the 10th chapter and the 11th
chapter of the book of Genesis. There's no way I'm going to embarrass
you and embarrass myself in attempting to read these chapters. Some of them I can pronounce
and some of them I cannot pronounce. And if I was a Hebrew of the
Hebrews and I stood you this evening and pronounced all of
these names correctly, it wouldn't profit you at all. You'd still
forget them before you left here. So there's no sense in me attempting
to read all of these names. But let's say this about it.
There is some places in here I want us to look at in the 10th
chapter, and in a portion of the 11th chapter. And you'll
remember the context of this 10th chapter. It's the history. We have this history of I guess
we could call it the re-beginning of humanity. The Lord had said
to our first parents, Adam and Eve, when He first created them,
He said to them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the
earth. Of course, they fell into sin
and we know the outcome of that. Finally, the earth was filled
with violence and God sent the flood and destroyed all but eight
people. And here those eight people are in the 10th chapter
of Genesis. And God said the same thing to
these three sons of Noah that He said to our first parents,
be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. That was
the command and blessing to them. But this location here, the geographical
location here in this 10th chapter and the 11th chapter, you and
I know something about. We've heard a lot about it in
our time especially on the news because this is the same location
here where our soldiers are at now, and the soldiers from some
of the other nations that are in the nation of Iraq. And here
in chapter 11 and verse 2, it's called the plain of Sinai. We're Babylonia, the whole country
of what the Old Testament calls Babylonia. Of course, that's
Babylon. And there in the 11th chapter
in verse 9, it's the place where they begin to build this tower
of Babel. It's the old Babel of old. And it's the same country where
Nebuchadnezzar, just a little ways from this, Nebuchadnezzar
built the great city of Babylon. Remember how he bragged about,
this is the great city that I built for myself? And no doubt, No
doubt it was a great city. And it's not far from where Saddam
Hussein lived. And rumors has it, and I don't
know if this is so or not, but when that man was still in power
and was still alive, that he dug up some of the ruins of this
old city and was rebuilding some of it. It wasn't far, of course,
from where he lived, there in Old Babylon. And if you leave
here, this Old Babylon, And I'm not for sure how far this first
Babel, some say they found some remnants of that old Babel still
there. I'm not for sure if that's so
or not, but they know where old Babylon is. And if you leave
it, it's right here on the Euphrates River. And if you leave that
old Babylon, that Nebuchadnezzar built, and you go north about
70 or 80 miles on the Tigris River, is the place where you
and I hear so much about, Iraq. They're in the capital. It's
the capital of Iraq. It's the capital of Baghdad.
They're on the Tigris River. Iraq, the capital of Baghdad,
the capital of Iraq. That's where Saddam Hussein ruled. This is not a historical place.
And my brother sent me, he sent me something the other day on
the internet. Some of it is true and some of it's not true. I
sifted through and got what was true and threw the rest away.
But he was talking about what a significant place the whole
country of Iraq is. Not only from historical viewpoint
as the world views it, but scripturally. Scripture in this little article
said that though Jerusalem, though Israel was the most mentioned
place in the Bible, Babylon in Iraq is the second most mentioned
place in the Bible. But here's what, just to show
you this area in the 10th chapter and the 11th chapter of the book
of Genesis, just to show you that we know something about
it and the significance of it. Let me give you some of these
things about Iraq. Of course, this little article
here says the Garden of Eden was in Iraq. Well, we can't prove
that. It says Noah built the Ark in
Iraq. Well, we can't prove that either.
And it's the cradle of civilization. Well, not old civilization, because
we have no idea where Adam and Eve came out from when they came
to the Garden. But I'll tell you what it is.
The land of Iraq is the civilization, the new civilization. It's the
cradle of new civilization. We can trace it back to there,
but here's some things that is true about Iraq. Abraham was
from Iraq. Did you remember that? Now that's
amazing in itself, ain't it? God called him out of Er of the
Chaldees. Well, Er of the Chaldees is in
southern Iraq. Isaac's wife, Rebekah, She was
from Nahar, that's in Iraq. Rebecca, sweet Iraq. Jacob met
and he married Rachel, and that was in Iraq. Hurray. Jonah preached
in Nineveh, and that's in Iraq. Assyria, which conquered Israel,
that's in Iraq. And then later when Babylon came
in and destroyed Jerusalem and their temple, they carried the
Jews off to Iraq. They're in Babylon. Daniel was
in a den of lions. They're right in Iraq. The three
Hebrew children was in a fiery furnace. And Christ was there
with them. Our Lord, we know, has been in
Iraq because He's in that fiery furnace. Ain't that amazing?
Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, he saw the writing on the wall.
That was there in Iraq. And Ezekiel, he preached there
in Iraq. There was a New Testament church
in Iraq. Remember what was said of her? You are elected together
with that church that is there in Babylon. There was a church
in Babylon and Peter preached there. 1 Peter chapter 5 and
verse 13. So if you look at this, chapter
10 and chapter 11, all of this stuff took place in a very, very
popular place that you and I know something about in our day, a
very, very old country, surely the cradle of modern civilization. Now here in chapter 10, we have
a history, at least a partial history, of Noah's three sons
and their descendants, and the land, at least in general, that
they settled on. Now I can't read all these names
for you, but I want you to remember this if you can, You need to
go back and study this. In chapter 10, verses 2 through
5, we have one of Noah's sons, Japheth. His name is Japheth. It's told about his children,
and it was said here of him and his descendants, in verse 5,
by these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands,
every one after his tongue, after his family. and in their nation. So the first son, Japheth, he
had his children and they settled in the isles of the Gentiles.
And then in the same chapter, beginning in verse 6, down through
verse 20, we have the descendants of Ham. He had a son by the name
of Canaan and had some other children and the Lord gave them
their allotted place to settle. Here in verse 19 and verse 20,
the boarders of the Canaanites, that's Ham's son, was from Sidon
as thou cometh to Gera and to Gaza, as thou goeth unto Sodom
and Gomorrah, and Admah and Zebion, Zebion, and unto Lashish, these
are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues,
in their countries, and in their nation." So there's the descendants
of Ham. Cursed Ham. And where they settled.
And then in chapter 10 and beginning there in verse 21, down through
verse 30, we've got Shem. That was Noah's three sons. Japheth, Ham, and Shem. If you
want to look on the map, you can do this sometime. If you
have a map in your Bible or a map that tells something about the
history of the descendants of these three sons of Noah, if
you look at it in general, there are some exceptions, but in general,
if you'll look at Japheth, that out of him came the Gentiles,
they sort of went north and west. They went north of Israel and
then went west, even settled up in parts of Asia and probably
where the descendants of Europe came out of. But then you look
at Ham and he went far east and somewhat south. And I've got
to be careful because Larry, boy, he keeps track on me. If
I say this Greek means this or go back in history, boy, he goes
home and checks on these. I appreciate that, Larry, because
it makes me more honest, you see. So Ham's descendants, they
went far east in the land of Canaan, settled the land of Canaan
and down towards Egypt. But Shem, Shem, His descendants
stayed pretty close around in this area of Shinar until finally
they migrated west and took over, and God gave them the land of
Canaan. But here we have that in verse
30 and verse 32. Their dwelling was from Misha,
as thou goest unto Cephar, the mount of the east. These are
the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues,
in their lands, and after their nations. These are the families
of the sons of Noah after their generations in their nation.
And by these were the nations divided in the earth after the
flood." Now in chapter 10, this word is used three times. Divided. Divided. It's used there in verse
5. I read it to you. When the isles of the Gentiles
were divided, And again here in verse 25, look at this, "...until
Eber were born two sons, the name of the one was Pelag, for
in his days were the earth divided." The earth was divided. And then
again here in verse 32, I just read to you that the nations
were divided in the earth after the flood. Now, when you first
look at this, that all of these people were spreading out and
multiplying, and one group would settle here, and another group
would settle here, and they began to go at different locations
in the known world, you may think, boy, this is just haphazard.
This is just where they wanted to go, just wherever they settled.
But you know there was an order to this. There was an order to
this. It may secretly, you know, look
like, no, it's just haphazard. But look at this. Look over here
at a couple of places. Look in Deuteronomy chapter 32.
Deuteronomy chapter 32 and look in verse 7. The Lord had told them to replenish,
to multiply and replenish the earth and scatter out through
it. But look here at what Moses says
in Deuteronomy 32, verse 7. Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask thy father, and he will show
thee thy elders, and they will tell thee. Tell thee what? When
the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when
He separated the sons of Adam. And that wasn't talking about
the direct sons of Adam, but all the way down to Noah's sons.
That's who He separated. He set the bounds of the people
according to the number of the children of Israel. So who was
it that divided them? It wasn't haphazard, was it?
God divided them. And He set the bounds of their
habitation. Secretly, I imagine, or maybe
He revealed to those tribes. Well, you fellows should settle
that. And that's exactly what Paul preached over in Acts chapter
17. Remember that? Look here what
he said over there. Let me read that to you. And
first in Acts chapter 17. Here's what the Apostle Paul
preached to those there in Mars Hill. Acts chapter 17, and look
here in verse 22. He'd come here to Mars Hill and
they were worshiping their different gods. And here's what Paul said
to them in Acts 17, verse 22. Paul stood in the midst of Mars
Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things
ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld
your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the
unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, declare I
unto you, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing
that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples
made with hands. He is not worshipped with men's
hands as though He needed anything, seeing He gives to all life and
breath and all things. And He hath made of one blood
all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and
He has determined the times before appointed." And look at this,
He set the bounds of their habitation. Ain't that amazing? He was ruling
in this all along. It wasn't something that just
happened haphazardly. And I guess He put it upon the
hearts, some way secretly, are led the Canaanites to the land
of Canaan. And they increase there and become
seven great nations there in the land of Canaan. But all along,
God had purposed to give that country to Shem and His descendants. So He put them there. This is
why the Scripture says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness
thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Behold, the old
prophet said, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens is the
Lord's thy God, and the earth also, and all that therein is."
The earth is His. Cattle on a thousand hills is
His. Everything and everybody that's in this earth is His.
So since everything is His, He has a right to do with it what
He will, and to give it to whomsoever He pleases according to His will. And seemingly, that's what He
did. That's what He did. Way back there in the days of
old. The Most High divided to the
nations. There and there. Now, here in
chapter 10 in our text, we have three people here that
I want to Just make mention of, because it seems like this 10th
chapter distinguishes three different people here. First of all, here
in verses 8 through verse 10 in the 10th chapter of Genesis,
this man by the name of Nimrod. There's three things said about
him here. Look in verse 8. Cush begat Nimrod. He began to
be a mighty one in the earth. Mighty one in the earth. In verse
9, he was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Wherefore it is said,
even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. He was a mighty
one. He was a mighty hunter. And look in verse 10. And the
beginning of his kingdom was Babel. That's where he began
to build this tower. He was a mighty man. And this
seems to indicate that people started following him. And this
tells us something here about this tower of Babel. It was Nimrod
that instigated building that thing. And everybody seemed to
get behind him when he went to build it. Nimrod, this mighty
one in the earth. Now that's going to come into
play just a little bit later. But here's the second man, and
I'll just throw these things out there too. You can chew on
them if you can, swallow them if you can't spit them out. I'm
no prophet and some of this stuff is very difficult for me to understand
anyway. But look at this in the 10th chapter in verse 21. I thought
this was very interesting here. Look in verse 21. Here's another
man that stood out to me as I read it. And to Shem also, the father
of all the children of Eber. That can be pronounced Hibber,
I guess. But you know what the true name of it is? He is the father of the children
of all the Hebrews, the brother of Japheth. And this phrase here
in verse 21, the father of all the children of Eber, there is
something about this man and his children that distinguished
the family of Shem. The Holy Spirit draws our attention
to the children of Eber. There was something distinguished
about this man. What was it? Him and his children. Well, out
of his loins came the Hebrew people. Out of his loins came
the Hebrew children. Look over here, right over to
your right in chapter 14. Look over here in chapter 14 and look
in verse 13. You remember when Sodom and Gomorrah
was whipped And Lot was taken, they come and told Abraham about
it, and here's what's said of him, look at this. And there
came one, in Genesis 14, 13, and there came one that had escaped
and told Abram the Hebrew. And you go look that word up
in your Strong's Concordance and check your commentaries,
and all of them agree that this is Heber. Abraham a child of
Heber. That's who his father was. He
came out of this man Heber. And what distinguished this man
was that Abraham came out of him and therefore Isaac and Jacob
and all the twelve tribes came out of Heber. That's why they
call them the Hebrews. The Hebrew children. You can
follow this word, this tribe of people. It goes right on through
the Old Testament and even in the New Testament. Remember when
they caught Jonah sleeping down in the belly of the whale? Oh
sleeper, how could you sleep in all this going on? Who are
you anyway? Remember how he described himself? I'm a Hebrew. I'm a
Hebrew. I can trace my tribe all the
way back to Eber. He's my dad. That's what distinguished
him. God blessed the children of Eber,
the Hebrew, the Hebrew people. Philippians chapter 3, I'm a
Hebrew of the Hebrews. It was something now to be a
Hebrew. That was the children of Eber. And this may tell us
something else here. Eber, the father of the Hebrews. And I don't know about this,
but this is very interesting as I thought of this. He lived,
this man lived, before the earth was divided, before God divided
it up, before He confused everybody with these tongues, different
tongues. As a matter of fact, there in the 9th chapter, in
the 9th chapter of the 10th chapter, the 11th chapter says there was
only one language. There was just one language before
the earth was confounded. Did you ever wonder what language
that was? Well, this is just my own personal opinion, but
you know what I think that language was? I think it was the old Hebrew. And I'll tell you why I think
that. Eber spoke the same language, Larry, after God confused them
and gave them all these different tongues as He did before. It
was still the Hebrew tongue that they spoke in. Who was it that
the Hebrew tongue? Well, it was Eber, the children
of the Hebrews. And I think that all these other languages here
in the Levith chapter, confusion language that each tribe went
on about with, I think the only language that was not new was
the language that Hebrew had, the original Hebrew language.
I just thought of that and I thought, well, that's wonderful language.
If that's so, then Adam spake in Hebrew, didn't he? The old
Hebrew language. If he wrote anything, he wrote
from right to left and not from left to right. And you follow
this old language for the most part, and sometimes they have
a mixture of Hebrew and some of the other language mixed in
with it, but you follow this language all through the Old
Testament and right into the New Testament. In John chapter
5 verse 2, the pool that was there by the sheep gate in the
Hebrew tongue, that was called Bethesda. So they were still
speaking in the Hebrew tongue, and it's the house of kindness. And I love this. In Acts chapter
9 and 22 and 26, when Paul was telling about the Lord striking
him down on the road to Damascus, do you remember what language
the Lord Jesus spake to him in? Paul said, I heard a voice in
the Hebrew tongue saying, Saul, Saul. Our Lord spake it. And
it could well be the original language because it seems to
indicate here that ever from which came all the Hebrew children,
speaking this language before and after. Another man that's
singled out here in the 10th chapter is one of Eber's sons. Here in verse 25, look at this.
And unto Eber were born two sons, the name of the one was Pelag,
which means division. And in his day was the earth
divided. Now I think there's something
here that sheds some light. on the building of this Tower
of Babel and why it was built. If you'll look at Pelag and you
look at this man, this great man Nimrod, they lived at the
same time and probably here in the same region. Probably they
all were congregated up here sort of at Shinar and this plain. But what God had intended was
for these tribes to spread out.