“People say the black race was the curse on Ham? Did you
ever notice in Genesis 9 that God didn’t curse Ham? That’s another non-starter.
But obviously in Genesis 10 there is Shem, Ham and Japeth as descendants and
they have different ethnic identities to them.
“By the way, when God changes people’s skin color and He
wants to curse them, you know what color He changes them to? White. Absolutely.
When Miriam rebels against Moses what did God do? He smote her with leprosy?
What color is that? White.
“Adam wasn’t white or black; he was reddish brown, made out
of the clay in Palestine.
*****
“My own personal guesswork is that the physical ethnic
qualities of humans took place at Babel.
“But if you’re going to go out from Babel and produce a
nation, first you’d have to find everybody who can speak the same language. And
then you notice they kind of begin to look a little bit alike.
“These people hook up and it takes time. It took Peleg 30
years before he had a kid. He was slow getting started but then he lived 239
years. Over that period of time, there was a division in the earth that took
place. But that would be more than just the language or ethnic change.
“The idea is often put forward that the Genesis 11 passage
wasn’t just when God divided the languages but that this is where the
continental drift comes in and there’s a lot of speculation about the
continental drift. Now, I don’t know that that’s what it is or not.
“If there was, for 239 years the one earth had to divide up
into where it is, which means it would have had to move about 10-12 miles a
year. People argue the science about that; I don’t know.
“I know in the text it tends to say there was something that
happened one day, boom, and the earth is divided. We’re going to discuss in
Amos about the earthquakes and when we do, I’ll have to remember to come back
and show you these things.
*****
“Many people say the change in the topography of the earth all
took place AT the Flood. If you’re going to believe in continental drift,
though, you’re going to have to say it took place about 250 years after the
Flood and the time of Peleg.
“But the idea there is that when God divides it, He divides
it out into distinct geographic areas. Deuteronomy says He divided men their
inheritance when He divided up their name.
My point is, the continental configuration of the way the planet looks
today is designed to facilitate this issue.
“By the way, if Peleg lived 239 years, he lived within a
decade or two of the time of the birth of Abraham. So when Abraham is born, this
stuff is freshly happening.
“Sometimes we think of that stuff as thousands of years and
Abraham just showed up, but that’s not what happened. This stuff is in the mix
and the nations have rejected God, defied Him. He separated them out to
compartmentalize the violence that came from rejecting Him.
“Then He chose one man out who was one of them, an Assyrian
ready to perish; an idol-worshipper who believed God, and He made of him a
great nation.
******
“At the time of the judgment of Babel and the confusion of the languages, God came in and miraculously, supernaturally, scrambled their brain like eggs.
“Many of you people who speak 3-4 different languages know
that you think differently in each language.
“God literally reprogrammed their thinking processes where
all of a sudden they couldn’t communicate with one another but there was more
to it than that.
“In Genesis 10, God describes the migration of Noah’s
descendants. Verse 1 says, ‘Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah,
Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.’ Verse 5
says, ‘By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every
one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.’
*****
“They’re divided by their lands, their tongues and by their
families in their nations. So what it takes to make a nation is an identity of
geographic territory that has a government that enforces its borders.
“We say ‘borders, language and culture.’ That’s what that is
right there in Genesis 10. Listen, if you don’t have identifiable borders that
you can enforce, you don’t have a country. That’s why people are screaming
about our borders.
“You have to have a common language so that you can
communicate. And then families. You have a head that you come from and that’s
the ethnic division.
“Now, the ethnicity is not just a racial issue. It’s really
the culture that comes from that ethnic identity. What does Jesus Christ do? He
comes into any culture, any family and lives His own life. He sanctifies that
culture. He purifies it, saying, ‘This is how I live in that culture.’ It
doesn’t denigrate it; it honors it. It demonstrates the LIFE.
*****
“Genesis 10:25 says, ‘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.’
“Look at verse 20: ‘These are the sons of Ham, after their
families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.’
“Verse 31: ‘These are the sons of Shem, after their
families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations.’
“This chapter is talking to you about God establishing
national entities that are made up of geographic identifiable boundaries with a
government that enforces it, language groups and then ethnicity.
*****
“In Daniel 3, when God set the nation Israel aside
politically with the captivity, putting them off into Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar is
the first head of the Gentile nations that replaced Israel in the earth
temporarily.
“Seven times in the Book of Daniel it talks about ‘people,
nations and languages.’ So when God looks up and divides humanity, He divvies
it all up by people, nations and languages.
*****
“The name Peleg means divided, torn apart. And his daddy
named him that for in his days was the earth divided.
“Genesis 11: 16-19 reads:
- [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.
“Peleg lived 30 years and begat Reu. If he was 30 years old
when he had his first kid and then he lived 209 years after that, how long did
he live? He lived 239 years. And during that time the earth was divided.
“Obviously the earth was divided at the Tower of Babel. How
long did it take for God to scramble the brains and change the language? That
also is the moment and place in time that . . . Not only did they wake up the next
morning and their brains were rewired to speak differently, their bodies had
been changed--ethnic changes, skin color, expression changes. You say, ‘Can God
do that?!’ Sure He can. He made you to start with."
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