The Unfolding Map of Redemption Text: Genesis 10:21-31
Introduction: More Than a List of Names
We come now to a portion of Scripture that many, in our age of low information and even lower attention spans, are tempted to skim. We see a long list of names, of begetting and begatting, and our eyes glaze over. We think it is just a dusty old register, a genealogical appendix to the main story. But this is a profound mistake. This is to treat the Word of God like a high school textbook, where you only read the chapters that will be on the test. But every word of God is pure, and every word is profitable. These genealogies are not footnotes; they are the skeletal structure of redemptive history. God is not just saving disembodied souls; He is saving families, tribes, and nations. He is writing His story into the bedrock of human history, and these names are the chapter headings.
The Table of Nations in Genesis 10 is a theological map. It is God laying out the chessboard of the world after the flood. He is showing us how He fulfilled His command to Noah and his sons to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." But it is more than just a demographic report. It is a carefully structured polemic. The chapter is arranged not chronologically, but theologically. The lines of Japheth and Ham are dealt with first, setting the stage for the climactic focus on the line of Shem. And why Shem? Because God is a covenant-keeping God, and He is narrowing the focus, zeroing in on the line of promise. Noah had prophesied, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem" (Gen. 9:26). This isn't just a nice sentiment; it is the declaration of the central plotline of the entire Bible. Out of all the nations that will spread across the face of the earth, God has set His particular, saving love on one lineage. This is offensive to the egalitarian sensibilities of our day, but the Bible is not concerned with our sensibilities. God is sovereign, and He chooses whom He will choose. From Shem will come Abraham, and from Abraham, Israel, and from Israel, the Messiah. This chapter is the first great sifting of the nations, and it teaches us that while God is the sovereign ruler of all peoples, He is the covenant Father of a particular people.
So as we walk through this list of names, do not see it as a dry recitation. See it as God drawing the boundaries of the nations, setting the stage for the great drama of redemption, and pointing with an unerring finger down through the centuries to the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, the Son of Shem.
The Text
Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the older brother of Japheth, children were born. The sons of Shem were Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad and Lud and Aram. The sons of Aram were Uz and Hul and Gether and Mash. Arpachshad was the father of Shelah; and Shelah was the father of Eber. Now two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan. And Joktan was the father of Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah and Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah and Obal and Abimael and Sheba and Ophir and Havilah and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan. Now their settlement extended from Mesha as you go toward Sephar, the hill country of the east. These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their tongues, by their lands, according to their nations.
(Genesis 10:21-31 LSB)
The Line of the Name (v. 21-22)
The text begins by identifying the central figure of this section.
"Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the older brother of Japheth, children were born. The sons of Shem were Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad and Lud and Aram." (Genesis 10:21-22)
Notice the emphasis. Shem is not just another son of Noah. He is identified in a very particular way: "the father of all the children of Eber." This is a forward-looking statement. The Holy Spirit is putting a pin in the map. Eber, as we will see, is the direct ancestor of Abraham, and his name is the likely origin of the word "Hebrew." So, from the outset, we are being told to pay attention. This is the line that matters for the story of redemption. While the other nations are important as the backdrop, the covenant storyline runs through the children of Eber.
Shem's name itself means "name" or "renown." This is a direct contrast to the spirit of Babel that we will see in the next chapter, where men try to "make a name for themselves" (Gen. 11:4). The line of Ham, through Nimrod, seeks to build a kingdom of man's renown, centered on Babylon. But God is building His kingdom through the line of Shem, the line of the "Name," which will ultimately culminate in the one who has the name above every name, Jesus Christ (Phil. 2:9). The world seeks to make its own name great; God makes His name great through His chosen people.
The sons of Shem listed here become the progenitors of the great Semitic peoples of the ancient Near East. Elam becomes Persia, Asshur becomes Assyria, Aram becomes the Arameans or Syrians. These are major players on the stage of world history, and often, they are antagonists to the people of God. This reminds us that biological descent from a godly man is no guarantee of faithfulness. The line of promise is a thin red cord running through the broader family, not the entire family itself. God's election is always a process of separation and distinction.
Narrowing the Focus (v. 23-24)
The genealogy quickly narrows, bypassing the other sons of Shem to focus on one particular line.
"The sons of Aram were Uz and Hul and Gether and Mash. Arpachshad was the father of Shelah; and Shelah was the father of Eber." (Genesis 10:23-24 LSB)
After a brief mention of Aram's sons, one of whom is Uz, the traditional homeland of Job, the camera lens immediately zooms in on Arpachshad. Why? Because this is the line that leads to Christ. The Bible is not an exhaustive history of everyone; it is a meticulously edited history of redemption. The Spirit of God is not interested in satisfying every historical curiosity we might have. He is interested in showing us the path that leads from the Ark to the Cross.
Through Arpachshad and Shelah, we come to Eber. The text has already told us that Shem is the father of all the sons of Eber. Here we see how. Eber stands as a pivotal figure. His name, as mentioned, likely means "the other side," or "to cross over." The Hebrews are the "crossover" people. Abram is the great crossover, leaving Ur of the Chaldees, crossing the Euphrates, and entering the promised land by faith. This is a picture of the Christian life. We are all children of Eber by faith when we cross over from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. We leave the world's way of building its own name and we identify with the God of Shem.
The Great Division (v. 25)
Verse 25 contains one of the most intriguing statements in the entire Table of Nations.
"Now two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan." (Genesis 10:25 LSB)
Here the line of Eber splits. This is a significant fork in the road of history. We are given a monumental historical marker: "in his days the earth was divided." Peleg's name means "division." What division is this? Some have speculated about a geological division, a continental drift. But the Bible is its own best interpreter, and the immediate context of the following chapter gives us the plain answer. The division is the judgment of God at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9).
At Babel, humanity was united in rebellion. They had one language and one purpose: to centralize their power, to build a monument to their own glory, and to refuse God's command to fill the earth. They wanted a one-world government, a secular humanistic empire. God's response was to divide their languages and scatter them across the face of the earth. This was an act of judgment, but it was also an act of grace. It was a judgment on their pride, but it was a grace that prevented fallen humanity from consolidating its rebellion into one monolithic, inescapable tyranny. God divided the earth to preserve it from total self-destruction.
The birth of Peleg marks this event. History is now split. The line of promise will continue through Peleg, leading to Abraham. The line of his brother Joktan will branch off, populating a different region. This division at Babel is the origin of the nations as we know them. God is the one who sets the boundaries of the nations (Acts 17:26). Nationalism, in its proper biblical sense, is not a sin; it is a divine ordinance to restrain the imperialistic pride of fallen man. The globalist dream of a new Babel is a profoundly anti-Christian project, an attempt to undo God's judgment and rebuild a tower of human pride.
The Other Branch and the Boundaries (v. 26-31)
The text then briefly follows the line of Joktan before concluding the section on Shem.
"And Joktan was the father of Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah and Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah and Obal and Abimael and Sheba and Ophir and Havilah and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan. Now their settlement extended from Mesha as you go toward Sephar, the hill country of the east. These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their tongues, by their lands, according to their nations." (Genesis 10:26-31 LSB)
The thirteen sons of Joktan are generally identified with the tribes of southern Arabia. Names like Hazarmaveth (modern Hadramaut), Sheba, and Ophir are well-known from other parts of Scripture, associated with trade, gold, and incense. This is a legitimate and blessed line of descent from Shem and Eber, but it is not the line of the covenant promise. They multiply and fill a portion of the earth, fulfilling the general mandate to Noah, but the specific, redemptive mandate passes through Peleg.
The text gives us their geographical boundaries, "from Mesha as you go toward Sephar." God is not a God of confusion. He is a God of geography, of history, of specific places and peoples. His plan is not an abstract philosophy; it is worked out on the ground, in real time.
The concluding statement in verse 31 is crucial. "These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their tongues, by their lands, according to their nations." Notice the word "tongues." This points directly back to the division of Peleg's day. The diversity of languages is a direct result of the judgment at Babel. The nations are formed and defined by these distinctions: family (kinship), language (culture), land (geography), and political entity (nation). This is the created and, in this case, the judicially ordered pattern for humanity after the flood.
From Division to Unity
So what is the point of all this for us? We live on this side of the cross, and on this side of another great scattering and gathering. The division at Babel was a necessary judgment to curb the unified rebellion of man. But it was not God's final word. The history of redemption is the story of God reversing the curse of sin, and this includes reversing the curse of Babel's division, but not in the way the globalists imagine.
The story of the Bible is not a return to the monolithic unity of a single language and a single empire. That is the world's counterfeit unity. God's plan for unity is far more glorious. It is a unity-in-diversity.
At Pentecost, the curse of Babel was prophetically reversed. The Holy Spirit came down, not to erase all the languages and make everyone speak Hebrew, but to enable the apostles to speak the one gospel in all the different languages (Acts 2). The miracle was not a confusion of tongues, but a clarification of the one Word in many tongues. God was beginning to gather a new humanity, not by erasing the nations, but by redeeming people out of every nation.
The line of Shem, through Peleg, led to Abraham. And God's promise to Abraham was that in him, all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:3). The line narrows in order to bless the whole. It focuses on one man so that the blessing might explode outward to all peoples. Jesus Christ is the ultimate son of Shem, the ultimate son of Eber, the ultimate son of Abraham. He is the fulfillment of the promise.
The final vision of glory is not a return to the plains of Shinar. It is the New Jerusalem, and what do we see there? We see "a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb" (Revelation 7:9). The distinctions are not erased; they are redeemed. All the languages are not abolished; they are consecrated to the praise of the Lamb. The glory and honor of the nations are brought into the city of God (Revelation 21:26).
This ancient map in Genesis 10, therefore, is the beginning of a story that finds its glorious conclusion at the throne of the ascended Christ. He is the one who gathers the scattered. He is the one in whom the division of Peleg is healed, not by destroying the nations, but by saving them.