In this sermon, Chuck Misler continues his study of the book of Genesis, focusing on chapters 9 through 11. He begins by praying for understanding and guidance from God's Holy Spirit. Misler acknowledges that the first 11 chapters of Genesis cover the story of mankind at large, including the creation, the fall of Adam, the pre-flood civilization, and the deliverance of Noah and his family. He also mentions the dramatic and emotional story of Joseph, which will be covered in future studies.

This is the tenth study in the book of Genesis conducted by Chuck Missler, the subject of this tape Genesis 9 verse 20 through chapter 11 Heavenly Father We just praise you from the bottom of our heart for this opportunity to explore your book We thank you father for this evening and this opportunity We would ask father in accordance with the promises you've given us to just open our hearts and our understanding by your Holy Spirit to your word that we might understand those things which were written aforetime for our learning and that we through the patience and the comfort of the scriptures might have hope and that in all these things we would become more aware that the volume of the book is written of Jesus Christ and And father as we explore these passages, we just ask that you would be with us give us an appetite and a hunger for those things that are fruitful and edify and Help us father not to get off in tangents and areas that are not productive For father, we would just seek you as our teacher through your Holy Spirit It was promised By our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in whose name we pray. Amen Well, we're finishing hopefully close to finishing the most difficult third if you will of the book of Genesis chapters 1 through 11 are the story of mankind at large We've started with the creation in Genesis 1 and 2 and 3 the fall of Adam the whole development of the antediluvian or pre-flood civilization and the deliverance of Noah and his own and we have a an interesting discussion of the post-blood civilization tonight and We should get into the table of nations as it's called Genesis 10 all of this sets the stage for For the next major section of the book of Genesis the call of Abraham chapter 12 on and In general most people regard the book of Genesis as three three major parts the story prior to Abraham Which are concluding tonight the story of Abraham himself, which is pivotal in the scripture In fact, some of the most exciting prophecy passages Are in the book in the study and incident to and involved with the father of the faithful Abraham and Generally most people regard the story of Joseph while it's one of the twelve tribes when we get to the story of Joseph we have an extended narrative that it frankly fascinates me has not been made into a Hollywood movie because the In their interest in scripts and so forth. There have been many biblical passages rendered into very exciting movies But the one that fact to the best of my knowledge has been missed in terms of it just sheer drama and emotion and So forth is the story of Joseph and so we'll take that sort of as a third of three thirds not certainly an equal size but but tonight we are into the the Conclusion in a sense of the story of Noah There's no way we can exhaust the flood we could have spent many many much much time on that But I think we're probably many of you may feel we're taking long enough as it is We did I think last time Cover how let's see. We came down. I think we came through chapter 8 discussed the the institution of human government, I believe we covered that last time right and Thank you, and we got up to about verse 19 through 19 of chapter 9 and And again as I look through my notes and and reviewed the material last time a long list of things occurred to me that we didn't cover but I have a feeling of we Well our whole whole intent anyway, I'll draw I'll Take refuge in in in my definition of salt. He instructs us to be salt of the earth and The casual use of salt is of course to make you thirsty Right, so I'll leave that and if you if you find Those things intriguing you'll dig in on your own from the bibliography that we had passed out I'll have some additional copies of that in future evenings And let you explore the book on your own We did cover the the rainbow The rainbow is covered three times in the scripture But in each case it's associated with the throne of God We see it here. Of course in Genesis as a sign token symbol commitment of the Lord Relative to flooding the earth with water and We have the same image occurs again or should say that the rainbow occurs again in Ezekiel and also the book of Revelation Incident to the throne of God. So if you're if you're into rainbows, you can study rainbows in the scripture Okay, so we got up to verse 9 Now the interesting thing about this flood is that the flood destroyed sinful man All but eight were wiped out on the entire earth one other point that I think is important for us to recognize is the language of the book of Genesis clearly requires clearly requires a universal flood Because if the flood was local or partial or some of some scholars like to retreat to then the Lord has broken his covenant Because his covenant in chapter 9 was Never again to bring a flood like that one. Well, there have been many many widespread Devastating flood and if the flooded issue here was something less than a universal worldwide flood then and we've got a problem And I mentioned that it's sort of a backhanded evidence that scripture But the scripture Really speaks of a universal flood, but the interesting thing is that the flood did not wipe out sin But wiped out sinful men and What's amazing here the very first event in the new world here we are is Noah and his family have have the ark is at rest and they've come off the ark and indeed the first thing he did was to build an altar and and Took note of that last time But chapter 9 doesn't close before we have a very pathetic dismal disheartening Glimpse into the heart of man As Will sense here that we don't have a full insight as to what probably was going on Although what insight we have makes it a bit disparaging of discouraging Okay Let's verse 20 we're down at chapter 9 verse 20 and Noah began to be a farmer or husband or Anyway, and he planted a vineyard and he drank of the wine and became drunk and he was uncovered within his tent and him the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brethren outside and Shem and Japheth Took a garment laid it upon both their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father and their faces were backward and they saw not their father's nakedness Now this may strike us as strange for a lot of reasons first of all the idea of the father lying naked as a result of his drunkenness probably doesn't offend us as much as the import of the text implies it should and Many scholars are very divided about just exactly what's at issue here certainly as a minimum the issue here is one of a lack of respect for the father and One gets the impression from the handling of this whole situation That The respect that should have been shown is very very high thing There may be even more here than meets the eye Because the verb in the Hebrew where it says he was uncovered we in the English speak of that think of that in the passive voice And that he was uncovered as describing his condition the Hebrew structure implies an active verb That was something that was done to him furthermore as we skip down here in verse 24 moving on and let's let's let's finish the chapter and come back when Noah awoke from his wine and Knew what his younger son had done unto him He and he said cursed be Canaan a servant of servant shall he be unto his brethren and he said blessed be the Lord God of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant God shall enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant and Then Noah lived after the flood some 350 years and all the days of Noah were 950 years and he died now Several strange things about this this whole business of Noah getting drunk is doesn't sound to us like that grave a Circumstance and That can meet me back and speak to do two different things It can speak to the the level of gravity that we're in where we don't regard that as that serious But it also can hint here as to some other things that are going on the fact that there was an active act involved The fact that in several verses both in verse 21 and in 24 There's in the language implied an act many scholars not all it's a lot of controversy but many scholars believe that what was involved here was a homosexual act on the part of one of the sons on the part of him and That's hinted at in the text. It's far from conclusive But it is a hint then a suggestion that you that is in the literature and many scholars Defend and so I share that with you. There is a Sort of a disturbing thing here setting aside first of all the act of him, whatever that was and that is the situation with Noah, you know, Noah should be a Lesson to us all of us for watchfulness and prayer. I want you to think about Noah for a minute for 600 years Noah walked with God For 600 years Noah walked with God God Established his his Salvation for Noah and his family and indeed for the whole human race and in fact preserved the messianic line through Noah Now indeed it was through grace not through anything Noah earned don't mean to imply that Noah was a good guy in the sense that he earned that we went through that before But certainly one could argue that 600 years Certainly led to his being a vessel or a vehicle of deliverance What's also interesting is that okay after the after this incredible event of the 371 days in the ark and leaving the ark and starting the new world. It's surprising that he fell Into the circumstance and furthermore what's interesting is of the 300 years following We have no record, is that interesting Noah has no witness After this act the last event in Noah's life we have is this rather discouraging scene Recorded in chapter 9 the last 300 years or so or 350 years of Noah are a blank in effect and I think that's sobering It's also kind of interesting is just an observation here is that Noah lived 950 years we're going to discover that people after the flood Live shorter lives this long life Associated with Noah and Methuselah and the rest of these guys pre-flood the antediluvian people Was a pre-flood association and the canopy theory is widely held by biblical scholars Is that there was a absence of radiation would have you other circumstances that led to this long longevity and it's interesting But the shorter longevity didn't start immediately after flood Noah himself was apparently Not significantly affected by the post-flood conditions because he lived those 350 years later in fact now I should also mention the genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 are very very controversial There are many good scholars that believe that those genealogies are not Tight genealogies that is they're not exclusive father-son father-son father-son genealogy It turns out in the ancient languages particularly Hebrew. There isn't really a word for grandson if you're you are the son of your great-grandfather as far as the linguistics are concerned and So when you say someone like if you use Matthews genealogy or so-and-so begot someone that generally implies direct succession It doesn't have to but it generally does But just being the son of somebody could There are cases and I think we've alluded to those in the past When we in the Zechariah study it came up Where someone is regarded as the son of his grandfather where his grandfather was noted was a notable priest and and he was a priest There was a father in between that sort of goes without a lot of comment The point is there's a big controversy as to whether the genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 are tight or not if they're tight then we can Use them for some chronology and some dating studies if they're not tight They raise all kinds of other questions and there are good scholars on both sides of that question There are many many scholars that are very conservative in their biblical viewpoint That still feel that there are gaps in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11. I Personally have waded through a lot of literature on the subject and I Also, let me finish the sentence. There are also many conservative sound profound scholars that believe the genealogies are tight and In the absence of an abundance of information to the contrary. I would lean to a tight genealogy for a lot of reasons But the subject is not Crisp clear unequivocally arguable and I don't think I think it would get into a very dry Technical laborious study to get into that and try to show you both sides because it hangs on very heavy technicality So I'm personally regarding them as tight, but I think it's fair to point out that There are many scholars that don't believe they are if they are tight genealogies Then there's some very interesting things Noah lived until Abraham was 58 years old And that's interesting Shem Noah's son lived 502 years after the flood and that means he lived till after Tara Abraham's father died so Abraham's father Very reasonably could have Had a dialogue with Shem in fact Even Noah could have lived until Tara was 128 years old Depends on how some of those dovetail and we tend to think of thousands of years because he we have this whole conditioning of The geologists and they that there are thousands of years intervening here. Not really. It's it's kind of interesting But let's get in getting back to this business here. We now we have this rather unsavory circumstance between Ham and It's interesting with the writer here being Moses emphasizes Canaan here Ham had other sons and we're going to get into that but the son that is conspicuous of conspicuously of interest is Canaan and Another thing that really confuses the scholars and here again, we don't have a lot to go on is why Canaan the son of him Was cursed for what apparently Ham did That's a heavy trip because you can get into volumes on this subject Many people tried to make the curse on him somehow relate to black peoples and that's naive We're going to see that when we get to the table of nation That is not at all what's here. That's not at all what the scripture lays on us it is something you run into in in in in Incompetent literature of the past but The curse here incidentally isn't on him strangely enough. The curse is on Canaan now some scholars believe That curse is on Canaan generically also includes the other sons of him and Others feel it's specifically Canaan that it's in the son of him that the curse is laid Others Ascribe the curse on Canaan as simply a prophecy not necessarily accruing because of Ham's sin Follow me. We're gonna run into that in Genesis 49 Where where Joseph Jacob? Pronounces a prophecy on each of the twelve sons and some of them are really quite cryptic and we'll go we'll have a Delightful time going through that when we get to Genesis 49 because indeed some of it is very graphic and and and really quite Fascinating but again, it's a prophecy not a curse and this idea here of What's going on here We tend to read it as a consequence of the sin but that's a little tough because it's the son of the sinner that's being cursed and another view that the scholars have is that the curse that's being pronounced here is simply a prophecy that Canaan is going to be cursed and We're gonna see why Canaan's gonna Do his thing in the sense of the kinds of things he leads to Because he's gonna have you know a guy by the name of Nimrod and all of that or and so forth And we're gonna rather we're gonna have a Canaan's gonna end up. Excuse me. Canaan's gonna be the Servant of service they are going to serve Jim let's go through a little more cautiously verses 24 through 29 and Noah awoke from his wine knew and he knew what his younger Son had done to him. That's the verse that gives rise to Scholars believing that there was something more than just the fact that he was uncovered And he said cursed be Canaan a servant of servants By the way, it's the first this is the first place the word servant appears in the scripture And if you're a student of the book of Revelation You know that the first mention is usually considered a significant thing in the scripture If you have a mystical view of the scripture the place that a word first occurs is often very very suggestive a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren and That's exactly what we're going to find from Canaan We're going to find that in fact, they are in servitude under Israel Skim ahead here a little bit In Joshua chapter 9 verse 27 the Gibeonites make their deal and as a result are in servitude in Judges chapter 1 verse 28 and All the way as recently as Solomon and first Kings 9 20 21 and so on We have the Canaanites being in subjugation under Israel And so most scholars would see would see that as fulfilled in that particular In that particular sense we'll get into Canaan. We'll get when we get into Genesis 10. We'll get into the Canaanites more thoroughly They said blessed be the Lord God of Shem. Now. Here's where Shem that's why this passage May not necessarily be a response to the foregoing It's an occasion where Noah prophesies on his sons And he speaks of his grandson really Canaan son of him Now he speaks of Shem Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. It's interesting that Shem is identified here then as the channel through which God will be honored he is of course the channel through which the Messianic line flows must it be the Lord God of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant And that's the three passages just a sampling. I gave you speaks of Canaan being the servant of Shem. Okay God shall enlarge Japheth now, that's a pun incidentally That's a pun we had some people on the airhead conference Fascinated that their puns in the Bible the Bible is full of puns. Not certainly humorous puns just plays on words the Lord being called a Nazarene and a branch The Lord being called the Lamb of God in effect is a pun in the sense of a double use of the word Here we have in effect a pun because the word Japheth means to enlarge That's what the word itself means God shall enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem we shall tabernacle With Shem and Canaan shall be his servant. Canaan comes off poorly here. Okay because he's serving everybody and On the one hand that is interesting to track the the Canaanite families but it's also been a subject a passage of much abuse because much of the defense of slavery in the earlier history of our country was based on the notion that the the black peoples were descendants of of Canaan and We're based on this and that turns out as we'll get into to be a little naive Anyway, then we get in this interesting comment Noah lived after the flood 350 years and all the days of Noah were 950 years and he died to me. That's the most dismal part of the passage. I It is a little discomforting to read about the strange incident that occurs earlier But it's also disturbing that here a guy that has had those experiences You know for 300 years has nothing else to report I think that's interesting Okay. Now now we're going to get into chapter 10 and Chapter 10 is an interesting chapter. It's a you might label chapter 10 the table of nations it is called that by many Bible scholars as We go through other passages of prophecy All through from from the scripture. We will constantly have reference to Genesis chapter 10 Because it's the table of nations. We're going to have the genealogies of of Noah here and now these are the generations the Toledot of the sons of Noah And there's a very interesting thing we had we'll discover there are 70 families listed here and What makes that interesting when we get to Genesis chapter 46? we'll discover that the same number of families as there were children of Israel that entered into Egypt from Canaan and We're going to discover in Deuteronomy that that probably was not an accident the Lord pointing at the boundary and We'll get back to that as sort of a conclusion thing before we're all Finished oh One other thing I wanted to do before we leave chapter 9 You know, it's interesting to keep our antennas tuned to parallels and Not to make a big thing of it, but just as sort of an exercise If we had a class and I was going to assign you homework I would list at suggest that between now and next Monday night that you find ten ways That Noah and Adam were alike or how to put were in a parallel situation Now since I'm not going to be here next Monday night, it'd be unfair not to be able to grade the papers So I'll give you a clue as to what some of the things you'd obviously have put on your papers if I gave you that assignment Of those ten things the first thing you might observe that in Genesis chapter 1 verse 12 Adam followed the Adam Was on the earth after the earth emerged from the waters And we find that Noah was on the earth obviously after the earth emerged from the waters We also learned from Genesis verse chapter 1 verse 28 that Adam was appointed the Lord of creation It was given to him to to run it and of course in Noah chapter 9 verse 2 He was given to him was delivered all things To Adam he was instructed again in Genesis chapter 1 He was instructed to be that he was blessed and he was to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth And that was the same instruction that was given to Noah in chapter 9 verse 1 So in that sense, they're very they're in very parallel situations, isn't it? the parallel in some other ways to Adam was placed in a garden to dress and keep it and Noah became a farmer her husbandman planted the vineyard It's interesting. They both blew it when they under they partook of some fruit Is that interesting? I was a little way out. Okay. Now the word will get around town that Chuck Missler says you shouldn't eat fruit, right? No But it's interesting Because it was indeed in a garden that Adam transgressed and fell by partaking of fruit and Noah It was a product of the vineyard It caused him to be that occasioned his his problem Sin in both case exposed their nakedness Adam in chapter 3 verse 7 and Noah in chapter 9 verse 21 in Both cases they were covered by another obviously in a different sense altogether, but just as an observation and In Adams case there was a terrible curse pronounced on his posterity a posterity. They were That's mentioned Romans chapter 5 verse 12. And of course With Noah too, you'll find that same thing developed in in Genesis 24 among other places It's also something else. It's interesting Adam had three sons Cain Abel and Seth and it was in the third son that the Messianic line was established Noah has three sons and in the order that they're named Japheth Ham and Shem it's in Shem's line that the Messianic line is established And of course in each case their fall is the occasion of a major prophecy In Adams case, of course the prophecy of redemption in chapter 3 verse 15 and in Noah's case here we have a prophecy concerning the destiny of his three sons and We'll understand the destiny of his three sons better when we see who their offspring are and what comes out of that I don't know if that's a big deal But it's something that I thought I should share with you is just a an exercise And it's the kind of thing that it's sometimes very fruitful to be to be alert to Some other parallels you can parallels you can draw is as you go further here hams Primary sin was not to honor his father Setting aside this homosexual issue one way or the other the main issue Even if you have a more conservative view of the thing clearly hams Sin the issue here is one of honoring his father and that was Adams problem, too Okay Now, let's see what we can make of chapter 10 and Chapter 10 is almost an irresistible chapter to bore you to tears with long lists of where all these tribes Went and who they became and that of course has seven versions because each different ancient historian has a slightly different twist on them And and it can get on and on and on So what I'm really going to try to do tonight is give you the highlights on the presumption that those of you that aren't that interested will be greatly relieved by that treatment and Those of you that are really interested can dig into the dusty shelves of a good library and become an expert on just who these people are and So chapter 10 Table of Nations verse 1 now These are the tall adopt the generations of the sons of Noah Shem ham and Japheth now see in this case the order is the other way around the most important first We know that The younger son was ham, right? And yet hams in the middle So it's Shem ham and Japheth. It's a different order And you might always be sensitive that by the way as we go through Genesis You're going to discover that the order of the of different things is is never casual Especially the twelve tribes. They're always listed in a different order and each time. It's for a reason Anyway unto the unto them were sons born after the flood the sons of Japheth Gomer and Magog and Madai and Yavan and Tubal and Meshach and Tyrus The sons of Japheth first of all is that group of Tribes That you and I in general will probably easily relate to because they are really what we think of the you know the indo-european nations and Gomer is Tracked by most of the authors as the forbearer of the of the Sumerians which became later the indo-european Tribes and we're going to discover here shortly We're going to get to Gomer's sons. Yeah, okay in verse 3 and the sons of Gomer Ashkenaz Ripheth and Togarmah Are his three sons now the Ashkenazi? where are there some controversy about this, but most it generally is regarded as the ancient the predecessors to the Germans and in the Hebrew traditions, that's a that that concept is especially strong as the The German Jews where we forward to is the Ashkenazi the Ashkenaz apparently is the Ancient Germanic peoples now Ripheth is one of those that we don't really know a lot about It turns out that Ripheth though in one reckoning a corruption of that word is the word that some scholars believe the word Europe came from Interestingly just a linguistic thing. That's not obvious from the English, but it's a it's a it's a Etymological study that's kind of interesting to Garma is The name that even today that the Armenians Refer to themselves they refer to themselves as the house of to Garma The only controversy about that is that the the to Garma as it occurs in scripture It may be broader the Armenians may be only one group one subset of the house of to Garma But the fact that they attract themselves to the house of to Garma is a visible even to this day Okay Let's just go down the the root thing here where it gives this the the genealogy of the sons the next one We have the sons of Yavon Javan Yavon is the Ionians or the Greeks? It's interesting that the Greeks regard themselves as the sons of Iapetus Iapet OS if you want to write it out in our alphabet, which is another name for Japheth and His son being Yavon or I only Yavon being the forebear of the Greeks even in their culture today So the Yavon you'll find links to the Greeks Elisha is This is a different Elisha than you're thinking of in terms of the Hebrew name but Elisha is a Corrupt a corruption of that or an etymological derivation of that becomes Hellas or the word from which we get Hellenic It's linked to that believe it or not Now Tarshish is a tough one There's been a lot of interest in trying to establish where Tarshish really was In the several it occurs all through the Bible, and it's always a place a long way away and it's In Isaiah 66 verse 19 and Psalm 72 10 are a couple of examples But there are many in which we're fascinated to find out what Tarshish is really all about Many scholars associate Tarshish with one of the islands in the in the Mediterranean, but relatively nearby Some scholars that a little more venturesome feel that it might have been Spain or at you know a settlement in Spain All we really know from Ezekiel 27 There's a passage which causes us to believe that Tarshish was a source of silver iron tin and lead Now we do know that Tarshish was only available by sea We know that from the book of Jonah Remember Jonah to flee his ministry that God had called him to is took a ship the ship that had all the problems of the big fish and all that was on its way to Tarshish wherever that was and Also Solomon has a boasted of a fleet of ships that were to Tarshish first Kings 10 22 Now students of the details of those stories also include even even a Solomon Solomonic fleet was a smelting fleet Tarshish is clearly a source of tin Now that track so the main clues as to where Tarshish is hangs on the idea of it being a source of tin and several places that are closer in are Possible sources of tin but some scholars not a large number, but there's some scholars that attribute Tarshish to the British Isles Britannia was named Britannia as it was its name it name derives from its early source of tin at a time when that was very very valuable Or still is I mean apply it isn't but I mean when that was it Well, that was its major stock in trade now incidentally as just an another aside that may seem very strange to us as just students of early history, but Those of you that are students of Stonehenge Know that at the time of Stonehenge the archaeological evidence there indicates that at the time of Stonehenge, which was about 1500 BC They and the people's there enjoyed worldwide trade There are artifacts from the Middle East and from India and elsewhere at Stonehenge One of the great mysteries of Stonehenge is that is the cultural? opportunity it provided for for it was apparently a very well-known temple and It make there are references to it in the ancient ancient literature so the possible one possibility by no means a conclusively provable thing is that Tarshish was a Label for a culture in the British Isles as a source of tin as one that was available only by an extended sea voyage And it would fit What we do know about Tarshish, but it's by no means conclusively Ascertainable, okay and then Then we've got the kitten and the Dunham, and I'm not sure I've got all of these laid out here But I skipped over a few that I'm sure it was great interest to you that because that's the detailed We were said we're gonna shortly get into the sons of him before we leave The sons of Jaffa we've mentioned a couple others There's one by the name of Magog, and I assume some of you heard of Magog You know people who have absolutely no interest in the book of Genesis chapter 10 Are fascinated to find out who Magog is and that of course accrues because of the fascinating references in Ezekiel 38 and 39 By no means the only place that Magog appears in the scripture And I might mention that a Babylonian king Writing to an Egyptian pharaoh I've forgotten the year but very very early record Makes reference to Magog and in such a way that he dwells north of the Black Sea Which is kind of interesting Magog is regarded by most scholars as the ancestor from which the Scythians came which are the the forebears of the the the Russians or at least some of the tribes that make up what we think of as the Soviet Union Now also associated with Magog We have a couple of other names Tubal and Meshech Now Meshech is linked to the Muscovy which is which is a word that is indigenous to Russia and that Linguistic root is pretty clear Tubal links to Tobolsk It's the Tiberians of Herodotus or the Tablians of the Assyrian documents and again both the Meshech and the Tubal References are regarded as the Muscovy by Saragon the second he was the great conqueror of the Assyrian Empire Even in the Ezekiel passage this group Magog Meshech Tubal are Their chief is spoken of as the chief of Rosh and the word Rosh there is the word from is the same Linguistic root from which the word Russia derives her name so Meshech Tubal and Magog are linked Tribally to the area that we think of as the Soviet Union Now the Medi are clearly the Medes brought west of the Caspian Sea They appear as early as as a group actively in history 900 BC and of course at 700 BC or so become the beginnings of a Persian of the Medo-Persian Empire And become very prominent in the book of Daniel and so forth One of the Tyrus is mentioned here in verse 2 Tyrus is associated with the Etruscans of early Italy in In several ways for what that's worth So as we think of Japheth we think of him as the Indo-european nations But it gets more interesting as we go. Let's keep moving here And by these were the borders of the nations divided in their lands everyone after his tongue after their families in their nations and Now the sons of Ham We have Cush Misereen put and Canaan four sons now Ham is a substantial interest to Moses's readers because of and to us too But especially them because of the the the effects of the the Canaanites that are going to be very prominent here Let's Let's take the or by the way, I might mention the word Cush is Translated Ethiopia in many of your English translations, but actually consists of Two real tribal roots Ethiopians Ethiopia to the south and the cassettes east of the east of the Assyrians Seba and have a lot and Sabta and Rama and Sabteca and the sons of Rama Sheba and Eden now Sheba and Eden are great of great interest to us Sheba the Seba the earlier one links to the Sudan the Sheba and Eden both and also have Allah are What we would know as Arabia You can find reference to D down in Isaiah 21 13 and have a lot in 1st Samuel 15 verse 7 But those are for our purposes Adequately defined as essentially in that geography or you know ethnic background that we associate with Arabia Now a very important one to be sensitive to is misery That's a word that that you may not be sensitive to but as you go through the scripture You'll find it occur a surprising number of times and it is a synonym for Egypt Egypt You'll find it in Genesis 106 of course and then I Psalms 7851 and elsewhere. There's an interesting thing about the word misery. I mean that is that it's a plural ending. It's a dual ending and refers to the upper and lower Egypt Which were like two different lands that were united of course subsequently, but the misery is is Egypt Okay, and put sometimes spelled pH UT sometimes PUT is sometimes translated Libya But that's again an oversimplification Cush and put are often Ethiopian Libya, but that's a very very That that's an oversimplified simplification that you may find in some Bible footnotes Now we're going to get into some more of these guys down here under Canaan But We have a little interesting parenthetical Issue in here That will take on a little bit more in depth when we get to chapter 11, but let's make note of it right here verse 8 and Cush begot Nimrod and he Began to be a mighty one in the earth He was a mighty hunter before the Lord Wherefore it is said even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord in other words as a proverb or as a byword Now the beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Akkad and Calna in the land of Shinar He's a number of cities that he founded Now this guy Nimrod is going to be a subject of a lot more discussion and what I think I'd like to do is leave him for the moment and Come back to him. Let's get through the rest of this Chapter 11 will predate some of this and so we'll get into this a little bit more in chapter 11 Let's wade through some more of these genealogies and then come back to the plot that unravels here chapter of verse 11 of chapter 10 out of that land went forth ashore and he's the guy that the founder of the Assyrian Empire and Builded Nineveh and the city of Rehoboth and Kala and The Same is a great city and misery and begot Ludim and Ananim and Lehabian and and I don't know much about these other than to point out that all of them are plural names So they're family names not necessarily their peoples You notice each one has the the Hebrew I am ending which is a plural ending And out of whom came the Philistines so the Philistines have it in effect an Egyptian background It's the Philistines are as we will as we encounter at great length in the time of the judges and onward Are really Egyptian in their origins in that they are sons of Misrine Verse 15 and Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn and Heth and Jebusite and the Amorite and the Gergesite and the Hivite and the Archite and the Sinaite and the Aravidite and the Samarite and the Hamathite and afterward were the families of Canaan Canaanites spread abroad and the border of the Canaanite Canaanites was from Sidon as thou comest unto Gerar unto Gaza as thou goest unto Sodom and Gomorrah and unto Adma and Zebulim and even unto Elisha now the the Canaanites are of course great interest to us because that's the these are the tribes These are the seven nations seven of these are the prominent nations at the time that Joshua Conquers the land and Might mention a couple of them here Sidon is familiar to us because Sidon was the forebear that what we know is the Phoenicians That great maritime nation Headquartered out of Sidon and Tyre and so forth the city of Tyre comes a little later Heth is the father of the Hittites and we'll see them in Genesis 23 10 and They they become a very significant people from the time of Abraham all the way through to Solomon In fact for 800 years, they have a major Empire. The Hittite Empire is a subject of great interest to archaeologists now one Linguistic Variation on their name happens to be the kate k-h-i-t-t-a-e from which the word cafe comes from and There are some students of the sort of thing that track the Hittites Towards cafe, we're going to come to verse 7 in verse 17 Yeah in verse 17, you'll catch another the Sinaite And there's much we could spend an evening on the various places that word and its Derivations come the word sin strangely enough even tracks back to a ling linguistically that is to one of those name variations, but the Sinaites also become the sineam of Isaiah 49 12 and Also go to the Far East and it's fact it's to that word that we speak of when we speak Oh, you'll often hear of the of the China Chinese speak Speaking of the Sino-soviet bloc or the Sino-japanese war the word Sino is linguistically still an allusion to China China and That comes from the Sinaites. So both from the Sinaites and the head and and the Hittites we have what are Regarded as the roots of the what we know as the oriental Tribes which I think is kind of interesting Okay, let's move on verse 20 These are the sons of Ham after their families after their tongues in their countries and in their nations and unto Shem Now we're taking the third group. So you've gone through three sons Japheth Ham and now Shem Unto Shem also the father of all the children of Eber the brother of Japheth the elder even to him were children born children of Shem Elam and Asher and Ark are Pakshad and Lud and Aram and The most important of these is going to be when we get down in verse 25 Eber, but before we do that, let's see Aram Becomes the Aramaeans and one of the key variations of Hebrew if you will is Aramaic which track tracks to Aram and he has His children are us whole either and mash Us is interesting to us if for no other reason than it's the homeland of Job As Mentioned in Job 1 1 and also you get a reference to it in Jeremiah 25 20 And back said begot Shala and Shala begot Eber now Eber is very important because Eber is the word is the name from which the name Hebrew derives The son of Eber or Hebrew and also the word means to pass over so it's also those that crossed over the river You'll hear it both ways But it's just as an interesting background item And Joctan now that there now This is also where we get this fascinating verse in verse 25 until Eber were born two sons the name of one was Peleg for in his days was the earth divided and His brother's name was Joctan Now that little backhanded reference has caused libraries to fill with shelves of scholars who try to figure out what that really meant There are those that believe there's two there's two views of this There's one that's very mysterious and kind of interesting, but probably wrong and then there's one that's probably more practical But not nearly as much fun the interesting The interesting view of Peleg and it may be valid is that it was in this period that the earth was divided the continental drift And all of that There's a lot you know there's you probably read books and or come across this idea of how the continents of the world fit together and have drifted apart the whole concept of continental drift is a subject of great interest to be to students of the earth and And There are those that it that ascribed the The dividing of the earth in that sense to this interesting little verse in Genesis Chapter 10 or it was in his days. That is the days of Peleg whose name by the way means division That the earth was divided and With that little backhanded reference the writer moves on Now there's another view There's another view and that is that That Peleg may have been named as As in a sequence in Shem's line of the event that we're going to read about in chapter 11 With the nation the nation's being divided by the tongues at Babel Now this gets into some chronological questions. There are those that try to make a case that the naming of Peleg By Eber was a tribute to the event that occurred in Babel the presumption is that Shem and his line were not subject to some of the Chaos and confusion that occurs in chapter 11 Others feel that that doesn't fit chronologically and they feel there's something far more Heavy in verse 25 and frankly, we don't know that you can you can waste a lot of time waiting through people speculate It's scholarly speculation. So I don't think we need to spend a lot of time on that here tonight Anyway, the two Peleg and Jocton and Jocton Has a number of sons listed here that I'll rather than just butcher up the pronunciation You can go through when you get down to verse 29 You find Ophir and Havilah. Ophir is mentioned frequently because a source of gold they speak all through the scriptures the gold of Ophir and And Jobab now Jobab, by the way It's interesting some many some scholars ascribe this Jobab in verse 29 as the Job of the book of Job most scholars as you may know as feel it the book of Job is the oldest book of the Bible even older than the five books of Moses and the Jobab here in Genesis Chapter 10 verse 29 is some by some scholars ascribed to you know as being Job it's not obvious from the passage and it gets into a whole linguistic study that that You can get into if you're interested, but it's just a comment And all these are the sons of Jocton the dwelling was from Meshach as thou goest from Sephardt a mount of the east and these are the sons of Shem after their families and their tongues and their lands and their nations all these are the families of the sons of Noah after their generations and their nations and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood Okay, now we get into this very very interesting Passage for the next the first nine verses of chapter 11 and I Guess the easiest way is just to jump in the whole earth was of one language and of one speech Now by the way for it. I think it was almost universally regarded by scholars for centuries for lots of good reasons But that one language and that one speech was what? Hebrew There are some scholars that more current years feel it may that may be it was just a derivative of a more original language But there's an awful lot of evidence That says that Hebrew was the original language first of all the place names and a lot of the early records make sense in the Hebrew In terms of that and also there's a passage in Zephaniah That ascribes a return to Hebrew in the Millennium Zephaniah 3 9 we'll look at that before the evening's over. I believe unless I get distracted on some of these by roads In any case the whole earth was of one language of one speech and it came to pass as they journeyed from the east That they found a plane in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there and they said one to another come let us make brick And burn them thoroughly and they had brick for stone and slime they had for mortar now This is an interesting verse, and it's it's it has it has great significance to archaeology Archaeologists because in that area there is a shortage of stone You wouldn't think that the stone something that's in short supply, but it turns out that this is the idea of making brick Not the way they did in Egypt where they just made bricks and sun-dried them these are baked bricks Okay, burn them thoroughly See it speaks of a building technology. That's indigenous area and has been confirmed by the the by by archaeological excavations It's a very very interesting issue that isn't obvious to it to Also the slime is the term but it's really bitumen or asphalt and this peculiar construction of burning the brick to really make stones out of them and and to cement them with the asphalt is this construction that they find in the in that region of Of Archaeological digs anyway, they said come let us build us a city and a tower whose top You have the word may reach maybe in the King James and heaven it's a tower unto heaven and Let us make us a name lest. We be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth And the Lord came down to see the city in the tower which the children of men build it and the Lord said behold The people are one and they have all one language and this they began to do and now nothing will be withheld from them and that They have imagined to do come let us interesting word us plural Go down and And there confound their language that they may not understand one another speech So the Lord scattered them abroad from there upon the face of all the earth and they ceased building the city therefore is the name of it called Babel because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth and From there did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of the whole earth and that's all you got That's this famous story the Tower of Babel and you wonder what on earth is going on And what you need to tie together here a little bit is what went here earlier and That is if you're back here in chapter 10 verse 8 it says Cush begot Nimrod and He began to be a mighty one in the earth. This is your first tyrant It's very interesting to discover that the world at one time at this time Was unified under a single government and that single government was totalitarian and it was Nimrod And incidentally was a son of Cush. So, you know, some people love to make the point that he was probably a black man I don't know if Cush was black, but they liked, you know for those that goes over big in the south to point that out Anyway, he's a mighty hunter before the Lord now this Translation is unfortunate because what's implied by the language is that he was a mighty man, he was a hunter probably of men and He was defiant before the Lord the name Nimrod itself means the rebel the rebel now what you really What helps put this in perspective is to recognize the lessons We learned from Revelation 12 as we looked at Genesis 3 and what Satan is trying to do. What's Satan up to? Satan is the great imitator and What Satan is doing here is establishing right up front his leader and It's very very interesting to draw parallels between what Satan is trying to do at the end time versus what the Lord has ordained We find in Zechariah the whole idea that God will put a mark on the foreheads of his own and seal them and yet of Course in Revelation 13 we find the man of sin the Antichrist the lawless one The lawless one's an interesting title, especially when you look at Nimrod's title as being the rebel You just make a list of parallels and and and see it all the way through know what what Nimrod is doing Says hit the beginning of his kingdom was where? in Babel Now Babel actually Babelou is really the the Babylonian word from which it comes really means the gate of God It also can mean the Tower of God Babel in the sense of confusion is a word we derive from the historic event that occurs later But the intent was to egg the gate of God We get very interested in Babel the Tower of Babel as the beginning of Babylon Which is the source of all idolatry? the reason we get interested in that is because it's prominent role throughout the Old Testament, but even more important if it's paramount importance to you and I Because we can't really understand Revelation chapter 17 and chapter 18 unless we have some feeling for what it is that John is talking about when he speaks of mystery Babylon Babylon the great the mother of what Harlots that doesn't mean she's a harlot Doesn't mean she's the greatest harlot that ever was there the worst I dollop idolatrous system that we've ever seen It means she's the mother of all harlots Now you and I in our biblical Perspectives tend to be sensitive the fact I'm sure that Idolatry is what God hates that it got idolatry is an abomination before the Lord We've also become sensitive to the the use of language the parallel use of language with fornication and adultery versus false worship We we we have Israel spoken of as the unfaithful wife of Jehovah Right widowed and divorced in a spiritual sense She's spoken of as widowed and divorced strangely enough by Hosea and Isaiah and Jeremiah. It's a strange language, but this whole parallel between the faithfulness of a woman and our unfaithfulness say to a man and the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of Israel with respect to the Lord and the same language the idea of fornication you and I think of a sexually a sexual Unfaithfulness the Lord uses that word to speak of spiritual unfaithfulness we speak of adultery in terms of the failure to honor a commitment in a relationship and God used that same word to speak up toward the failure to keep a commitment to him So what's interesting as we get sensitive to the use of language by the prophets? We not only become sensitive to the abhorrence that God has for for adultery But we also get used to this this this use of language in sexual terms those those terms that would speak of sexual sins God uses to speak of spiritual sins and Indeed his whole ordination of marriage is a very special Supernatural union that he has purposes for quite apart from the purposes that we think I mean far beyond what we normally think in Any case what's interesting as we look at Revelation chapter 17 17 18 we have we're confronted with this very peculiar creature Called mystery Babylon, and she's a very prominent woman in the book of Revelation There are three women in the book of Revelation There is the woman of chapter 12 we studied her before Israel, right Brings forth the man-child there's also the woman of chapter 17 18 this mystery about on the harlot clothed in purple right and drunk on the blood of prophets and So forth and we have a third woman. Who's the third woman a virgin bride? Who is that? the church and of course the the the concepts of Israel and the church do become Focused together in in in the Bride of Christ in the New Jerusalem and so forth Now the point is Babel mystery Babylon Most you know Protestant commentators have had a field day because there's all good the Church of Thyatira that and the mystery Babylon Do have such papal overtones that there you know the the Protestant commentators over some centuries have had a field day with that But that's an oversimplification Because what mystery Babylon is all about Is not the church at Rome Mystery Babylon goes long before the church at Rome existed The mystery Babylon starts here in Genesis chapter 10 verse 8 with Nimrod the hunter and The reason we're interested in this guy and what happened even though our hints here are very vague and very shadow in the beginning Is because that plants the roots for some things that? Become major themes throughout the scripture I can't resist pointing out some other subtle things It's fascinating to me as we try to grapple with what mystery Babylon is really all about is that she makes some very interesting Boasts well first of the first point I want to close on because I started and may not have finished Mystery Babylon is the mother of all harlots remember revelation and That says that she is the source of all false religious systems We tend to think I think That religious systems get created by Satan is just deviations from the truth ways of jamming the channel creating Noise or confusion and indeed he does that but there's a mystical sense in which all those false occultic doctrines have a common root a Common root and that's in what was known later as Babylon, but had its roots at Babel Now maybe it would be useful to talk about that a little bit before we jump into what the Tower of Babel was all about Nimrod had a wife Semiramis who was worshipped as the Queen of Heaven and The concept of a Queen of Heaven is carried through the ancient and modern idolatrous systems Call her Diana of Ephesians Aphrodite. She goes by many different names as to a talking Greeks Romans or what-have-you The Egyptians had a name the Greeks had a name the Romans had a name but they all have the same source they all go back to the name of Rod's wife and They had a son name is Tammuz the first letter of his name was a cross and interesting and He was also Worshipped in effect as the Sun God and the Sun died about the time of the winter solstice You all know how the days get shorter in the winter about 20 December 22nd or 23rd We have what we call the winter solstice. The days are the shortest the nights are the longest. It's a result of the the Canting of the Earth's axis relative to the Sun It's a normal astronomically event, but the people who are planting and have no accurate calendar and so forth This question of seasons is very crucial economically so the whole you know, you and I sort of take a calendar for granted, but to the ancient cultures, it was a big deal and understanding The summer solstice the longest days the winter solstice the shortest days was a big deal and it's all got all tied up to this occultic system where the Sun God was regarded as having died on the winter solstice and Then as a few days went by and they saw the days getting longer He was considered to be reborn again. And the way they used to work the way they used to worship in Babylon that idea was to take a a Log a piece of a living thing a tree take a log and they would burn it a sort of an offering commemorating the death of the Sun God this this log was symbolically an infant the Chaldean word for infant is you'll and They used to burn it one night and then the following day. They would have a tree replace the log commemorating his resurrection and Used to trim this tree and About the time you're ready to celebrate Christmas read Jeremiah chapter 10 and that'll put you on a guilt trip Sounds like he's talking about a Christmas tree He actually isn't he's talking about another thing all together, but it's kind of fun to lay that on And I'll find some excuse to get in Jeremiah 10 as we get into the late November But the point is the idea of fertility the mistletoe The concept of the wassail bowl the concept of obviously Christmas trees eulogues, etc All those ideas did not start with the Christian Church. They started with Babylon and In the Babylonian system that grew up in the sixth century before Christ and they got conquered by the Medes and the Persians right and Then the Greeks and and the sit the Babylonian system moved to Pergamos and that's why in the letter seven large seven churches we could speak of Pergamos is that where Satan's throne was and Then of course as the Romans conquered all of that the Romans moved the system to Rome and it became the the Roman system and what we call what we think of as pagan Rome all the this whole system of multiple gods and all the all the ceremonial accoutrements to that form of worship and of course when in 312 AD when Constantine was quote converted close quote. I won't get into that here tonight It became a very shrewd political maneuver in any case He the Roman system suddenly became what was previously an underground secret sect hiding in caves became now a legitimate became announced as the state religion and so the rags of people hiding in caves were exchanged for the silks of the court and Christian thing was a big deal And so obviously you have a culture of thousands of people that are used to celebrating roughly the 25th of December Saturnalia or bacchanalia you name it. Whatever they started adapting these Set these holidays to the Christian theme and that's why you have Christmas on December 25th You know, it wasn't Christ's birthday. You couldn't have been born in the winter. No Roman Administrator with the salt would have half the world move when the most the world was on impassable And And so forth the shepherds were in their flocks by night, which you don't do after October So we don't know when Christ was born in terms of time of the year, but we know it wasn't in the winter So why do we do so? Why do we why do we? Worship or in effect Christmas or observe Christmas as a birthday of Jesus Christ in 725th The real answer to that strangely enough tracks back to Nimrod And interesting and we could go on like this, but there's some more important things to get out This tower of Babel, you know, if you read this naively It sounds like they're going to build a tower to go up to heaven and that is not it's a tower It's it's a tower in defiance of heaven It's a tower that is is basically a religious monument Some scholars believe the tower was high as to be a refuge in case of another flood. I Think other scholars feel it's a little naive, but it's an interesting idea. I throw it out for for your view on that Four times in the scripture, by the way Nimrod has spoken of the mighty one three times here and then also in 1st Chronicles 1 The word in the Hebrew is actually Gabor which means the chief or chieftain and He is a hunter and and we could go to Psalm 5 6, but running short of time The Antichrist is you can draw a great parallel of things Between him and the Antichrist being a king having his headquarters in Babylon Antichrist has spoken of the king of Babylon as the king of Babylon Isaiah 14 And of course in Revelation 17, we have mystery Babylon which I've mentioned the whole issue here is one to make a name these people gonna make a name for themselves and It's also interesting that all of this springs out of Nimrod who was under Cush and the subject of the curse Subject of the curse the curse that was mentioned earlier now And also it's lest we be scattered See, this is in defiance of the law that God had laid down for them to go and spread out and multiply and replenish the earth It's it's an attempt to defy that It's also interesting. They can't leave this without commenting that it many scholars and I'm attracted to this line of reasoning Make from this whole scene a case for a case against a universal totalitarian government The man is imperfect. If man was perfect government could be perfect, but as man is imperfect What you really what you what what really appears to be? Sound is to protect man from government and this whole cut this strangely enough is a defense of nationalism as an imperfect but better way to go because there's a lot more higher likelihood of the defense of the defense of individual liberty and therefore the freedom of worship and Some of these ideas that we really regard as maybe very Political and very provincial terms the last couple hundred years of our history may have much deeper roots In fact, that may have given the vitality to our first 200 years But this whole idea of a universal totalitarian system that is here being established and here being destroyed by the Lord Is not is not is not not a practical way of human government It's interesting because that's exactly what men today some of the intelligentsia in the world today Be at the Club of Rome in Europe or be at the Tarlato Commission in the US or other groups that out of genuine Passions of their own but naivete from a theological point of view are committed to a one-world government and some of the some of the major forces in America today Take for granted as just a given that the planet Earth will be under a single administration within 30 years and that the challenge before mankind is to get there non-violently and That's scary I'm an able academy type and when I went to school used to call that treason Because that kind of an idea means that the leadership Spouse of those ideas would prostitute the interests of the United States for that kind of a goal and that scares me But that's an aside Maybe it isn't too much of a side because that really probably what Babel is all about Babel is about something else too in time that we have Turn to Job 38 In addition to a word you may not have run into before Let's start verse 31 Job 38. It's an incredible incredible verse now pass a chapter, but very once is can't thou buy God is speaking here and He says can you bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades? Now you all know the Pleiades the seven sisters what you may not know It's probably it's somewhere in this constellation Pleiades is the center of the galaxy around which the entire Galaxy revolves which is kind of interesting. I don't know how Job realized that But anyway, or I should say the writer to the book of Job except the Lord told him or loose the bands of Orion Can't thou bring forth the Mazaroth in its season or can't thou guide Arcturus and his sons now all these are Astronomical names Pleiades Orion Arcturus are all names you may may be familiar with intimately But you probably recognize them as names of stars or constellations. What is the Mazaroth? anyone know It is the Hebrew name for what you might mistakenly identify or I shouldn't say mistakenly It's it's very close to this concept of the zodiac Now you and I tend to regard what we know about astronomy comes from an astrological tradition Now there you only draw a distinction here between astronomy Which is a legitimate scientific study of the stars in terms of how big they are probably are and trying to learn as a scientist What all he can about the astrophysical behavior of our universe in contrast to astrology? Which is an occultic practice attempting to forecast the future plus a lot of other things from the pattern of the stars in the heavens and from astrology because it has cultural traditions that were victims of many of the name though, you know the names of the constellations by their astrological traditions and Those labels being arbitrary labels as far as an astronomers concerned are useful for cataloging stars recording them in ephemeris in an ephemeris to Point a telescope or to navigate a ship or what have you and they'll admit probably many of you here I mean if you do celestial navigation either a boat or aircraft, okay You're accurate you do in a boat if you can't hold it to more than the degree you do it aviation I won't actually I'm gonna use you a nautical on that versus an aviation almanac. But anyway Those of you that are are interested in that know that the labels you use come from an astrological tradition I Want to draw that distinction? the zodiac is a the apparent path of the Sun through the sky throughout a year and it passes through groups of stars that have Labels and these labels that we know them by we know them by their secular and I might add astrological traditions and to be interested in that in no way necessarily identifies you as an astrologer It says it's just a convenient set of secular labels so that we can talk about a particular Place in the celestial heavens now, what's interesting though is that in Job 38 we have a reference made to the Maserat which is the Hebrew word for the Zodiac that he's that is 12 signs That the Sun apparently passes through throughout the year and you recall from Genesis 1 I know you all remember from Genesis 1 verses 14 and 15 where the Lord God said let there be lights in the firmament of heaven that divide the day from the night and let them be for signs Signs. Oh, that's interesting and of course for seasons and for days and for years and let them be lights in the firmament having to give light in the Earth and it was so Now that's kind of interesting. You might turn you could turn to Isaiah 40 26 Isaiah chapter 40 verse 26 25 to whom then will I will you like in me or shall I be equal sayeth the Holy One Lift up your eyes on high and behold Who hath created these things who bringeth out their host by number and does what and Call of them all by names by the greatness of his might For he is strong in power and none failing That's interesting verse those of you that have concordances can run with that and discover that God has names for all the stars The question is do you think he calls these stars by the same names? We know he calls Orion on and our tourists by those names because that's the way they are right and the Pleiades Some of these others may have different names Now just while we're on this little excursion, it might be kind of fun to pick up one more There's dozens of these but just to give you the flavor. Let's turn to Psalm 19 We looked at Psalm 19 before incident to The Sun when we were in Genesis and the creation, right, but I want to call your attention to the first verse again the heavens declare the glory of God and The firmament showeth his handiwork There is no speech nor language where the voice is not heard and so forth in them. He hath set a tabernacle for the Sun Where does the Sun go throughout the heavens through what we call the zodiac what the Hebrews called the Maser off? We know that the gospel is preaching to Abraham 400 years before Moses. What are we talking about? Well, if we go to when you get Genesis 49 You can discover that Jacob taught gives prophecies to the twelve tribes and you can infer from that the twelve tribes associate with each of the twelve signs of what we call the zodiac Numbers 23 and 24 also have the signs of the Maser off And in fact the prophecy of Balaam just to give you another little fun. Let's just turn to numbers 24 17 numbers 17 24 excuse me numbers 24 verse 17 Is a very very we all know bait is this interesting fascinating character called Balaam we know him about the bad news But he did give some prophecies and some of his profit one of his prophecies is very very famous prophecy The Christmas star in Bethlehem some people feel we're 17 He gives his messianic prophecy here I Shall see him but not now I shall behold him but not near there shall come a star out of Jacob and a scepter Shall rise out of Israel. He shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth And he shall be his possession and so forth very interesting prophecy by Balaam. What's a star out of Jacob? Some people make reference to this verse as a star of Bethlehem and that may or may not be right I'll leave that to your own independent study, but let's talk a little bit further about If I had the time and it's probably fortunate that I don't because it may be just a whole different scenario for you But let me mention a few things to you The signs of the zodiac and I'll use that term only because it's more convenient to you and I should say Maserat I presume has a number of signs and we take them by a certain beginning the first point in Aries and so forth That comes from certain astronomical considerations, but there's other places to start and there's a whole thing about where you start But let me not get into all of that. Let me just point out to you one particular sign. You know, there's a sign called Virgo What is that? Terrific, you know what the what the first magnitude the brightest star and Virgo is called in its Hebrew name Zerah which means the seed In Isaiah Ahab has you know, ask a sign ask a sign of the Lord. I Will not ask nor will I tempt the Lord very well. The Lord shall give you a sign a virgin shall conceive and bear a son that interesting The second magnitude star in that in Virgo is is Called in the Hebrew Tzemach, which means the branch Okay, five times the scriptures referred to as the branch. We've been through that I think together and she came at that Which is a I'm not sure I'm pronouncing it Right, which I got to seven is desire the desire of women so forth And you can go through the names of the stars in the Hebrew of those constellations and find out a lot of interesting things now We could if we had the time go through maybe that would be a fun thing to do on some optional evening we'll have evenings when we'll meet this fall when there may be maybe There's a convenient time to sort of take a parenthesis from the path of things and just take an evening and go through this between and go through the signs as they occur in their Hebrew names and how they speak of the gospel of Jesus Christ From beginning to end now About some of these we know a great deal and I've mentioned Virgo is just one because it's very close to it Some of the others are a little more obscure but of course you have the water bearers and you have the you can go through the whole thing and it's very very interesting in terms of a deliverer and the whole gospel message now There are some and there's several books written on this the gospel in the stars There's two or three books with that or equivalent kinds of titles You can have a Christian bookstore if you're interested in doing this and it's a fun exercise in the summer especially if you're going up at camp to take a book like that read about it and look at the stars and learn the constellation by their Hebrew names and Be able to recount the gospel of Jesus Christ by the Mazaroth by the twelve signs of Zodiac now What some people believe some scholars believe is that God ordained his entire plan for the redemption of mankind Obviously before the foundations of the earth were laid and they are chronicled in the heavens And it was that was the mechanism by which he communicated to Abraham We know the gospel is preached to Abraham before well, we don't know you can forget me that it's very very exciting I keep forgetting it. We really haven't looked that it's gonna be very very interesting how Abraham knew he was acting out prophecy when he offered his son Isaac and His the faith that saved was a conviction that Isaac would be resurrected from the dead. We'll get into all that Genesis 22 But the point is is that God had ordained the heavens declare the glory of God and what we have established in Babel is a corruption of that system the beginning of the twisting around and the perversion of those things which God had ordained to become the first source of idolatry the first establishment man as as the one not only to rule in a governmental sense, but to be worshipped to make himself defiant to enslave others and And we have what we later see from Babylon as the root of all the idol of the satanic systems now We do find incidentally just as some cultural aside ziggurats in bat in in Babylon today even the 297 feet high at Aniket Maki is one of them which means incidentally the building of the foundation platform for the heaven and the earth Still there the word ziggurat comes from a word mean to be higher to raise up And what we really have instituted here is something that could have been an irreversible totalitarian state Worldwide we have the mother of harlots the Queen of Heaven ideas introduced And what God has done is he intervenes and by the confusion of language disperses the thing and breaks it up And it's very very interesting to me to see the contrast of God intervening by introducing the confusion of tongues in Genesis 11 in Contrast to his miracle of the giving of tongues in Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 I think those are interesting antithetical or antiphonal ideas One last idea I'd like to get two quick verses if I can still squeeze it in before I let you go You might just for fun look at Genesis 26 Excuse me Genesis 46 This is just something I wanted to close on with This question of the of the lesson tonight with all the different families in the Genesis 46 and The second verse 27 and the sons of Joseph who were born into him and Egypt were two souls There's a list here of all the people that went into into Egypt from Canaan when they migrated there and There were two souls all the souls of the house of Jacob who all who came into Egypt were three score and ten How many is that? 70 if you paid attention in the lesson tonight there were sexually to count There's 70 families that are detailed that were selected. They're obviously more but they were selected from the families of Noah Why is that true turn to Deuteronomy? chapter 10 There's just a little tidbit that some of you can run with to see how fascinatingly the Lord just Just moves nothing's by accident. I Know I don't want 1022. I wanted that for something else. I'm gonna skip now. Let's take 32 7 and 8 No interest of time. Let's take a shortcut and let's just jump right into 32 7 and 8 Deuteronomy 32 Verse 7 where he says remember the days of old Consider the years of many generations That's thy father And he will show thee as the elders and they will tell thee when the Most High Divided to the nations their inheritance when he separated the sons of Adam and he set the bounds of the people According to the number of the children of Israel for the Lord's portions of the people. I know what that means I'll leave it to you to figure it out, but it's interesting that there's relationship between the families that are ordained in Noah and Sons of Noah in chapter 10 and 11 and and this tie together with the children of Israel with the 70 families If you will going into or people going into to Egypt, they're going to be delivered to that We're going to we're getting ahead of the story because that all happens Seven years from now when we get to that part and in the book of Genesis we have perhaps been a little Disruptive tonight charging through these what three chapters 9 10 and 11 but I'm really my intent was to get all the way to Tara and Abraham between now and the next time we meet which will be two weeks from tonight now next Monday But the week following we're going to undertake the study of Abraham And we're gonna it is as you know, I'm really a prophecy nut I'm fascinated with prophecy, but the most interesting prophecies I know in the scripture Will emerge out of our study of Abraham fascinating guy and it starts with his family tree and and and his failure to fully his failure to obey God and yet why God records him as having obeyed and Why he even though he? Failed to exercise his faith as you and I might think of it is record as the father of the faithful And we're going to just get into this whole fascinating what really happened in the first few verses of chapter 12 the call of Abraham and And what ran and this in his chronicle is one that will be a lot of fun. I Look forward to seeing you two weeks from tonight. Thank you This concludes the tenth study in the book of Genesis