I can explain.” Yeah right. Don’t murder, and don’t be idolaters. That last one might be the toughest, because I don’t think many of us can say we don’t put something above God.
The signs are all there, and there has not been one prophecy in the Old Testament that hasn’t happened as described. We must assume then, the same will be true of the New Testament prophecies, so anticipate judgment, don’t be afraid, but be prepared. Live your life so that if Jesus popped in on you at any time, he would find nothing against you.
Now let’s finish by looking at the hopeful part of this chapter in Genesis:
IV. The Selection of a Special Line to Fulfill God’s Promise
God is so gracious and patient, he always provides a way out from the penalty of sin. He keeps a line open that still qualifies to bring forth the Savior. He does it here through Shem’s line. We see special mention of Shem’s grandson Eber (which is where the word Hebrew comes from). Eber then fathered Peleg. Think “Peg leg” if you want to remember him. Now it says in the days of Peleg the earth was divided. This probably refers to the Tower of Babel incident we’ll cover next week. Abraham and then Jacob who was renamed Israel by the Lord, came through Peleg. This line is ultimately responsible for Christmas which is coming soon.
If we go back to Deuteronomy 32 at the end of verse 8 it says God fixed the borders of the people according to the number of the son’s of God. The dead sea scroll actually says sons of Israel. Then in verse 9 it says the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
Now remember earlier there were 70 nations that came from Noah, well let’s jump ahead to Genesis 46:26-27:
“All those who went to Egypt with Jacob (Israel)—those who were his direct descendants, not counting his sons’ wives—numbered sixty-six persons. 27 With the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family, which went to Egypt, were seventy in all.”
So we see here that Jacob or Israel had one descendant for each nation that came from Noah. It’s all Israel. We did not come from monkeys, we came from Noah. We are all Noah’s great..... grandchildren. And those children make up every race on earth, again confirming that we are all brothers and sisters, and the racism and segregation in our world is a disgusting joke.
The black homeless criminal in Atlanta, Georgia is as much our brother as any other person. Saddam Hussein is our brother, probably one of Nimrod’s descendants. Well, maybe cousin is a more accurate term.
The bottom line is that we are all related and if this world is ever going to improve, we all better start acting like it. This is going to be the stuff that makes us ready for Jesus’ return. Loving God, and loving your brother. Who is your brother or sister? Every person ever born. Are you able to look at people that way?
So there are the descendants of Noah. I hope I’ve helped to make this more than just a list of names to skip over in your Bible reading. Sometimes you have to work a little harder to find that all Scripture is useful, but it is. If that chapter had not been included, there would be many gaps in our understanding of HIS STORY.
And there is an action plan that comes from this chapter, and it is this if you choose to challenge yourself. Approach one person you wouldn’t normally approach, the last person you think you could possibly be related to and do something nice for them.
Be creative, it could just be talking to them briefly giving some uplifting words of encouragement, giving them some money or a little gift, maybe even taking them for a coffee or a meal. The point is to treat them as a loved relative. Oh and by the way, if you have any real family relatives that need some attention, love, or forgiveness, you might want to do something there too.
