I was asked a few weeks back to speak on this particular passage to my 7th grade class at church a few weeks back. The idea was to present Ancestry and our similarities. Well, you can imagine that this specific passage can very well present its challenges, knowing that it would be imparted to 7th graders. My first initial thought after reviewing this passage was, "How in the world am I going to make application of this scripture to a bunch of 7th grade guys!" And in all honesty, "How would one find a way to effectively apply this particular scripture to a bunch of adults?" So I am going to let you read the passage first, and then I will share what I realized, which is crucial to our understanding of our analysis of God's word! So here is the passage:
[Nations Descended from Noah]
[10:1] These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.
[2] The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. [3] The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. [4] The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. [5] From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations.
[6] The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. [7] The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. [8] Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. [9] He was a mighty hunter before the LORD. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.” [10] The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. [11] From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and [12] Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. [13] Egypt fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, [14] Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim.
[15] Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, [16] and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, [17] the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, [18] the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites dispersed. [19] And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. [20] These are the sons of Ham, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
[21] To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born. [22] The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. [23] The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. [24] Arpachshad fathered Shelah; and Shelah fathered Eber. [25] To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother's name was Joktan. [26] Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, [27] Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, [28] Obal, Abimael, Sheba, [29] Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan. [30] The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar to the hill country of the east. [31] These are the sons of Shem, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
[32] These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.
(Genesis 10 ESV)
Now. As a student leader my goal is to find creative ways to share spiritual and theological truths to my students. Therefore, automatically I know that I must think on terms as a middle schooler! Obviously, this is not a privilege that gives me the right to dumb things down so that I can help them understand what the scripture says. I worry a lot about so many leaders in the church today because I see a lack of challenge to their youth and very little theological truth in what they teach. First of all, the youth that fill up our churches are NOT DUMB! They are very intelligent. The only difference between teaching adults and teaching youth is how we apply essential truths from the Bible. Okay. So, let me get off my soap box and share what I took away from this passage.
While I read this particular passage, I automatically thought about my analysis of a passage such as this when I was in middle school. My reaction then was, "What in the world is this about and why is it important for me to know about scripture with a bunch of names in it that I can't even pronounce?" So that is where I started with my 7th grade guys. And as I shared my analysis that I took away for passages such as this one, it seemed as the majority of the guys knew exactly what I was talking about. But this issue isn't just present in our youth today, it is very much a problem for us as adults! We read specific passages and just don't understand why its even there; so we move on. But as Christians, we must understand that everything that fills the pages in the Bible are important and essential to our lives! Even the hard ones that make us scratch our heads and leaves us confused. A few years back, I began challenging myself to engage such passages in the Bible. I did research and meditated on it. Even if it meant building camp and sitting on it for a little while. Maybe I would have to camp for 2 - 3 days or a week. Maybe even several weeks! So, what did I learn from this passage? Here it is:
If you go back and read chapter nine, we see that Noah, gets drunk and is found naked and passed out in his tent by his son Ham, which then went and told his brothers about what he saw. Now the scripture doesn't read this but based on what we read a few verses later, I would assume that Ham made a big spectacle of his father to his brother! After Ham shares this news with his brothers, the two brothers walk backwards and covers their father with some type of material. Noah finds out what his son, Ham did and then puts a curse on Canaan, which we know is the son of Ham.
[24] When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, [25] he said,
“Cursed be Canaan;
a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”
[26] He also said,
“Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem;
and let Canaan be his servant.
[27] May God enlarge Japheth,
and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,
and let Canaan be his servant.”
(Genesis 9:24-27 ESV)
Now, why is all this important for what we will read in chapter 10? Well, as you read through chapter 10, you will notice some of the different geographical areas that are given through Canaan. Before I give these away, I would encourage you to read through chapter 10 one more time and see if you notice any of the areas that seems familiar to what you might have found throughout the Bible.
OKay. If you haven't figured these geographical areas let me give them to you: First you have Ninevah which we all know as a city that was incredibly evil! Of course we recognize this city most from the story of Jonah and his journey to Ninevah to give the good news to the people. Then we also have Calsuhim, which is the city from which the Philistines came. And we all know about the Philistines. If not look it up. It would be good for you to understand the roll of the Philistines. Here's a hint: It has something to do with a giant. Then we move to Sodom and Gomorrah. Which were both destroyed by fire.
So here is my initial thought and I might not be right on target with this but if Canaan is cursed through what Ham did to his father then there have got to be some consequences to Ham's sin against his father. I think that it is no coincidence that under Canaan these lands developed. This also reminds us that sin is not a small thing! Sin is serious and its effects are scary! I wanted my students to realize the seriousness of sin! We all need to realize the seriousness of sin. And I am not making the statement that if you disobey your parents that you will find yourself in the middle of a burning city. But, our sin does have consequences and one of those being shame that leads us away from God! When we sin, our shame is so heavy that we find ways to distance ourselves from God. This is a natural, fleshly trait. Now, I am not saying that we won't eventually come to repentance and long for a restoration in our relationship with God. That is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, praise the Lord, but our sin brings brokenness and hinders our pursuit in evangelism and even more importantly our walk with Christ!
Now, this isn't the main point of passage. I also talked with my students about how God called Adam to go forth and multiply and fill the earth. God is all about establishing His glory upon the earth and He has called us to do the same. We bring glory to His name when we go forth and multiply and raise our children up in the admonition of the Lord! I also explained to my students that they should never assume that lost people know who Jesus Christ is! I would say that a good number of people don't refuse to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ because they knew who He was but because they have never known! Now in Romans it talks about how the invisible attributes of God is known to all men and that we have all been given a moral compass of what is right and wrong but that does not mean that all men know about Jesus! We are called to take the good news to the nations!
I pray that we would fulfill the calling God has given! To fill the earth and tell of His glory and splendor! So keep reading and meditate on the passages throughout the Bible that seems difficult. And it never hurts to ask others if it comes to it. Just don't settle for, "I Just don't understand what it means!"
Seeking Him First,
Twiga
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