(Genesis) Genesis 10:8-32 — J. Vernon McGee

And then we have the story here of Cush-Begat-Nimrod. He became a mighty one in the earth, and mighty, actually, what this man wanted, he wanted to become, if you please, the ruler of a great world empire.

That's exactly what the man was interested in. He wanted to become a great world ruler, and we find that he attempted to do it. We are told here he was a mighty hunter before the Lord, wherefore it said, even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.

And he's not a wild game hunter. Sometimes they give a boy a little air gun, he goes out and shoots a sparrow, and when he comes in, why, they say, my, look, he's a little Nimrod. He had a sparrow. But actually, Nimrod wasn't shooting sparrows or hunting wild game in Africa.

Nimrod as a Hunter of Men’s Souls

He was a hunter of men's souls. That's the thought here. Wherefore it said, even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord, and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Arak, and Akad, and Kalna, and the land of Shinar, those great cities that were there.

He's the founder of them. Now he has quite a story that you pick up in secular history. Hyslop in his book, The Two Babylons, gives the background, which I'm not going to enter into today at all, but it's a very fascinating story of how Nimrod actually is responsible, I think, for the tower of Babel, for he attempted to bring together the human race after the flood in an effort to get them united in a race or in a nation where he could become a great world ruler.

Nimrod as a Type of the Antichrist

He was the founder of Babel. He's a rebel, hunter of the souls of man. He's the lawless one, and he's a shadow and a type of the last world ruler, Antichrist who's to come. And this is the man that is before us here.

I don't care to enter into more detail concerning him. The first great civilization came, therefore, out from the sons of Ham. We need to recognize that it's so easy today to fall into the old pattern.

The Sons of Ham and the First Civilizations

We were taught that in school, let's face it, a few years ago. Now, the black man today is wanting more study given of his race. I don't blame him. I don't think probably he's been given an opportunity in the past couple hundred years.

But if you want to know the story of the black man, the story of his beginning, he just happened to head up the two great civilizations, the first two that appeared on this earth. They were sons of Ham.

And that's important to see. Nimrod was a son of Ham. And then we're told as we go on down in this, and I'm not going to attempt to develop that line at all, but in verse 21 we're told, unto Shem. Now we're given the line that's going to lead to Abraham and then to the nation Israel and to the coming of Christ and to the world.

This is the pattern of the Holy Spirit. He gives the rejected line first, he drops it, then he picks up the other. Now we're going to follow this line, which is a very important thing to note. And God is bidding goodbye to the rest of humanity for the time being because He's coming back after them later on, safer in His book.

And I want to quote him. Now, this is one of the most remarkable statements concerning the 10th chapter of Genesis. Let me read it. The 10th chapter of Genesis is a very remarkable chapter. Before God leaves, as it were, the nations to themselves and begins to deal with Israel, His chosen people from Abraham downward, He takes a loving farewell of all the nations of the earth, as much as to say, I'm leaving you for a while, but I love you.

I have created you. I have ordered all your future, and their different genealogies are traced. That is the picture we have before us. Now in this chapter, 70 nations are listed, 14 of them from Japheth, 30 of them came from Ham.

The Nations Descended from Japheth, Ham, and Shem

Don't forget that. I'd give you a different conception today of the black man at his beginning. Now I do want to say this, and I should add, I think that 26 nations from Shem, so you have 70 nations that are listed here.

It would seem to me that God has done this. Why has the white man in our day been so prominent? Well, I'll tell you why, because at the beginning it was the black man, the colored races. Then you have the sons of Shem.

During the time of David, they made a tremendous impact upon this world. And you'll notice that from Shem there came others, actually the Syrians, not the Chaldeans, I disagree with that, but there came the Lydians, and not the Assyrians, but Syrians, and the Armenians.

And you find that from them came the Arabians from Joctan, and you find several of these great nations. Now they appeared next. Now we are in that period, apparently, where the white man has come to the front.

I think that all three are demonstrating that regardless of whether it's a son of Ham, Shem, or Japheth, they are incapable of ruling this world. And that's what God is demonstrating, I believe. And to see this is a tremendous thing.

Eber’s Two Sons and the Division of the Earth

Now you have in the sons of Shem one that is mentioned that a great deal is made of, and that's in verse 25, and I must mention it to pass on. And unto Eber were born two sons. The name of one was Pele, for in his days was the earth divided, and his brother's name was Joctan.

Now when I went over this before, I received all sorts of weird interpretations of what it meant the earth was divided, and that it speaks actually that there is a physical division here in the earth, that the earth had some tremendous physical catastrophe that took place.

Well, frankly, all in the world that Moses is saying here, friends, he's anticipating the next chapter in which he's going to give the Tower of Babel. That was the time the earth was divided. And may I say the simple interpretation just seems to be the one that a great many miss, and we ought not to.

The Nations Divided After the Flood

Now I drop down to pick up the last verse, verse 32 of this chapter. These are the families of the sons of Noah after their generations in their nations, and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

Genesis 10 as a Study of the Human Family

And I want to submit to you that this is one of the great chapters of the Bible, and yet we spent less time with it than any other. But you can see what a rich study this would make for anyone who really wanted to take not a bias but a fair appraisal of the human family.

This has been a very remarkable chapter, and a great many have used it.