One Big (Not So) Happy Family

Genesis 10 is one of the most important chapters in the whole Bible. It reveals how all humanity is connected.

And perhaps not surprisingly, there are 70 nations listed in this table. Noah had three sons. And these three sons produced 70 heirs who spread out into all the earth. Genesis will end with a man who had 12 sons. And he will go down into Egypt with 70 persons.

In Genesis chapter 10 you see two things at work:

1. the common grace covenant at work: be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth; you see clearly in Genesis 10 the common grace of God in extending the human race throughout the earth.

2. You also see the fragmentation of the human race. At first I called this sermon “one big happy family” – but in a very real way what you are seeing is “one big (not so) happy family.” In verses 5 and 32 we hear that the nations “spread abroad,” but the word there actually means “divided.” And at the end of each section (5, 20, 31) we hear that each of these families are divided into “their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.”

We'll hear next week about the actual event that led to the division of humanity, but here we see the big picture.

Humanity has multiplied.

But humanity has also divided.