Daily Devotions
Genesis
"Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy." Psalm 33:18
Text: Genesis 10:1-32
THE ORIGIN OF “GENTILES”
It is anachronistic to speak of “Gentiles” at this stage of the history of mankind. Nevertheless, this word was used as a prolepsis in the following text.
“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.”GENESIS 10:5
This text anticipated the day when the families of the earth would be so divided that the origin of mankind from the family of Noah would be all but forgotten!
THE ORIGIN OF THE “TRADITONAL ENEMIES” OF ISRAEL
A similar use of the word “Canaanites” (and other nations that became the traditional enemies of Israel) may be found in the following text.
“Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn, and Heth;
the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite;
the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; The Arvadite,
the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward the families
of the Canaanites were dispersed…
These were the sons of Ham, according to their families,
according to their languages, in their lands and in their nations.”GENESIS 10:15-18, 20
Noah cursed Ham for his churlish imprudence. However, it would be a gross overstatement to say that as a result of this curse, Israel and the Canaanites were traditional enemies! The sons of Ham became idolatrous along the way. Their difficulties with Israel arose from many other causes besides the curse of Noah!
THE ORIGIN OF THE SEMITIC PEOPLE (ISRAEL)
The third group of people identified was the family of Shem. The Semitic people originally covered more than just the nation of Israel. The following text confirms this thought.
“The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram.”
GENESIS 10:22
Elam is a reference to “Persia”, while Asshur was another way of saying, “Assyria”. Aram was another term to describe “Syria”.
With the passing of time, the term “Semitic” became more restricted in use. In modern day language, it is almost used as a reference to Israel. Anti-Semitism is a term that is used to describe a general intolerance towards the Jews! The world seems to have forgotten the word God used to describe the human race – “Mankind” (Cf. Genesis 5:2)