Chapter 10 gives us a summary account of the development of humanity after the flood. God intended for man to be fruitful and multiply. As we will see this increase in humanity was also an increase in ungodliness. Man is born a lost sinner and in need of salvation. Most people reject this and die in their sins. A few will turn to God and know His peace and blessing.
Shem was the last of the sons of Noah to be mentioned. Of note is that Shem is the father of all the children of Eber. The Eastern, Oriental and Asiatic nations come from Shem. It is suggested that the North American Indians come from Shem as well. Eber is one branch of this family. The Hebrews eventually came from Shem through Abraham. God separated Abraham out of the Semites for a particular purpose.
It is interesting to note that the Elamites are the Persians which are the Iranians. Iran is one of the chief enemies of Israel today, and yet they come from the same root. The hatred is due to the influence of the devil in the lives of the Iranians and many others. The devil hates God and he hates the nation of Israel.
From Asshur came the Assyrians. These too were the enemies of Israel. God sent them into the northern tribes of Israel to capture them and to inhabit the north for a time.
In verse 25 we read of the descendants of Eber. He had two sons of which one is named Peleg. It is noted that in his days the earth was divided. There is a theory that during his days the earth broke apart and formed the continents as we know them today. That is just a theory but has no basis in fact. The earth was divided in the days of Peleg because God confounded the language of the people and they spread out. It is not that the land mass of the earth was divided then, but rather that the peoples of the earth were divided at that time. In order for the land mass to have been divided it would have meant that parts of the earth had to be turned right around in order to make them fit together properly. The Bible does not talk of a massive upheaval such as that would have caused. There was much upheaval during the flood. The topography of the earth was vastly different after the flood than before that time. Peleg was born after the flood and God divided the peoples of the earth due to their rebellion against Him.
Some of the Arabian peoples came from Joktan, the brother to Peleg. It is interesting to note how the major action of the world is still taking place among the Shemites. Israel is just one small part of his descendants. They are the prominent part because God chose them to be a witness of His goodness to the rest of the world. They failed in their calling and for the present time, God has set them aside and is working through local churches to reach the lost.
Biblical Christianity is not a replacement for Israel, but it is interesting that Christianity also is a minority in the world and God is working through born again Christians to show the world that He is the only true God.
According to the genealogical record given in Genesis 11:10-16, there were 101 years from the time of Shem after the flood to the time of Peleg. As noted, it was during the time of Peleg that God divided the earth and separated the nations by their languages.
Verses 31-32 give us the summary conclusion to the life of Noah and his sons. We are reminded again that all the people that have filled the earth since the flood are all the descendants of the three sons of Noah. There were no other people alive at that time. In spite of all the wars and the other ways that people have died, we still have over 8 billion people on the earth today. Israel makes up a small part of that number, and yet Israel is the centre of attention for the God haters as well as for those who love the Lord.
God promised to make Abram a great man and that the entire earth would be blessed through him. It was not Abram that was so important but rather it is Jesus Christ Who is so important. He is the Messiah and He came as the Son of Man from the seed of Abraham and Sarah. God gave us a glimpse of how things advanced after the flood. We will see a little more of the foundational facts from which everything else flows, in chapter 11.
It is important to pay attention to these things because if we do not pay attention to the details God gave us in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, we miss out on key factors needed to understand the rest of the Bible.
Pastor Bartel