Gen. 10:15-20

The evil of the Canaanites has been discussed elsewhere, how they grew so wicked and cold they eventually slaughtered even their own children by sacrificing them to idols - though of course doing so to anyone is evil.

They likely didn't start this way, of course. Romans 1:17-32 provides a good summary of how a nation starts a slippery slope by doing evil and not following God's plan to show grace and mercy to everyone. Yes, sin must be stopped, but since we are all sinners it must be done with love towards a person involved so they can be taught God's love. Otherwise, eventually it becomes so filled with evil that there is no longer any knowledge of what good and evil really are. And, the human heart is filled with wickedness because of the lust of the flesh, the west of the eyes, and the pride of life, so people naturally gravitate toward the evil when there is no knowledge of God and his saving grace. Because, it is that saving grace that causes us to become new creatures when we are in Christ.

By the time Abraham receives God's covenant to him, though, they were clearly pretty far down the road to that extreme evil, though. God promises to give Abraham that land, and when Abraham needs to find a wife for Isaac, God tells him to have his servant go way back to his homeland instead of having a wife from among the natives. He wanted to make sure those people were not polluted with evil. Of course, there were Gentiles who ended up marrying into the kingdom and even into the genealogy of Jesus. However, these were people who clearly had repented of all that evil.

God can do anything with a willing and repentant heart. That is what he wants of all of us, He is not looking for us to be perfect before we come to him. He wants us to come to Him so He can perfect us. Of course, we need to do our part by allowing Him to, but His grace and mercy is sufficient to keep us saved.

The Canaanites, however continued to go further and further away from God. Indeed, with Goliath and other giants in among the Philistines, it's possible that the Nephilim also being there after the flood means that the angels who left their first estate may have been involved, if that is the meaning used in Genesis 6, as mentioned earlier. The evil of sacrificing children show that they were in some ways totally lacking natural affection. This is one of the signs of the end times, that many people would lack natural affection, along with being lovers of themselves more than others and many other things. We can see in how God showed patience with them, however, before allowing them to be conquered and destroyed that God's mercy is incredible. It will, however, eventually run out for those who have not received His free gift of salvation.

Gen. 10:10-14

As noted, the subject of Nimrod is one which people then knew very well. Even if Moses borrowed from notes written by Abraham or even Noah or Shem, the people receiving Genesis for the first time were sure to be familiar with him.

The fact he built Babel, from which eventually came the city of Babylon, is crucial. It establishes the start of the second most mentioned city of the Bible,  behind only Jerusalem. It also establishes the start of the battle between the devil and God for control of the post-flood world - certainly there was sin before, and the devil was quite active. However, with fewer people it took a while for a leader to emerge who would try to lead so many down a dark, destructive path.

Nimrod brashly followed the devil, though. He chose to do everything his own way, and so with his turning so much away from God, it was easy for the devil to use him. He would soon deceive many into trying to attain Heaven and be like God, though as Adam and Eve found, that is a lie - only God is God, and trying not to be like Him only leads to destruction.

Thankfully, God does love us enough to call each of His disciples friends. He is personal, not transcendant. God desires a relationship with each of us, and while we are separated by our sin from him, he came to this earth, God in flesh, fully God and fully man, to live a perfect life and He died on the cross for our sins and rose from from the dead. He did this because He is a loving God who wants a personal relationship with each of His creatures, if they will only turn to Him, forsaking their sin and trusting him to save them and make them new inside.

While the relationship can be strained when a believer wanders from Him, He is always willing to forgive us. Nothing can pluck us out of His hand(John 10:28-30, Romans 8:36-39, etc ), and He will keep us from falling (Jude 24, etc.). If a believer becomes totally useless, God simply calls them home, just as 1 Corinthians 11 warns. That's because each believer in Christ is sealed with the Spirit unto the day of redemption.(Eph. 1:13-14, etc.)

Beyond Babel, Nimrod and other descendants of Cush began other cities as well. Nineveh is the most well-known for the terrible evil that came out of it. Archaeologists have shown that cultures around them we're terrified of them and that the Ninevites dragged people away from their conquered cities with hooks in their noses. The Bible doesn't tell us much about the others except for the Philistines in verse 14, but every piece of history archaeologists find corresponds perfectly with the Bible. The Bible may not tell every little bit of history, but where it does mention history it is totally accurate. (Other commentaries may be able to delve more deeply into who some of these other people groups were.)

This is only one group of the descendants from him, yet it is important to notice what was stated before. There was never a curse on Ham. Only Canaan is named, and as stated earlier, it may not have been a curse, it was likely a prophecy.

Gen. 10:9

Here we see why Nimrod began to be mighty in the earth. And, it says a lot about the world and it's system opposing God.

He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. That description it brings up several interesting thoughts.

First, while one's skill at hunting game would bring great respect, this was probably not all that was meant. In founding his empire, he hunted men, not necessarily to kill but to enslave or, at best, subjugate them. Numerous secular sources tell of his thirst for power, and the empire that developed on the plains of Shinar. Indeed, possibly the oldest archaeological artifacts come from the area where ancient Babylon stood.

The fact his physical power could have even been considered is another major point. Whether it is physical gifts, overwhelming power, stirring speech, or whatever else leads people to follow a man, 1 Samuel 16:7 is very appropriate: “…Man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh upon the heart.” The right leader should have God's loving heart and want to be a person after God's own heart with humility, not false pride. Sucha  leader should be willing to call a nation to repentance because of his or her own desire to model Godly virtue, and follow that virtue.

We people often want to follow those who will satisfy our physical desires. Those can be lusts of the flesh or of the eyes, such as in physical relations, but they can also be lusts that lead to the pride of life. In other words, one's desires are satisfied when one has power over another. They can also be satisfied by tearing others down and being told they are inferior - hence the pride of life causes one to become puffed up in thinking wrong thoughts about some group. Numerous dictators have worked this way.

God calls us to edify one another instead. When we build others up and realize we are all equal before God, all sinners in need of his salvation, we can more readily combat the evil ways in which some work. There is only one race, the human race, and we are wrestling not against flesh and blood, but against powers of darkness in this world.

Nimrod brashly followed those lusts - and hence powers of darkness - by being a mighty hunter before the Lord. This can mean two things. He put his desires, skills, etc. before any consideration of God, and/or he brash showed God his skill, daring God to act. Whatever it was, or maybe both, it shows that Nimrod desired to make a name for himself that would last a long time in the world, rather than doing what God tells us to do when He says to build treasures in Heaven.

And, in a way, he did, since that saying is stated as coming from him. By the time Genesis was written by Moses several hundred years later, Nimrod was still very well known in that saying.

However, that ends up not mattering at all. Nimrod did not follow the Lord, but instead chose to follow after the devil and his own selfish desires. Because of this, he did not have faith that God would send a savior for him, instead he chose to rebell as we shall see. He did not get to see Heaven, which is sad. God is willing that none should perish but that all should come to repentance. But, He also gives us free will so we won't be mindless robots. We have the ability to follow Jesus if we choose.

Jesus puts it so well when he asks, “What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet lose his own soul?” He states right there in His Word, the Bible, all the things on this earth will pass away, but our souls are forever, just like his word. Each of us needs to make that decision, once we are old enough to understand what it means, to call upon Jesus Christ to forgive us and save us from our sins. Each of us is only that single sincere prayer of repentance away from eternal life.

It's as easy as ABC. Admit your a sinner, and can't make it to His perfect Heaven on your own. Believe Jesus Christ, God in flesh, died to take the punishment for your sins and rose from the dead. And, Call on Him to forgive you and save you, and come into your heart and make you new inside.

Gen. 10:8

Here is the first mention of the first world dictator, from what all the major scholars say. While it is possible that someone like Cain or his descendants were that way before the flood, Nimrod is much more certain to have been the first of the powerful emperors after him.

He began to be a mighty one. God allows people time to repent of their sim, some more than others. The fact that Nimrod was allowed to start to become one, and in fact became one for a while, shows that God is very patient with us. He is long suffering, not willing any should perish but that all come to repentance.

And, notice he became mighty in the earth. The earth is the devil's realm, where Job records him walking to and fro, and where 1 Peter 5;8 warns he "walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." The powers of darkness spoken of in Ephesians 6:12 and elsewhere seek to lure people into their trap through the lures of fame, fortune, and power. They will trap those who follow people like Nimrod by even convincing them to worship such people as Nimrod, when only God is worthy of our worship. Emperor worship was very common back then, and in fact the Japanese considered the Emperor to be a god rtill the last century. So, this might that Nimrod showed was transformed into something that would draw people's attention away from God and to man.

The kind might he showed will be discussed in the next section, but it's easy to see how some of those we discussed last time - the ones who were not mentioned - may have been drawn to follow Nimrod, or more likely crushed beneath Nimrod s conquering armies.

Gen. 10:1-7

Gen. 10:1-7

The table of nations, as it is known, begins here.

It is unclear why God only mentions certain descendants beyond the sons of Noah. We know that everyone is important to the Lord. So, perhaps He only includes those who actually founded large enough cities which then would grow into nations.

This is quite plausible, since not everyone has the personality to lead like that.

Some people, like a Gideon, live quiet lives until called upon to do great things, and not everyone in that generation is called to do what that one mighty man of Valor did. God doesn't expect us all to do amazing things. Rather, He has a special plan for each of us, and for some, it is to quietly raise children, work at our jobs, and be the best examples of Christ we can be wherever we are.

Another possibility is that the others started nations, but were quickly conquered before anything could be done.

In each generation, there are people who are oppressed because of the ways of sinful man, and who cry out to God for justice. And, He delivers the justice, but in His time.

Remember the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus suffers in this life and goes to Abraham's bosom, where people went before the crucifixion when the veil was torn in two from top to bottom and they were free to enter Heaven. The rich man who had oppressed him was in torment, and God said that he had had his good things in this life, but because he did not trust God for mercy and show mercy to others, he did not get to go to Heaven. Oh, if only he had realized he was a sinner, and trusted God for forgiveness. God would have led him to show mercy to Lazarus for Christ's sake, and to all those who were oppressed, and then by virtue of his faith in what Christ would do on the cross that rich man would have been in Heaven.

Of course, it is also possible that these people died violently before they were able to do anything. Perhaps they were caught up in sin so much that they never got to accomplish anything. This is the sad state of some people's lives, that they never get around to accomplish the great things God could have given them to do because they were so caught up in their own sin.

Whatever the reason, we see that one very important man began to rise above all of them, a man who would attempt to build the first major world empire, just as people do today.