God’s Faithfulness
Genesis
10 serves at least as another chronology.
God has given his promise, and now we get a chance to see how God was
faithful to the promise as the descendants of Noah spread through the region
making homes and nations for themselves.
If nothing else, we are reminded that God is a faithful God.
So
if nothing else, let’s look a little bit at the names just to understand the
general movement. Japheth’s line is the
least involved in future Biblical narrative, so he is likely listed first. Gomer is usually connected to the people who
lived north and west of the Black Sea.
Magog is connected to the Caucasus region, just southeast of the Black Sea. Madai is usually connected to the Medes, who
were near modern day Iran. Javan is
connected to Ionia, which is in southern Greece. Based on Ezekiel 38:2, we can surmise that
Tubal and Meshech were near Magog – probably in the eastern portion of Asia
Minor. Finally we hit Tiras who is often
connected with Thrace. In summary, it is
thought that the descendants of Japheth went north and north-east of Israel.
The
Hamites are listed next. Cush is south
of Egypt. Mizraim literally means “two
Egypts” and is likely a reference to upper and lower Egypt, Put is likely Lybia. We all know where to find Canaan. As you can see, these places are all along
the Asian border with the Mediterranean Sea as well as in northern Africa. We also see among the list of sons of Cush
that these people spread into Mesopotamia and have influence in places like
Babylon, Ninevah, Uruk (Ereck), etc.
Thus we can see the Hamites as containing most of the antagonists of the
Hebrew people. Given the curse in the
prior chapter, this should not really surprise us.
The
Semites are given last as this is the line through which God has chosen to
bring Abraham, Moses, and all the other great Hebrew people. The Elamites were east of Mesopotamia. Asshur is probably an early name for Assyria. Aphraxad is likely a Hebrew word for Chaldea
in southern Mesopotamia. Lud may be a
reference to Lydia in Asia Minor, although we do not know this for sure. Aram is what we call Syria today. The Semites predominantly find themselves
located in Mesopotamia, which is – of course – from where we understand Abraham
to come.
Die Hard Relationships
Basic
understanding of geography aside, it is neat to see how the ancient people put
together the spread of the nations. It
is also neat to see the relationships here versus what we know the
relationships will become in other parts of history. The Hamites will never be at peace with the
Semites. The Japhethites go out of the
picture almost completely in the Old Testament – although the argument can be
made that they are one of the key people’s to whom Paul goes on his missionary
journeys.
This
Leads to my neat thought for the day upon which I stop. Remember that it is Japheth and Shem that
care about Noah’s indiscretion in the prior chapter. Looking at this geography, isn’t it neat to
see that by and large through Christ and the ministry to the Gentiles the
Japhethites are given opportunity to come back into the fold while the Semites
are largely the people that God works with in the Old Testament? Japeth and Shem care for and respect their
Father, and these are by and large the people of the two testaments of our
Christian Bible.
As
I said earlier, by and large the Hamites continue to oppose God’s people. But the Japhethites are willing to come back
into the fold through the evangelism of the New Testament. God is big, and He often works in mysterious
ways over generations of time. Amen.
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