Genesis 10:1-20--The Sons of Japheth and Ham

   Day 1: Genesis 10:1-20
   Day 2: Genesis 10:21-32
   Day 3: Genesis 11:1-4
   Day 4: Genesis 11:5-9
   Day 5: Genesis 11:10-26
   Day 6: Psalm 96

Genesis 10:1-20
World English Bible
10 Now this is the history of the generations of the sons of Noah and of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.

2 The sons of Japheth were: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 3 The sons of Gomer were: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. 4 The sons of Javan were: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. 5 Of these were the islands of the nations divided in their lands, everyone after his language, after their families, in their nations.

6 The sons of Ham were: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. 7 The sons of Cush were: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah were: Sheba and Dedan. 8 Cush became the father of Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh. Therefore it is said, “like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Yahweh”. 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 Out of that land he went into Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, 12 and Resen between Nineveh and the great city Calah. 13 Mizraim became the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 14 Pathrusim, Casluhim (which the Philistines descended from), and Caphtorim.

15 Canaan became the father of Sidon (his firstborn), Heth, 16 the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, 17 the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, 18 the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were spread abroad. 19 The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon—as you go toward Gerar—to Gaza—as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim—to Lasha. 20 These are the sons of Ham, after their families, according to their languages, in their lands and their nations.

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We'll zoom in on the sons of Shem next time, as that's the family that we are going to follow, but this passage in Genesis 10 that lists the sons of Japheth, Ham, and Shem is sometimes called The Table of Nations.  It tells us the origin of most of the nations that we find elsewhere in the Bible (and several that we hear of nowhere else).  We see that many of the nations are named after the firstborn son of these three sons of Noah.  This is also the genealogy that comes at the end of "the story of Noah" (I indicated at the beginning of Genesis that the various stories are broken up by genealogies).  We've now covered the story of Creation, the story of Adam, and the story of Noah, and we are about to move into the story of Abraham and his descendants.

This genealogy serves as a reminder to us that God is electing/choosing a specific people from among all the peoples to fulfill His covenant promise that He made in Genesis 3 that there would be a promised "seed" or "offspring" (hang onto that word, because it is about to show up again).  Paul points out something in the New Testament that so many of us miss reading these passages in the Old Testament that this word "seed" is singular, not plural.  It is not a statement about any or all of Eve's descendants, but a particular one of God's timing and choosing.

None of the nations listed here would be chosen for that role.  In fact, most of the nations listed here will be opposed to that plan--some right away, and others after a long time, but, eventually, the whole world will turn against the people that God has elected to be His own.  This passage should give special meaning to the promise though that God is going to redeem a people for Himself from every tribe, tongue and nation, for this is how the LORD sees the nations.  We can call ourselves whatever we want, and try to draw our own boundaries, but these the peoples whom the earth was given to and was divided among, and it seems that even in the end times, these are the names that the LORD will refer to when speaking of the various nations of the world.

The sons of Japheth were sea-faring people who would live on islands and we see most of the northern European peoples can trace their roots back to this family.  Notable names from this family are Gog (and Magog) which will come up in end times prophecies and the kingdoms of Kittim and Tarshish (we believe Tarshish to be modern-day Spain).  We'll see both of these mentioned in biblical prophecy .

There are many more names we recognize among the sons of Ham because these are the peoples that Israel will constantly be at war with and who are bent on destroying them.  They are the ones most often chosen by Satan to be the people from whom his antichrists come from.  These peoples include Nimrod from whom Assyria and Babylon came (these would be the nations that would take the Israelites into Exile), Cush, Put, Canaan, and Egypt, the Philistines, and all the Canaanite peoples who were to be judged and destroyed--specific mention is made of Sodom and Gomorrah here as a preview of a story that is coming later in Genesis about their destruction.

This story also gives a preview of the peoples being divided by language.  That hasn't happened yet, but it will very soon in Genesis.  The continents will be divided and the LORD will judge the nations for their rebellion and cause a language barrier between these different people groups so that it will be more difficult for them to have organized mass rebellion.

We'll pick up next time with the sons of Shem (the Semites or Semitic peoples).  We specifically will focus in on the family from which Abram/Abraham comes from, but there are many other descendants of Shem who still receive the blessing that was given by Noah to Shem (the land from where Job comes from is one of these peoples, the land of Uz).  God's people will even be told to leave these close family members behind and not to return to them because these family members will worship idols and they would tempt the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to return to their old land and old ways and not to live in the Promised Land under God's Law and Covenant.