# 42 2022 Dev. Genesis 10-11. God’s Plan! Read chapter ten and eleven first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s story. How will it affect yours? All passages are taken from the NIV.
Genesis 10:1 “This is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, who themselves had sons after the flood.”
Gen.10 – The Table of Nations. The people who repopulated the earth after the flood were the descendants of Adam and Eve’s son Seth. These are Noah’s sons Japheth, was the first born, Shem, the middle son and Ham the youngest. A note in the NIV informs us that the connections here are not always “physical decent but may includes geographic, linguistic and historical associations.” The table of nations are 70. Two complete numbers, 10 and 7. This reminds us of the number of Abraham’s descendants moving to Egypt during the famine.
Take note that the Japheth genealogy, is short, Ham’s genealogy, though cursed by by his father, is very extensive, including prominent people, Shem’s genealogy is last but he is mentioned first on other occasions, also, “Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber.” His genealogy is introduced that way, fore- shadowing Abrahams importance in God’s plan for redeeming the earth.
Gen.11 The tower of Babel.
Vs.1-4 The motivation for the tower was; “so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” God had blessed them coming out of the ark; “be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” The actions of the people were done in rebellion to God’s command. God had said: I will not destroy all living things again with a flood, “even thoughevery inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.” Rebellion, therefore, at that time and in our time rebellion is not surprising. It appears from the Ham’s genealogy, the son’s of Cush moved to the plain of Shinar, and we see that the sons of Canaan became the Canaanites that Israel had to deal with, and they were the people of Sodom and Gomorrah that God had to deal with.
Vs.5-8 God was displeased with the tower, one rebellious act, if unchecked, spawns many more, as we see in the deterioration of our own justice system today. God separated the people of the world by confusing their language. After that event people began to organize themselves by language, not so much by tribe or by their genealogy.
Vs.10-26 The genealogy from Shem to Abraham. After the tower of Babel Scripture seems to start over with a second genealogy of Shem. Shem’s genealogy has ten generations and ends with Terah’s three sons Abram, Nahor and Haran. This is the same as Seth’s genealogy, ten generations and also ended with the tree sons of Noah.
Vs.27-32 scripture moves to “the account of Terah’s family line.” Here the genealogy becomes more specific and comprehensive including the wives. Here also we are given the fact that Sarai, Abram’s wife was barren, not able to conceive, a condition that influenced much of their lives, a source of sorrow and of great faith. “Abraham believed God and it was credited unto him as righteousness” (Ro. 4:3). Here also, we are given some specific historical events.
What do we take away from these two chapters? Well, several important concepts; the two we want to highlight is God’s hand is closely directing history, continuing at this time, until the end of time, no worries, God’s got this, Amen. Second, God has a long term plan to redeem His people, here we are starting to see the big picture and God’s picture including all of His creation from the beginning of time until the end of time in progress. We only need to trust Him, Amen!
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Heavenhigh 