The sermon delves into Genesis chapter 10, known as the 'Table of Nations,' which traces the genealogy of Noah's sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—after the flood, highlighting the origin of nations and languages. This chapter acts as a bridge between the events of Noah's life and the Tower of Babel, emphasizing its significance in biblical history. The genealogy is not comprehensive but selective, focusing on the descendants that shaped lands, languages, and nations. Notably, the chapter introduces Nimrod, an empire builder associated with Babel and Nineveh, and reflects on his rebellious nature against God. The sermon underscores the importance of the genealogy in tracing the lineage that leads to Jesus Christ, fulfilling the promise of a Savior from Genesis 3:15. The preacher also discusses the prophetic implications of Noah's blessings and curses on his sons, with a particular focus on the line of Shem, from which Jesus' genealogy in the New Testament is derived. Eber, a descendant of Shem, is highlighted for his connection to the Hebrew people, illustrating the biblical narrative's focus on God's plan through His chosen people.

The title of this message is The Table of Nations. If you go to the commentators, that is what this is known by. In other words, if you want to know where the nations of the world came from, you come to Genesis chapter 10. And actually, now the experts actually acknowledge that. Yeah, this is actually where the nations have come from more on that in a little bit at the end of chapter 9 where we just came from wrapped up the four chapters on the life of Noah.

This man that God raised up to preserve the human race. If God didn't raise up Noah, there wouldn't be a human race. Chapter 10 here is a follow on with the family tree of Noah and his sons. And it is known among the scholars as the table of nations. It gives us a table of the different nations of the earth.

So chapter 10 is a very important record coming out of chapter 9. Gives us more about Noah and his sons and then the children that they have. But it also sets the stage for chapter 11. So it's actually a bridge. It reaches back into chapter 9, and it reaches forward into chapter 11 and gives us the bridge that we need to pull all this together.

Just like the family tree or the genealogy in chapter five, that's been a number of chapters ago, but we had almost a whole chapter devoted to genealogies in chapter five. The purpose of that chapter was to get us to Noah and the generation of the flood. And we had the flood history just like that or very similar to that. This family tree in Chapter 10 is designed to get us to and beyond the generation of Babel and the confusion of languages at Babel and the scattering of the nations from Babel. So that's one of the great purposes why is this chapter here?

It gets us in terms of a family tree to babble and what happens there. The building of a tower, the humankind wanting to make a name for ourselves and building a tower and God saying enough and taking one languages and making it many languages inexplicably we don't know how to explain that and scattering the peoples from there so as we come to this chapter let's ask god for help god we do ask you for help please help us We have a chapter with all these names, many of which we've never said before out loud. So many of these names, not one time have we said out loud. Here we are studying these things that are unfamiliar to us in many ways. I pray that you would cause it to be profitable.

Every word of scripture is profitable. We do believe that to our core. And so we pray that you would help us to mine the nuggets of gold out of this chapter in Jesus' name, amen. We'll begin with verses one through five. I am going to reread that, and then I'm done with the rereading.

The first subsection is short enough that I thought I could undertake it. So Hopefully your finger is still in Genesis chapter 10 follow along as I reread verses 1 through 5 Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah Shem ham and Japheth sons were born to them after the flood. The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshach, and Tiras. Sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Rifath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan were Elisha, Tarshish, Kidim, and Dodonim.

From these the coastlands of the people of the Gentiles were separated into their lands. Everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations. Here in verses 1 through 5, we have an introduction. Verse 1 is the introduction for us. And we have the sons of Japheth.

Verse 1 is the introduction and the purpose statement for the chapter. Look at again, now this is the genealogy or the family tree of the sons of Noah. And we're given the three sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood so this is completely after they've come off the ark the flood is done God has told them to be fruitful and multiply I think it was chapter verse 19 yeah verse 19 of the last chapter chapter 9 verse 19 said these three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. So now you're seeing that unfold.

The whole earth actually is populated from these three sons of Noah. This is the family tree of Noah and his sons, and their descendants that were born to them after they got off the ark. Then we have a very clearly defined ordering, verses two through five. What I just read are the sons of Japheth verses 6 through 20. That's a lot more verses.

The next section will be a lot longer. A lot more verses, a lot more names. Those are the sons of Ham. And then in verses 21 through 31, again a lot more verses than the subsection that we're currently in. A lot more names that we have in this are the sons of Shem.

Now, before we start, let me make two overarching observations. So I just want to hang two overarching observations over these genealogies. One, this is a new ordering. So up to this point the order without exception has been Shem, Ham, and Japheth. In chapter 5 verse 32 the first time we saw it was Shem Ham and Japheth.

Chapter 6 verse 10, it was Shem Ham and Japheth. In chapter 7 verse 13, it was Shem Ham and Japheth. In chapter 9 verse 18, it was Shem Ham and Japheth. Even at the start here in chapter 10 verse 1, it was Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now for the first time, you've never seen any other ordering but Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Now for the first time, the first has been switched with the last so now it's not Shem Ham and Japheth now it's Japheth Ham and Shem in terms of the breakdown of the genealogy so we'll get to some potential reasons for that in a moment. But just to start out with that, we can't not notice that. Okay? So we've had the Sons of Noah named five times coming into this subsection, and the order has been the same every time now it's flipped upside down and we can't not notice that that's a bit odd we'll talk about some potential reasons for that in a moment overarching observation number two Like with what we saw in chapter 5 and the genealogies in chapter 5, this is not a comprehensive list. It wasn't a comprehensive list in chapter 5.

That was easy to see. And it's clear that this is not a comprehensive list. This is a very selective list. For instance, in this first section, verses 2 through 5, the sons of Japheth, we're given seven sons of Japheth, and then only grandsons of Japheth for two of his seven sons so you're given the names of seven sons and then for two of those seven sons you're given some grandsons and the other five of those seven sons it doesn't say a word. You're given absolutely no descendants at all.

This is my speculation, but my assumption is that in most cases the purpose driving the selection in other words why some names but some names left out the purpose driving the selection is the understanding of lands languages and nations so the very end of verse 5 and actually at the end of every section it's going to talk about lands languages and nations is driving the selection in other words you have dominant families that are driving where people settled, what languages they spoke, what nations they formed, and those are the ones that are named here. This is the table of nations. So these are the family lines picked out that are driving out where people settle, what language they spoke, and what nations they formed and the others go without mention. Mike Bennett sent me the notes from Bible Study Fellowship. Bible Study Fellowship is the group that actually sent them to India years ago.

And the notes for Bible study fellowship on these this chapter was helpful and so here's a note from Bible study fellowship speaking of the importance of chapter 10 here's what those notes said or part of what those notes said here's an importance of chapter 10 It's unique and accurate ethnic information. So, unique, you can't find it anywhere else. And accurate, this is real, the information about family lines that have brought us to today. The note continues, ethnological scholars never fail to be impressed with the author's knowledge of this subject. Meaning when modern ethnological scholars who study nations and the families that form them look at Genesis chapter 10, they can't understand how it came through Moses how Moses could possibly know these things and they they marvel because there's nothing like it anywhere the the commentary continues There is absolutely nothing in ancient literature that is even remotely parallel to Genesis 10, not even among the Greeks.

So the Greeks try to write everything down. There's have reams and reams and reams and reams of histories provided by the Greeks the Greeks don't have anything like Genesis 10 70 names are chosen so as we look at chapter 10 if you're counting, you either get 70 or 71, depends on who's counting and how they go about it, it's either 70 or 71. Seventy names are chosen and nearly all the names in this chapter may be elucidated by the archaeological discoveries of the past century, meaning you can go to different places and find archaeological relics that substantiate each of these 70 names. Okay, so this is not mythology that you actually can't put your hands on anything that substantiates. Yes, there really were a people that bore this name, that settled in this place.

The archaeological finds of the last century say chapter 10 of Genesis is the real deal. Amen. What a blessing. How wonderful. So chapter 10 is the real deal and there's nothing like it in the records of world history.

So the sons of Japheth. As I mentioned, there are seven sons and for two of those seven sons you're given seven grandsons of Japheth so seven sons seven grandsons it's a selective list surely we don't have them all I know we don't so we will not be going you'll be happy to hear this We will not be going name by name through 70 names. But let me point out a couple. Magog, Tubal, Meshach. Those are three of the 14 names in this subsection.

All of these show up in Ezekiel 38, the prophecies about things that are going to happen in Ezekiel 38. So these family names that we find in Genesis chapter 10 are often used in prophetic declarations. You can find a lot of these names that we're studying today in the prophets when they go to talk about how God is going to deal with people in a certain region of the earth, the prophet will track it back to these names so they have prophetic value. God's going to use these names again as He foretells things that haven't even happened yet and pins it to a region in the nation and the people who speak a common language using these names from the grandsons Tarshish what what is Tarshish Tarshish is where Jonah was trying to run from the Lord to. So the descendants of this descendant of Noah through Japheth, his family line settled into place, and that geographical location took on the name of their forefather.

It's probably on the coastline of Spain. It was really the furthest point of the known world from Israel. So Jonah was trying to get as far away from God as he could. He didn't understand that you can't play that game. There's nowhere you can go to get away from God.

He was trying to go as far as he could, so he went to Tarshish, which bore the name of their forefather. These are names that show up all over the Bible. Now, this family tree, the sons of Japheth, is short. It's a short tree and it doesn't have many branches by comparison, meaning we're getting ready to then study the sons of Ham, then study the sons of Shem. And so this is the short tree and the one with the least amount of branches.

Why? Why is this a short tree relative to the others? Why doesn't it have many branches relative to the others? I think Matthew Henry nails it. Listen to what Matthew Henry says.

It is the church that the scripture is designed to be the history of. When Matthew Henry says church here, he's not meaning churches we would think of, New Testament church, he's simply using that as shorthand for the people of God. So it is the people of God that the scripture is designed to be the history of. And of the nations of the world only as they were in some way or other related to Israel and interested in the affairs of Israel. So Matthew Henry is saying scripture is about the people of God and the closer you are to the people of God if you're another nation outside the people of God the more scripture has to say about you and the The less interactions you have with the people of God the less scripture has to say about you because this is a book about the people of God.

In terms of the people of God, Abraham and his descendants in the Old Testament, the descendants of Japheth ultimately settled the farthest from Israel, so they're geographically the farthest, and had the least to do with Israel. Of course, those things are related. People who were geographically the furthest had the least to do with Israel. So they're the shortest tree with the fewest branches. I think that is an accurate way to describe why that is.

Here's a note from the editor of Calvin's commentary. In other words, if you're reading Calvin's commentary, it's not Calvin's commentary, But the editor has put and sprinkled in notes things he wants to add they think sort of Important so I have no idea who the editor was. It's just an editor's note So thank you to the editor whoever you were The editor says this it may be proper here to observe that according to the division of the earth into three great portions Europe Asia and Africa speaking generally Japheth was the progenitor of the Europeans so where am I right now? We are studying the sons of Japheth generally speaking they settled in Europe Shem of the Asiatics we are getting ready to study the sons of Shem, generally speaking they settled Asia and Ham of the Africans, generally speaking the descendants of Ham settled Africa. Yet, this line of demarcation is not intended to be accurately drawn.

In other words, that's just a rule of thumb. Japheth to Europe and lost my place. Shem to Asia and Ham to Africa is just a rule of thumb. There are exceptions to that. And he's going to name them.

The whole of lesser Asia we would know as Asia Minor modern-day Turkey modern-day northern Syria Falls within the province of the sons of Japheth. So right now we're thinking about Japheth We're thinking about Europe and we're thinking about Asia Minor Asia Minor is where Paul's missionary journeys were all throughout. Far from Israel, but not too far for Paul. He made it there. Arabia within that of the sons of Ham.

So the sons of Ham didn't just populate Africa. They also populated much of Arabia. Verse 5 summarizes the section. Begin at verse 5. From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.

Recognize that the usage in scripture of the Hebrew word translated coastlands here calls them the people of the coastlands Here essentially means across the seas so we see coastlands we think of people who live at the beach. That's not really what this word means. It means essentially people who are across the seas. So these don't have to be people who literally live on the coast. They are people who live across the seas, think Europe.

Most of us being of European descent, right? Most of us will fit the bill for that. Most of us are likely descendants of Japheth. Now you know, you're a descendant of Japheth, probably for what it's worth. Other word translated gentiles here, I think that's the first time we've encountered it in Genesis, can also be accurately translated nation or people.

All of those are fine translations. It normally means a non-Hebrew nation or people, a nation or people who's not Israel and that is the case here finally the endpoint of this is clearly after the confusion of the languages and the scattering that takes place in chapter 11. So look forward to chapter 11 verse 1. Chapter 11 verse 1 says this, now the whole earth had one language and one speech so Chapter 10 is actually taking us beyond the events of chapter 11 when you get to the end of these genealogies and they're separated out into different lands and different languages that takes us beyond chapter 11. Chapter 11 will actually take us to where there was still one language and everyone living in one geography.

So those are the sons of Japheth. Seven sons and seven grandsons are named for a total of 14 of the 70 or 71 names in this chapter. Moving on to chapter verses 6 through 20, the sons of Ham. The sons of Ham, four sons are named, then grandsons through three out of the four. About the fourth, no grandsons are named.

And then even a couple of great-grandsons through one of the grandsons. So four sons and then three of the four have grandsons named. And then for one of those grandsons you get a couple of great-grandsons. That's the summary of the sons of Ham. Of course, the most famous son of Ham is Canaan.

We already got introduced to him in chapter 9. He was that son of Ham who's named out of nowhere and receives the curse of Noah for the dishonor of Ham. Because the descendants, he's the most famous because the descendants of Canaan Settled in the land that God would later promise to give Abraham's descendants We know it as the promised land. Of course, those promises haven't been made yet, but they will be made. And the descendants of Canaan settle into what will become Israel generations and generations later.

And God's people will come and be given that land and will conquer that land. So we know Canaan because the promised land is often used synonymously with the land of Canaan. These nations that we know from God's promises and Joshua's conquests are descendants of Canaan like the Jebusites and the Amorites and the Girgashites and the Hivites those are named over and over again as nations that God promises to displace and then Joshua and the people of Israel actually do conquer in the book of Joshua. Some very famous biblical locations are associated with where the descendants of Canaan settled. Sidon is a name that we know, Sidon.

And Gaza, Gaza is in the news today. So Gaza is named here. Sodom and Gomorrah, who doesn't know Sodom and Gomorrah, that is named here today. So this is associated with the descendants of Canaan and where they settled. With the sons of Japheth, I said that in terms of the people of God, in terms of Israel, the descendants of Japheth ultimately settled the farthest from Israel and had the least to do with Israel.

Here The sons of Canaan are very close to Israel and had very much to do with Israel and so you get a taller tree with more branches and that shouldn't surprise us. I've named a bunch already But another line of ham are the Philistines. Who doesn't know the Philistines? So you have all these ancient enemies of the Lord's people. So many of them were the sons of Ham.

And that is the playing out of the curse that we saw in last chapter. Canaan's the most famous but the most prominent in this text the most prominent descendant of Ham in our text is Nimrod. He actually gets well what is it Verses 8 through 12 all to himself. In a chapter where almost nobody gets a verse to themselves, Nimrod gets verses 8 through 12. Look again, let me at least reread those three verses because I won't get caught up with too many names.

Verses 8 through 12. Cush begot Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.

And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erek, Achad, and Kalna in the land of Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth, Ir, Kala, and resin between Nineveh and Kala. That is the principal city. So this is Nimrod. The text says that he began to be a mighty one on the earth.

This reminds me very much of how the earth is described just before the flood so that should send off a red flag okay that Nimrod has said that that he began to be a mighty one on the earth oh wow that sounds like Genesis 6 in the description of what was happening on the earth right before the flood. Flip back to chapter six, look with me at verse four. Chapter six, verse four. There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore the children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

So this is when evil is rising on the earth. There began to be mighty men on the earth, men of renown. And that wasn't good for planet Earth on the time and I suspect it wasn't good for planet Earth at the time of Nimrod either. Nimrod is a new man of renown to put it in the language of chapter 6 that we just just reread Nimrod began to be a mighty man of renown Our text describes him as a mighty hunter before the Lord. Is there more loaded into that term than just a hunter as we think of it a person who hunts animals?

Here's a guy who's really good at hunting animals. Does it mean more than that? I'm not sure The commentators have all sorts of things to say about that But they don't have more actual Bible texts than we have and I'm not sure how you can be sure I'm not sure if there's more loaded into that term than what we actually think just a person who hunts animals but I do know that there is a case for translating it against the Lord, a mighty hunter against the Lord instead of before the Lord. The Septuagint does translate it that way, a mighty hunter against the Lord. What's the Septuagint?

It's the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament text and it's what Jesus would have been using a lot Jesus actually quotes the Greek translation of the Hebrew text It was in use at his time. In Jerusalem they would have had the Old Testament in Hebrew and the Greek translation of it. So the Greek translation in use at Jesus' time translates it against the Lord, a mighty hunter against the Lord. So that's not the most common rendering, but it's within the range of meaning. And there's an argument to be made that that is the right translation of that.

And I do know that Nimrod's name literally means rebel. I think you're asking for trouble if you name a son rebel. The literal meaning of the Hebrew word that is his name means rebel. So please don't read the phrase before the Lord and use that to attribute any kind of godliness to Nimrod. I don't think the text is trying to attribute any kind of godliness to Nimrod by using the phrase before the Lord.

It might actually be best translated against the Lord. Here's what Matthew Henry says. Matthew Henry says, Nimrod was a mighty hunter against the Lord. So the Septuagint translates it He carried on his oppression and violence in defiance of God himself daring heaven with his impieties I think that's probably the correct sense of what scripture is communicating it here. He was a rebel against God and against his fellow man and he was a mighty man on earth.

One thing is for certain, so some of that is speculative. What I'm getting ready to say is not speculative at all. Nimrod is the first great empire builder in the scriptural record. So we're in Genesis 10 now. We haven't had a great empire builder.

We haven't had much of any kind of empire builder until now. Nimrod is the first great empire builder in the scriptural record. The beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babel. Babel is the precursor of Babylon. What a mighty empire Babylon became.

And then after the confusion of the languages and the scattering of the peoples because of the Tower of Babel, Nimrod went to Assyria and built Nineveh. So Nineveh is the capital city of another mighty empire the Assyrian Empire Friends the Babylonian and its Assyrian empires are two of the great empires of the ancient world and Nimrod is the father of them both. Nimrod was Nebuchadnezzar before Nebuchadnezzar was Nebuchadnezzar, so to speak. Nebuchadnezzar was standing on the shoulders of Nimrod and building an empire that Nimrod had founded. He was the father of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires, two of the mightiest empires of the ancient world.

So those are the sons of Ham, the son of Noah. The most famous is Ham's son Canaan, because all those people are the people of the nations who are going to be displaced when God fulfills his promise to give the descendants of Abraham the promised land and the most prominent in this text is the first great empire builder Nimrod, Ham's grandson. Again in verse 20 this is brought back to families, languages, lands, and nations. Look again at verse 20, the summary verse of the sons of Ham. These were the sons of Ham according to their families according to their languages in their lands and in their nations Finally we have in verses 21 through 32 of the sons of Shem and the conclusion, verse 32 concludes the chapter.

Right away we hit a very distinctive feature, Meaning a feature we haven't seen anything like before Look at verse 21 and Children were born also to sham so we expected that this is the last Son of Noah that hasn't been Spoken of yet in this genealogy Children were born also to sham the father of all the children of Eber The brother of J. The elder guys so sham Gets a claim to fame What's his claim to fame? Well? He's the father of all the sons of Eber. Well, so what?

Well, what does that mean? The father of all the children of Eber. What's so distinctive about that? Well, Eber isn't a son of Shem Or even a grandson of Shem. Eber is the great-grandson of Shem.

Shem is the father of Arphaxad. So the son is Arphaxad, who's the father of Sala. So that's the grandson who's the father of Eber, so that's the great grandson. So why pluck out a great grandson and say Shem's claim to fame is he's the father of all the sons of Eber this obscure had you ever thought of Eber a moment before now Eber is actually the key to this text Eber is actually the most important person in this whole text. He's the claim of fame for Shem, who's the most important son of Noah.

Right away, at The very beginning of this family tree the family tree of sham The line of Eber is being singled out like this is the man you need to follow This is the man that you need to trace out Eber Not the son of sham not the grandson of a shan the great-grandson of sham shams claim to fame is the family line of this great-grandson. This line of Eber will be treated differently in this chapter. I've just shown you it was treated differently in this chapter and and there are going to be more ways that I haven't talked about yet that he'll be treated differently in this chapter than any other names in chapter 10 and in the next chapter. Here Eber is said to have two sons and the genealogy the family tree traces out one of the sons. So Jokton, the two sons in this, named in this son, two sons of Eber, are Peleg and Jokton.

Chapter 10 here will trace out the sons of Joktan, say nothing of the sons of Peleg. But in the next chapter, we'll get a second genealogy for Shem and it'll go through Eber again through his other son, Peleg. Why does that matter? Because Peleg takes us to Abram. And Abram will be named Abraham.

Many scholars believe that Eber is where the word Hebrew comes from because there is a linguistic connection not some scholars don't hold to that but but many of the commentators say Hebrew came from Eber in chapter 414 verse 13 we'll never get there because we're bailing out after chapter 11, but if we did get there in chapter 14, Abram is called Abram the Hebrew. It comes from nowhere. We've never seen that word before. It's never been referenced. It's not explained at the time, but he's Abram the Hebrew.

And I would say a majority of the scholars trace it back to Abram as a descendant of Hebrew. So Why the change in ordering Why in the five times That the sons of Noah are listed up to here Has it always been sham ham and Japheth without exception, but now it's Japheth ham and sham. Why the reordering? Seems clear to me that Moses our author is Saving the family tree of sham until last because the family tree of sham is the family tree of Abraham which is the family tree of David which is the family tree of Jesus. So when you go to the genealogy of Jesus in Luke chapter 3 and you trace it upstream you end up right here you end up with Noah and Shem and Eber right at the headwaters of this family tree.

Holy inspired Moses is taking us to Abraham. This is really, we're getting to the big points of this chapter. Why the 70 names? Why is this here? Well, we do need to know where the nations of the earth come from, and this gives us an incomparable record on planet Earth.

You can't find another record like it of where the nations came from. But even more importantly than that, we need to know where Jesus came from. And this is giving us where Jesus came from. The Holy Spirit-inspired Moses is taking us to Abraham and he doesn't want the other family trees in between. So he takes them first and gives us the other nations, the other peoples first and Now he's narrowing it.

It's great to know where the other nations of the earth came from, but the nation you really need to know about is God's people, the descendants of Abraham. And now he's going to narrow, and this is really what's happening in Genesis We're getting the panorama But now at the end he's saved to the end because now he's going to narrow it down to Abraham and his his family So he's cleared out these other sons of Noah by changing the ordering and now he ends so that he can narrow it down to Abraham Shem has five sons and one line is traced out to great great great grandsons. So we haven't seen anything else like that with the other two. We made it to a couple of great-grandsons, but here we make it to great great great-grandsons Which is much further than the descendants of Japheth or Ham or Trace So those are the descendants of sham like with the others. We have a summary verse look at verse 31 these were the sons of Shem according to their families according to their languages in their lands according to Their nations reads very much like the summary verses of the other two and Then we have a final summary of the whole chapter in verse 32 These were the families of the sons of Noah According to their generations in their nations and from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood." Some closing thoughts and applications.

I'll give you four. One. Don't think of Noah as being off the scene. As we have this chapter, we got sons, we got grandsons, got a couple of great-grandsons. We have one line that gets traced to great-great-great-grandsons.

Yet, Noah is not off the scene. Noah lived 350 years many generations many generations after the flood I said last week that Jewish scholars say that Noah lived into the 58th year of Abraham's life. And that that isn't consistent, isn't inconsistent with the testimony of scripture. Meaning, I can't prove that Noah lived into the 58th year from a chapter and verse but it's not inconsistent with the timelines that you have in Scripture at all. I would say it's actually consistent with the other timelines that you have surrounding it.

So this reads like Noah and he's dead and here's his sons and no, no, no. Noah lived for 350 years after the flood. Noah is giving a first person an account of what sin does in the world and how God pays the wages of sin and that's death. If you don't repent and trust in God generations into these family lines. So that's number one.

Don't think of Noah's off the scene He lived for 350 years off the flood. He might have been alive for every name in this chapter. That's quite possible number two The prophetic curse and blessing from last week's text hangs over this whole chapter. So look back at chapter 9 verses 24 through 27. I've got enough voice left for that.

I can do it. Chapter 9, verses 24 through 27. So Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done to him, this act of dishonor. Verse 25, then He said, cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren. And he said, blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.

May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. This curse and this blessing of the other two sons hangs over the whole chapters. And the history of the nations is going to play out according to this. This is a prophetic curse. Like I said last week, this is not an Irrt father who's embarrassed that he's been dishonored by a son and so he's taking his pound of flesh.

This is a prophecy that God is speaking and it is fulfilled in human history in the playing out of nations. So this prophetic curse and blessing from last week's text hangs over this entire chapter and all these genealogies that are being developed here. Number three. What God is doing in and through his people, he is working in his people and he is working through his people. What God is doing in and through his people is what matters in the world.

So you think, well, the genealogy is now going to narrow and world history is going to be happening, we're going to be, scripturally speaking, we're going to be blind to world history. Mighty empires are going to be rising and falling. We get hardly a word about them unless they happen to bump into the people of God in some way and then we get it in the scripture. You know what? The raising up and the putting down of those empires is nothing compared to what God is doing in and through His people.

Nothing. The empires come and go, and they come and go at God's pleasure. It's all God. But the record that we need is what is God doing in his people? We don't need more about Babylon.

We don't need more about Assyria. We don't need more about Egypt. We need what God has given us about how he works in and through his people and that's what we have. It's more important than anything else, any other mighty empire including the United States of America. Don't make America great again, make God's people great.

May God make his people great. May God raise up his people. I hope some of it will happen here, because I'm American. Number four, finally. More than anything else, all of this is rooted in chapter three, verse 15, where God promised that a seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.

So every few chapters we're getting a lot of genealogies with a lot of names that we don't know and A lot of surrounding circumstances that aren't explained at all. But this all goes back to Genesis 315 where God says, I'm going to send a descendant, a descendant, one descendant who will crush the head of your enemy, of your great enemy. Jesus is all over these family trees. So they broaden out to all these names and then God keeps narrowing it. It was Adam and Eve and they had Cain and Abel and Cain had a bunch of children who had a bunch of children.

And in chapter 5, we got a bunch of names, and then God narrows it down to Noah. Noah only has three sons, but then they start having families who start having families that start having families enough that now there are nations and they can spread out over all the earth and there are different languages and different lands, different geographical areas and different nations. God's gonna narrow down and home in on one line again. He's going to give you Abraham and his sons. And then he's going to have sons and it's going to go out into the 12 tribes again so but it keeps narrowing down and the purpose is to trace back through this one line to get us to Jesus Christ who is the fulfillment of God's promise to send one seed who will crush the head of our great enemy, the serpent.

These genealogies exist to establish that God's promises are kept in Jesus Christ. So forget everything else I said in the sermon, I don't mind. Please remember this. This chapter exists to establish that God's promises are kept in Jesus Christ. You can go to Luke chapter 3 and check his genealogy yourself and you'll find the names that we're studying today in chapter 10.

God promised us a Savior. God knew that we had to have a Savior or we would be lost forever. God worked in and preserved a line. You remember Esther? You remember studying Esther?

The line, it was planned to be extinguished. It was planned to be extinguished on a day. Anyone could legally kill a Jew and take their stuff. The whole race was going to be annihilated, But that couldn't happen because God is working in and through a line to send the Savior that He promised. It was impossible that that plan would be carried out.

It was a demonic plan and it was doomed to failure because God had made a promise and he's working in and preserving a line to keep that promise. God, thank you. Thank you for Genesis chapter 10. We so desperately need a Savior. You've worked in and through these family lines.

You've preserved this family line miraculously time and again in the scriptural record to keep your promise to bring us Jesus. Thank you so much. In His name we pray. Amen.