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Genesis Segment 10
All scripture is from the King James Version unless otherwise noted. Before beginning this study, I suggest you pray and ask God to guide you through this study. I also suggest that you do you own study of this material in order to ensure its accuracy.
(Gen 11:10) These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
Remember that Shem means an appellation or mark. It can be a mark of honor or infamy. It appears from much scripture that Shem was Noah's firstborn (Gen 5:32, 6:10, I Chron 1:4, etc.). But see Genesis 10:21 where Japheth is called the elder of the three. The appellation or mark is upon Shem as the patriarch of the Shemites or Semites. Abraham was a Semite, or a descendant of Shem. The house of Shem, at least the line of Arphaxad, was marked by God for service to God. This is the beginning of the line of Christ through the Israelites. Shem is the mark of God upon the Semites and later the Israelites.
(Gen 11:11-26) And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. {12} And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah: {13} And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. {14} And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: {15} And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. {16} And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg: {17} And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters. {18} And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu: {19} And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters. {20} And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug: {21} And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters. {22} And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor: {23} And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. {24} And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah: {25} And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters. {26} And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
If you want to know the meanings of the names in these verses, there is an on line Strong's Concordance at the Blue Letter Bible, and other sites. Abraham was the tenth generation from Noah.
Note the name Eber. It means "a region across" or "the opposite side." Basically, the word Eber or Hebrew means "one from across the river." It is sometimes used to indicate the opposite or east side of the Jordan. But here is means opposite the Great River, the Euphrates. Eber lived on the east side of the Euphrates. Eber is the root of Hebrew. Eber begat the Hebrews. We can infer this because in the days of Eber's sons, Peleg and Joktan, the earth was divided (Genesis 10:25). That happened at Babylon, which was on the east side of the Euphrates, while Terah, Abraham's father, lived in Ur, on the west side of the River.
(Gen 11:27-28) Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. {28} And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
We don't get much information about Terah's generations because we follow the seed line of Christ through Abram. Lot was Abram's nephew whom we will read about later. Haran was the land where Jacob went to get his wives, Leah and Rachel, the daughters of Rebekah's brother, Laban. All of these things are recorded in the Word as ensamples or examples for us.
(Gen 11:29-30) And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. {30} But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
It is interesting that both Sarai and Milcah mean queen. Sarai is from sar from which we get Ceasar, Czar, and Tsar. Milcah is the feminine of melek meaning king. She was the mother of Bethuel, who was the father of Rebekah, Isaac's wife. This is why Nahor's line is included in the Bible, because his line was to join with the line of Christ.
(Gen 11:31-32) And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. {32} And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.
Of course, Ur was considered a Biblical myth until Sir Leonard Woolley unearthed it beginning in 1922. There is no such thing as a Biblical myth. The Chaldeans lived in Mesopotamia and eventually became known as Babylonians.
(Gen 12:1-2) Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: {2} And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
God's first promise to Abraham. Abram was to leave his father's land because it was a land of polytheism and paganism. God made a covenant with Abram because Abram was faithful and followed God's instruction. A covenant, or contract, is made with the agreement of two or more parties, both giving something of value in return for something of value. This is called consideration or quid pro quo. God was the only party to this covenant Who gave something of value. Abram received something of value but gave nothing. It was a covenant of grace. God was gracious enough to make this promise to Abram without expecting anything in return. This covenant is in effect today, right now as you sit and read this. It has not been broken. It has, however, been expanded as we will see in later verses.
The word translated nation is gowy which is usually translated "gentile"! Abram's progeny were Gentiles? No, but the word gowy or nations or Gentiles is sometimes used in the Bible to indicate the heathen nations. Here it only means nations that spring from Abraham's seed.
(Gen 12:3) And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Many believe that this means that we must bless the Jews. While it is OK to bless the Jews, this is only a part of the story. How has the world been blessed today? Through the Commonwealth of Britain and through the United States. These two entities brought civilization and Christianity to the world. Other European nations had a hand in this also, but the two greatest players were the Commonwealth and the US. If you don't understand what I will say next, just wait. There is a study in the works regarding this subject.
Abraham was promised that he would be the father of many nations, and not just one. His descendants, through the house of Joseph, that is Ephraim and Manasseh, have migrated west to Europe, the US, and former Commonwealth nations. The world has been blessed through those entities. They are the Western nations. The world is still being blessed through them.
There are several good books on the subject: Ephraim, The Tribes, and Lost Israelite Identity by Yair Davidy, Tracing Our Ancestors by Frederick Haberman, Judah's Scepter and Joseph's Birthright by J.H. Allen, One Man's Destiny by C.R. Dickey, Missing Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets, by E. Raymond Capt, and many others. Mr. Capt alone has several related books on the subject.
Those that curse Abram's descendants will themselves be cursed. For example, the Soviet Union has had many problems. I believe them to be related to cursing Abram's descendants. The Jews of modern Israel have several times defeated their surrounding enemies soundly. Modern Israel is blessed and her enemies are cursed.
(Gen 12:4) So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
Think about this. Abram left his family, friends, security, comfort and civilization to live in the wilderness of Canaan away from all this just because God asked him to. How many of us are willing to do the same? He was already well along in years. No longer did men live to be many hundreds of years old. Now, seventy-five was old. Yet, at God's calling he left his old life at seventy five and began anew. Who says the elderly are too old to answer God's call?
(Gen 12:5) And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
This was a large party. Abram was already blessed with wealth and its trappings. He set off with his wife, nephew, and servants. They took gold, silver, sheep, and cattle (their substance) with them.
(Gen 12:6) And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
Sichem is the same as Shechem, the first capital city of the Northern Kingdom, situated on the side of Mount Ebal. The Northern Kingdom came in to being after Solomon's death when his son, Rehoboam, refused the advice of his older advisors and increased the tax burden on the people. Israel, that is the northern ten tribes, separated from Judah, Benjamin, and part of the Levites. The Southern Kingdom of Judah remained subject to Rehoboam while the Northern Kingdom of Isreal made Jeroboam king. Jeroboam reigned over Israel from Shechem. Shechem was an important place.
The last phrase, "the Canaanite was then in the land" seems like a bit of incidental information. It appears a bit out of place here. It seems that there is no context for it. God would not have included it in His Word at precisely the right place if it were incidental or unnecessary. Every word in Scripture is in exactly the right place at the right time. So, what is it doing here? There must be a good reason. We may need to search a bit to find it.
Let us do a word study of the word Canaan. It is kena'aniy (Strong's 3669). It means to bend the knee, hence humiliated or low or flat. Recall that Canaan was to serve his two uncles, Shem and Japhet, and his brothers (Gen 9:25-27).
The word came to mean merchant and traffic. In Isa. 23:8, the word is used to mean traffickers and is associated with merchants. Hosea uses the word, Canaan, to mean a deceitful and oppressive merchant (12:7). When speaking to Lucifer (the Cherub that covereth, the King of Tyrus) in Ezekiel 28:12-19, God says that because of the multitude of his merchandise and the iniquity of his traffic, he was brought down. Remember the allusion to Lucifer; it will come in to play later. Canaan is also the name of the georaphical area the family of Canaan occupied.
A Canaanite is of the offspring of the man, Canaan, or is a resident of the land of Canaan. There were many different tribes or ethnic groups residing in the land of Canaan. They are the: Rephaims, Zuzims, Emims, Horites, Amalekites, Amorites (Gen 14:5-7), Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Jebushites (Gen 15:19-21), and Anakim (Deut 2:10).
Let us look at a few of these names. The name Rephaims comes form the Hebrew word rapha (Strong's 7495, 7496, 7497, and 7498). The word means to heal and healer (7495), a wraith or ghost (7496), and a giant (7497 & 7498). In the Bible, all three meanings are used. In the case of the Rephaims, giant is the correct usage. In fact, in Deuteronomy 2:11, they are called giants by the KJV translators, but the actual Hebrew word here is Rephaim. The RSV renders it Rephaim: (Deut. 2:11, RSV) "like the Anakim they are also known as Reph'aim, but the Moabites call them Emim". There other names are Zuzims, Horims, and Titans (Moffat Translation). So The Rephaims, or giants are also know as the Anakim, Emims, Zuzims (Zamzummim), Horims (Deut 2), and Titans. Where have we seen giants? Let me remind you:
(Gen 6:4) There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Those giants are the Nephilim. The verse says there were giants in the days of Noah, "and after that". Well, the giants that came after the flood were called . . .Rephaim, Zuzim, Horim, Anakim, and Emim. This was a second irruption (rushing in) of Nephilim. Why were they on earth in Abraham's time? Because they knew that the Messiah would come through the line of Abraham and they wanted to prevent it. Of course, that is why the Nephilim came in the time of Noah, to corrupt the seed line of Christ.
They are due to arrive again. In Mat 24:37-38, Jesus said, "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. {38} For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark". So at or near the time when Jesus will return, these same giants will return, marrying the daughters of men, because in the days of Noah, that is exactly what happened, and it will again. Heard any UFO reports lately? Have you watched fictional programs such as the X-Files or Man in Black? In those series, the supposed Extraterrestrials come and inhabit the bodies of men. That is just a corruption of the story of the Nephilim. Read the Book of Enoch (which is mentioned in the Bible by Jude in v. 14 of his epistle; the quote is Enoch 1:9).
The words merchant and traffic were used by God when He described Lucifer's fall. It is interesting that Canaan means merchant and traffic considering that Satan's minions, the Nephillim, inhabited that land. That is the reason that Joshua was told to kill all of the Canaanites and leave none alive. What God had done with Noah's flood, the Israelites had to do with the sword. It is unfortunate that the Israelites, through the deception of the Hivites and Joshua's integrity at keeping his word, allowed some to live (see Joshua Chapter 9).
The explanation was rather involved, but that is the reason that God put in the clause, "the Canaanite was then in the land." They were already in the land when Abraham lived, and they continued to flourish until and after the time of Joshua.
(Gen 12:7) And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
Because Abram had believed God and left his home and come to Canaan, the Lord reiterated His promise to give Abram and his offspring the land of Canaan. Remember the curse put on Canaan: (Gen 9:25-26) And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. {26} And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. The curse included the giving of the land of Canaan to Abram, a son of Shem. Abraham's descendants would be tasked to destroy the Canaanites at the time of the conquest (Deut 20:17).
Note that Abram built an altar and worshipped Yehovah. He did this at every place he stopped.
(Gen 12:8) And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
Some Bible critics would say that the name Bethel was coined by Jacob, so how could Abram have stayed at Bethel. Well, Moses set the book of Genesis to writing. At the time of Moses it was Bethel, but in the time of Abram, it was Luz. Abram camped between Luz and Ai and, as usual, he built an altar to Yehovah. Abram probably built the altar at mounts Gerazim and Ebal.
In our next segment, Abram goes down into Egypt.
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