I am Pastor Nathan and I do want to say that normally on the first of the month
we have a communion service but we're going to be doing that on Thanksgiving
Eve at our Thanksgiving celebration service and so we will be taking
communion later on in the month so I hope your heart's not broken but that's
what we're going to be doing all right but this morning we are going to be in
Genesis chapter 10 looking at what's referred to as the table of nations this
is the biblical ethnological look at how all the nations of the earth came
through Noah's three sons obviously we have been studying through Genesis and
we finished the flood and talked about all of that and then came to chapter 9
where Noah exited the the ark with his sons and then he had his little moment
of sin and we talked about what all that was last night but you'll remember that
there was a curse laid down on Canaan one of the sons of Ham and a blessing
laid out on Japheth and Shem we're gonna be kind of going through that today what
we have here is a list of the patriarch patriarchal founders of the 70 nations
26 from Shem 30 from Ham and 14 from Japheth now the traditional interpretation
of this list is that it's intended to be exhaustive what I mean by that is these
are literally these starting 70 nations not one more not one less that then
resulted in the entire population of the earth as God's mandate to be fruitful
multiply was filled out but some challenge that interpretation because
there are those who look at this and say well all biblical genealogies are
abridged and so therefore it can't possibly be an exhaustive list and what
I mean by abridged is you know we'll read through genealogies like this and
they'll say a fathered B B fathered C right and an abridged means where it
goes a fathered parentheses one who fathered two who fathered three who
fathered four who father five who fathered B right and they just put all
that smash it together and say a fathered B that would be an abridged
genealogy and the idea behind that is that there's a very very specific point
in God's Word specifically coming from the beginning through the flood and now
we're getting to the repopulation of the earth there is a very specific point and
so the less culturally relevant characters in the genealogies are left
out according to some people and so that idea would mean that as we're looking at
the genealogy today what we're seeing is is the people that were relevant to the
story of Israel the people that were ultimately relevant to what came in the
Messiah being born into this world the Savior of the entire world and so we do
understand that as these 70 nations started that eventually those nations
kind of commingled right as people would get married and people would migrate and
and countries would be invaded and people would get taken over eventually
these 70 nations just became a little mixed up but we still see representations
of all these cultures in today's world now nobody knows for sure specifically
whether this list of 70 nations was meant to be exhaustive or not but
regardless this list in its form is what God chose to include into his Word it's
what the Holy Spirit inspired Moses to write down and so therefore it's not
something to be skipped like people often do with the genealogies but it's
something to be studied and as students of God's Word we are here to dig in to
find out why it's here what it teaches us about God and what that means for our
lives today and that's what we're gonna be looking at today but before that
we're gonna spend some time in worship to praise Almighty God because he is
worthy amen if you guys will please help me welcome up Dennis Agajanian and while
they're getting in place I just want to remind you guys you know we have such a
privileged opportunity to praise God and Dennis if you don't know who Dennis is
he is a an award-winning artist that has been not just making music for so many
years but serving God he travels the world with Franklin Graham in support of
the work that Samaritan's Purse does and and we've been so blessed over the years
to have just a really rich friendship with him and pastor Gary way back had
always told me Dennis is the type of guy you want to be friends with because he
loves Jesus and so I pray that you guys would be encouraged as we worship today
and then we'll get into the service after but if you please join me in prayer
father God we thank you so much Lord for who you are we thank you God for the
work you do in our world Lord we thank you God that as you are here moving
amongst us that as we are gathered together knowing that you are with us
Lord we expect to hear from you we expect Lord that you would speak to us
and encourage us Lord not because we demand it but because we know you care
that we would know you more father God today I pray Lord you would open your
word and and reveal to us Lord the the deep rich meaning of why we have
genealogies in the Bible Lord that we would understand today that we every
single person in this room every single person on this planet we are all family
we're all related we're all descended from the same lines Lord and God that
means that things like racism and division and separation are just stupid
Lord they're just not right and they're not proper Lord so God may we understand
the the the united nature of what it means when we come to you to be a part
of your family Lord bless us today we love you so much and we thank you it's
in Jesus name we pray amen all right we are in chapter 10 of Genesis this morning
looking at the table of nations that is what people refer to this genealogical
list as the table of nations and this is obviously after the flood right the ark
had docked there on Mount Ararat the doors had opened everybody had
disembarked and what we had in the end of chapter 9 was the one and only record
of Noah's life after the flood and it wasn't the best picture of Noah he had
actually made a mistake and sinned he got drunk that is a sin and he exposed
himself which was just the picture of shameful nakedness is what it was it was
it was the shamefulness of his experience and we read that his son Ham
came in and then went outside and laughed about it mocked and wanted to
tell everybody whereas the other brothers Shem and J path walked in
backwards didn't even look at their father and covered him up covered his
shame and so we looked at how all that talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ
and what that has to do today but in that whole process when they disembarked
from the ark God had reiterated to Noah and his family the same blessing that he
had given to Adam and Eve in the very beginning he's you remember when God
created the heavens and the earth created everything created Adam and Eve
and he said look guys be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth that that
was a mandate the privilege the very high calling of not only bearing
children having children and then raising those children to be a godly
generation themselves to give praise and worship to our Creator that is a huge
high privilege that God has given us our world today wants to disdain that and
cast it off and say it's it's a waste of time it interferes with our life and our
career plans and you know God doesn't say that at all it is a very high
privilege and calling to do that now we get into that process here whereas Noah
is off the ark he is told again be fruitful multiply fill the earth right a
high challenge for eight people hey I wiped out the whole earth repopulate it
right it's like wow there's only eight of us right but what we have here in
this this list is how that took place the offspring of Noah's three sons where
they went the the people groups that they fathered if you will and how the
world then came out of that but the important note here is as we're looking
at this genealogy today we have to understand every single one of us in
this room every single one of us we're all descendants of Noah we're all
descendants of Adam and Eve think about the implication of that we all have a
common ancestry every single one of us every ethnicity every language every
culture of the nation we have a common ancestry in our lineage every single one
of us goes all the way back through these three sons of Noah and so
obviously as the cultures grew from this you know people started to mingle and
bloodlines as people got married people migrated as they continued this
multiplication but the big question often asked about genealogies is why does the
Bible include these long lists of names that nobody could pronounce what does it
possibly have to teach us how is it important for us in our world today well
the big reason among other reasons that I believe God includes these things is
so that we understand how deeply interested in people God is God cares
about people he cares about you he cares about me he cares about everybody on
this planet God is so invested in people not only as our creator but he works
through people he speaks through people he loves all people so he made a promise
to people Adam and Eve that he would defeat Satan through their offspring now
as the world eventually got so corrupt that the only thoughts that everybody
thought all the time were evil he had to wipe out the world but he protected eight
people from judgment and then called them to repopulate all people so that
one day God himself could be born as one of the people to live as the people and
to be tempted in every way like the people but without ever sinning unlike
all people that have ever lived so that when he died for their sin atoning for
all people all people would have the opportunity to be saved through faith in
him God cares about people and that's one of the reasons why you have these
lists these family records that are recorded so we can see God's promise all
the way back in the garden unfolding through people unfolding through human
history and so what we're gonna see in this is the nations that come from
Japheth Ham and then we're gonna have a focus on Shem and the reason the the
whole focus ends up on Shem is because it's through the family of Shem comes a
man named Nahor and then from Nahor comes a man named Terah and then from
Terah comes a man named Abram and then from him comes Isaac and then Jacob and
then the 12 tribes of Israel and then through one of those tribes all the way
down ultimately culminates in the Savior of the entire world Jesus Christ and
that's what the story is ultimately about now the very end of the chapter
tells us in verse 32 that this genealogical table of nations it's put
together according to their clans their family records in their nations and so
the idea of what we're seeing in this is a is a geographical political national
tapestry of what happened through Noah's sons and the whole thing is very
intentionally structured by the way which is always interesting because when
you see how structured things are in Scripture it shows us God's
intentionality that God is intentional in his promises God is intentional in
his reach to us God is intentional in what he says and how he fulfills it now
in this chapter we have 70 nations that we're gonna be going through it's not
71 it's not 69 it's exactly 70 nations now we've talked about in Genesis the
importance of the number seven and the importance of multiples of the number of
seven we see this in many places throughout scripture and that number
seven often holds significant theological meaning sometimes the word
is referring to completion or totality or something being finished or something
being divinely perfected in that sense for example in creation right six days
God rested on the seventh the seventh day of the week was declared the Sabbath
where you rested when the law of Moses came and they had all the laws about the
sacrifices the animals that were sacrificed had to be seven days old when
Joshua led Israel into the promised land they marched around Jericho six days
once and then on the seventh day marched around seven times and then had the
seven priests blow the seven trumpets you starting to maybe think seven is an
important number right you had seven pairs of clean animals on the ark in
the tabernacle the the lampstand had seven stems and then we see multiples of
seven which are tied to very important truths in scripture you have Daniel's
70 weeks as he's given the the prophetic look at history all the way through the
end of time the nation of Israel was in captivity in Babylon for 70 years the
year of Jubilee would always take place on the 50th year after 49 years which
was seven times seven Jesus gave seven I am statements in the gospel of John
Peter was told to forgive 70 times seven times in Revelation we saw there was
seven seals and seven trumpets and seven bowls seven letters to seven
churches and on and on and on and on so I don't think that the 70 nations here
is just oops they just what a coincidence he landed on seven I think
there's a very intentional purpose with this and so the significance that the
table of nations the significance that lists exactly seven I think is important
because we're meant to see here a complete total picture of phase one of
the repopulation of the world that it's from these 70 nations that all the
people of the planet came from and so we're gonna go through it it's a long
list of names okay some of the pronunciations I'm totally guessing all
right so don't hate me for that okay Genesis chapter 10 verse 1 these are
the family records of Noah's sons Shem ham and Japheth they also had sons after
the flood Japheth sons so we're getting the first son Japheth his records here
his sons were Gomer Magog Medai Javin Tubal Meshech and Tirus now Gomer
Japheth's first son gave birth to Ashkenaz gave birth to fathered Ashkenaz
Ripath and Togromah Javin's sons were Elisha Tarshish Kittim and Dodimim from
these descendants the peoples of the coasts and the islands spread out in
their lands according to their clans in their nations each with their own
language now it's interesting that the word the name Japheth means to enlarge
or to expand and that's exactly what God told him to do when he laid the
blessing on him when he when he blessed Shem and then he blessed Japheth in
chapter 9 verse 27 he said let God extend Japheth now modern ethnologists
and linguists know that there's all languages basically come down from what
they call proto languages original languages and in today's world there's
there's so many languages out there but they're all grouped into these major
large groupings of languages like you have the Semitic languages those are
all like Arabic and all the language of that kind though one of the biggest
groups of languages in the world today is called the Indo-European language
group now as you can imagine all the languages of Europe come from this
language group Greek Italian French Germanic English but what's also in this
group meaning they come from the same ancestor as all the Slavic languages
Russian Serbian Czech even more interesting is what's in this same
language group is all the language of the nation of India Punjabi Bengali and
what's even more interesting than that is that the languages of the Iranian area
also are in this same language group meaning Farsi Kurdish Persian it's very
interesting that you have all these disparate languages but as the linguist
study it they go you know they all came from a common source a common original
source and you might think well how is that possible because all these people
came from J path they all were descended from the same place meaning Europe Iran
India Russia Asia Minor which is like Turkey in the areas there they all came
from the same source now in the next chapter we're gonna get into the Tower
of Babel and the ultimate dispersion of languages but with all the different
languages we have in the world today the groupings tell us that certain people
groups came from from a very common a common language in the distant past and
so Gomer it tells us here with we know that his people were primarily north of
Israel his kids were Ashkenaz which is the Germanic peoples what's very
interesting about that is there are some Jews back in history that migrated to
Central Europe and they are called the Ashkenazi Jews if you've ever heard that
term what it's referring to is Jews who had migrated to the central areas of
Europe and settled in this area that was originally the area of Ashkenaz you
have ripath togram are that's the places of some of Armenian or some of the areas
of Armenia in ancient Turkey then you got Magog right that's the one we should
know a lot about he's the very important one in the prophecies in Ezekiel's 38
and 39 talking about the end time prophecies Magog's people went far north
in the far northeast and so from him you have the Russians and the Slavs and the
Bulgarians and Croatians and that all fits the prophecies we have that say in
the end times there's gonna be a mighty army from the north that attacks Israel
and this morning I read that I think it was in the last few days Russia has made
a military treaty with Iran it's just all the pieces of prophecy are falling
into place the third son Madai that was the Meads from the Meads in the Persians
if you know about that these are the people that settled in Iran and
Afghanistan the Kurdish people and people that then when settled into India
as well and that's very interesting to me because historically we we know that
Iraq and Iran have been like enemies mortal enemies for forever right and
most people think oh they're enemies just because you know they're two
different lines of Islam and that's why but understanding the offspring their
animosity goes back even further you see according to the scientists that study
this stuff the Iranian people aren't Arabs and people go what they're not
Arabs they're descendants of J path the Semitic people came from Shem and guess
what the people that settled Iraq are Shemites and so you had the offspring of
Shem and the offspring of J path going against each other for all time it's
just really crazy when you start to see this stuff Javin was the Greeks and the
Macedonians the Romans and the Italians his kids Elisha and and Kitim and
Dodonym were all the island people right the the Kitite Empire settled on the
island of Cyprus the island of Rhodes is actually in a in an island grouping
called the Dodecanese islands and it's just like oh yeah cuz Dodamine settled
there and then Tarshish if you're a Bible student that should ring a bell
because that's where Jonah tried to flee to when God said go to Nineveh he's like
nah I'm gonna go to Tarshish and when you understand that Tarshish is is
ancient Spain you understand that oh Jonah was trying to get as far away as
possible from God's call so then you have Tubal and Meshech that's kind of
the northwestern part of Russia and then Tirras is the Thracians and these were
people that were considered barbarians by Greeks and Romans so that's J path's
people but what's very interesting is out of the 70 nations here only 14 of
them are J path and yet the blessing to J path was let God extend J path and
when you look at the the development of cultures J path's people seem to have
spread out over more of the earth than any of the other peoples and it was just
a picture of God's blessing holding true in his life
verse 6 ham sons Kush Mizraim put and Canaan Kush's sons were Siba have a less
sabta Rama and sabteca and Rama sons were Sheba and to Dan now hams
offsprings are the people that went southwest of Mesopotamia they went down
into Egypt and Africa and southern Arabia as well and that's where all the
African-American dark-skinned people came from the descendants of ham now
Kush that name Kush is actually the name of ancient Ethiopia if you find old
ancient maps you'll see where Ethiopia's it was called the land of Kush and then
Jeremiah 1323 is really interesting it references the distinctive skin of the
Kushites and so there were already these these kind of physical differences in
the people but we all came from Noah his kids became the Arabian or the African
countries Mizraim is actually the ancient name for Egypt put was put in
Libya and Canaan we know that one they're the cursed kids of ham but then
in verse 8 we get into this little detail like we're going through these
names right names names names names names and then in verse 8 we kind of
fixate on one particular individual named Nimrod it says Kush fathered
Nimrod who began to be powerful in the land he was a powerful hunter in the
sight of the Lord that is why it is said like Nimrod a powerful hunter in the
sight of the Lord that's kind of weird you may notice that Nimrod was a powerful
hunter that's why people say Nimrod was a powerful hunter but we got it there
his kingdom started with Babylon Erek a cad which is where the Akkadians came
from Kalnan the land of Shinar and from that land he went to Assyria and built
Nineveh and Reho both Ir, Kala and Rezin between Nineveh and the great city of
Caliph now in the middle of this genealogy why take so much space to focus
on this one guy named Nimrod it's because he was unique among the people
of his time he's understood to be one of the first rulers of a vast empire see
as we're talking about all these nations coming out Nimrod was ruling over a
vast vast people now Josephus the historian links Nimrod to the building
of the Tower of Babel which is the story we get into in chapter 11 and Josephus
points out that that Nimrod built this tower and we'll see it in the story that
that the people wanted to get to God they thought we can ascend to God but
Nimrod suggests it was kind of an in-your-face to God like oh you think
you're gonna flood us again now we're gonna build a tower that reaches all all
the way up to your house and so possibility there now when we get to
chapter 11 it doesn't specifically mention Nimrod so that's why it's a
speculative connection here but again this this this kingdom that came from
the Tower of Babel ended up being known as Babylon and it tells us here that
Nimrod was the founder of Babylon his kingdom started there and so there's a
lot of interesting details about this guy Nimrod he's a he's a big figure in
history there's evidence that that the the heroes in the epic of Gilgamesh
were modeled after Nimrod that Hercules was modern modeled after the story of
Nimrod and so he was a he was a major dude in those times now his name means
rebel and he really was the poster boy for all rebels because I see him as a
prototype for the Antichrist and I think that's one of the reasons God included
him here you see you had this guy that in these times was the ultimate rebel
against God said no we don't need to God we don't need God to rule over us we
don't need him we don't believe in him matter of fact we're gonna build our own
tower to heaven and just you know shake our fist in his face and in the end
times we read that there's gonna be a man named the Antichrist who is the
ultimate rebel in the last days who like Nimrod will do mighty works upon the
earth and like Nimrod will rule over a kingdom known as Babylon so this all
took place in the land of Shinar so at least one of Ham's descendants didn't go
down into Israel they went over into East Mesopotamia and they actually he
started founding all of these big cities now again it's very important that it
points out specifically that he built Nineveh and he built Babylon because who
were the two people groups who took the Jews into captivity the Assyrians took
the northern ten tribes in 722 BC and then the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar
took the southern two tribes in 605 and 586 BC and so Nimrod is just the
predecessor of some of Israel's biggest enemies now we get to verse 13 and he
starts going through some of the other sons Mizraim fathered the people of Lud
Anam, Lehab, Naphtah, Pathras, Kasla the Philistines came from them and Kaftor
now these are all the peoples that settled along the northern coast of
Africa all the way up into the land of Canaan but then verse 15 we get into
Canaan now he was the cursed son right so now we're drilling down into the
details that are very specifically going to affect Israel Canaan fathered Sidon
his firstborn and Heth, Heth is where the Hittites come from that's what we read a
lot about in the Old Testament as well as the Jebusites the Amorites the
Girgashites the Hivites the Arkites the Sinites the Ardavites, Arvadites the
Zemerites and the Hamathites a lot of ites okay and then it says afterward
the Canaanite clans were scattered we don't know exactly what that means
whether they you know it's scattered far they just scattered amongst the land but
then it tells us in verse 19 the Canaanite border went from Sidon which is
modern-day Lebanon going towards Gerar as far as Gaza we know where Gaza is
at and going towards Sodom Gomorrah Admon Zeboim as far as Lasha these are
Ham's sons by their clans according to the languages in their lands and their
nations so again as we're drilling down in the story here we're understanding
or at least Israel was understanding where their enemies came from as they
were eventually going to be entering in the promised land I believe Moses wrote
this during the wilderness as they were going to be entering the promised land
and they were going to be taking a conquest to destroy the Canaanite people
per God's instruction I believe these things are written so that the children
of Israel reading this go oh that's who they are oh we're gonna conquest destroy
all the Canaanite tribes because oh they were cursed okay we understand who these
people are and why and so these are all the people that were in the land of
Canaan which is the promised land the land that was promised to Israel and so
it's basically just a long list of Israel's enemies in the land right like
everybody in there is your enemy and he's gonna go the Girgashites yes they're
Canaanites the the whateverites yes they're Canaanites too basically if they
got an I to at the end of their name get them right because these they just
scattered out now this is where we come to the end of J path and hams lineage
okay now it's not that J path and hams lineage ceased obviously a lot of us
wouldn't be here today if it ceased right but they're largely absent from
biblical history why because the story that we're given is the fulfillment of
Genesis 315 when God said to Adam and Eve look your offspring is gonna come
one day and destroy the the work of Satan that's the focus when we come from
creation we keep narrowing into the story of salvation that God gives us all
through scripture and so here's how the peoples of the earth got out there but
now we're gonna focus in specifically they focused in in great detail on the
Canaanites because they would be a specific thorn in Israel's side so in
verse 21 now we get to Shem J path's older brother it says also had sons now
I do want to point out that if you read an older translation it'll say sham the
brother of J path the elder and so some people go J path was the older one and
then right here in the CSB translation it goes sham was the oldest one all
right we don't know and it doesn't matter okay so it's not a thing to argue
about or divide over but if you see that there's because the manuscript evidence
kind of goes both ways it could be translated both ways and so but it says
sham also had sons sham was the father of all the sons of Eber since shen
shems sons were Elam Asher Arphax ad Ludd and Aram Aram sons were ooze who
will gether and mash now notice here that we have an aside just like we had an in
ham story in chapter 9 if you remember in chapter 9 it says Noah and his sons
got off the ark and then it goes ham was the father of Canaan and then they
populated the whole earth right you go why is that aside there it's kind of a
weird detail and he does the same thing here I'm about to tell you about all of
sham sons but sham was the the father of all the sons of Eber because that's an
important detail that we're gonna come back to here in this genealogy now Eber
is the important part just like Canaan was the important part back through
chapter 9 but before we get to that all these sons are the Semitic peoples all
right these are the peoples that are the Jews the Arabs all the Semitic nations
that we have he gave birth to Elam that's where the Elamites came from we're
gonna read about them when we get to Abraham story as he's in the Promised
Land and the Elamites invade the country Asher was the the progenitor of the
Assyrian people that ended up going up north and having the Syrian Empire and
as we said eventually being the people that took Israel into captivity or at
least the northern ten tribes Arphax ad was the Chaldeans the son Lude was the
Lydians that's kind of like through Turkey and all of that and then you have
Aram Aram's an important one he was the father of the ancient Syrian people or
what we know today as Syrians okay the nation of Syria that area down into
Jordan is where these people originally developed but the name Aram should make
you think of something that we occasionally talk about in the New
Testament you see people often go what language did Jesus and the disciples
speak in his time well the Bible's in Greek did they speak Greek there's a
possibility but in their time it's commonly understood that the people
spoke Aramaic the people of Aram are the ones that came up with the Aramaic
language and you go well why did why did the Jews speak it why did they speak it
in Israel or remember when the Jews came back from Babylonian captivity in
Babylon they were speaking Aramaic and so they came back it was a part of their
culture now right and so they were just a multilingual culture like a lot of us
are right you know people people blend into our country we blend into their
country we pick up some of their language they pick up some of our
language and that's how it goes but then it also says this final note that Aram
fathered Uz and you go big deal about that well when we get to the book of
Job it says Job is from the land of Uz and then you have Gether which is in
southwest Israel and then Hull and Mash which is where the Armenian people are
understood to come from so verse 24 our fix shod fathered Sheila and Sheila
fathered Eber so we skip a lot if you will to go right into who fathered Eber
now Eber is the line through which the Messiah would come through there are
some scholars that go yeah the word Hebrew came from this man's name they
look at it you go Eber the Hebrew ruse right I don't know if that if that's
accurate but the people that came from this line were known as the Hebrews in
Genesis chapter 14 verse 13 we got Abram the Hebrew right so verse 25 now we're
focused in Eber had two sons one was named Peleg for during his days the
earth was divided his brother was named Joktan now Joktan was a very busy man
Joktan fathered Almadad, Seleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadarim, Uzzal, Dikla,
Obal, Abimeel, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab so I don't know what he did other
than have babies but he there's a lot of people that came from him okay a lot of
people think that Jobab the last name in that list is actually Job from the book
of Job and that Job is just a shortened version of his name that's speculative
but possible but it says all of these were Joktan sons now you go back to
Arabia and all of the tribes that that have come out of Arabia that have led to
the modern countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and and all of those they all
came from these people verse 30 their settlements extended from Misha to
Sefar to the eastern hill country and again that's just parts of Arabia they
are Shem sons by their clans according to their languages in their lands and
in their nations now that's a long list of names and where people lived and all
that but you have these little details kind of scattered throughout here Peleg
is one of them for during his days the earth was divided and you go what does
that mean right some people use that as a proof text for the ideas of Pangea
right that all the continents were once together and and they split apart which
you know modern tectonics is like yeah okay that's happening and they go right
here this is when it happened problem with that is right after chapter 10 we
have chapter 11 which is the story of the Tower of Babel which is a very clear
story of how the people of the earth were divided because God confused their
languages and all the people split over that and so contextually I think that
divided here more likely means the people of the earth were divided right
so but these are all the names of the founders of the various Semitic peoples
the Jews and the Arabs and then verse 32 it says these are the clans of Noah's
sons according to their family records in their nations the nations on the
earth spread out from these after the flood so this whole list is is Noah and
his family fulfilling the blessing the charge that God gave them be fruitful
multiply fill the earth right this is the picture of them being obedient to
that call and it's from these roots that all the people of the earth grew from
but what the table of nations here really teaches us and I think the big
lesson in this particular genealogy is to understand that from the point of the
flood and Noah all humans are interrelated we are all family all of us
it doesn't matter red yellow white black brown some of us are like translucent
pale like we're all descendants of Adam and Eve we're all descendants of Noah
and through his three sons we all have a common ancestry we all have the same
DNA all people all humans not one people group but all humans derive their
existence from the life power life-giving power of God Almighty thus
all people are responsible to him as the creator right this is what Paul said in
Acts 17 for one from one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole
earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they
live he did this so that they might seek God and perhaps they might reach out and
find him though he is not far from each one of us for in him we live and move
and have our being as even some of you your own prophets or poets have said
for we are also his offspring you see when it says there at the very end that
the nations of the earth spread out from these after the flood that to me tells
me that that these were likely the literal seven seventy nations that
existed now somebody brought up a comment earlier and said do you think
there's the some of the other people it doesn't list all their descendants
because maybe they just had all all women female kids because in the time
the family name went through the patriarchs I don't know that's possible
but I do believe that it's these seventy nations that were kind of the set that
the whole earth came from so when we understand that that all of this is a
part of God's plan all of this is what God has done we see this picture here
that one we are all united by our ancestry we're all united by our
responsibility to God our Creator but at the same time we're a people that are so
divided and we divide over things like our geography we divide over our
language we divide over a nest ethnicity we divide over our culture most of all
we're divided by our fallenness and our sin because it's our fallenness and our
sin that makes us selfish people and that's what makes us look at people who
don't look like us and go I'm better than you or to look at people that have
what I want and say I'm gonna conquer you and take it it's a selfishness that
is a result of sin and it's that fallenness and sin that separates us
from one another even though we're family it's a sin that separates us from
God and so you study a genealogy like this and you go what are we supposed to
learn here well I think the question that should come up is what is the
answer for a humanity that is so united in origin yet so divided in so such
profound ways and we know the answer right the answer started in Genesis 3
16 when he said the offspring is gonna come and he's gonna defeat sin he's
gonna defeat the devil he's gonna take all that out and then so God responded
by to their sin by promising a descendant who will undo all that work and
it's God in the flesh it's Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is the only one who could
unite us he is the only one who can pay for our sin and guess what he paid for
everybody's sin every single human being bleeds red right hopefully otherwise you
might need to go to the hospital we all bleed red guess what Jesus bled red
because he died for you he died for me he died for all of us and what we're
gonna see as we study through the rest of Genesis is God working out his plan
through people through the history of mankind right in the middle of all their
politics in the middle of all their tragedies in the middle of all the
surprises in the middle of all of the schemes of mankind and it shows us we
might think that we are the authors of history but our sovereign God is the one
who's in control of all of it now yes we do things and we're called to live and
plan and build and be fruitful multiply but God is not surprised by the things
that mankind does God is not surprised by the twist and turns it doesn't matter
what mankind does what mankind did God fulfilled his promise Jesus Christ was
born into this world and it just shows us again that our magnificent God keeps
his promises if God promises something you can bank on that happening our God
is true our God is faithful he said he was going to provide a way and he did
and the fulfillment of that is still being seen in our world today now I did
mention earlier that 70 was kind of like an important number it was 70 nations
that came from Noah's son and that whole idea of seven and multiples of seven
communicating completeness communicating totality it really ties into one of the
reasons why I believe when he says all the nations of the earth came from
these that is literally these 70 nations but later on in Genesis chapter 46 when
Jacob and his sons are traveling down to Egypt we're gonna see that it's 70
members of the family that go down to Egypt and those 70 members of that
family repopulated the nation of Israel there into a couple million people by
the time Moses led them out back in when they got into the the wilderness and the
travels Moses was overwhelmed he can't manage all these people and so he
appointed 70 elders in Luke chapter 10 we read a story of Jesus sending out 70
evangelists 70 preachers now it's interesting that here in Genesis as God
sent out 70 nations to repopulate the earth and in that instituted a new order
upon earth if you will post-flood that Jesus sent out 70 to evangelize
representing the establishment of a new spiritual order gathering people to
populate a new earth one day now it's a beautiful picture of God fulfilling his
promises he made a promise to Abraham once in Genesis 12 2 & 3 where he said I
will make you into a great nation I will bless you I will make your name great
and you will be a blessing I will bless those who bless you and I will curse
anyone who treats you with contempt contempt and all the peoples of the
earth will be blessed through you this verse is why we say vote for those that
support Israel right despite all the stuff and the questions and the detail
all that stuff right here it tells us Abraham you and your offspring which are
the people of Israel I will bless you if you bless them I will curse you if you
hold them in contempt but that's not the point of why I'm bringing this up he
says and all the people on the earth will be blessed through you you see
mankind we are united in our ancestry we're united in our humanity yet we're
so divided from God and one another because of sin and that sin is what
causes us to further divide on things like culture and ethnicity and language
and politics I'm not a big politic person right I have my opinions and if
you ask me in private I will tell you what I feel about things but but from
the pulpit I struggle with like getting political not that I'm against that but
for me I struggle with it because the answer to me is not who's in office that
matters but the answer is Jesus Christ it is Jesus Christ changing the hearts of
our leaders and our politicians that will lead to change in this world it's
him and only him because he's the only one now yes we need to get people in
there that that are holding to our values or at least most of our values as
Christians but it's Jesus that's gonna change the world and so we can't let
ourselves be divided over ethnicity because that just leads to racism and
that's terrible we can't let ourselves even be divided politically and start to
look at people across the aisle and say we hate you because you're so liberal
they bleed red too and God's red blood was shed for them as well and so when it
comes to the divisions that the devil tries to bring into our world especially
in times like the election cycle we have to remember that we're all sinners
we're all family fallen desperately in need of a Savior desperately need and
salvation and forgiveness and Jesus Christ is that answer God is deeply
interested in people he cares about people he cares about you he cares about
me he works through people and he speaks through people he loves people and so he
made that promise that he kept prophesied by an impossible amount of
specific details details fulfilled by his birth his life his death and his
resurrection and regardless of your lineage regardless of whether you come
from Shem, Hammer, J-Peth or mixing of all three at some point you definitely come
from Noah and you definitely come from Adam and Eve who are his predecessor and
what that means is that their original sin is the sin nature that you inherited
it is a sin nature that you you just were born with to want to rebel to want
to go against God and that sin is the sin that Jesus Christ paid for by dying
on the cross and because of that all of humanity every human regardless of race
or culture because of that you regardless of what you've done of what
you've done can receive the forgiveness of Jesus Christ because he loves you he
died for you he paid the price for your sin God promised it to happen it did
happen and it could be fulfilled in your life today all you have to do is put
your faith in him that's what we've been talking about Noah was made righteous
because he believed God wasn't because he was a perfect individual he simply
said God you're real you told me judgments coming I'm gonna do what I
need to do to get ready for it well judgment is coming people the sin of
this world is escalating we're quickly and quickly turning into a to not just a
country but a world that is exactly the way Jesus is described to that as it was
in the days of Noah it's quickly heading that direction while we're here we have
a stewardship to do something about it but the greatest thing we could do
about it is tell people about the salvation that is in Jesus Christ and
then one day yeah Jesus is gonna come back God's gonna come back and judge the
whole world he's gonna judge sin and sinners and all who reject him will
suffer forever in the in the fires of hell and that's just the truth of
scripture but that doesn't have to be your destiny because whether you came
from Ham, Shem, or Japheth you can be a child of God covered by the blood of
Christ if you just believe in him so I'm gonna invite up Dennis right now and
I'm gonna pray for you guys if you don't know Jesus Christ is your Lord and
Savior and you've never accepted him that means you've never just said Jesus
I believe in you I believe you're real I believe you're God I believe you died
for me I believe that through your shed blood because it was perfect and pure it
was it was literally without sin that you accept that as the atonement for my
sin I believe in that if you've never done that today can be your day that
you'd be set free from the power of sin and death that you'd be forgiven that
that guilt that you carry from all the bad things you've done you could start
to learn to understand that God forgave you so it's not about how many times you
fall it's about how many times you get up and say Jesus dust me off and help me
keep going let's pray father God we trust you so much we trust your word and we
know God that every letter every letter in your word God tells us about you in
some way somehow God it helps us to understand the truth of of who you are
who we are it helps us to understand the depth of our problem God that Lord we
didn't just come from amoebas and we didn't come from bubbly news and some
bog somewhere Lord that we were created by you a loving creator who knows us who
knows every hair on our head and yet God because we're separated from you by sin
Lord in your justice you have to judge it but God through your love and because
you loved us you sent your son to die for our sin that we would be set free
that we would be forgiven that we regardless of our lineage regardless of
our background Lord would understand that we are sinful human desperately in
need of Jesus and when we trust in you we are saved not just that we are made
a child of God adopted into a family of different people who are all united in
their humanity and their trust in Jesus so while we're praying right now if
you're in this room today and God has spoken to you and you want to receive
Jesus Christ that means you're you're ready to say God I believe in you I
trust you I recognize that I am a sinner and that you are God and I recognize
that my sin requires a punishment but you came to pay that for me to pay that
price and I want to receive that while we're praying and heads bowed eyes
closed I just want you to raise your hand where you're seated and say Jesus
I trust you I want to I want to be saved if you're watching us online
obviously I can't see you specifically but if God has spoken to you and you
know you need to receive Jesus today I just want you to type into the chat that
I that I'm giving my life to Jesus there is nothing more important in your
entire life no decision you will ever make that would be more important than
your decision to receive Christ to receive the forgiveness and to know for
a fact that when this life is over that you'll be a part of his people in heaven
forever and so if you're in this room and you want to receive Christ just
raise your hand up so I could see it let me pray with you all right all right
father we trust you we thank you we love you and we don't understand how you love
us but you do and so God we ask Lord that as we put our faith and trust in
you God that you would then work in our lives to change us to mold us into your
image that we would be people who reflect Christ in this world and God
those that may be still hanging on to something for some reason they cannot
give their life to you they're afraid they're concerned whatever that may be
Lord I pray you break through that now that you would shatter those fears and
help them to see the truth that you love them so much God help us to be people
that go out in this world regardless of our culture and lineage that we would be
people identified by the fact that we believe in Jesus Christ that we would
share that truth and share that hope with everybody we come across because
that is the only hope for humanity Lord we thank you so much we trust you with
everything it's in Jesus name we pray amen God bless you guys let's worship