Genesis 10 Devotional

Every Nation on God's Map

“All these are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their generations and nations. From these the nations of the earth spread out after the flood.”Genesis 10:32 (BSB)

Genesis 10 is a list of names most of us will never pronounce with confidence: the families of Japheth, Ham, and Shem, spreading out by clan, language, and land. It is easy to skim. But the list makes a quiet claim. Every people, from the coastlands to the cities of Assyria, traces back to one family under one God. No nation is outside his story, and none is beneath his notice.

Paul made the same point in Athens. God made every nation from one man and set the times and places where they would live, so that they would seek him (Acts 17:26-27). The scattering in the next chapter is not the end of God's plan for the nations. It sets the stage for his promise to bless all of them through Abraham, and Revelation pictures people from all the world's peoples and languages worshiping before his throne (Revelation 7:9). Everyone you meet today comes from this chapter.

To think about: Who is someone very different from you whom you could see today as made by God and included in his plan?