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The Three Sons of Noah and Our Family Tree
Genesis 10:1-32
The world-wide Flood is over; the water has receded; Noah and his family along with the
animals that were on the ark are now on dry land, and the Sons of Noah are obeying God's Word
to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” Noah has died.
Notice Genesis 10:32. Genesis 10 describes what happened when Noah and his family left the
ark and reestablished civilization.
-Before the flood, there was one huge land – mass. After the flood, God caused the different
continents to be formed. Noah's three sons moved in different directions. Their descendants
formed families, clans, tribes, and nations. Some were friendly to Israel; others became bitter
enemies of the Jews.
-Seventy names are given in Genesis 10. Some of those are names of people, some are names of
cities, and others are names of tribes or nations or people groups. This is where we all came
from. This is our family tree. That includes all six billion people who presently inhabit planet
earth. We all descended from the three sons of Noah.
-The human race is diverse in geography, language, culture, skin color, physical capabilities,
dress, habits, diet, and so on. We are all branches from the same family tree, and every person is
related to every other person on earth. Here's the proof: you can take the blood of an Irishman
and transfuse it into the body of a woman from Japan and his blood will save her life. Or, you
can take her blood and transfuse it in to a man from Brazil, and her blood will save his life.
From the eight people, who survived the Flood, came the entire population of the world. Genesis
10 tells us how it happened.
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The Descendants of Japheth, verses 2-5.
The Descendants of Ham, verses 6-20.
The Descendants of Shem, verses 21-31.
A. The Descendants of Japheth – 10:2-5
These verses list 14 names.
Less is said about Japheth and his descendants because his descendants settled fartherest from
the Promised Land. They would not be as significant because Palestine, and Jerusalem in
particular, is the heart of Bible geography. The events and people there are far removed and are
not major players.
Japheth's descendants begin with Gomer who settled on the shores of the Black Sea and
Southwest Russia. They expanded into Germany and spread into France, Spain, Great Britain
and includes England, Scotland, and Wales. This would include Gog and Magog.
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Madai (Mad-i) settled the land of the Medes, which is now Northwestern Iran.
Javan (ja-van) is father of the Greeks and includes Crete, Corinth, Asia, and India.
The Japhethites do not largely figure into the O.T. story, but they will figure prominently in the
expansion of the gospel in the N.T.
B. The Descendants of Ham – 10:6-20
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These verses list 30 names. These were vigorous, aggressive people.
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Cush settled in Ethiopia; Mizraim (miz'ra-im) settled Egypt and Norht Africa; Put is the
founder of Libya in North Africa; and Canaan settled in Palestine and Turkey – including the
Hittites, Jebusites, and the Amorites.
Cush had a son named Nimrod, the Rambo of the O.T. His name means “rebel.” Nimrod was a
mighty hunder before (against) the Lord. He had a spirit of defiance. His empire was founded at
Babel (Babylon). His wife was the woman who first introduced idolatry on the earth.
C. The Descendants of Shem – 10:21-31
These verses list 26 names.
From Shem comes the Assyrians, the Hebrews and some of the Arab tribes.
“Uz” is where Job was from; Elam settled on the Persian Gulf; Eber gives us the general title
“Hebrew” which was first used of Abraham; and Peleg (v.25) means “divided” and may refer to
the division of languages at the tower of Babel.
The most important fact about Shem is that the Messiah will be his direct descendant.
Some important spiritual lessons to be learned from Gen. 10:
A. The Unity of the Human Race
This may seem like an odd lesson when I have just emphasized the division of humanity, but the
point I am making is that we are all made in God's image; all are sinners who have fallen short of
God's glory; we are all highly valued and greatly loved by God; and all of us can be saved
because of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
B. The Sovereignty of God Over Every Nation – Deut. 32:8
God is in charge of where men and nations end up. He appoints their places and boundaries.
Acts 17:26-28 How God preserved the unbroken line to Christ is one of the great themes of
Genesis, as evidenced in a series of dramas where the covenant line was almost wiped out and
then saved through the providence of God.
History really is HIS STORY! He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through Jesus.
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