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Genesis 1:16 (RSV2CE)
16And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also.
Week 6 Genesis to Jesus - A “Renewed” Creation through Noah
Part 2 – A unique Table of Nations
A very good question on Genesis chapter 9 was raised this week and here are Scott Hahn’s notes on the passage of Ham looking on the nakedness of his father Noah. We only have theories to consider here because of the antiquity of this writing, we cannot know for sure. Scott gives evidence for each possibility and the following is for only mature ears and eyes to consider.
9:22 saw the nakedness of his father: Variously interpreted to mean that Ham looked perversely upon his naked father (voyeurism), that he emasculated his father (castration), or that he sexually abused his father (homosexual incest). More likely, the expression is an idiom for maternal incest, where (1) a father’s nakedness is an indirect way of referring to the nakedness of his wife (as in Lev 18:7), and (2) “seeing” nakedness is synonymous with “uncovering” the nakedness of a close relative to engage in sexual relations (as in Lev 20:17). So understood, Ham is guilty of having sexual relations with his mother, and this explains why a curse falls, not on himself, but on his son, Canaan, who would seem to be the child conceived of this sinful union (9:25). It is otherwise difficult to understand why Canaan, who plays no role in the story at all, is mentioned five times in the immediate context (9:18, 22, 25, 26, 27). The account of Ham’s perversity thus supplies the backstory of how he became the father of Canaan and the Canaanites. For a parallel episode in Genesis where drunkenness leads to incest with a parent and the birth of nations that become traditional enemies of Israel, see 19:30–38. Hahn, S., & Mitch, C. (2010). Genesis: With Introduction, Commentary, and Notes. (Revised Standard Version and Second Catholic Edition, Eds.) (p. 30). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
The parallels between the original covenant with Adam and Eve, and the renewed covenant with Noah and his family, are unmistakable. This reboot of creation with Noah creates once again a good line and an evil line of descendants. Adam produced Cain who became the evil line, and then Seth producing the good line. Shem is the good line of Noah, and Noah’s son Ham produces the evil line. Adam’s son Cain becomes the father of the evil Cainites, and Ham becomes the father of Canaan, who becomes the father of the evil Canaanites.
Chapter 10 of Genesis is often ignored, but is a real scriptural passage of interest, not only to Biblical scholars, but it should be to each of us as well. This so-called Table of Nations is unique in ancient historical writings.
The Bible is the only ancient text with anything like it, it stands alone. And guess how many of Noah’s descendants are named in this chapter, 70. These descendants are not only named, but corresponding nations are named as well, giving a complete picture of the all the nations of the ancient world. Here we have God’s big family, good and evil all mixed together now with growing tensions, who have populated the world because of the original covenant with Adam, and the renewed covenant with Noah. The covenant rupture between good and evil comes into clear focus with the account we read about the Tower of Babel. It is the line of Ham that ends up with the intent of building this magnificent tower.
Genesis 11:4 (RSV2CE) 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
The Hebrew word here for name is Shem, showing a very interesting motivation behind their evil designs completely based on pride. Shem, is the name God gave to Noah’s son representing the good line that would descend from him. Evil men, blind with pride and full of themselves could not let that alone. ” Let us make a Shem” for ourselves and far surpass anything that God intends to accomplish through that son of Noah. We will build a mighty tower reaching into the heavens, butlisten to the next few verses.
Genesis 11:5–8 (RSV2CE) 5 And the Lordcame down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
God came down to see their puny little tower pretty much says it all. A common language can unite people, many languages have just the opposite effect. It was language that was a big contributor to the split of the Church between east and west, Latin and Greek. The Hubble Space Telescope was crippled for years because of a difference in cultures and languages between the contractors. Numerous other examples exist proving the difficulties of dealing with multiple languages. Have you ever traveled to a foreign land and became lost? Jackie and I did, in Rome. It was a very uncomfortable several hours. We didn’t even have the address of where we were staying with us. Even the police couldn’t understand us.
So, what do we have so far up to and including Genesis 1-11, we see God has fathered his human family through thick and thin, not abandoning them but instead keeping His covenant vows. The conflict between the good and evil lines of man continues seemingly unabated, although we will soon find out God is still in control. God saved mankind through the Ark of Noah, but now he will unfold His salvation story through the family of a man named Abraham, a chieftain and leader of what would become a very large family.
The number 10 is always a number that represents completion, so we can count ten generations from Adam and we come to Noah, and his three sons. Ten generations after that we come to a man named Tera, and his three sons, one who is named Abram, later renamed by God as Abraham. And the covenant of God marches on, with greater revelation of who God is, and just how much He loves His human family.
The Table of Nations, unique to the Bible, shows us that good, or bad, righteous or evil, we are one big human family and God did not and will not abandon us. We will see in the next renewal of the covenant that God intended to win back the whole world beginning with the seed of the woman Eve, next through Noah’s Ark and the waters of the flood, and then through the family of Abraham. Israel was not the chosen nation of God, justso they could have the blessings of God all to themselves or be the only nation on earth to be blessed. They were supposed to be the conduit through which God would bless every family on earth. What does that say about the mission of the Church in our generation.
I think we all have some work to do. We have in our time a powerful secular world still trying to make a “Shem” for themselves and they are hell bent in ignoring God and building a tower that can touch the heavens.
They are lost, totally lost, and we should care about that, because God does, He wants to bring all His lost sheep home. How? He wants us to reach out and bring them home, and we will make the difference...one person at a time. We are the salt of the earth, pray that we don’t lose our savor.
Things to consider for the first six weeks…
Genesis 3:15 (RSV2CE) 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Worshipping God has always required sacrifice, and when you give it some thought, loving someone always involves some sort of sacrifice. Since the fall of man, worshipping God has always involved the shedding of blood of innocent animals as a sacrifice…countless numbers. In the Exodus, the Passover Meal is the center of that command of God, a spotless lamb is slain. All those countless numbers of animals, all those spotless lambs are replaced by one supreme and eternal sacrifice, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God…the lamb slain from the foundation of the earth. So, what is our sacrifice today to worship God under the New Covenant? What do we give in sacrifice to love God today, or anyone else for that matter?
Adam and Eve were not cursed by God when they sinned, He cursed the serpent and the ground, but not them. Cain is the first human to be cursed by God and marked as evil. And the hatred (enmity) between the good line and evil line began to grow. What defiled the ground, why did God curse it? It was the innocent blood of Abel that soaked the ground.
Genesis 4:14 (RSV2CE) 14 Behold, you have driven me this day away from the ground; and from your face I shall be hidden; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will slay me.”
Why does God curse Cain? What purpose does He have in cursing him?
Genesis 4:15 (RSV2CE) 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If any one slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him.
Curses in the Bible are extreme forms of punishment by God, but for what purpose? Why didn’t God just take his lifefrom him. Genesis has a lot to teach us about God, as we look through ancient Hebrew glasses and try and understand how God revealed Himself to their darkened understanding.
As we look at the two signs of the original covenant and the renewal through Noah, each of them have to do with rest. The Sabbath is the day of rest and the name Noah literally means rest or relief. The rainbow usually is seen after the storm, why all this stuff about rest? What is God telling us about Himself and our life in Him?
The Israelites of today trace their lineage back to the great grandson of Shem, a man named Eber. From Eber comes Abraham Isaac and Jacob. And from Ham comes all the enemies of Israel, the Egyptians, Philistines, Canaanites, Assyrians, and Babylonians. The CCC is a great source to read along with your Bible.
The Covenant with Noah from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
56 After the unity of the human race was shattered by sin God at once sought to save humanity part by part. The covenant with Noah after the flood gives expression to the principle of the divine economy toward the “nations,” in other words, toward men grouped “in their lands, each with [its] own language, by their families, in their nations.” (401; 1219)
57 This state of division into many nations is at once cosmic, social, and religious. It is intended to limit the pride of fallen humanity, united only in its perverse ambition to forge its own unity as at Babel. But, because of sin, both polytheism and the idolatry of the nation and of its rulers constantly threaten this provisional economy with the perversion of paganism.12
58 The covenant with Noah remains in force during the times of the Gentiles, until the universal proclamation of the Gospel. The Bible venerates several great figures among the Gentiles: Abel the just, the king-priest Melchizedek—a figure of Christ—and the upright “Noah, Daniel, and Job.”14 Scripture thus expresses the heights of sanctity that can be reached by those who live according to the covenant of Noah, waiting for Christ to “gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.” (674; 2569)