Genesis 11:1-2 One People, One Language.

"And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech."

It always amazes me why translators choose one word over another. When I first read this verse, I wondered why G-d chose to say the same thing twice in one verse. Here, he says that the people were one language and one speech. Isn’t that the same thing? It turns out that it is. Well, it also turns out that the translators got it wrong again. The word, “saw-faw”, translated here as language, should have been translated as people or nation. This is backed up by the Lord in verse 6 when G-d reiterates the same thing.

"And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language..."

Transliterated directly from the original Hebrew, verse one reads as,

“All Earth was united as one people, one language.”

One people directly descended from Noah and his sons. No way to misunderstand that.

"And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there."

This is interesting because the ark landed on the mountain of Ararat in northern Turkey, which is to the north of the land of Shinar, modern day Irag. Here, it says that these people came from the east to the land of Shinar, which would put them originally in modern day Iran. Is this a mistake? No. Once again, we have been taught incorrectly by most modern day teachers and translators. The Bible does not say the mountain of Ararat, but the mountains or hills of Ararat (Genesis 8:4).

The mountain of Ararat is in modern day Turkey. However, the mountains of Ararat stretch from Turkey to Eastern and Northern Iran and on into the Persian Gulf. Another peculiar point is the fact that the word, Ararat is not of Hebraic or Samaritan origin. It is Armenian for Armenia. Therefore, we should read Genesis 8:4 as the mountains or hills of Armenia which include the Ararat, Zagros and Elburz mountains. This puts the ark and the origin of these people in the area ranging from northern Turkey down through Iran to the Persian Gulf and possibly along the southern coastline of the Caspian Sea.

These two verses show why it is so important that we learn the language of the Kingdom, Hebrew. We need to learn the langage so we can understand G-d's Word and get a head start on the one language of the Kingdom because G-d will, again, unite us as a one people with one language in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Shalom

Genesis 10:1-32 What Family Branch Are You From?

Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city. And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim. And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth, And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations. Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born. The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram. And the children of Aram; Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash. And Arphaxad begat Salah; and Salah begat Eber. And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan. And Joktan begat 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. And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east. These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations. These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

All people, of all races, shapes and sizes, are descendents from one family. Trace anyones family line and it leads back to Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Which of the sons are you from?

The following map, provided by the Moody Institute, depicts the descendants of Noah and his sons as mentioned in Genesis 10:1-32.



Following this map, we can trace the families to other nations. The following chart shows the family of Japheth and his descendents.

Gomer
People living in area of the Black Sea, Germany and Wales.
Magog
Reference to "Gog" referring to Georgia, a region near the Black Sea and Scythians.
Madai
Medes (Persia), Japheth through Madai father of India.
Javan
People of Greece and Cyprus.
Tubal
Russian, city of Tobolsk.
Meshech
Russian, (Name Muskovi) city of Moscow.
Tiras
Thracians, possibly the Etruscans of Italy.
Ashkenaz
Germany, Armenia, Scandinavia, Denmark, northern islands of Europe and European west coast.
Ripath
Generally Europe, Carpathians and Paphlagonians
Togarmah
Armenians, Germany and Turkey
Elishah
Greeks ("Hellas" is a form of word Elishah)
Tarshish
Spain, Carthage in North Africa
Kittim
Greeks, Cyprus, Macedonia, China, Japanese and Southeast Asia
Dodanium
Greeks, Rhodes, Dardanelles

The Descendants of Ham

Cush
Ethiopia
Mizraim
Egypt
Put
Libya
Canaan
Palestine
Heth
Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites

The Descendants of Shem

Elam
Iran
Asshur
Assyria
Arpachshad
Chaldea
Eber
Hebrew
Joktan
Arabia
Lud
Lydia
Aram
Syria

There we have it. So, where do you fit in?

Shalom
Your Brother

Genesis 9:18-29 Noahs Nakedness and Hams Shame

"And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread. And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent."

When Adam and Eve fell in the garden, we saw that they lost their innocence and no longer enjoyed the dimensionality that allow them to walk physically with G-d. As a result of the flood, we will see the ages of man begin to diminish. Here we see that Noah drank of the fruit of the vine and got drunk. As a result of the flood, there was no longer a protective covering against the harmful effects of the cosmos. Man and all creation began to degrade quicker. This causes the juice of grapes, or wine, to do something that it probably never done before, that is, ferment. I’m sure that Noah had drank wine before. However, due to the fermentation of the wine, he became drunk.

"And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him."

This incident has been one of speculation within the Christian church for a long time. However, I believe we can look at the text and the Talmud for direction here. First, the text says that, “…Ham…saw the nakedness of his father.” The word translated as “saw” is the Hebrew word, “raw-aw” which means, “to joyfully look unto”. Some scholars indicate that it was a homosexual encounter.

Even though the same words would be used to express a homosexual encounter, I doubt it very much if Ham would have bragged to his brothers about it. No. It is more likely that Ham saw his father naked and drunk and he made fun of it, bringing public humiliation upon his father. As a matter of fact, we can see this in Hams firstborns name, Canaan, which means, “humiliation”.

The main question in my mind is: Why would he humiliate his father? I believe that the Talmud gives us this answer.

“Our Rabbis taught: Three copulated in the ark, and they were all punished — the dog, the raven, and Ham. The dog was doomed to be tied, the raven expectorates [his seed into his mate's mouth], and Ham was smitten in his skin.”

{Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 108b}

Here, we have a little history of a punishment given to Ham, as a result of his disobedience within the ark. It doesn’t say it in the Bible, but it implies here in the Talmud that no sexual intercourse was allow while they were in the ark. In this Talmudic entry, we find that Ham had sex with his wife. Once again, some say that this meant that there was some unnatural shenanigans going on between the dog, the raven and Ham, which is physically ludicrous and would have been more plainly laid out within the passage. The three had sex with their mates, which were forbidden. With this history and it’s punishment, it was no wonder that Ham most likely resented it and attempted to humiliate his father. As we will see, it backfired on him.

And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

As a result of Hams sin, his descendants were punished, destined to servants or slaves. Hams punishment was that he had to live with the blame.

"Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died."

Please notice the ages of man begin to reduce from here on out.

Genesis 9:8-17 I Will Not Destroy The World Again?

Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: "And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth."

As I said in the previous entry, G-d felt bad about destroying the world and all the life in it. However, it was just and had to be done. Here, G-d is promising not to destroy the world again. It amazes me that there are a lot of Christians and others who point to this passage and say, "See. God isn't going to destroy the world again, he's going to transform it."

Well, with many things, the details are in what you decide not to read. Many people read their Bible the same way. They read and absorb the general stuff while ignoring the specifics. Many Christians take in the Faith, Love and Hope message while ignoring the other things. These Christians tend to lose their faith because it is supported by "feel good" theology and not based in the reality of Gods Word. Unfortunately, I feel they are in for a rude awakening.

Anyway, lets' get back to the verse. Yes, G-d does say he is not going to destroy the world again.....BY WATER. See, the specifics are in the details. II Peter, chapter 3 tells us that the world will again be purged, not by water, but by fire.

"...the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men...the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."


Fortunately, for us, this fire is part of G-ds wrath in the end times. In I Thessalonians 1:10, We are told that we are not subject to G-ds wrath.

"And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, [even] Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come."

Praise G-d for his mercy upon his people.

"And God said: "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."

One thing you can take to the bank is G-d fulfills all his promises. First, not to destroy the world again with a global flood. He put the rainbow in the sky after each rain to signify his promise not to destroy the world by water. Second, to destroy the world and all the unrighteousness in it with fire. Finally, to save us from that wrath.

Praise G-d and pray for those who need him.

Shalom my friends.

Genesis 9:1-7 Your Blood ... Will I Require

And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

Once again, God is telling man to be fruitful and fill the earth. Almost like saying, "OK Fellas, let's try this again." As we read this, I'd like to remind you that killing everyone off in the flood bothered G-d a lot. So much that he refuses to do it again, even if man gets himself into the same predicament. More on that in the next blog entry.

From now on, every animal will have a fear of man. Why? Well, for one thing, the next verse.

Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

If you are now dinner for every man, wouldn't you have a fear of man? But seriously, G-d created this animousity between man and animal for the same reason that he made it harder for Adam to till the ground for food. It is going to be harder from now on. Also, and most importantly, it is to show man that a blood sacrifice will be needed as a sin offering unto G-d. Also, man sinned, not the animals. This is another sepraration as the result of our sin.

But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

There is no way getting around partaking of the blood when you eat meat. Therefore, you are automatically required to give your life for your sins.

A lot of people will tell you that these verses are telling us not to kill anyone or your life will be required, otherwise, capital punishment. They will include war, accidental and involutary man-slaughter. My answer to that is another question: "Why did G-d gives the laws concerning the Avenger of Blood and the Cities of Refufe? The answer...to point to the Messiah.

Yes it is unlawful to Murder, it is Mitsvah #6 in the Aseret ha-D'varim, or Ten Commandments. However, all we have to do is look at the word and see that it means a willfull, unjustifiable and delibrate act of taking someones life.

Let's look at this verse again. G-d includes not eating the blood of the life you just took. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know G-d is talking about something else here. We will get deeper into this when we get further in the Torah, more specifically the D'varim or Deuteronomy.

Genesis 8:20-22 The First Altar

As mentioned before, there is a law of first mention. Here, we have, for the first time, an altar before G-d.

"And Noah built an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar."

Note to those who teach that Noah brought only two of every animal into the ark: In that is true, then Noah put an end to the species declared as clean. Obviously, Noah didn't take just two of every animal. Instead he took seven pairs of the clean animals. It was for this reason that he did.

Another good point is that Noah must have been super faithful to take of the only animals he and his family was allowed to eat and sacrifice some of them to the Lord. This took an incredible amount of faith that the Lord will provide. This is something a lot of us today lack.

Also, how did Noah know what was clean and what was not? Didn't the concept of clean and unclean come from the law given unto Moses? Obviously, the law was not new but forgotten when it was given to Moses. This is another example that shows that G-d doesn't change. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

"And the LORD smelled a sweet savor; and the LORD said in his heart..."

True to my nature, I must pause at this point to point out the fact that the Lord enjoys the smell of a good steak cooking on the barbie like a lot of us. :-) LOL.

"I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

It is amazing to hear a lot of Christians still teach that G-d destroyed mankind during the flood because of sin. Right here, it shows that G-d wiped the slate clean for what? Sin? No...because sin continued and continues till today. He wiped the slate clean because the generations of man had become impure. What exactly does that mean? We don't honestly know. A lot of evidence points to the shenanigans that was going on between the fallen angels and mankinds resulting in mutations. However, it will have to be one of those questions we ask the Lord during that first big Bible Study.

See you there.

PS. Here we also have a promise not to destroy the world again. However, there is a disclaimer....but that is for next time.

Shalom

Genesis 8:13-19 A Brand New World.

"And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee."

One thing that is consistent throughout the Bible are the numbers and their associated meaning. This is no different. Please notice that there are eight people leaving the ark. Eight is consistently refered to as the number of a new beginning. Here we have a new beginning of man on the earth.

I think it’s also important to notice that God sealed them into the ark but it was man that left at Gods command. This shows that is by God that man is protected and sealed but it is by the sovereignty of man, his freewill, to do as God commands.

Also, it is interesting to note that a lot of dates in Judaism fall on the same date on a regular occurence. This date, the 27th of Ziv, is the celebration of the Liberation of Jerusalem. What do we do with that, I presently don't know. However, I know that there are no coincidences in Gods Word. Wait and see.

Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark..

First of all, this must have been refreshing to God. God commands and man obeys.

Next, one thing that is not mentioned here is the fact that this is an alien world to Noah, his family and all the animals. Scientists believe that the firmament, that was above the earth, created a tropical like environment. As in the tropics today, things act and grew differently. At this point, with the firmament gone, the earths atmospheric pressure was most likely ½ or on it’s way to being ½ of what is was before. Also, the firmament was a protection from all kinds of cosmic rays, such as the suns ultra-violet rays which is responsible for many problems we have today.

Before, the lifespan of the individual man was between 500 and 900 years old. Now, we will see lifespans drop dramatically. This is a direct result our protective covering being gone. We will decay faster and live shorter lives. This lifespan decay continued until the average lifespan dropped to approximately 40 years of age. With the advent of medical science over the last centuries, our lifespan has risen to approximately 70 years. It should not be surprising to find out that the Bible prophesied just that. The Bible prophesied that knowledge would increase. This inevitably lead to advancements in all fields including medical science. However, this also indicates that we are in the end of days.

This is an exciting time. Are we the terminal generation? Are we going to witness the return of our savior? Are we going to see culmination of God salvation plan?

As we study the book of beginnings, we can’t help but look toward the future. A future that the Bible prophesies to be an existence with the God of the universe, our creator and savior. Are you sealed in the promise of God? Do you know for sure that your future is secure? These are questions we need to ask ourselves as we go through our brief existence on this earth.

God gave me a song and in it are the words, “Oh, won’t you come along with me? Let tell you about Jesus.” Let me tell you about Y’shua Ha Mashiach, Jesus Christ, Gods salvation for us all.

Till next time.

Shalom my friends.