Genesis 10: 1-32
A Family of Nations
August 31, 2008
Who are you? A mother. A father. A sister. A brother. A plumber. A painter. A scientist. A nurse. A soldier. A peacemaker. A politician. A lawyer. A lover. A fighter. A widow. A widower. A retiree. A youth. An immigrant. A native. An American. A Canadian. A leader. A follower. A middle man. One of is afraid. One who is brave. One who is kind. One who is generous. One who accumulates. One who bakes. A recycler. A biker. This question of ultimate simplicity is also one of ultimate complexity. Who are you? Can you define yourself? How do you define yourself? At your most detailed and specific level, who are you? And at your broadest and most elemental level, who are you?
And what about this question’s opposite question. Who is everyone else? How do you define everyone else? Can you define everyone else? And perhaps the ultimate question of all—how does who you are fit in with everyone else?
These are questions of vital importance. They are questions of the utmost significance, because how we answer these simple questions determines how we view ourselves and how we interact with everyone else in this world. So I ask you to think once again about these questions. Who are you? Who is everyone else? And how do the two come together?
Depending on how deeply you’ve thought of these questions before, they may be either disconcerting or comforting. And I’m sure that many of us here today fall on both sides of that fence. Some of you may very well feel deeply perplexed about these questions. Others may feel entirely comfortable. But perhaps we can all take some solace knowing that these very questions of self-identity and the identity of others are the very core of our passage in Genesis today.
The passage is referred to in many circles as the “Table of Nations.” And in it the biblical authors lay out a map of the world as they knew it. The map is based on regional politics by the descent of the three sons of Noah, Japheth, Ham and Shem. Now if you are good with geography, I’d like for you to picture in your head a map of the middle east and north Africa, which, for the biblical writers contained the entire world as they knew it. This was their globe.
First among the sons of Noah was Japheth. And the descendants of Japheth represent the lands to the north and northwest of biblical Israel. These peoples are found in the modern day countries Turkey, Greece and Cyprus.
Ham’s descendants, from the second line of Noah, cover the lands to the south and southwest of biblical Israel: modern day Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Sudan and Libya.
Finally the descendants of Shem are found to the east of biblical Israel in the modern day countries of Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Ultimately Israel comes from Shem’s line, through the person of Abram. And it is the line of Shem that eventually becomes the most important line of descent for later biblical writers.
Now in this list of nations and people there are several vitally important things to know. First, there are 70 names. But this number of 70 is not meant to be the exact the number peoples in the ancient world. It is a symbolic number meant to encompass every nation and culture that God had created. We are told in the last verse of our passage today that “from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.” So the 70 families represent all of humanity, all the cultures of the world.
Also important it is to recognize how these peoples are divided up. Did you notice how the divisions of the world were described? We are told three times that these people are descendants “in their lands, with their own language, by their families, in their nations.” Geography, language, family, nation.
One fascinating detail about about these distinctions is how simple and straightforward the observations are. Geography and language, both of which are critical to development of culture, are the two critical elements that define a people—how profound! Where you live and how you speak are the only aspects of life that naturally separate people. Gender is not included. And even race, perhaps the most noticable characteristic for us today, is not included.
Indeed, the peoples in this Table of Nations had a variety of skin colors from the darkest people in Sudan and Ethiopia, to lighter ones elsewhere. And many are even included in the same family line! As scholar David Goldenberg put it, “In those earlier times color did not define a person and was not a criterion for categorizing humanity. It was irrelevant in taking the measure of a man [or woman].”
And most important for the biblical writers and, indeed, I would say most important for us today—we who live in a world of diversity, a world of complexity, and unfortunately a world of harmful division—is that all the peoples of the world came from one family. The 70 names in the Table of Nations, are family names. They are lines of descent and they all trace themselves back to one common ancestor—Noah. At the most basic level, the biblical writers were asserting that everyone in this world is related to one another. Scholar Claus Westermann puts it this way: In this passage “one thing only is said of [the peoples of the world]—all of them with all their differences go back to one common origin.”
And going even further, in this passage today, not one nation is preferred over another. Later on some of these nations—Egyptians, Canaanites, Assyrians—would come into conflict with Israel, but that does remove from them the fact that they were created by God. Indeed, these are the very first people who followed God’s commandment to “be fruitful and multiply.” And in their multiplication, in their spreading about the earth, they were the recipients of the covenant God made after the flood and in this all 70 peoples were preserved and blessed by God.
Which brings us to a matter of utmost importance in today’s world that is frequently fractured by violence, divided by ethnicity, separated by class, and defined by gender. In a world of more than 190 countries, how do we see ourselves? And how do we see others? And equally important, Is God on our side?
This last question—whose side is God on—is at the heart of so many struggles, both international and personal. In the recent movie Charlie Wilson’s War, which is about America supplying arms to Afghans to help in their fight against the Russians in the 1980’s, the character of Gust, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman struggles with this same question saying he never pulls God into a war because soon God ends up on both sides.
Frequently in our world, people are quick to call God upon one side or another. God is for America. God is for Iran. God is for Israel. God is for Islam. But it is clear from our passage today that these biblical writers thought of God as the creator of all the nations and all the peoples. All in our passage are part of God’s covenant with Noah. God is not preferential in our passage because God works in and through all the nations, bringing them into fruition and allowing them to grow.
Theologian Jim Wallis says that frequently our world has the wrong perspective about God. We should not talk in terms of “God being on our side.” Rather, Wallis suggests, we should consider what Abraham Lincoln once said, that we should pray and worry earnestly whether we are on God’s side. In this way we don’t possess God, but we seek God. We don’t control God, but we listen for God and we always ask ourselves “Are we on God’s side?”
But how do we know whether we are seeing the world from God’s point of view? There is a song by an artist named Ray Lamontagne that hints at a possible answer. It is a song of lament, one that deals with questions about God wrought from the pain and turmoil of living life together in a world where cultures clash and too many people suffer. It asks why does “hopelessness have some by throat” why are “fears are getting stronger” why are “souls feeling heavy and faith growing thin.” “How come,” he asks, “I can’t tell the free world from a living hell.” And then, “How come, all I see is a child of God in misery.”
“How come, all I see is a child of God in misery.” What do you see when you look at yourself? A child of God? And what about when you look at other people? Can you see the same child of God? And can this common thread of that runs through all of humanity help us look through the miseries of life, help us see past the separation of people, help us work together with our similarities rather than focusing on our differences? Because what is the usefulness of thinking of ourselves as children of God if it doesn’t influence how we see others and how we act in the world.
When I was in Belfast, Northern Ireland much of my volunteering was done in a Protestant neighborhood. Now, if you’re clued in to the history of Northern Ireland, you know that the many Protestants and many Catholics don’t get along too well for a variety of political and historical reasons. And one of the most striking moments of my time in Belfast was when tsome members of the youth group I was working with were convinced that there were physical differences between Catholics and Protestants.
Indeed, they said, if I took pictures of ten random people walking on the streets of Belfast, they claimed that more times than not, by looking at the shape of their faces, or the flatness or pointedness of their nose, or by the type of haircut they wore, they could tell who was Catholic and who was Protestant—it was a boast that was filled to the brim with self-importance, but lacking completely in both humility and reality. It was a game where the vision necessary to see all people as the children of God was blinded by the desire to distinguish, to separate, to stereotype. And I’m sure we’ve all had moments similar to my friends in Northern Ireland.
And this story brings us back to our passage today. The biblical writers were trying to help their readers see the similarities of the 70 diverse nations, rather than the differences. Because after all they were all part of the very same family of Noah. And can we view the world this way as well? Can we can see not only ourselves as children of God, but also our neighbors as siblings?
And can we take a step further, as the biblical writers suggest, and view the world in which we live not as a collection of friends and enemies, not as separate groups of good and evil, but as one broad, collective family of nations. A family created by God’s own self. A family that seeks reconciliation during our moments of warfare, a family that works for peace in the midst of violence, a family that appreciates our differences while also championing our similarities. A true and wholsesome and loving family of nations.
