are familiar with the story of Jonah and understand the story of Jonah and have read it. But I think it bears repeating this morning and thinking about what is the task before us with Genesis 10. So here's Jonah, you know of Jonah. He's a prophet of God, a spokesman for God, a servant of God. And God comes to him and tells him to go cry out against Nineveh. Because as God says, their wickedness has come up before me. Now Nineveh was a wicked city in a wicked land of Assyria. It was a wicked nation. It was a city and it was a nation no Israelite wanted to be in. And so Jonah hears this command of God and decides, you know what, God, I think you should find another spokesman. I don't want to do that. God, you just go tell them yourself. And so Jonah tries to flee from God by going to Tarshish and he gets on a boat and and you know the story from there. The storm comes as God brings his judgment on to the boat because of Jonah. So Jonah confesses his sin and has the crew throw him overboard into the sea. The sea calms, a giant fish comes and swallows Jonah, and Jonah is there in the belly of the fish. Finally, he has this prayer of repentance, and his repentance of prayer ends with salvation is of the Lord. Now remember that he says that salvation is of the Lord. Well, we know what happens then he goes to Nineveh. He proclaims judgment against it 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And Jonah goes around proclaiming this judgment and then greatly disliking this city and this land. He goes up on the hill and excitedly waits for fire to come down and wipe out Nineveh. However, the king repents and leads the city in repentance and God relents. We read in Jonah 3.10, that God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God relented from the disaster that he said he would bring upon them and he did not do it. Now Jonah sees this after greatly anticipating a ball of fire coming down from heaven and destroying the city. Jonah sees this and is ticked off. He is angry. In fact, he is beyond angry. He is to that point of such fury that he was in despair. And he says that the people should have been destroyed, that Israel shouldn't have to deal with them. And then he says this, the man who had claimed, remember, salvation is of the Lord. He is furious that a people is being saved by the Lord. And he's so mad, he explodes with, it is better for me to die than to live. He would rather die then see Nineveh not be destroyed with God's judgment. God then comes to Jonah and says, should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which are more than 120,000 people who can't discern their right from their left? You see, the great message here is that God is sovereign over the nation. He's the judge of the earth. All nations are under his sovereign control. None are exempt. Despite the fact that Nineveh is wicked and Assyria is wicked and not his chosen nation of Israel, God still cares about them. You see, friends, we need to have a biblical and theocentric view of the nations. Now more than ever, we are far more like Jonah than we realize. We assume we know what is best for the nations. And we presume to know what should be happening. And we seem to passively disregard God's sovereignty over the nations. And we seemingly forget that God's sovereign hand is with the nations. Now, let me be a little bit more blunt here at the risk of being abrasive. We are more like Jonah than we realize when we say things like, surely God wants China to fall into his great judgment and surely God wants the United States of America to flourish. How do we know? How are we so sure? We can be like Jonah. And perhaps we are like Jonah, angry right now and telling God what God should be doing. And we're greatly displeased that God is not doing what we think he should be doing in the nations. God cared about Nineveh. God cares about the U.S. They're both ultimately his. And yet, neither are the nation of Israel. And the promises in the Old Testament to Israel have been given to neither Nineveh nor the U.S. Both are under his sovereign control, and both will ultimately serve his sovereign purposes. And this we must learn from the book of Jonah. But this doesn't begin in Jonah. rather it begins in Genesis 10. And so let's turn to Genesis 10 and let's see this. Last week we covered the rest of chapter nine. We're gonna go through all of chapter 10 this week and chapter 11 next week. In Genesis 10, beginning in verse one, we read this. Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Jopheth. And the sons were born to them after the flood. The sons of Jopheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshach, and Teres. The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphthah, and Togamara. The sons of Javan were Elisha, Tarshish, Kittim, Dodonim. And from these, the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations. Now the sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raamah, Sabtechah, and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. Cush begot Nimrod, and he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is stated, like Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Akkad, Qalna, and the land of Shinar. And from that land he went to Assyria, and he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ur, and Qala. And Rezin, between Nineveh and Qala, that is the principal city. Mizraim begot Ludum, Anumim, Lahabim, Naphtunim, Pothrusim, and Qulsumim. From whom came the Philistines and the Kaphtorim. Canaan begot Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth, the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, the Archaic, the Sinite, the Arvadite, the Zemorite, and the Hamathite. Afterwards, the families of the Canaanites were dispersed, and the border of the Canaanites was as far from Sidon as you go towards Gerar, as far as Gaza, then as you go towards Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma, and Zeboim, as far as Lasha. These were the sons of Ham according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, and in their nations. And children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the father of Japheth the elder. The sons of Shem were Elam, Asher, Afarxad, Lud, Aram. The sons of Aram were Uz, Hol, Gether, and Mash. Afarxad begot Salah, and Salah begot Eber. To Eber were born two sons. The name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother's name was Joktan. And Joktan begot Almadad, Sheleth, Hazarmaveth, Zerah, Hararam, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimal, Sheba, Ofer, Havilah, and Jobab. And all of these were the sons of Joktan. And their dwelling place was from Mesha, as you go towards Sephar, the mountains of the east. These were the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, according to their nations. These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations in their nations. And from these, the nations were divided on the earth after the flood. Now in Genesis nine, it was a critically important chapter because it comes right after the flood. And in Genesis nine, we see God's value of human life and his care for humanity and providing for them and giving them food and promising never to flood the earth again. But as we also saw the sinfulness of humanity is still very real and it's still very present. We also see here that this is demonstrated by Noah being passed out drunk and naked in his tent. His son Ham sees him and dishonors him, gossips to him or gossips about him to his brothers. However, Shem and Japheth honor their father by putting a blanket over their shoulders and they walk into the tent backwards and cover him up. And so just as God covered Adam and Eve in their sin, so here Shem and Japheth covered Noah in his. We see then the only words of Noah throughout the whole story. It's super interesting. We see no words of Noah until here. And these are his only words. We looked at these last week. This was his curse on Canaan. It's also that We see here Canaan is going to be the servant of servants, the lowest of servants. And then we also see the line of Shem is blessed. And finally, there's an appeal that God would enlarge Japheth, that he would experience the blessings of Shem. And as we saw last week, this seems to refer to the Gentiles going to, or I'm sorry, the gospel going to the Gentiles. Now, here's what is so important about this. Understanding those three statements that Noah makes about his three sons is critical to understanding the rest of the Bible, as well as understanding the nations and understanding chapter 10. So kind of with that in mind now, let's do an overview of chapter 10 before we get closer into it. Chapter 10 is often referred to as the table of nations. In fact, in your Bible, that might be a title there, the table of the nations. It's a chapter that explains the source of all the nations, but it's also the source of all the peoples in the world. and also tells Israel, remember this is written first to Israel, it tells Israel about the people that are around them and that they will have interaction with. All the people flow either from Japheth, Ham, or Shem, and thus all flow from Noah, and all then ultimately flow from Adam. And so there's really three important things this chapter's gonna show us. The first being the unity of the human race. Regardless of the color of skin, the land one comes from, the language one speaks, the boundaries that one comes from as far as nations, or regardless of how one lives, what region they live in, all humanity is united together. All share a common ancestry with Noah, and thus all share a common ancestry with Adam. Now here's why this is important. Because all humanity is ultimately from Adam, all humanity is therefore ultimately responsible to God. There is not a single human being who does not fall into one of these lines and therefore is not responsible to God because they haven't come from God. All humanity is responsible before God. Now, another thing this chapter is showing us is why there is division. And this is something we often do not think about. This division exists, as this text says, as this chapter says, in nations and territories and languages and tribes or families. And this spreading out is due to two factors. It's due, first of all, to God's blessing to be fruitful and multiply. One of the implications of a people being fruitful and multiplying is a spreading out of the people and the nations. But second, this division that is there is because of God's judgment, because of sin. And this is the part that we often don't think about. A unified humanity does not seek the glory of God, but rather seeks their own glory. I think that's the big point of why the Tower of Babel interrupts the genealogy and is put right in the middle of the genealogy. Because a unified humanity does not result in the glory of God, but the glory of humanity. Leads to praising themselves, which leads to destruction. I think we see this implied in Revelation 20 as well. And when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The humanity uniting there is to rise up against God. I think Kenneth Matthews is right when he says, as long as sin reigns, diversity among nations is required to restrain the wickedness that a unified sinful humanity might achieve. And I think he's right, because that's exactly what we're going to see at the beginning of chapter 11. And so the Christian needs to understand this. There will never be world peace in this earth that leads to the glory of God. We strive for political peace. We want to see war as a last resort. We don't seek division. We don't celebrate that, but we rather seek reconciliation. We're called to be peacemakers. But we understand that a unified humanity does not result in salvation, and therefore our hope is not in world peace. Our hope is not in a unified nations. Rather, our hope is in a sovereign God. Alan Ross is right when he says this, hope comes from the sovereign Lord who controls the nations and who will move nations to make room for his new nation. And this leads us to the final thing we see going on here in chapter 10. We see, first of all, the unity of the human race. We secondly see why there is division. But third, we see that God is sovereignly in control of the nations. He's in control of where these nations go. This is affirmed over and over throughout the Bible. It's interesting that if you read through the prophets, there's multiple times that other nations are spoken to, such as Egypt or Babylon or Assyria. The blessings and curses that God speaks through Noah come to fruition in the nations because God is sovereign over the nations. People and nations are not the result of randomness and chance. And so we need to see the world with theocentric eyes. As I said earlier, meaning we must see the world under God's sovereign care. Because scripture teaches us that over and over again. We see one example of this in Acts 17. Look at what Paul says here. I think he's actually connecting all the way back to Genesis 10 and then brings it here to the people of Athens. He says, and he made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings. Notice that? What does God do? He has determined their pre-appointed times and He has determined the boundaries of their dwellings so that they should seek the Lord. Now isn't that interesting? God has purposely divided them so that they would seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. Friends, God is not an inactive God in our world. He's active. And we may see things as political events, or policies, or presidents, but that's short-sighted. Even today, God is working to bring about His kingdom. Even today. God is moving nations and working in nations to bring about His sovereign purposes. The problem is we want God to move things according to our desires. According to our design. According to the things that would make us the most comfortable. This, by the way, leads to despair. It leads to anguish. Especially when the political tide turns a different direction than what we desire. God works according with his desires, not ours, and remembering this will give us peace and hope in troubling times. It will lead to steadfastness and confidence in a God who is always working, who is never taking the day off. It will lead to evangelism and missions work because we're more focused on God's kingdom than we are the kingdom of this world. I think one of the faults and errors of the Christian heart in America has been exposed because far more are proving that they're more passionate about a country than they are about God's kingdom. And finally, if we understand these things, it will lead to thankfulness. Why? Because the ultimate fate of all the kingdoms of the world, even the United States of America, is judgment. It's a fate for all, except for those who are in the kingdom of God. And so understanding these things gives us thankfulness because we know we are escaping the judgment. Because our hope is not in kingdoms of this world. Now you may be wondering, am I ever going to get to Chapter 10? Well, yes. I'm stalling because it's a hard chapter to preach. You pronounce all these names from up here. It'll be really fun. We'll all laugh at you. No, I'm just kidding. Without the foundation that we've laid, I think it's very difficult to understand Chapter 10. I think you get to Chapter 10 and you're like, All right, so let's talk about the Tower of Babel. That's way more fun. We need to understand the big view, I think, of the Bible to be able to understand chapter 10 and what is happening here. Like I said, I think Paul refers back to this in Acts 17. It's important to understand all of God's Word, even a genealogy. It is inspired by God. It is here for our instruction. It is here for our learning. And so let's let's talk. This is super simple outline, as you can see in your bulletin, the sons of Japheth. Now this chapter is neatly divided into three sections that correlate with each of Noah's sons. The number seven is prominent throughout the whole chapter as there's divisions of families into units of seven. We also see here there's a total of 70 nations. And so this probably is not an exhaustive list of the nations, but rather this is showing a complete and full humanity comes from these three sons. We see a total of 70 nations, and I think that's not insignificant, that as Genesis comes to a close, we again see 70, only it is the people of God, the descendants of Abraham. We read in Genesis 46, all the persons of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt were 70. So we have this 70 in chapter 10, and we have 70 in 46. Now, the other thing that I think we need to see here is that this genealogy does not follow the normal linear line we are used to seeing, where a man has a son and that son begets this son and this son begets that son and there's this line. We saw it in chapter four, or five, I mean, and we'll see it again in chapter 11. But the point of a linear genealogy is to show the line of a person. This genealogy seems to describe the sons who went on to become cities and tribes and nations. And so it's not showing a line of a person, but rather the spreading out of a people, showing us who ended up where as the nation spread out from Noah and his three sons. And again, we have to remember this is written first to Israel. Moses is writing this for Israel. And so, two primary points that we see here is to show the nation of Israel the origin of those who are around them, and then secondly, to show what they could expect from those nations who are around them. Now, as we begin into this, I'm not going to go through every single son. I know there's a few people in here who would probably love that. Let's talk about each son and what came from them and the history there. I'm not going to do that. It would be very tedious. And to be honest, there's just a lot we don't know. Rather, what I want to show is the main things this genealogy is showing and what the important markers are. Now, the first thing we need to see here is the sons of Japheth. These are primarily the people to the north and west of Israel. Hopefully, you can kind of see this. I'll have this up here three different times, so don't feel like you need to memorize this right now. The exam won't be tomorrow. It'll be Wednesday. Just kidding. So you can kind of see here these three sons. Japheth is the pink. Ham is the orange and Shem is the white there and these are not Exactly perfect. These are what we think some of them are certain others are not as certain and some of us We some of them are just not really known anymore. And so there's some guesswork there or educated guesses Now it's interesting of the three sons Japheth gets the least amount of attention only three verses Of all the sons, he gets the least. This is probably because Israel has the least amount of interaction with these peoples. If you see up here, you can kind of see how this is more moving over towards the land of Greece and Italy. And this is, we'll see some names here you might recognize. One of them we already read, Magog, shows up again in Ezekiel 38 and 39. as well as Revelation 20. Likely, in those later texts, it's using that name as a symbolism for people in rebellion, just like Babylon is used for that in Revelation 18 and 19. I don't think it's the right interpretation, which has kind of been shown already, but to show that the nation of Russia is actually the nation that is to be feared. I don't think that's what the scripture is doing here. Likewise, Madai is the Medes. They are prominent in both Isaiah and Daniel. You may even remember that they play a prominent role in releasing Israel from exile when they defeat Babylon and set the exiles free. Javan is probably one of the most significant. This becomes the Greek peoples. This is on the, I guess, your far left. They become the Greek people. But what's interesting here is this is where the term Gentiles comes from. Look at verse five. From these, the coastland peoples, which by the way, coastland is often how the descendants of Japheth are identified. So when you're reading through the prophets and you come to the term coastland peoples, this is oftentimes almost always referring to the descendants of Japheth. So from these, the coastland peoples of the Gentiles. So now we see this term arise Gentiles were separated into their lands everyone according to his language according to their families into their nations. This talk typically this term coastlands refers to the distant parts of the earth from whom Israel would be far from and have little interaction But we're gonna see that in time These people are drawn into the kingdom and the people from these lands will come to serve the Lord This is often in the context of the Messiah. Now. I'm going to give you three examples All three from Isaiah, Isaiah 49, one, listen, O coastlands to me. He's talking there are the sons of Japheth. Take heed you peoples from afar. It is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob. This is now verse six and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth. Isaiah 60 verse 9. Surely the coast land shall wait for me and the ships of Tarshish will come first to bring your sons from afar their silver and their gold with them to the name of the Lord your God and to the Holy One of Israel because he has glorified you. And then I shared this with you last week when we talked a little bit about Japheth. Isaiah 66 verse 18, for I know their works and their thoughts. It shall be that when I will gather all nations and tongues and they shall come and see my glory, I will set a sign among them and those among them who escape, I will send to the nations, to Tarshish and Pole and Lod who draw the bow and Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off who have not heard my fame, nor seen my glory, and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles." That's a super interesting text that ends the book of Isaiah. Now as this description ends, we see this phrase, separated into their lands, according to his language, according to their families, and into their nation. This is a refrain that is repeated four times in this chapter, once after each son, and then once at the very end of the chapter to kind of summarize everything. And so we see here, people are being spread out, nations are being born. There's this development and movement of people, and this is by God's sovereign hand. Later in Deuteronomy, Moses would write this, Again, we see God's sovereignty among the nations. Well, now we get to the sons of Ham. A great way to remember this. is which is the son that the line is cursed. All you have to remember is Ham's a ham. And you'll be able to remember it. At least that's how I do it. So when we come to the sons of Ham, again, this is the line that is, in a sense, cursed because of Ham's action, and it's expressed in Canaan. But there's also far more attention given to the sons of Ham. So for example, Japheth had three verses, the sons of Ham have 14 verses. Why? Because these are people who are Israel's primary enemies for the most part. These four sons will stretch from North Africa to the West Coast and up the Mediterranean Sea. You kind of see there in that peach color, the orange color, that's the sons of Ham, Cush, Mizraim, put all in Northern Africa. Mizraim is Egypt, by the way. And Canaan is a son specifically who is cursed. And this is a son with whom Israel would have the most conflict with. The descendants of Canaan would be a continual thorn in the sides for Israel. And this land where they settle is the promised land that will be given to Israel later on. Joshua will lead Israel into this land later. Now special attention is given to a son of Cush. In fact, there's a pause here in the genealogy, verse eight with Nimrod. We read, he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, like Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. Now what does this mean? Well, I don't think we're to take this in a positive light because first of all, he's a mighty one. He's a warrior. He's said to be a hunter before the Lord. He's a powerful and prominent man and even becomes legendary because there's a proverb then said about him that's referred to all powerful people, ah, a mighty one like Nimrod before the Lord. There's a saying that goes with him. But I don't think, even though it says before the Lord, that that is in a positive sense in that everything he did was right before the Lord. Rather, it seems clear this was a man who valued the things of the world, like power and control. His actions, I think, are before the Lord. And the Lord sees what he's doing. Just like we see in chapter 11 when the Lord sees the Tower of Babel. It seems clear this is a man who values the world and the things of the world. And this seems even more clear when we see the cities that he formed. We see some of the most wicked cities come from him. We see cities like Babel, which becomes Babylon, and Nineveh, which becomes Assyria. Two of Israel's greatest enemies come from this man right here. In fact, Micah 5.6 calls Assyria the land of Nimrod. And if you remember, Assyria is who conquers the northern tribes, Israel, and takes them into exile. And Babylon conquers Judah and takes them into exile. And so both of those two nations that conquer Israel and take Israel into exile come from Nimrod. And then attention we see here is given to Canaan. His descendants would cause a lot of trouble. Now Canaan, it's interesting here, we see a description of the land. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as you go towards Gerar, as far as Gaza, then as you go towards Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma, Zeboim, as far as Lasha. Why is the descendants of this person, why is there a boundary drawn around them? Because that's gonna be the promised land. That's gonna be the land God is going to give to Israel. They're finding out right here, the boundaries of their land. The other thing that I think that is important to see here is what God, it seems to be the rising up and the renewing of violence. If you go back to Nimrod, you see an interesting phrase. Nimrod, he began to be. That phrase right there is a marker in Genesis of a transition into something new. And so I think what you're seeing here is the rising up of a violent people. Nimrod, the land of Canaan. The Jebusites coming from him. The Hivites, who are the Hittites. Many of Israel's enemies coming out of this line. Coming out of Canaan. Well, finally, we see here the sons of Shem. The sons of Shem are saved for last because this is the elect line, this is the chosen line, and whenever the genealogies are present, the last line is saved for the chosen line, whom God will send his Messiah. Again, we have to remember, everything's coming back to Genesis 3.15. The promise of the seed of the woman will destroy Satan. And so Genesis is showing us this line. The Old Testament is showing us this line, pointing us from Genesis 3 all the way to Christ. But we see a break here in the pattern, and this signifies something significant is happening. So we see here in verse 21, Children were born also to Shem, and then instead of talking about them, it says the father of all the children of Eber. All of a sudden here, Shem is described as the father of all the children of Eber, even though this is four generations later. So there's this break here, a change in the pattern, because Eber is the father of the Israelites. It is through Eber that Abraham comes. And though he's three generations down below Shem, he's mentioned first. And so there's a signaling right here. This is the line through which the seed is going to come. This will be picked up again in verse 10 of chapter 11. It's interesting, this genealogy will get interrupted by the Tower of Babel, and then it will continue in chapter 11, verse 10. So by and large, the descendants of Shem, they settle there in that white area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. Many, but not all, are allies of Israel or friends of Israel. For example, the land of Aram provides many wives for the line of Abraham. His descendants are prevalent in Genesis. But we also see a pause here again, as we did in the previous one. Verse 25, to Eber, now we have come to Eber, to Eber were born two sons. The name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided. OK, so so from Eber is there's going to be two sons and one is Peleg. And we see this note, the earth was divided. So this seems to refer again to the Tower of Babel. So you have. First of all, Nimrod, who forms Babel, and so it's believed Nimrod is the instigator of the Tower of Babel. And now we have Peleg, who is one of the people alive at that time. We see the same Hebrew word only one other time in scripture. His name, Peleg, is a Hebrew word that means to divide and confound a language. So we see it come up in Psalm 55, the only other time it's used. Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go around on its walls. Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it. And so you have these two sons of Eber, and Peleg is right here, and then his generation just stops. There's no more talk about him. Why? Because it's gonna come up in chapter 11, verse 10, because it's gonna turn into a linear genealogy there, because we're gonna go all the way to Abraham from him. So now the second son of Eber, Peleg's brother, was Joktan. And so we see his boundaries as well, going from Mesha and Sephar, the mountains of the east. Therefore, it's likely that the descendants of Jocton were critical in taking part in the Tower of Babel, because as chapter 11 begins, we see people coming from the east. So this is probably Jocton's line, Jocton's descendants. And then we see this familiar refrain, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, according to their nations. And again, we're reminded that all of the nations come from the three sons of Noah. Now, this is further reiterated in the last verse, look at verse 32. These were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations. And from these, the nations were divided on the earth after the flood. See, all humanity finds its origins in Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and all humanity, therefore, finds its origin in Noah, and therefore, all humanity finds its origin in Adam, and therefore, all humanity is responsible before God. That's what this is showing us. We see here God's careful outlining of the nations. Most especially as it relates to the seed who had crushed Satan's head. And even more so, we see God protecting the line of the seed to preserve the line of the Messiah. It's amazing how many times it seems like the line is done. It's over. It's ended. And yet God preserves it. It's a fascinating study. And then finally, we see here the bookends of this chapter is the flood. And I think this is significant. So we read in verse one, sons were born to them after the flood. Verse 32, from these, the nations were divided on the earth after the flood. There's a reminder here of God's righteous wrath. Because the Israelite reading this, the Hebrew reading this, would understand the flood is more than something cool to think about and I wonder where the ark is, like we do today. They would look at that term and they'd say, that's God's righteous wrath right there. That's God's righteous judgment right there. And yet, there's a reminder of God's mercy and His grace. Sons were born, what, after the flood. From there, the nations came, when? After the flood. His grace and mercy. And so we're reminded again of Paul's words. Let's hear them again. And he has made, from Acts 17, he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth. And he has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings. Why has God given these divisions? So that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. Friends, I think one of the big things we need to take away from chapter 10 is the importance of missions. Paul is going back to Genesis 10, and he's saying these divisions are there so that humanity would not be unified in worship of themselves, but would be able to find hope in God. And so the table of nations here shows us there's a unity to humanity, but there's also a division because of sin. And because of that sin, there will come judgment. And thus there's this call to go to the nations with the gospel. We preach not nationalism, but we preach Christ. He alone is a hope for the nations. You may remember, as the book of Matthew ends, Jesus came and spoke to them saying all Authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth Go therefore and make disciples of who? the nation's Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. You see, the table of nations serves as a reminder to go into the nations to preach the gospel. We are called to go to the nations. Why? Because the nations are responsible before God. 1779 was an interesting year. Saw an ordinary man walking down the streets of Hacklemore, England. As one followed him down the street, he looked just like any other cobbler in the city. But if you followed him into his little shop, you would see something very different than other cobblers in the city. Because in his shop, covering his walls, were large pieces of leather. And on these pieces of leather were drawn the nations and the tribes. And he would fall before them and beg the Lord for salvation to the nations. At times, he would kneel before these maps and weep Because he knew they were facing the judgment without the Gospel. The country that most held his heart captive was India. He knew that there, millions of people were who had never, ever heard the Gospel. They were destined for hell. This man's name, as many of you know, is William Carey. And as he began to express his desire for missions, he was quickly shut down. There's always periods in history where the church will have a blind spot. And in this particular period of history, the church in the region of England saw Matthew 28 not as a call to missions, but actually a text that taught on baptism. They were blind in this area, and so they had ceased doing anything in regards to missions. And as Kerry kept growing and thinking through these things and talking more about them, he began to be convinced that missions should be a high priority in the church. One of the church leaders, John Ryland, gave him a stinging rebuke one day. He said, when God chooses to convert the heathen, He will do so. He doesn't need your help. Others thought Cary was full of silly notions also. But as Cary continued to search the scriptures, he began to believe that not only was missions critically important, but God was calling him to go. And so with a few other like-minded pastors, he began to form a missionary society. And over the years, it grew. And in 1793, he was sent out as the first missionary of that mission's society. And he went to India, a completely unreached people, an entire nation that had never heard the gospel. It was a very difficult trip for them. They barely got there. But they finally did. And for seven years, Kerry lived there and ministered. with heartache, poverty, sickness, and loss. And during those seven years, not a single person came to Christ. Not one. Seven years of ministry and heartache for seemingly nothing. They lost a son who got sick and died. They were ignored by the people. His wife, with lack of fellowship, literally went insane. They suffered terribly. But finally, after seven years, an Indian man got injured, and William Carey helped him, and in helping him, shared the gospel with him. His family, he and his family, came to know Christ. And in time, more followed. At Carey's death, 4,000 Indians had become devoted to Christ. And his work that he did is still in existence today, 218 years later. You see, when we see chapter 10, we need to see the unity of the nations. But we also see the division that's there. And we understand that the only lasting unity that can come is through the gospel of Christ. We read in Isaiah 54 verse 5, Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. He is called God of the whole earth. Our God is the God of the nations. Let's pray. God, we thank You for the reminder from Your Word this morning that You are sovereignly working in the nations, that You are in control And Lord God, we praise you, that you are at work. And our peace and our confidence and our hope comes not in the workings of man, the working of politics, the working of politicians, the working of kings, presidents. Our hope comes in your king, your eternal king, reigning over the nations, and you continually working for your glory. For your kingdom and for our ultimate good And so father we praise you for these things. We praise you for this reminder this morning and Lord God We ask that you would help us to be faithful to you Lord God we pray that you would help us to have a Vision of the world that is centered on you and your work. We ask Lord God that you would please forgive us for our apathy and towards evangelism and missions. And Lord, we ask that even among us, you might raise some to go. And Father, we do pray for those whom we do support that are already gone. We pray that you would be with them and strengthen them. And Father, we pray for your gospel to go forward, to continue to go forward, that your kingdom would be built, And Lord, we look forward to a time when we do not live in a divided world, but rather a unified world, and a unified world not because of human policies and politics, but because we live under the reign of Christ. And we live in a humanity that is unified on the gospel. So Lord, help us to live with this perspective, to live in light of these truths, that we might better live for your glory. And we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.