Friday
Friday
The Origin of the Nations
From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.
Genesis 10:32
God did not promise after the flood a return to the Garden of Eden, for human hearts were still evil (8:21). Even righteous Noah got drunk and became involved with one of his sons (Ham) and grandsons (Canaan) in an act of indecency. Already inebriation and immorality were linked. The rather sordid story is told in Genesis 9:18–27.
Nevertheless, from Noah’s three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—the nations arose and spread out over the earth. Genesis 10 documents this dispersal, first disposing of the collateral lines of Ham and Japheth, and finally focusing on the descendants of Shem (Semites), with whom, because of Abraham, Genesis is mainly concerned. From the region of Ararat, Japheth’s descendants moved west to what is now Asia Minor and Europe; Ham’s southwest to Canaan, Egypt, and North Africa; and Shem’s southeast to Mesopotamia and what we call the Persian Gulf.
As we reflect on these migrations, it is evident that God is concerned with all people. Seventy nations or tribes are listed, a symbol of completeness, and it may well be that Jesus had them in mind when he sent out seventy disciples two by two (Luke 10:1).
We must always bear in mind this universal extent of God’s concern and not interpret the curse on Canaan (Gen. 9:25) as limiting it or as justifying either the slave trade in West Africa or apartheid in South Africa, as some Christians did in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries respectively.
Jesus Christ has broken down such divisive barriers, and now “there is no Greek … or Jew … barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Col. 3:11; see Eph. 2:11–22).
For further reading: Genesis 9:18–27