Sons of the pioneers
Sons of the Pioneers
Genesis 10 – 11:9 Study 16
God gave the command to populate the earth … for the second time. What is different about this time compared to when God gave the command in the garden of Eden? This time God is starting the earth with sinners. Why? Could not God have wiped out everyone, including Noah and his family? I think the answer is 'Yes'. You might object, thinking that God could not have wiped out Noah and family and still be a God of love, mercy and grace. In other words, His very attributes required that He spare Noah and family. But consider this … every baby that died, being under the age of accountability was more innocent than Noah was. And yet God killed them.
We need to take another look at the flood of judgment and the very meaning of death itself. The scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5:8 that when a believer leaves his body, he is immediately in the Lord's presence. When God takes an innocent life it is not a judgment1. It is a homecoming. But when an unbeliever dies, he ends up like the 'rich man' of Luke 16:19-31 who passed from this life, immediately to a life of torment in hell. (By the way … he did not end up there because he was rich, but because he trusted money and not God)
So getting back to why God did not wipe out everyone and start over with another Adam, He could have taken Noah and family to heaven along with the other millions of innocent pre-born babies and young children. But He didn't. So what does that leave us? God gave His word to Eve that she would bear a child that would crush the serpent's head. He gave His word. God cannot go back on His word. He spared Noah so that the Christ could eventually be born … as He had promised Eve.
In our passage for this study (Gen. 10) we are given a genealogy. Noah's three sons are listed, not necessarily from eldest to youngest; Shem, Ham and Japheth (Ge 10:21).
Then Moses proceeds with the generations: but he starts with the oldest of the Noah's sons; Japheth. (Gen. 10:1-5) In verse 5 you will notice the remark by Moses … that from these descendants, as they dispersed they came to be known as families, nations, and languages. As he mentions languages, Moses is getting a bit ahead of himself because in chapter 11 he will tell us how languages came into being.
The sons of Japheth are: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
The descendants of Japheth moved toward the east, Indonesia etc., and to the west … Europe, Russia, England etc. In the 19 hundreds, linguists were examining the Sanskrit language have discovered it to be one of the oldest languages, dating back to the descendants of Japheth … after the confusion of languages at Babel. One of Japheth's sons, Gomer ended up populating areas all across Europe, including Germany. Magog is mentioned in the OT prophets as being in the North. Ezekiel prophesies that Magog (Particularly Rosh – or Russia), with Tubalsk and Meschech will come against Israel in the last days. Most Bible scholars identify them as modern day Russia and supporting states.
Next the genealogy of Noah's youngest son, Ham is given. It begins by giving us the names of his four sons. This is one of the places where we discovered that Canaan is the youngest. Ham's sons are Cush, Mizraim, Put (Phut) and Canaan.
Cush (Ham's son #1) had a boy named Nimrod who became quite a character. He is referred to as a mighty one, and also as a mighty hunter (probably warrior). Then we read that he established his own kingdom. The kingdom seems to reach over an area of several cities, the first of which is Babel (modern day Babylon). Then it says he went to Assyria and built Nineveh and several other cities. Nineveh is modern day Mosul, which as you probably heard, has been in the news a lot of late. Mosul presently is an ISIS stronghold.
The fact that Nimrod is described as having a 'kingdom' is a first. Even though we could say Noah ended up being 'king of the world' when he stepped out of the ark, the bible does not refer to him as a king. So Nimrod is identified as having the first 'kingdom'. We will not determine the extent of the boundaries of his kingdom, but it was massive. He is king at Babel. We will read about that in the next chapter of Genesis.
Ham's number 2 son is Mizraim. All we will taken note of is that the infamous Philistines descended from him.
Ham's number 3 (Put) son is not commented on.
Ham's number 4 son, Canaan, became the father of a lot of 'ites'. These settled in what is known as the fertile crescent and would have to be taken out in order for Israel to settle there later on.
Last, Noah's son Shem and his descendants are described. (21) Shem is the middle son. We read of his being the younger brother of Japheth. But we also read that Eber came from him. But Eber was actually a grandson. What is the significance? Eber is the earliest form of the word 'Hebrew'. This would be the family line that drops down to Abraham and later Jacob, the forerunner of the Jews.
Eber has two sons … likely twins, one of whom was named Peleg. And then this comment … in his days was the earth divided. What is that about? It will be explained more in the next chapter.
Verse 32 summarizes the list of names. It talks about the people being separated by language groups … and yet no language groups exist until chapter 11.
So we can read the account now:
As we discovered, Nimrod (Ham-Cush-Nimrod) is the king and the main 'push' to build a city. The time is about 100 years after the flood. Nimrod is not a believer. Noah was still alive. His father, Ham and his two uncles were still alive. They could talk about the flood and power of God. But obviously, like the other descendants of Ham, they do not want to keep God in their thinking.
Ro 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
Genesis 11.
We have discussed the descendants of Noah's sons in chapter 10. In the final verse we read the words; families, generations, and nations. We read 'and of these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.
This chapter zooms in, or focuses on how the spreading in the earth took place.
Chapter 11:1-4
They are of one language … and one dialect. At this point there would not even be a difference in accent as we do today between Britain, the USA or Australia.
Having one language shows that the people have been sticking together. How many would there be at this time? I am not certain of the math, but there were 8 who came out of the ark and this is a hundred years later. The number would only be in the thousands at most. The bulk of the group has moved in the plain of 'Shinar'. This would represent an area that extends throughout Iraq and part of Iran.
There are three parts to verse 4:
Satan is anti-God in every respect. In his anger over having failed to take over God's place, in his anger and humiliation at having been deposed from his lofty angelic responsibilities, he has set out to oppose God at every opportunity. We have seen his handiwork in the garden of Eden. We saw what evil he could produce through Cain and his descendants. We saw his supposed victory against God as the whole world, billions of them, lived totally Godless lives. And we saw God ruin his victory by removing Satan's work from the face of the earth.
So were is Satan now? Has he given up? Or is he looking for the first opportunity to destroy this re-creation? He has already (about a hundred years earlier) succeeded in capturing the mind of Ham and his son Canaan. He has inserted his leaven in to the batter … and now he is letting it work for him.
God had said, Ge 9:7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it."
Satan says, “No, don't go into all the earth. I need you together in one place. I will affect the minds of the masses.”
So their word was … Let's settle right here … and NOT be scattered in the earth. This is a form of rebellion.
God wanted them to fill the earth, to spread out. Am I being too critical here? Should we just give them time and allow them to multiply and realize that eventually they will fill the earth? We all know that in time they would spread out, even if just because they do not like overcrowding.
But there is something more here;
What we have here is …
All the people of the world in one place under One world leader
He leads and influences the people to say:
“Lets build a city.” That will produce the sense of community. Community generally means, 'We are all in this together.' That being said, let me point out something about present day community. I have heard Christians saying things like, How can we be serving our community? How can we minister to our community? How can we be a light to our community? Would these questions sound much different if we replaced the word OUR with the word THE? Maybe not at a superficial glance. But look a little deeper. I challenge you to find even one reference in the Bible where a New Testament Christian ever referred the area in which they lived as THEIR community. God said go into all THE world. It is not OUR world. It is not even God's world in one sense. The Devil is the prince and power of the air (Eph 2.2). It is not until a future time that the following verse takes effect;
Re 11:15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."
We must fight against the tendency of referring to the town in which we live as being OUR community. We are not in the same boat as the locals. They are not in a boat. They are drowning in a sea of unbelief and we are floating by with a life preserver in our hand. We are not in their community but we need to make them a part of ours. We do not belong to this world. (John 17:14-162).
If the town in which we live is not our community, then what is our community? As a body of believers we (the Church) are our own community. The sooner we realize that, the stronger the church will become and the better our witness will be. The bible Greek word for fellowship and community is koinonia3.
Satan (back to Genesis) is building a kingdom as quickly and as solidly as he can. The whole purpose of which it to hurt God in some way. So he has put into the minds of the people to live in one close-knit society with a man to lead them.
The leader gets them to say, 'Let us'. Let us build a city. Then, Let us build a tower. This to reach up to heaven. As a child I started believing that this tower was to be high enough that in the even of another flood the people could climb to the top and be safe. What it was really was a religious monument. A huge obelisk. Actually a ziggurat – a rectangular stepped tower. This would be a first one. Later, after they are dispersed into language and nation groups, a number of ziggurats would spring up all over the Mesopotamian valley. This tower was a symbol of worship … and not the worship of God.
And … let us make a name for ourselves.
This is 'Of the people, by the people, and for the people'. Sound familiar? But the part that is missing … one nation under God. America in its constitution has stated that it is exactly that. What happens as America begins to remove God from its thinking; when In God We Trust is removed from the coins; when God and prayer are removed from school and government? Then all that will remain is what the people of Babel were built on. Such a time is coming for America. (Canada is already there). What do I believe the Bible teaches about America fitting into Biblical prophesy and the book of Revelation? You need to read the Studies on Revelation, either online or in hard copy.4
A city – one world government
A tower – one world religion
A name – world pride: We are the World!
So now God says, Let us … go down and have a look at what is going on down there. This is an anthropomorphic expression. An expression that gives human-like characteristics to God's actions. In this expression God has to come 'down' to see this tall tower. Man can go as high as he possibly can, but to God it will always be down … way down.
God acknowledges that this one world, one leader, one government, one religion united spirit does indeed have power. It has great potential for evil. (6)
So God confuses their language.
– God creates languages and imposes them on the whole crowd.
Satan is opposed to anything that God does. He would have resented the creation of languages at Babel.
As we move toward Anti-Christ's kingdom, languages are disappearing.
National Review online contains an article that said thousands of human languages head toward extinction.
“The 15 most common languages are now on the lips of over half the world's people. At the current rate, linguists estimate that by the end of this century half the present languages will be completely gone." ….. "only 600 are being taught to children, the rest can't survive because there's not another generation to speak them."
This tower was named 'Babel' which means confusion. It is the source of the name Babylon and is the very spot where Babylon was built.
So the nations were formed … by the power and will of God. They separated into various sections of the land. As yet there were no continents that we know of, but God is moving them into place and getting ready to assign them permanent locations.
Acts 17:26 "And He (God) has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.
God has a plan to bring us all back together … with one language. Jesus will dwell with us and rule from Jerusalem. His bride will rule and reign with him. His people, Israel will know Jesus as Lord and Saviour. They will have become believers too late to have been transformed in the first resurrection and rapture. They will serve Jesus in their physical bodies on an earth that has had the curse removed. The Lion and the lamb will lie down together. Snakes will no longer be poisonous. Satan and his demons will be chained up. The desert will blossom like a rose. … For a thousand years.
In our final study of 'Genesis Beginnings' we will see the result of the dispersion of nations … particularly that of Shem's descendants … we will finally see what God did about creating continents such as Australia … and we will see how God intends to reach out to all of the evil followers of Nimrod.
1In the case of Ananias and Sapphira in the Acts 4:1-11 these believers were taken home so they would not be a blemish in the early church … which at that time was so pure. Then in 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 it says that believers who were abusing the Lord's supper were being removed from the church. This is not exactly a joyous homecoming to heaven.
2John:14 "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
15 "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
16 "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
3 κοινωνια koinonia koy-nohn-ee’-ah
1) fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation
1a) the share which one has in anything, participation
1b) fellowship, intimacy
4 http://www.biblestudynotes.net/the-revelation-of-jesus-christ.html
Genesis 10 Study 16
Genesis 10 – 11:9 Study 16
God gave the command to populate the earth … for the second time. What is different about this time compared to when God gave the command in the garden of Eden? This time God is starting the earth with sinners. Why? Could not God have wiped out everyone, including Noah and his family? I think the answer is 'Yes'. You might object, thinking that God could not have wiped out Noah and family and still be a God of love, mercy and grace. In other words, His very attributes required that He spare Noah and family. But consider this … every baby that died, being under the age of accountability was more innocent than Noah was. And yet God killed them.
We need to take another look at the flood of judgment and the very meaning of death itself. The scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5:8 that when a believer leaves his body, he is immediately in the Lord's presence. When God takes an innocent life it is not a judgment1. It is a homecoming. But when an unbeliever dies, he ends up like the 'rich man' of Luke 16:19-31 who passed from this life, immediately to a life of torment in hell. (By the way … he did not end up there because he was rich, but because he trusted money and not God)
So getting back to why God did not wipe out everyone and start over with another Adam, He could have taken Noah and family to heaven along with the other millions of innocent pre-born babies and young children. But He didn't. So what does that leave us? God gave His word to Eve that she would bear a child that would crush the serpent's head. He gave His word. God cannot go back on His word. He spared Noah so that the Christ could eventually be born … as He had promised Eve.
In our passage for this study (Gen. 10) we are given a genealogy. Noah's three sons are listed, not necessarily from eldest to youngest; Shem, Ham and Japheth (Ge 10:21).
Then Moses proceeds with the generations: but he starts with the oldest of the Noah's sons; Japheth. (Gen. 10:1-5) In verse 5 you will notice the remark by Moses … that from these descendants, as they dispersed they came to be known as families, nations, and languages. As he mentions languages, Moses is getting a bit ahead of himself because in chapter 11 he will tell us how languages came into being.
The sons of Japheth are: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
The descendants of Japheth moved toward the east, Indonesia etc., and to the west … Europe, Russia, England etc. In the 19 hundreds, linguists were examining the Sanskrit language have discovered it to be one of the oldest languages, dating back to the descendants of Japheth … after the confusion of languages at Babel. One of Japheth's sons, Gomer ended up populating areas all across Europe, including Germany. Magog is mentioned in the OT prophets as being in the North. Ezekiel prophesies that Magog (Particularly Rosh – or Russia), with Tubalsk and Meschech will come against Israel in the last days. Most Bible scholars identify them as modern day Russia and supporting states.
Next the genealogy of Noah's youngest son, Ham is given. It begins by giving us the names of his four sons. This is one of the places where we discovered that Canaan is the youngest. Ham's sons are Cush, Mizraim, Put (Phut) and Canaan.
Cush (Ham's son #1) had a boy named Nimrod who became quite a character. He is referred to as a mighty one, and also as a mighty hunter (probably warrior). Then we read that he established his own kingdom. The kingdom seems to reach over an area of several cities, the first of which is Babel (modern day Babylon). Then it says he went to Assyria and built Nineveh and several other cities. Nineveh is modern day Mosul, which as you probably heard, has been in the news a lot of late. Mosul presently is an ISIS stronghold.
The fact that Nimrod is described as having a 'kingdom' is a first. Even though we could say Noah ended up being 'king of the world' when he stepped out of the ark, the bible does not refer to him as a king. So Nimrod is identified as having the first 'kingdom'. We will not determine the extent of the boundaries of his kingdom, but it was massive. He is king at Babel. We will read about that in the next chapter of Genesis.
Ham's number 2 son is Mizraim. All we will taken note of is that the infamous Philistines descended from him.
Ham's number 3 (Put) son is not commented on.
Ham's number 4 son, Canaan, became the father of a lot of 'ites'. These settled in what is known as the fertile crescent and would have to be taken out in order for Israel to settle there later on.
Last, Noah's son Shem and his descendants are described. (21) Shem is the middle son. We read of his being the younger brother of Japheth. But we also read that Eber came from him. But Eber was actually a grandson. What is the significance? Eber is the earliest form of the word 'Hebrew'. This would be the family line that drops down to Abraham and later Jacob, the forerunner of the Jews.
Eber has two sons … likely twins, one of whom was named Peleg. And then this comment … in his days was the earth divided. What is that about? It will be explained more in the next chapter.
Verse 32 summarizes the list of names. It talks about the people being separated by language groups … and yet no language groups exist until chapter 11.
So we can read the account now:
As we discovered, Nimrod (Ham-Cush-Nimrod) is the king and the main 'push' to build a city. The time is about 100 years after the flood. Nimrod is not a believer. Noah was still alive. His father, Ham and his two uncles were still alive. They could talk about the flood and power of God. But obviously, like the other descendants of Ham, they do not want to keep God in their thinking.
Ro 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
Genesis 11.
We have discussed the descendants of Noah's sons in chapter 10. In the final verse we read the words; families, generations, and nations. We read 'and of these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.
This chapter zooms in, or focuses on how the spreading in the earth took place.
Chapter 11:1-4
They are of one language … and one dialect. At this point there would not even be a difference in accent as we do today between Britain, the USA or Australia.
Having one language shows that the people have been sticking together. How many would there be at this time? I am not certain of the math, but there were 8 who came out of the ark and this is a hundred years later. The number would only be in the thousands at most. The bulk of the group has moved in the plain of 'Shinar'. This would represent an area that extends throughout Iraq and part of Iran.
There are three parts to verse 4:
- Build a city
- build a tower
- make a name for ourselves.
Satan is anti-God in every respect. In his anger over having failed to take over God's place, in his anger and humiliation at having been deposed from his lofty angelic responsibilities, he has set out to oppose God at every opportunity. We have seen his handiwork in the garden of Eden. We saw what evil he could produce through Cain and his descendants. We saw his supposed victory against God as the whole world, billions of them, lived totally Godless lives. And we saw God ruin his victory by removing Satan's work from the face of the earth.
So were is Satan now? Has he given up? Or is he looking for the first opportunity to destroy this re-creation? He has already (about a hundred years earlier) succeeded in capturing the mind of Ham and his son Canaan. He has inserted his leaven in to the batter … and now he is letting it work for him.
God had said, Ge 9:7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it."
Satan says, “No, don't go into all the earth. I need you together in one place. I will affect the minds of the masses.”
So their word was … Let's settle right here … and NOT be scattered in the earth. This is a form of rebellion.
God wanted them to fill the earth, to spread out. Am I being too critical here? Should we just give them time and allow them to multiply and realize that eventually they will fill the earth? We all know that in time they would spread out, even if just because they do not like overcrowding.
But there is something more here;
What we have here is …
All the people of the world in one place under One world leader
He leads and influences the people to say:
“Lets build a city.” That will produce the sense of community. Community generally means, 'We are all in this together.' That being said, let me point out something about present day community. I have heard Christians saying things like, How can we be serving our community? How can we minister to our community? How can we be a light to our community? Would these questions sound much different if we replaced the word OUR with the word THE? Maybe not at a superficial glance. But look a little deeper. I challenge you to find even one reference in the Bible where a New Testament Christian ever referred the area in which they lived as THEIR community. God said go into all THE world. It is not OUR world. It is not even God's world in one sense. The Devil is the prince and power of the air (Eph 2.2). It is not until a future time that the following verse takes effect;
Re 11:15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."
We must fight against the tendency of referring to the town in which we live as being OUR community. We are not in the same boat as the locals. They are not in a boat. They are drowning in a sea of unbelief and we are floating by with a life preserver in our hand. We are not in their community but we need to make them a part of ours. We do not belong to this world. (John 17:14-162).
If the town in which we live is not our community, then what is our community? As a body of believers we (the Church) are our own community. The sooner we realize that, the stronger the church will become and the better our witness will be. The bible Greek word for fellowship and community is koinonia3.
Satan (back to Genesis) is building a kingdom as quickly and as solidly as he can. The whole purpose of which it to hurt God in some way. So he has put into the minds of the people to live in one close-knit society with a man to lead them.
The leader gets them to say, 'Let us'. Let us build a city. Then, Let us build a tower. This to reach up to heaven. As a child I started believing that this tower was to be high enough that in the even of another flood the people could climb to the top and be safe. What it was really was a religious monument. A huge obelisk. Actually a ziggurat – a rectangular stepped tower. This would be a first one. Later, after they are dispersed into language and nation groups, a number of ziggurats would spring up all over the Mesopotamian valley. This tower was a symbol of worship … and not the worship of God.
And … let us make a name for ourselves.
This is 'Of the people, by the people, and for the people'. Sound familiar? But the part that is missing … one nation under God. America in its constitution has stated that it is exactly that. What happens as America begins to remove God from its thinking; when In God We Trust is removed from the coins; when God and prayer are removed from school and government? Then all that will remain is what the people of Babel were built on. Such a time is coming for America. (Canada is already there). What do I believe the Bible teaches about America fitting into Biblical prophesy and the book of Revelation? You need to read the Studies on Revelation, either online or in hard copy.4
A city – one world government
A tower – one world religion
A name – world pride: We are the World!
So now God says, Let us … go down and have a look at what is going on down there. This is an anthropomorphic expression. An expression that gives human-like characteristics to God's actions. In this expression God has to come 'down' to see this tall tower. Man can go as high as he possibly can, but to God it will always be down … way down.
God acknowledges that this one world, one leader, one government, one religion united spirit does indeed have power. It has great potential for evil. (6)
So God confuses their language.
– God creates languages and imposes them on the whole crowd.
- A variety of languages creates a barrier. The people no longer can work together. They separate into language groups.
- God is responsible for the barrier. When Jesus commissioned us to go into all the world, we would run up against this language barrier. God knew this and gave special abilities to the early church.
- Spiritual gifts, church empowerment breaks down barriers.
- Language barrier (originally created by God) broken on day of Pentecost
Satan is opposed to anything that God does. He would have resented the creation of languages at Babel.
As we move toward Anti-Christ's kingdom, languages are disappearing.
National Review online contains an article that said thousands of human languages head toward extinction.
“The 15 most common languages are now on the lips of over half the world's people. At the current rate, linguists estimate that by the end of this century half the present languages will be completely gone." ….. "only 600 are being taught to children, the rest can't survive because there's not another generation to speak them."
This tower was named 'Babel' which means confusion. It is the source of the name Babylon and is the very spot where Babylon was built.
So the nations were formed … by the power and will of God. They separated into various sections of the land. As yet there were no continents that we know of, but God is moving them into place and getting ready to assign them permanent locations.
Acts 17:26 "And He (God) has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.
God has a plan to bring us all back together … with one language. Jesus will dwell with us and rule from Jerusalem. His bride will rule and reign with him. His people, Israel will know Jesus as Lord and Saviour. They will have become believers too late to have been transformed in the first resurrection and rapture. They will serve Jesus in their physical bodies on an earth that has had the curse removed. The Lion and the lamb will lie down together. Snakes will no longer be poisonous. Satan and his demons will be chained up. The desert will blossom like a rose. … For a thousand years.
In our final study of 'Genesis Beginnings' we will see the result of the dispersion of nations … particularly that of Shem's descendants … we will finally see what God did about creating continents such as Australia … and we will see how God intends to reach out to all of the evil followers of Nimrod.
1In the case of Ananias and Sapphira in the Acts 4:1-11 these believers were taken home so they would not be a blemish in the early church … which at that time was so pure. Then in 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 it says that believers who were abusing the Lord's supper were being removed from the church. This is not exactly a joyous homecoming to heaven.
2John:14 "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
15 "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
16 "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
3 κοινωνια koinonia koy-nohn-ee’-ah
1) fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation
1a) the share which one has in anything, participation
1b) fellowship, intimacy
4 http://www.biblestudynotes.net/the-revelation-of-jesus-christ.html
Genesis 10 Study 16