Well, hello, everybody, and welcome back. This is our Daily Devotional for Friday, October the 4th, 2024, and I am delighted to have this time with you, and I hope that it finds you doing very well. I hope you're hanging in there with us as we are covering some very interesting stuff, making our way through Genesis. At least it's interesting to me, right? I realized that yesterday I might have geeked out just a little bit over these names and places, but y'all, what we've been doing. This is the building blocks. This is the explanation for why the world is still the way that the world is around us today. Take the Middle East, for instance. Yesterday had a real blessing and going to a pizza for pastors thing at my daughter's homeschool co-op. A lot of pastors came and I got to sit in on her class for just a little bit and she's in the 11th grade, but got to sit in on this discussion that they were having about the Middle East and foreign policy and all of these different things going on. Yeah, I know. They're pretty advanced. They're talking about things in the 11th grade that I don't remember talking about in the 11th grade, but it's her homeschool co-op and so they run pretty deep. But nevertheless, questions came up as to why the Middle East is the way that it is. What has informed the government? structure of the Middle East, what changes have taken place, and because it's from a biblical worldview, this idea that all of this goes back to where we are, goes back to the table of nations, it goes back to there were descendants of Shem, there were descendants of Japheth, and as we saw yesterday, there were descendants of Ham. Ham, the one who is cursed, and his descendants after him, cursed because of what he did to his father, and that in itself If you missed that Daily Devotional a couple of days ago, you're going to want to go back and listen to it, or maybe you would go and it's kind of gross. But anyway, what we've been reading informs these things. Add to it what I talked about yesterday with Abraham having a child by Hagar, and that child would be Ishmael. God promised that he would be a wild ass of a man and all of his descendants after him. And I'm not trying to be political here, I'm just saying when God makes a promise, he keeps it and it informs what's going on in the world around us. That's why long ago, when we started Genesis, I not only said that Genesis is the fundamental building blocks for society, for life as we know it, but I said if you don't understand Genesis, there's gonna be a lot of other things that you don't understand about the world around you too. This is a prime example of that. And yesterday, we made it all the way through the line of Ham, seeing names that ought to stick out to us, like Cush, which is Egypt, and Canaan, and Nineveh, and Babylon, and Assyria, all of these names really pointing to places, to wickedness, to turmoil, to the rise and fall of vast empires And it's all God's providence throughout all of these things. And it's so wicked that we see coming, the line is so wicked that we see coming from Ham, that if Genesis chapter 10 ended in verse 20, excuse me, that these are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages and their territories and nations. Well, we wouldn't have the rest of the Bible. I'm confident we wouldn't even be here right now. We'd have no reason to be here right now because it was through him that the curse came. It was through Japheth that we see blessings, but at the same time, a promise of eventual blessing through Christ. but it's through Shin, it's through the Semites that we see God reckoning a people for himself. And that's where we're picking up today. So let's go to the Lord in prayer before we start. Father, please be with us now. Guide us in this time, let it be pleasing to you. Let us see what you would have us to see and understand that which we need to understand about your providential hand at work. So please give us grateful hearts as we read, taking note. recognizing that you intervene throughout the course of history, you provide a way forward, always. So give us courage, let us be of good cheer, let us take heart in who you are, and we pray it all in Christ's name, amen. All right, so we're picking up in Genesis chapter 10, verse 21. Verse 21, I kind of alluded to this yesterday, it's where we ended. Verse 21 is very similar to different places in God's Word where it's like, man, how terrible is it gonna get? Fast forward to Romans, but therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus our Lord. Beautiful, beautiful transition. Book of Jonah, Jonah disobeys God, runs from God, belly of the fish, vomiting out, but the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Very similar to that, and in fact, much higher stakes. Chapter 10, verse 21, sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was Japheth. Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber. All right, now pausing for a second there, did you catch anything interesting? You know, maybe you remember, maybe you don't, but probably when you had Sunday school over Jacob and Esau, you learned about birthrights, right? About how the older son got the birthright. We see it all throughout scripture. Certainly we have this example with Jacob and Esau. Esau despised his birthright. Jacob swindled it away from him. You got that thing going on. Fast forward to the prodigal son, yeah, you got that thing going on too. All these examples of the birthright and the importance being placed on the firstborn. Why is it that Shem was blessed and not Japheth? Why does God reckon his line through Shem? Y'all, I really don't know. Rewinding back to what we saw about this episode with Ham, Really, when you read it, it's kind of like Shem and Japheth are on equal footing, chapter 9, verse 23, but Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders. Then they walked backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness. All right, then Noah wakes up, he curses Ham, he blesses Japheth, but the bulk of the blessing, the real blessing, the full blessing, is on Shem. And I don't know why. I'm guessing that it just comes down to God seeing the heart. I mean, we know that's the paradigm other places in scripture. When Samuel goes to choose the king, it goes to Jesse's household. God directs him there. He sees one of his sons. He's like, aha. He says to himself, I'm looking at the next king of Israel. But God says, oh, no, no, no, no, no, Samuel. You look on the outside. I look on the inside. That's the only explanation I can come up with as to why it was Shem, as opposed to Japheth, that received this blessing. But it was him, even though he was not the oldest. Japheth was his older brother, but nevertheless, it was through him that we find Aber, or Aber, right? The sons of Shem, Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshach, or Meshach. Barphaxad was the father of Shalah and Shalaler the father, for Shalah the father of Eber. Two sons were born to Eber. One was named Peleg, because in his time the earth was divided. His brother was named Jokta. Now, what does it mean, in his time the world was divided? Y'all, this is really a fascinating thing. His name itself, Peleg, it means division. That's the very definition of his name. There's different opinion on this. I really don't know. Probably what it's talking about is divided between peoples, like people groups that are at division with one another. That's the best explanation. There are some other theories. I don't know. This is all we get. We could theorize, but that's all it would be. That's all we get about Pillock. This little anecdotal thing is thrown in there. His brother was named Jocton. Verse 26, Jocton was the father of Almadad, Sheleph, Hazoramaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzzel, Declah, Obol, Abamiel, Cheba, Ophir, Habalah, and Jobob. All these were sons of Jocton. The region where they live stretched from the Mesa towards Sephar in the eastern hill country. These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages in their territories and nations. These are the clans of Noah's son, according to their lines of descendant within their nations. From these, the nations spread out over the earth after the flood." Now, that last verse is very important. And before going back, I want to just get to that. Y'all, the story of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, despite the ups and downs, despite the tales of goodness and God reckoning of people that we're gonna talk about in a second, we also find the tale of God's curse and the wickedness that would spread on the earth. But in the end, his purpose was accomplished. The earth was repopulated. The earth was yet again subdued by humanity, by the pinnacle of creation. We who are created in God's image once again would subdue the earth. Okay, mission accomplished. Now, let's get back to this long list of names that may very well mean nothing to you and to me. They are difficult, especially some of them. Some of them are very hard to say. Remember, this is Hebrew that we've transliterated into English. And if you've ever seen Hebrew before, I don't have my text close by. Do I? Do I? What did I do with this? Oh, it's over on the other side of my desk. I'm not going to get it. But anyway, Hebrew is a glyph language, right? They don't have consonants, vowels like we do. They have figures that represent sounds. They don't have any vowels at all. In fact, they have little dots and dashes and things. So, very difficult to translate this. But outside of the notable names that are tricky for us to understand and outside of this little portion about under Peleg, not Pegleg, Peleg, the earth being divided, we really don't know much about these people. If we just stand on Genesis chapter 10, it's like, okay, big deal. Why does this matter? Well, y'all, on Genesis 10 alone, it's not right for us to have that attitude, but at least it's reasonable. To find where it really matters, you gotta go elsewhere. And because we're doing this today, we're not going to do a lot of this when we actually come to it, but if you were to fast forward into chapter 11, you find the Tower of Babel, and then you find the nations dispersed after Babel. We're not getting into Babel today, but it's in chapter 11 that we find a more detailed account of Shem. Okay. Remember God promised or God gave blessings by Noah to Shem. Okay. There are those that say that this promise that is given in verse 26 of chapter 9, he said, blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem. May Canaan be the slave of Shem. It is said that this is one of also the early prophecies of Christ. Why do we say that? Well, in Genesis chapter 11, verse 10, we see this is the account of Shem. It's a more detailed understanding. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. And after he became the father of Afarxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters. When Afarxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah, and after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and he had other sons and daughters. Now eventually, as you continue, we're not gonna read it all, too many difficult names today, my tongue isn't working well, this is the last devotional of the week and I gotta save up for Sunday, but nevertheless, Nevertheless, right? As you continue it down, you find this guy Nahor, right? Verse 22, when Sarug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. And after he became the father of Nahor, Sarug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters. When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters. After Terah, Hang in there. No, it doesn't, nope. After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram. Now, does that name ring any bells for you? All these other names that are tricky, Jocton, right, Obol, Abimele, eh. Abram ought to ring some bells for us. In fact, it's this Abram that would be the father of Judaism. You know, there's a reason why, and I think I talked about this a couple of days ago, you ever wondered about that term anti-Semitic or Semite? Well, the term Semite comes from Shem. It's all from the line of Shem. This is where the Jewish people find their origins, okay? And if it still doesn't mean that much to you, it's like, okay, great, Abraham, we know his story, right? God did lots of things through Abraham. Well, if you fast forward to Galatians chapter 3, you find out that God's grand plan of redemption God's grand promise that he gave all the way back in Genesis 3, that one day, one day, there would be one who would rise up and crush the head of the serpent. All of these promises find their reality and their basis in the bloodlines, in the story of the generations. And so in Galatians 3.16, we find that the promises The promises not only of life, of blessing, but the promise of salvation, of newness of life, of the new heaven and the new earth. In Hebrews chapter 11, it says of Abraham that he never stopped looking. He never stopped looking for that city whose builder and architect was God. Abraham, who was so blessed, he could have had the mightiest palace. He kept on looking, because he was looking for heaven itself. Galatians 3.16, the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The scripture does not say, and to seeds, meaning many people, but and to your seed, meaning one person, who is Christ. And y'all, If you keep on going, you find out that it's not based on physical bloodlines that we find our blessings. It's not based on hereditary, that we find this promise that God gives. At the end of Galatians 3 verse 26, it says, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is therefore neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, let me tell you why this list matters. This list that we might skip over. If you belong to Christ, Again, this is Galatians chapter three, verse 29. Then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. You know what this means? This means that if you know Jesus Christ and you're turned into this daily devotion, it means as we're reading all these weird names about the Semites and who did this and who was that and why does any of this matter? It's your family tree that we're reading here. It's the story of you. And no, it's not a story of who your granddaddy was or your great-granddaddy, though that stuff is important. We know that Shem himself is the ninth great-grandfather of Abraham. That means if you take the genealogy of Matthew, where you get 14 generations from Noah to David, and then from David to Christ, right? That means if you add in another nine, that means the 37th great-grandfather of Jesus Christ himself, according to lineage, Shem. But because of Christ, this is your line. You know, we get this thing messed up, and this is one of the reasons why I'm preaching through the book of Revelation on Sunday mornings now, and please, pray for me. One of the things that we really get messed up is this whole chosen people business. Now, is something going to happen with ethnic Jews? Read Romans 9, read Romans 11. Yes, absolutely, something is going to happen. However, Galatians tells us the truth here. I just read it, I'm not gonna read it again. If your faith is in Christ, then you're the seed of Abraham. This is your story. I hope that that makes this mean a little bit more. Now, there's a promise as well, and with this, I will end. If you're here and you're watching this and you know you don't know Jesus, if you think you do, but you don't have any personal relationship with him, if you don't trust him, if you're not relying on him for your salvation, I love you enough to tell you, you don't know him, okay? And if you're wondering, well, what's my story? This can be your story. but it will only be your story through Jesus Christ. And as I talk about your story, realize that it's a story that is full of ups and downs, but it is an eternal story, full of blessing, full of reward, full of fullness and newness of life and purpose. But the basis of it is Christ Jesus. So I want to encourage you. Number one, let me encourage you, if you know Jesus, to take the time to be grateful, to praise God for his faithfulness throughout the generations. We think about things usually on a broad scale, but I can't remember who said it. Wars are won and lost by logistics, right? Peoples are reckoned by logistics, and God is faithful. Take the time to consider your story, and it's one of God's faithfulness. If you don't know Jesus, turn to Him. Let's pray. Our God and our Father, we thank you for this, the story of the table of nations, and we thank you for the much deeper implications of our story through Jesus Christ. Give us grateful hearts as we consider these things. And if there's any here that don't know you, please draw them to yourself. And I pray it in Christ's name, amen. Well, I'd like to thank you all for being a part of this time. If you're in that group and you know you don't know Jesus, get in touch with me. We will talk, okay? Speaking of Revelation on Sunday, we continue this coming Lord's Day, and actually, it's a communion Sunday, too. So, Old Providence people, prepare your hearts. If you're not an Old Providence people and you're local, we would love to have you come and worship with us, really and truly, y'all. Don't wait on that. Don't sleep on that. There's a lot of churches around here that are not churches. And I say that, we've had this talk before. They are not churches, they look like churches, they sound like churches, but they have rejected God's word. By God's grace, he has preserved his word here at Old Providence. So come on out, we would love to have you. We're available online as well. But you know what I'm gonna say, get yourself in a Bible-believing church if at all possible. There are reasons you can't and reasons you shouldn't be in public worship, right? If you have a medical condition, all of that is valid, okay. But if that's not you, get yourself on a Bible believing church. Have a great weekend.