Readers of the book of Genesis finds themselves immersed in an endless ebb and flow of rippling yarns. The action is big, shocking, dramatic and the stuff of bedtime story delight. Then, just when we are really enjoying ourselves, sticking in all the 'oohs' and 'aahs' at just the right moments, along comes Genesis chapter 10, the whole thing being packed out with one of those seemingly impenetrable genealogies. It's time to switch out the light and settle for 'zzzz's' instead.
"OK Moses," we say, "Family history is all very well, but other people's family photo albums are not exactly the most riveting show in town, you know. We don't need you to drag out every single snap with no due concern for the advantages of edited highlights. I mean, why do you think football matches on TV are so popular? Because they show the highlights and dispense with the tedious bits in between."
Chapter 10. This is the account of the generations of the sons of Noah…the notorious Ham, Shem and Japheth, fathers of the present human race. We Britons, like the other Teutonic and Celtic peoples, come from Japheth in case you wondered. Ah, now you're just a teensy-weensy bit interested aren't you? You see, chapter 10 is actually exciting enough to delay the good night kiss just as long as any other story in the book. Let me try to convince you.
The chapter starts just after old man Noah has planted a vineyard and gets blind drunk on the fruits of his labour. Moral: if you can't hold your drink, grow figs instead. He lies naked in his tent. Ham, on finding him thus incapacitated, goes and gossips about it with his brothers. They are appalled and cover up their father's shame. In the morning, Noah recovers from his hangover long enough to curse Ham and his descendants and bless Shem and Japheth. The observant reader will note that there is in this an echo of the curse of Cain that goes down through his family line until they're washed out in the Flood, and the blessing of Abel that goes down through the line of Seth to Noah. Indeed, history is repeating itself…as it does.
Ham sires the nations of Cush and Canaan and he has a grandson called Nimrod. So what? So, the Cushites we come to know as the Egyptians, pyramid builders who worship dodgy celestial gods (just like NASA does today), the sexually deviant Canaanites who pollute the Promised Land with places like Sodom and Gomorrah, and Nimrod who establishes the great civilisations of Babylonia and Assyria. All feature heavily in Israel's history as foes, oppressors and thorns in the side.
Assyria and Babylonia are used by God to punish Israel and Judah respectively but remain cursed. In Revelation, Babylon is still found to be a byword for quintessential evil, for all that is fundamentally opposed to God. It is out of this civilisation that the occult arises. Indeed, it has been suggested that the Tower of Babel that they begin to build was an astrological centre for the study of the stars. They were reaching the stars through scientific intellect and not brute force. They were building foundations of a secular society based entirely on human principles rather than Godly ones. Don't underrate the power of this civilisation: we still use their 24 hour day and numerous other things that are a part of our daily lives. From a city of this society Abraham is called to search for another city whose foundations are built on Godly principles. In Revelation 21:14 we read that the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem have inscribed on them the names of the 12 apostles, and the gates the names of the as tribes of Israel (Rev 21:12).
Back in Genesis, Moses mentions the founding of Nineveh by Nimrod, this being the city that despite being under the curse, repented at the witness of Jonah. Jesus tells the Jews that the response of the Ninevites will stand as accusation against Israel on the Day of Judgment. The more you dig into this chapter of Genesis the more you find that there is much that is relevant to understanding the later events of the Bible.
Japheth's descendants become what we would recognise as the Gentiles of the world, described in Genesis 9 as those who would 'live in the tents of Shem'. In fact they don't seem to think much to living in Shem's tents and hot-foot it as fast as they can to anywhere that's not remotely near Shem and Ham. As great mariners they have a penchant for settling on islands like Australia and America (probably).
And so we turn to Shem, the inheritor of the blessing of Abel. The descendants of Shem are the Semitic people (Shem-itic). Moses picks out one detail of great interest when naming his sons and grandsons: he gives special mention to Eber. It's not particularly apparent, but it is from this name that we get the word 'Hebrew'. Eber has two sons, Peleg whose line leads to Abram, and Joktan who goes East to team up with Ham's clan. Verse 25 says that they lived at the time of 'the division'. This suggests the time when God scattered the people at Babel by means of confusing their languages. They had built their city to stay united in direct contravention of God's command after the Flood to spread out over the whole earth. Unity of the nations only happens again from the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 when the gospel is proclaimed in every language.
Let's notice something else in Genesis 10. From these three families come the nations of the world today as Paul points out in Acts 17:26. Moses picks out 70 nation names, a number signifying totality or completion. When Jacob goes to live in Egypt under the care of Joseph, his household numbers 70 people (Gen. 47:27). These 70 Hebrews will be the light to the 70 nations. You students of Numerology can look up other references to the number 70 for more insight.
Moses is using his narrative, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to tell us more than we might have imagined. There is a greater concentration on pattern and God's historic purpose in these genealogies than on chronology. It seems certain that rafts of offspring are omitted from the record, and some of the names refer to places rather than people. As always with the Bible, it is God's redemption story, his plan to rescue humanity that takes pride of place. And it's fun getting stuck into the detail and seeing where it leads, ISN'T IT!