◄ What Does Genesis 10:32 Mean? ►

God's wonderful plan of redemption and His amazing mercy and grace, beautifully unfolds within the pages of Scripture and streams through God's Word like a golden thread of hope; a scarlet stream of life-giving blood. Because of the destructive nature of sin, the Lord regretted He had made man on the earth. He was grieved in His heart because so much evil had spread throughout His created masterpiece.

Just as we reach the climatic point where God determined to wipe mankind from the face of the earth, together with all the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky, we arrive at a most blessed verse: "But Noah found Grace in the eyes of the Lord." Noah found Charis in the eyes of God. Noah found that trusting His Word leads to salvation and life, while rejecting biblical truth results in condemnation and death.

Noah believed God when He told him of His plan to destroy the earth, and his faith was credited to him as righteousness. The grace of God caused Noah to build an ark for the saving of his family, because he believed God's Word and obeyed His command. Grace meant that Noah preached righteousness to the wicked world for 120 years, but no one believed his message and only his wife and their three sons, together with their son's wives, escaped the judgement of God.

The fast-moving drama of grace which preceded the floodwaters of judgement, was followed by more grace being poured out on Noah. He received a precious promise from God that the earth would never again be destroyed by a flood. Because Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, this man of faith, together with his family, exited the safety of the ark onto a cleansed land. After this, we have one whole chapter outlining the genealogies of Noah's three sons; Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

It was Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who began to repopulate an earth that had been purged of sin. It was these three men who followed in the footpath of their forefather Adam to be fruitful and multiply, after he had been judged for his sin and excluded from Eden, the garden of delight. 

Like chapter 5 and much of the book of Numbers, this chapter in Genesis presents a comprehensive list of the descendants of Noah's three sons according to their individual families and the nations that sprang from these three men. Although lists of unpronounceable names in biblical genealogies are often ignored or quickly skipped over, there is much to learn in this section: "These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations; and out of these, the nations were separated on the earth, after the flood."

The world in which we live and every nation that makes up the family of man, has their origin in Genesis 10. Three stems grew from the root of Noah, and these men became the three patriarchs from which the entire population of the earth sprang. All the nations of the earth, with their diverse languages, various lands, different skin colours, and distinct cultures, all originate from Shem, Ham, and Japheth. It was through Shem that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Israel were born - and JESUS, the Hope of ALL nations and Saviour of the world, was Shem's descendant.

There are many interesting facts that can be found in the genealogies of these men who shaped the nations we identify today. There were 70 nations descended from Noah's sons; 26 from Shem, 30 from Ham, and 14 from Japheth. The main family that is identified in this chapter is traced from Shem and his son Eber. From them came Abraham and Judah, Jesse, David and his sons Solomon and Nathan, until we read of Christ's lineage through Mary His mother, and His legally adoptive father, Joseph.

A little exploration in ancient manuscripts, historical documents, and archaeological discoveries, reveals the accuracy of the genealogical table in Genesis 10 and brings us to the realisation that this genealogy, as with so many other amazing facts in the Word of God, are true. But it is only by faith alone in Christ alone that salvation is given as a free gift of God's grace.

It was God's grace that excluded Adam from the Garden, lest he eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in a cursed body. It was by grace through faith that God covered Adam and his wife with the skin of a sacrificed animal which pointed to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.

It was through faith that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord when he believed God's Word, and it was by grace through faith that when warned about the coming judgement, that he was motivated, by godly fear, to build an ark to deliver his wife, his sons, and his sons' wives.

It was by God's grace that Noah was permitted to preach righteousness to his wicked generation, and it was by grace that when the world was judged by water, Noah became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

It was by God's grace that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and it is by grace that the truth is written for our learning in Scripture. The heavens declare the glory of God and history has written in plain sight that God's Word is true, and whosoever will believe on Him will be saved. And every person that has sprung from Shem, Ham, and Japheth, has the opportunity to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved by God's grace through faith in Him.

Heavenly Father, thank You for the many ways that Your Word is proven to be true and altogether reliable. Thank You for the many pieces of evidence that confirm Who You are. I can do nothing but glorify Your holy name and offer my sacrifice of praise to You. I praise You that by faith in the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ and His glorious Resurrection from the dead, I have all my sins forgiven and will be raised into life immortal. Thank You, also, that there is no one in the human race that lies outside of Your gracious offer of salvation. I pray that even today, many souls would have their eyes open to the truth and trust in Jesus for their redemption. In Jesus' name, AMEN.