Ge 10

CHAPTER 10: THE TABLES OF NATIONS

v.2 The sons of Japheth are the Caucasians who settled in Russia and the European continent.

v.6 Ham's descendants populated the African continent.

v.21 Shem was the father of the Hebrew (the children of Eber) and Oriental people.

Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah (Gen 10:1), And as we get into chapter ten, this chapter has been called the "Table of Nations". And here you have the beginning of all of the various nations of the world, the various ethnic groups with these sons of Noah. "These are the generations of the sons of Noah."

Seth is probably the one who put these generations together. We follow for a little bit the line of Ham, a little bit the line of Japheth, and then when we get to the line of Shem we continue to follow the generations from Shem because it is from Shem that Abraham will come. It is from Abraham that the nation will come. It is from the nation and Abraham, of course, that the seed Christ will come. And so we'll continue to follow the line down to Christ. But the others will follow for a few generations to establish their ethnic groups that sprung from them. Then we'll leave them go, because the whole message really is centering and zeroing down towards Jesus Christ.

So many names are not given. Many of the families are not named at all. It isn't intended to be a complete historical record but only a record that will lead us to Abraham, which will lead us to David, which will lead us to Jesus Christ. Once we've come to Jesus Christ it wasn't necessary to keep the genealogies anymore. God has proven that Jesus Christ was as promised, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, the Son of Adam. So that's all that's necessary to follow that line that leads to Christ. Now the sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras (Gen 10:2). Gomer was more or less the father of the ancient Sumerians. Magog were the Scythians, the area of Russia. And Madai was the father of the Medes. Javan the Greeks. Tubal and Meshech, they believe that Meshech actually is the ancient Moskobi, modern day Moscow. And Tubal the modern Tublanx, and Tairas, of course, is the Taircians. And so we see that basically you're getting into the Asian European nations as descendants from Japheth. Now we take one of the sons.

Gomer (Gen 10:3); the first one listed, and we have the Germanic people; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah (Gen 10:3). Togarmah is thought to be the Armenians but the Ashkenaz, more or less, the Germanic people coming again from Japheth. And by these were the islands of the Gentiles divided (Gen 10:5) Actually Tarshish, and so forth. So you're getting into the area of Europe, Scandinavia, of course on into ultimately England, all the descendants. The Caucasian race descended from Japheth. Now the sons of Ham; Cush, and Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah (Gen 10:6-7). And all of these various names. We're not going to try and go through them all. But they basically went south and populated the areas of Africa. Also a portion of them, the descendants of Canaan were Sidon, which were the Phoenicians, the sister city of Sidon. And of course the city Sidon up on the northern coast of Mediterranean, the sister city of Tyre which were the Phoenicians. The Jebusites who inhabited the area around Jerusalem, and in verse seventeen there's "Sinite". Now it is felt that some of the inhabitants of the Sinites moved east and where the Chinese descended from this particular branch. And it is interesting that the Chinese are still called Sino people. And you read of the Sino-Japanese war, for instance and the name still holding; many of the Chinese names beginning with this S-I-N. So from Ham, Africa on over into the Far East and the area of Canaan. Now he does stop with one of the descendants when he gets to.

Cush begat Nimrod: and he began to be a mighty one in the earth (Gen 10:8). Instead of a mighty hunter before the LORD (Gen 10:9): It should be translated "he was a mighty tyrant in the face of the LORD." The hunting was the hunting of men's soul. Nimrod became a leader in apostasy, developer of a great religious system later to become known as the Babylonian religious system or the "mystery Babylon". That whole religious system was begun by Nimrod. Now his mother Semiramis was later to be called the queen of heaven and to be worshipped. It was her claim that Nimrod was actually born without the benefit of a father; that he was born while she was a virgin.

Nimrod was known for his hunting prowess's. A great man with the bow. In those days the people were probably, because of their primitive type weapons, very fearful of the wild animals—the lions and the tigers and leopards and so forth. And he was known as a protector of the people because of his ability and skills in hunting.

But one day while hunting boar, a wild boar turned on him and gored him. And he supposedly was dead for three days lying there in the woods and after three days his life returned. And so they began to celebrate his resurrection by coloring eggs and having great festivities in the springtime of the year. Incidentally, his birth was December twenty-fifth and they usually celebrated his birth by giving of gifts, drunken orgies, and cutting trees and decorating them with silver and gold in their homes. And this is just a few generations after Noah.

The worship of his mother Semiramis, queen of heaven, the whole thing, Satan's counterfeit of God's intended work began with Nimrod. And when you start reading the history of the Babylonian religion, the way they set up the celebrations and all, you will be absolutely shocked at the historic church and how much of the activities of the historic church were borrowed directly from Nimrod. He was also known as Tammuz, several names, Astarte, Semiramis, the various names for his mother who was worshipped. And actually the name Easter coming from Astarte. It's amazing that this Babylonian system could have so thoroughly infiltrated the church. But God brings Nimrod into the record here.

And the beginning of the kingdom of Babel (Gen 10:10), Verse ten, and it was he who inspired the people to build this tower that would reach into heaven. It was he who began to inspire them to the worship of the stars. The beginning of astrology and all of these things began in this ancient Babylonian religion.

The tower really literally not to reach into heaven but the tower was to worship. It was an observatory where they would go and worship the stars, the constellations and so forth. And many such towers have been uncovered in the archaeological diggings there in the Babylonian plain. There were areas of worship. So the descendants of Ham then in verse twenty-one, we come to the descendants of. Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber (Gen 10:21),

It is from Eber that we get the name Ibriy or the Hebrew. So Abraham was not the beginning of the idea or the name of the Hebrews. It came from Abraham's ancestor Eber. And so Shem the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born. The children of Shem (Gen 10:21-22) Are listed here for you.

And then the children of Aram (Gen 10:23); And we're going to narrow it down to Eber because we want to follow Eber. Eber had two sons: the name of one was Peleg; and in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan (Gen 10:25).

Now this idea of the earth being divided, there are some who try to relate this to a current scientific theory of the continental, the continent dividing, you know. The continents have been drifting apart. Originally there was only one landmass but this continental drift theory that is a current theory in some scientific areas and they some of them point to this reference in scripture it was in the time of Peleg that the earth was divided. However, if you'll follow the chronological charts and all, you'll find out that Peleg lived in the days of the tower of Babel. And it was at the tower of Babel that the earth was really divided into the ethnic groups, and so that is probably what the reference is to. The division of the earth into the ethnic groups following the tower of Babel experience, rather than a scripture that would somehow lend support to the continental drift theory. So that's the way it is. It could refer to the continental drift but more than likely the reference is to the division of the earth from the tower of Babel.

Among the names here in the descendants, we do find the name Jobab, which could very well be the Job of the Scriptures. And so I guess that's a little further down when we get into the descendants of Abraham.