Genesis 10

God gave an amazing prophecy through His servant Noah at the end of the prior chapter. He said “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant.” This prepares us for the partial conquest of the Canaanites by the Hebrews (descendants of Shem) that will be the backdrop for the history of the entire Old Testament. But then the Lord revealed the following words through Noah: “May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem.” What are the people groups that descended from the three sons of Noah, and how do the centuries that follow provide the fulfillment of this amazing Word from God through Noah?

This chapter and the one that follows provide us with some answers as we move through a long period of history going from Shem to a very important father in the faith, Abraham. Noah's prophesy and this related material concerning the nations of the world are the only links that move us from the worldwide flood to the story of redemption that comes through the chosen seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They tell us what is going on in the world that will be the environment within which the saving purposes of God will be accomplished.

Within the lists of individuals and related people groups contained in Genesis 10, there are many names that hold no meaning to the average reader. Even the most diligent scholar may be left with many question marks in chasing down the heritage that is so briefly described here. Yet several very significant points are clear, and the theological importance of those points has become more obvious with the coming of the events of salvation history described in the New Testament.

We begin with the descendants of Noah's son Japheth. Our best understanding is that this man's descendants are associated with ancient peoples who settled northwest of the region of the Tigris and the Euphrates. This list anticipates the events that will be described in the next chapter, which explains how it is that each people group developed their own language and cultural practices.

Those associated with Noah's son Ham include the Canaanites and the Egyptians, among others. Israel would be delivered from the hands of the Egyptians in the days of Moses and would be commanded by God to take over the land of the Canaanites by conquest. Also included in this group are the forerunners of the Assyrians and the Babylonians, two imperial powers that will be used by the Lord to take His people into exile.

Though the Lord had commanded the Israelites to utterly destroy the Canaanites, throughout the early history of the conquest recorded for us in Joshua and Judges, we read that many of these peoples were instead subject to forced labor, fulfilling the earlier words of Noah, that Canaan would be a servant to the descendants of Shem.

Nimrod was prominent among the descendants of Ham, a “mighty man,” “a mighty hunter before the Lord.” From this man of power came the great empires. Here was a kingdom builder, the man behind the “great city.”

From Canaan, the cursed son of Ham, came the nations that would be familiar names in the region that would be the Promised Land. These nations would be displaced by the command of God, but not before the Israelites were completely intimidated by what they considered to be the more formidable powers who lived in the land that God's people were told to conquer.

Noah's son Shem was the ancestor of all the children of Eber, from which the word “Hebrew” comes. In the midst of the names of the descendents of Shem, the division of the earth is mentioned, a story that is picked up in the next chapter.

These were the clans of the sons of Noah. From these groups, the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood. Most of the names may mean nothing to the modern reader, but they are known to the Lord.

Some of these people were the ancestors of established people groups that we have heard of. The Greeks, the inhabitants of Cyprus, the Scythians, and the nomadic Northern tribes that would eventually settle in what would become Asia Minor are all the descendants of Japheth. Many generations after Noah, and many generations after Moses, these races and peoples would be the Gentiles that would first fill the tent of the greatest descendant of Shem, Jesus Christ. A great number of these Gentiles would respond to the proclamation of the Jewish Messiah and would find their way through faith in Him, into the new tabernacle of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Their entrance into the church, though a very difficult matter even for the Apostles, was known to God long before, announced through Noah not long after the flood.

Though the events of any era in history may cause us to wonder, we can trust that the Lord knows what is happening to all the peoples of the world, and that He is working out His own great glory. All of our history and even our present moments are mysteriously connected to the greatest event of all time: the coming of Jesus Christ, His life, death, and resurrection. He is the great revelation of God. With His coming in person, we have the close of Old Testament era and the beginning of New Testament life. Even in the cross of Christ, we know that the Lord who knows all was accomplishing His holy will. If we can trust our God in the cross, we can trust Him in all that we face in our own lives. He has become the Lord of the nations.