Foundational Themes in Genesis – Study 50

(Key verses: Gen 10:6-19)

Study Aired June 12, 2014

The revelation of Jesus Christ starts off with the unveiling of the first man of sin and all its inward evil and darkness as created by the Potter (Isa 45:7). The one place where we can find all the evil is really not so far away, and that is indeed shocking to find out! Jesus Himself said these words which few can receive in this age:

Rev 1:11a Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last…

God is indeed sovereign, and He alone controls everything He created. For us the natural is indeed “the first” and must be destroyed before “the last” or “the Lord from heaven” can come into our lives (1Co 15:45-50; 2Th 2:3-4; 2Pe 2:5). The destruction of the “old world” during the flood in Noah’s days is a spiritual type of total annihilation of carnality in our own lives. The complete destruction of that carnal beast is good news for those who can receive that as the time has come for judgment through which God’s righteousness is being taught to the new man in Christ (1Pe 3:18-20; Rev 17:11) The generations of three sons of Noah are the ones who began to repopulate the whole earth, and they are the progenitors of all people and nations on the physical earth today:

Gen 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

They are of the same Adam, but here this Adam is just better defined as going through a process of spiritual completion because that is what the number three spiritually indicates. These three sons and their offspring have an even more important inward application as all words from the mouth of God are what we ourselves live and experience within our own lives (Mat 4:4). In our last discussion we focused on the inward application of Japheth and his offspring, who were the first of the three sons to be mentioned in the genealogies we find in Genesis 10; also known as the table of nations. Japheth and his offspring in us firstly represent our own carnal lusts to expand and get ahead in this life (have preeminence) which our earthly beast sees as very important to survive (1Jn 2:16; Jas 1:14). Through Japheth and his offspring we will also see at our appointed time that God’s will is actually for us to spiritually increase to “a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”, something which is impossible in the flesh (1Co 15:22; Eph 4:13):

Gen 9:27 God shall enlarge Japheth [his name means enlargement as well], and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

We indeed live by every word of God, and these three sons of Noah are part and parcel of each one’s process of development in the physical and much more so in the spiritual (Mat 4:4). From this inspired prophecy of Noah it is also clear that none of these three lines of the one family of mankind went their separate routes as some separatist and exclusive groups and movements want to believe. All three sons of Noah and their offspring were interdependent of each other on a continual basis with a symbiotic relationship between them. According to the Scriptures it is actually language more than anything else which brought in different linguistically orientated groupings after the tower of Babel when God confounded their one language (Gen 11:6-9). Here is another witness of how God caused division after the flood:

Gen 10:5 By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue [language], after their families, in their nations.

Language is first mentioned and how that determined the formation of nations. The continual interdependency between Noah’s three sons’ offspring is something few can accept in the first Adam, but even less when it applies to our spiritual progression towards perfection in the Christ (1Co 12-13; Eph 4:1-32). Physical divisions of humanity with their long lists of genealogies and carnal applications are for some of huge importance as they cannot see the deeper and more important spiritual applications to every word of God:

1Ti 1:4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.

Tit 3:9 But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.

The accuracy of the Scriptures in explaining these truths in detail are for most too difficult to accept as some even label these obvious things as myths. The strong delusion promoted by the theory of evolution with all its subtle branches are deeply seated in the minds of many to deny and rebel against the very doctrine of Christ, even in these matters (2Th 2:11). Progression (or digression) on any level is a work of God and never because of the “free” will of a man or a group, as every step and every action is from the Lord (Rom 11:32; Jer 10:23; Pro 20:24). The truth is that humanity in general waxes worse and worse as the evil inside is brought to the surface progressively (2Ti 3:13). In the same sense, the Scriptures do not advocate that any human being is less human than the first man Adam at any stage of his or her development. Everything that was placed in the one Adam at his creation, which includes all the evil in all humanity at this point in time, is residing in every offspring of the first Adam (Act 17:26-29). This all helps us to understand the spiritual last Adam and those in Him – even as we are all fitly joined together in His body (1Co 12:18-24; Eph 2:21; Eph 4:16):

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Yet we are given different roles to fulfill within that one spiritual body of the Christ which is given in three interrelated families of spiritual gifts:

1Co 12:4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
1Co 12:5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
1Co 12:6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
1Co 12:7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

When we are in Christ, we are placed where He wants to use us, and even those who “seem more feeble, are necessary” because they are given abundantly more honour if we can see with God’s eyes (1Co 12:20-27). While “the things that [were] made” and “which do appear” to our physical senses help us to initially understand the invisible things of God as a first step in the process to obtain spiritual knowledge. Physical applications, as with all fleshly things, are not helping us to obtain or grow our faith (Rom 1:20; Heb 11:1-30; Rom 10:17). Jesus also rightly expressed this important truth as to how God is pleased by the faith of Jesus in us alone (1Co 2:4-16; Heb 11:6):

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

The spirit mind of Christ cautions His elect to not be drawn into the subtle invitations of those who overemphasize these outward things, which are of course also important in their proper context (1Co 2:13-15; Pro 12:10). However, if that is only what this life is all about and why we follow Christ, “we are of all men most miserable” (Rev 3:17):

1Co 15:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

Ham (along with his sons) was the second son to be mentioned in the list of the generations of the three sons of Noah in Genesis 10. Ham’s family line is more detailed in the Scriptures than that of Japheth. Ham had four sons, three less than Japheth and one less than Shem (altogether Noah had 16 grandsons). The meanings connected to their names are also very insightful:

Gen 10:6 And the sons of Ham [meaning “hot” as in “hot-headed” or “passionate”]; Cush [meaning “black”; also translated as “Ethopian” in the KJV], and Mizraim [meaning “fortified place”; also translated as “Egypt” or “Egyptians” in the KJV], and Phut [meaning “a bow”; also translated as “lybia” in the KJV], and Canaan [meaning “lowland”; also translated as “merchant”/“trader”].

The generations of Ham highlight the foundational theme of rebellion as the passionate opposition to the spirit mind of God. Not having a loving and caring spirit is what Ham displayed when he in his immaturity gazed on his father’s nakedness and then also told this to his two brothers (Gen 9:20-27; 1Co 13:4-7; Jas 5:19-20; Mat 18:15). Ham and his offspring represent our own rebellious heart when we have a covering, but not of the spirit of love (Isa 30:1-14):

Isa 30:1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin.

We already discussed the role of Canaan, Ham’s youngest son, in the plan of God as Canaan and his offspring were cursed by Noah because of Ham’s unloving action. Canaan and his offspring were to occupy the very promised land where God’s chosen physical generation, the nation of Israel, were to live, to give Israel the needed resistance as a type of our constant battle with our own heretical and immature babyhood in Christ. As these heretics are inside our own darkness of the waters of flesh, so they are “among” the general corporate body of Christ who is still a body of flesh and bones while on this earth (Gen 1:2; Joh 15:2; Gal 5:17-26):

1Co 11:19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

2Pe 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

Eph 5:29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

The first son of Ham mentioned in that list in Genesis 10 is the name of Cush. Moses married a Cushite woman, who is not named in scripture (we do have record of his marriage to the Midianite woman, Zipporah – Exo 2:21), who caused great offence and opposition in his brother Aaron and his sister Miriam (Num 12:1). This of course represents our rebellion toward God’s choices and His way of doing things, even in His choice to save all in Adam to be eventually be in Christ (1Co 15:22-28):

Num 12:1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian [Hebrew: “kûshı̂yth”] woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.

Nevertheless, why did they rebel? Let us look at the sons of Cush with special attention to one son whom the Scriptures give more detail than the others:

Gen 10:7 And the sons of Cush; Seba [“drink thou”/“drunkard”], and Havilah [“circle”], and Sabtah [“striking”], and Raamah [“horse’s mane”], and Sabtecha [“striking”]: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.
Gen 10:8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one [Hebrew: “gibbôr”] in the earth.
Gen 10:9 He was a mighty [Hebrew: “gibbôr”] hunter before [Hebrew: “pânı̂ym”] the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty [Hebrew: “gibbôr”] hunter before [Hebrew: “pânı̂ym”] the LORD.

Nimrod is given more attention in these verses for a good reason. Nimrod’s name means “rebellion” according to Smith’s Bible dictionary and Hitchcock’s Bible Names – interestingly enough that is exactly what Miriam’s name also mean – rebellion. Nimrod’s character flaw is confirmed when we read what this man achieved from the hand of God. He is said that he “began to be a mighty one in the earth.” This “mighty one” is relating to him being a “mighty hunter before the Lord”. This is how Dr. Strong defines the word “mighty” in the original Hebrew:

H1368
gibbôr
Intensive from the same as H1397; powerful; by implication warrior, tyrant: – champion, chief, X excel, giant, man, mighty (man, one), strong (man), valiant man.

A negative picture of this man starts to develop as we put all this together. The Hebrew word “before” in the phrase “before the Lord” is “pânı̂ym” and this word is also translated 18 times in the KJV as “against”. Nimrod was an opponent of God, and this is how one translation has verse 9 in Genesis 10:

Gen 10:9 (ISV) He became a fearless hunter in defiance of the LORD. That is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a fearless hunter in defiance of the LORD.”

The Greek word used here is “enantion” (according to the Septuagint translation), and it links with the Greek word “enantios” which means “opposite”, “antagonistic” or “contrary” according to Dr. Strong’s Greek Dictionary. When we read what this Nimrod achieved, there can be no doubt how he should be seen from a scriptural position alone:

Gen 10:10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel [Hebrew: “bâbel” = confusion], and Erech [Hebrew: “erek” = long], and Accad [Hebrew: “akkad” = subtle/ fortress], and Calneh [also meaning “fortress”], in the land of Shinar [another name for “Babylon” or “country of two rivers”].

The “beginning” of Nimrod’s achievement is termed “confusion”! God used this offspring of Ham to bring confusion, and in that sense we can see why humanity is confused as to God’s will for mankind. Nimrod was instrumental in uniting people against God. The flesh always wants to establish strong secure cities and concentrated kingdoms for its own comfort and luxury. This was all done in the “country of two rivers” (spiritual Babylon) – the very false witness against God’s spiritual city with its true witnesses (Rev 11:3-11). “Out of that land went forth” all the nations we come to know as confrontational nations in Scripture:

Gen 10:11 Out of that land went forth Asshur [also known as Assyria = to prosper/blessings/successful], and builded Nineveh [the capital of Assyria], and the city Rehoboth [meaning “space”/ “wide places or streets”], and Calah [meaning “opportunity”],
Gen 10:12 And Resen [meaning bridle] between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.

This great and powerful earthly city is the opposite and a very convincing imitation of the true city of God which also lay “foursquare” – bringing all “from the four winds of the earth” in opposition to what the spirit of God will eventually do with all in the generation of Adam (Eze 37:1-14; Mar 13:27; Rev 21:16). Nimrod represents our own rebellious carnal mind which works against God and will bring forth a great earthly empire in us where wickedness, violence, corruption and oppression rules supreme. The best of Cush, even through Nimrod, cannot be equalled to the pure gold of the spirit of God and must come to be baptized in the death of Christ to enter the spiritual Jerusalem, as did the eunuch as a type of all Cush’s “Ethiopian” offspring in us (Act 8:26-39):

Job 28:19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold.

It just shows again that we cannot see our own evil when we focus on other’s evil. This also points out that we did not choose our own creation or position in our families – neither our movements in this life (Gen 2:7; Pro 20:24; Jer 10:23; Eph 1:11):

Jer 13:23 Can the Ethiopian [Hebrew: “kûshı̂y”] change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

Let us look at the second son of Ham in this list:

Gen 10:6 And the sons of Ham [meaning “hot”/“brown”]; Cush [meaning “black”; also translated as “Ethopian” in the KJV], and Mizraim [meaning “fortified place”; also translated as “Egypt” or “Egyptians” in the KJV], and Phut [meaning “a bow”; also translated as “lybia” in the KJV], and Canaan [meaning “lowland”; also translated as “merchant”/“trader”].

Mizraim is translated from the Hebrew word “Mitsrayim” and is translated 586 times as “Egypt”, 89 times as “Egyptians” and two times as “Egyptian” in the King James translation. Here are two examples:

Psa 105:23 Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

Psa 106:21 They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt;
Psa 106:22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.

Egypt is the place where we “forget God [our] Saviour” as the flesh has dominion over us and keeps us in bondage as slaves for the symbolic four hundred years, typified by the nation of Israel’s time in Egypt. Here are Mizraim’s sons with all their activities on our flesh:

Gen 10:13 And Mizraim [meaning “a fortified place”/Egypt = fleshly dominion/ tribulations] begat Ludim [means “strife”/ “firebrands”/ “travalings”], and Anamim [meaning “affliction”], and Lehabim [meaning “polished blade” or “flaming sword”], and Naphtuhim [meaning “openings”],
Gen 10:14 And Pathrusim [meaning “persuasion of ruin” from “Pathros” = “the land of birth” – land of the south” – flesh – Eze 30:13-18], and Casluhim [meaning “fortified”], (out of whom came Philistim [Philistine = “migrating” or “immigrants”]) and Caphtorim [meaning “crown”].

It is only after this time in slavery to sin that we are baptized “in Moses” as a physical babe in Christ while we still depend on our own righteousness and faith – we have faith in our own faith. We move to a higher or second heaven as we enter the wilderness (“dry land”) thinking we are saved and spiritual having been given a deadly wound to only one of our seven spiritual heads which is healed (Rev 13:1-3). This “dry land” is where the rebellious dwell and tempt the Lord ten times, long before we can enter the promised land to do spiritual warfare to overcome our inward self-righteous beasts (Psa 78:8; 1Co 10:1-12):

Psa 68:6 God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

The next son of Ham is called Phut:

Gen 10:6 And the sons of Ham [meaning “hot”/“brown”]; Cush [meaning “black”; also translated as “Ethopian” in the KJV], and Mizraim [meaning “fortified place”; also translated as “Egypt” or “Egyptians” in the KJV], and Phut [meaning “a bow”; also translated as “lybia” in the KJV], and Canaan [meaning “lowland”; also translated as “merchant”/“trader”].

Phut means “a bow” and is also translated as “Libya” or “Libyans” in the Scriptures. This is representing the time when we handle shield and bow inspired by our fellow fleshly brothers of Babylon. We are full of earthly confidence on our horses and chariots from Egypt to battle openly against the Lord and His Christ thinking we have them surrounded (Rev 20:7-9):

Jer 46:8 Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he saith, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.
Jer 46:9 Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; the Ethiopians [Cush] and the Libyans [Hebrew: “pûṭ”], that handle the shield; and the Lydians [Hebrew: “lûdı̂y” = Ludim – one of the sons of Mizraim], that handle and bend the bow.

Ham and his offspring typify the rebellious man of sin in us and how he is used by God for His purposes in us before his ultimate destruction by the spirit of God’s mouth (Num 16; 2Th 2:1-8; Isa 13:9). In our appointed time of rebellion and stubbornness against God, we are all busy with witchcraft when we are hoping to gain from our soothsaying and false prophecies (Acts 16:16):

1Sa 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

Pro 17:11 An evil man seeketh only rebellion: therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.

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Detailed studies and emails relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the www.iswasandwillbe.com website, including these topics and links:

Numbers in Scripture – “Thirteen = Rebellion”

http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/numbers-in-scripture-three-the-process-of-spiritual-completion/

How Do We Possess The Land The Lord Has Given Us

A Question About Interracial Marriage