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Genesis Chapter
Ten
Genesis 10
Chapter Contents
The sons of Noah, of Japheth, of Ham. (1-7) Nimrod the
first monarch. (8-14) The descendants of Canaan, The sons of Shem. (15-32)
Commentary on Genesis 10:1-7
This chapter shows concerning the three sons of Noah,
that of them was the whole earth overspread. No nation but that of the Jews can
be sure from which of these seventy it has come. The lists of names of fathers
and sons were preserved of the Jews alone, for the sake of the Messiah. Many
learned men, however, have, with some probability, shown which of the nations
of the earth descended from each of the sons of Noah To the posterity of
Japheth were allotted the isles of the gentiles; probably, the island of
Britain among the rest. All places beyond the sea from Judea are called isles, Jeremiah 25:22. That promise, Isaiah 42:4, The isles shall wait for his law,
speaks of the conversion of the gentiles to the faith of Christ.
Commentary on Genesis 10:8-14
Nimrod was a great man in his day; he began to be mighty
in the earth, Those before him were content to be upon the same level with
their neighbours, and though every man bare rule in his own house, yet no man
pretended any further. Nimrod was resolved to lord it over his neighbours. The
spirit of the giants before the flood, who became mighty men, and men of
renown, Genesis 6:4, revived in him. Nimrod was a great
hunter. Hunting then was the method of preventing the hurtful increase of wild
beasts. This required great courage and address, and thus gave an opportunity
for Nimrod to command others, and gradually attached a number of men to one
leader. From such a beginning, it is likely, that Nimrod began to rule, and to
force others to submit. He invaded his neighbours' rights and properties, and
persecuted innocent men; endeavouring to make all his own by force and
violence. He carried on his oppressions and violence in defiance of God
himself. Nimrod was a great ruler. Some way or other, by arts or arms, he got
into power, and so founded a monarchy, which was the terror of the mighty, and
bid fair to rule all the world. Nimrod was a great builder. Observe in Nimrod
the nature of ambition. It is boundless; much would have more, and still cries,
Give, give. It is restless; Nimrod, when he had four cities under his command,
could not be content till he had four more. It is expensive; Nimrod will rather
be at the charge of rearing cities, than not have the honour of ruling them. It
is daring, and will stick at nothing. Nimrod's name signifies rebellion;
tyrants to men are rebels to God. The days are coming, when conquerors will no
longer be spoken of with praise, as in man's partial histories, but be branded
with infamy, as in the impartial records of the Bible.
Commentary on Genesis 10:15-32
The posterity of Canaan were numerous, rich, and
pleasantly seated; yet Canaan was under a Divine curse, and not a curse
causeless. Those that are under the curse of God, may, perhaps, thrive and
prosper in this world; for we cannot know love or hatred, the blessing or the
curse, by what is before us, but by what is within us. The curse of God always
works really, and always terribly. Perhaps it is a secret curse, a curse to the
soul, and does not work so that others can see it; or a slow curse, and does
not work soon; but sinners are reserved by it for a day of wrath Canaan here
has a better land than either Shem or Japheth, and yet they have a better lot,
for they inherit the blessing. Abram and his seed, God's covenant people,
descended from Eber, and from him were called Hebrews. How much better it is to
be like Eber, the father of a family of saints and honest men, than the father
of a family of hunters after power, worldly wealth, or vanities. Goodness is
true greatness.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Genesis》
Genesis 10
Verse 2
[2] The
sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and
Meshech, and Tiras.
Moses begins with Japhet's family, either
because he was the eldest, or because that lay remotest from Israel, and had
least concern with them, at that time when Moses wrote; and therefore he
mentions that race very briefly; hastening to give account of the posterity of
Ham, who were Israel's enemies, and of Shem, who were Israel's ancestors: for
it is the church that the scripture designed to be the history of, and of the
nations of the world only as they were some way or other interested in the
affairs of Israel.
Verse 5
[5] By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one
after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.
The posterity of Japheth were allotted to the
isles of the Gentiles, which were solemnly, by lot, after a survey, divided
among them, and probably this island of ours among the rest. All places beyond
the sea, from Judea, are called isles, Jeremiah 25:22, and this directs us to
understand that promise, Isaiah 42:4, the isles shall wait for his law,
of the conversion of the Gentiles to the faith of Christ.
Verse 8
[8] And
Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
Began to be mighty on the earth — That is, whereas those that went before him were content to stand upon
the same level with their neighbours, Nimrod could not rest in this parity, but
he would top his neighbours, and lord over them. The same spirit that the
giants before the flood were acted by, Genesis 6:4, now revived in him; so soon was
that tremendous judgment, which the pride and tyranny of those mighty men
brought upon the world, forgotten.
Verse 9
[9] He
was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the
mighty hunter before the LORD.
Nimrod was a mighty hunter — This he began with, and for this became famous to a proverb. Some think
he did good with his hunting, served his country by ridding it of wild beasts,
and so insinuated himself into the affections of his neighbours, and got to be
their prince. And perhaps, under pretence of hunting, he gathered men under his
command, to make himself master of the country. Thus he became a mighty hunter,
a violent invader of his neighbour's rights and properties. And that, before
the Lord - Carrying all before him, and endeavouring to make all his own by
force and violence. He thought himself a mighty prince; but before the Lord,
that is, in God's account, he was but a mighty hunter. Note, Great conquerers
are but great hunters. Alexander and Caesar would not make such a figure in
scripture history as they do in common history. The former is represented in
prophecy but as a he-goat pushing, Daniel 8:5. Nimrod was a mighty hunter against
the Lord, so the seventy; that is, he set up idolatry, as Jeroboam did, for the
confirming of his usurped dominion; that he might set up a new government, he
set up a new religion upon the ruin of the primitive constitution of both.
Verse 10
[10] And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and
Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
The beginning of his kingdom was Babel — Some way or other, he got into power: and so laid the foundations of a
monarchy which was afterwards a head of gold. It doth not appear that he had
any right to rule by birth; but either his fitness for government recommended
him, or by power and policy he gradually advanced into the throne. See the antiquity
of civil government, and particularly that form of it which lodges the
sovereignty in a single person.
Verse 15
[15] And
Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth,
The account of the posterity of Canaan, and
the land they possessed is more particular than of any other in this chapter,
because these were the nations that were to be subdued before Israel, and their
land was to become Immanuel's land. And by this account, it appears that the
posterity of Canaan was both numerous and rich, and very pleasantly seated, and
yet Canaan was under a curse. Canaan here has a better land than either Shem or
Japheth and yet they have a better lot, for they inherit the blessing.
Verse 21
[21] Unto
Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the
elder, even to him were children born.
Two things especially are observable in this
account of the posterity of Shem. [1.] The description of Shem, Genesis 10:21, we have not only his name, Shem,
which signifies a name; but two titles to distinguish him by. 1. He was the
father of all the children of Eber. Eber was his great grandson, but why should
he be called the father of all his children, rather than of all Arphaxad's or Salah's?
Probably because Abraham and his seed, not only descended from Heber, but from
him were called Hebrews. Eber himself, we may suppose, was a man eminent for
religion in a time of general apostasy; and the holy tongue being commonly
called from him the Hebrew, it is probable he retained it in his family in the
confusion of Babel, as a special token of God's favour to him. 2. He was the
brother of Japheth the elder; by which it appears, that though Shem be commonly
put first, yet he was not Noah's first-born, but Japheth was elder. But why
should this also be put as part of Shem's description, that he was the brother
of Japheth, since that had been said before? Probably this is intended to
signify the union of the Gentiles with the Jews in the church. He had mentioned
it as Shem's honour, that he was the father of the Hebrews; but lest Japheth's
seed should therefore be looked upon as shut out from the church, he here minds
us, that he was the brother of Japheth, not in birth only, but in blessing, for
Japheth was to dwell in the tents of Shem. [2.] The reason of the name of
Peleg, Genesis 10:25, because, in his days, (that is,
about the time of his birth) was the earth divided among the children of men
that were to inhabit it; either when Noah divided it, by an orderly
distribution of it, as Joshua divided the land of Canaan by lot, or when, upon
their refusal to comply with that division, God, in justice, divided them by
the confusion of tongues.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on
Genesis》
10 Chapter 10
Verses 1-32
Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah
A chapter of genealogies
Many readers might be disposed to undervalue a chapter like this,
since it is but a collection of names--some of which are quite unknown--and is
made up of barren details promising little material for profitable reflection.
Yet a thoughtful reader will be interested here, and discover the germs and
suggestions of great truths; for the subject is man, and man, too, considered
in reference to God’s great purpose in the government of the world. This
chapter “is as essential to an understanding of the Bible, and of history in
general, as is Homer’s catalogue, in the second book of the Iliad, to a true
knowledge of the Homeric poems and the Homeric times.” The Biblical student can
no more undervalue the one than the classical student the other.
I. IT IS MARKED
BY THE FEATURES OF A TRUTHFUL RECORD.
1. It is not vague and general, but descends to particulars. The
forgers of fictitious documents seldom run the risk of scattering the names of
persons and places freely over their page. Hence those who write with
fraudulent design deal in what is vague and general.
2. Heathen literature when dealing with the origin of nations
employs extravagant language. The early annals of all nations, except the Jews,
run at length into fable, or else pretend to a most incredible antiquity.
National vanity would account for such devices and for the willingness to
receive them. The Jews had the same temptations to indulge in this kind of
vanity as the other nations around them. It is therefore a remarkable
circumstance that they pretend to no fabulous antiquity. We are shut up to the
conclusion that their sacred records grew up under the special care of
Providence, and were preserved from the common infirmities of merely human
authorship.
3. Here we have the ground plan of all history.
II. THAT HISTORY
HAS ITS BASIS IN THAT OF INDIVIDUAL MEN. The general lesson of this chapter is
plain, namely, that no man can go to the bottom of history who does not study
the lives of those men who have made that history what it is.
III. THAT MAN IS
THE CENTRAL FIGURE OF SCRIPTURE. Infidels have made this characteristic of
revelation a matter of reproach; but all who know how rich God’s purpose
towards mankind is, glory in it, and believe that great things must be in store
for a race which bus occupied so much of the Divine regard.
IV. THE
PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT OF HISTORY TOWARDS AN END. All the interest centres
successively in one people, tribe, and family; then in One who was to come out
of that family, bringing redemption for mankind. “Salvation is of the Jews.”
The noblest idea of history is only realized in the Bible. Those of the world
had no living Word of God to inspire that idea. That book can scarcely be
regarded as of human origin which passes by the great things of the world, and
lingers with the man who “believed in God, and it was counted unto him for
righteousness.” (T. H. Leale.)
Circumstances attendant on man
Instead of saying that man is the creature of circumstances, it
would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstances. It
is character that builds an existence out of circumstance. Our strength is
measured by our plastic power. From the same materials one man builds palaces,
another hovels; one warehouses, another villas; bricks and mortar are mortar
and bricks until the architect can make them something else. Thus it is that,
in the same family, in the same circumstances, one man rears a stately edifice,
while his brother, vacillating and incompetent, lives forever amid ruins; the
block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weakly becomes a
stepping stone in the pathway of the strong. (T. Carlyle.)
Oneness of humanity
A clear conception of the import of this marvellous chapter should
enlarge and correct our notions in so far as they have been narrowed and
perverted by our insular position. We should recognize in all the nations of
the earth one common human nature. “God hath made of one blood all nations of
men to dwell on the face of the earth.” This reflection is both humbling and
elevating. It is humbling to think that the cannibal is a relative of ours;
that the slave crouching in an African wood is bone of our bone; and that the
meanest scum of all the earth started from the same foundation as ourselves! On
the other hand, it is elevating to think that all kings and mighty men, all
soldiers renowned in song, all heroes canonized in history, the wise, the
strong, the good, are our elder brothers and immortal friends. If we limit our
life to families, clans, and sects, we shall miss the genius of human history,
and all its ennobling influences. Better join the common lot. Take it just as
it is. Our ancestors have been robbers and oppressors, deliverers and saviours,
mean and noble, cowardly and heroic; some hanged, some crowned, some beggars,
some kings; take it so, for the earth is one, and humanity is one, and there is
only one God over all blessed for evermore! If we take this idea aright we
shall get a clear notion of what are called home and foreign missions. What are
foreign missions? Where are they? I do not find the word in the Bible. Where
does home end; where does foreign begin? It is possible for a man to immure
himself so completely as practically to forget that there is anybody beyond his
own front gate; we soon grow narrow, we soon become mean; it is easy for us to
return to the dust from whence we come. It is here that Christianity redeems
us; not from sin only, but from all narrowness, meanness, and littleness of
conception; it puts great thoughts into our hearts and bold words into our
mouths, and leads us out from our village prisons to behold and to care for all
nations of mankind. On this ground alone Christianity is the best educator in
the world. It will not allow the soul to be mean. It forces the heart to be noble
and hopeful. It says, “Go and teach all nations”; “Go ye into all the world”;
“Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of
others”; “Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down,
heaped up, and running over.” It is something for a nation to have a voice so
Divine ever stirring its will and mingling with its counsels. It is like a sea
breeze blowing over a sickly land; like sunlight piercing the fogs of a long
dark night. Truly we have here a standard by which we may judge ourselves. “If
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” If we have narrow
sympathies, mean ideas, paltry conceptions, we are not scholars in the school
of Christ. Let us bring no reproach upon Christ by our exclusiveness. Let us
beware of the bigotry of patriotism, as well as of the bigotry of religion. We
are citizens of the world: we are more than the taxpayers of a parish. A right
view of this procession of the nations will show us something of the richness
and graciousness of Christ’s nature. What a man must he have been either in
madness or in Divinity who supposed that there was something in himself which
all these people needed! (J. Parker, D. D.)
The planting of nations great responsibility
The one point to which I would draw your attention is that which
lies upon the very surface of this history, and to which, as a great law
imprinted by God upon our race, I wish to call your special notice. It is the
degree in which the original features of the founders of a race reproduce
themselves in their descendants, so as to become the distinct and manifest
types of national life. This is so plain here that it has rarely escaped some
observation. The few words wherein, according to the wont of patriarchal times,
Noah, as the firstborn priest of his own family, pronounces on his sons his
blessing and his curse, sketch in outline the leading characteristics of all
their after progeny. Thus, the “Blessed be the Lord God of Shem,” can hardly
fail to convey to the heater’s mind the impression that devotion to, and a
trust in God, as his portion, marked the character of the firstborn of Noah.
And so it proved in fact, for it was the line of Abraham and the Semitic race,
in the tribes of Israel and Judah, which filled this office of the priests of
mankind for two thousand years. So also with regard to the second son of Noah.
Sensuality and filial irreverence manifestly stained his character. In the
future of such a man lay naturally cruelty--the inseparable companion--and
degradation--the unfailing consequence--of lust. A “servant of servants” should
he be. He who disregarded the duties of a son should lose the place of a
brother: he who sacrificed to sensual appetite every highest duty, should in
the end barter for it his own liberty; and his character, too, has through
unnumbered generations reproduced itself in his descendants. Without entering
upon the difficult task of tracing in some of its details the outline of the
Hamitic race, it is clear beyond all contradiction, that through past ages, and
even to the present day, the nations which manifestly sprung from his loins are
marked by these characteristics--lust, cruelty, and servitude. The character of
Japhet is perhaps, at first sight, less plainly to be traced in his father’s
benediction. His words would seem, however, to point to a character marked less
strongly than that of his firstborn by piety towards God, but possessed of
those family virtues with which, in the course of things, an increasing
posterity is commonly connected and endued with the practical activity and
vigour, which, as opposed to the more contemplative character of Shem, were
essential to that subduing of the earth, which must accompany its replenishment
by the enlarging seed. Beyond this lay the unexplained and mysterious blessing
of his future dwelling in the tents of Shem, pointing probably, in the personal
life of the patriarch, to the pious rest into which the later years of a
virtuous activity would so probably subside. And all this has plainly marked
the Japhetic races: their increase has furnished the nations of the Gentiles;
whilst family virtue, and that practical activity which to this day has so
wonderfully subjected the material earth to its obedience, are the distinction
of their blood. In all these cases, then, we may trace on the broadest scale
the action of that of which I have spoken, as a law impressed upon our common
nature, that nations, in their after generations, bear, repeat and expand the
character of their progenitor. And then, further, we may observe adumbrations
of a mode of dealing with men which seems to imply that in His bestowal of
spiritual gifts, God deals with them after some similar law, Hence, then, we
may conclude further, that, by the laws of grace as well as of nature, there is
a reproduction in the after seed of the character of the progenitor. Now, it is
to the application of this principle to our past history and our present duty,
that I would specially invite your notice. And first, FOR THE FACT. Since the
opening of the historical period, there has been scarcely any national planting
of the earth through emigration, until within the last three centuries. Even
those events of far distant times, which most resembled it, were widely
different. For they were rather irruptions than emigration; and the great wave
of life which they brought into some new land, first cast out races in
possession, often as numerous as, and commonly more civilized than, their
invaders, and who not unfrequently tinged their subduers with their religion, their
manners, and their language. The direct replenishment of the earth for the last
three hundred years by the Japhetic family, is altogether different. These
emigrations have set forth exclusively from Christian lands. They have been
directed to vast tracts of thinly peopled countries; and they have borne to
them men who have been, in the fullest sense of the words, founders of nations.
In this work, we have borne a larger share than any other people. Now, with
what an awful character of responsibility does the truth which we have before
considered invest such acts! A sensual seed will produce a degraded people; a
godless seed will grow into an atheistic empire; nay, even the lesser evils of
a worldly, or a sectarian origin, will mark and renew themselves in successive
generations. How plainly, then, must it be one of the very highest duties of a
Christian people to provide all that is needful to bless and hallow such a
national infancy:--to plant a chosen seed, and not a refuse; to send forth with
them that faith, which alone can exalt and renew the race of man in its purest
form, and with every advantage for its reproduction! How far, then, has
England, which has been the chiefest of the nations in this sacred work, acted
up to her responsibilities? Let North America,--let Australasia answer. How
scanty in its measure--how imperfect in its form--how divided in its
character--was the Christianity we mingled with the abundant seed of man which
we scattered broadcast over North America; how fearful a paternity of crime did
we assume, when we conceived and almost executed the enormity of planting the
antipodes with every embodiment of reckless wickedness, and giving it no
healing influence of our holy faith! What then must be herein our guilt and
shame! But our chief concern is not with the past: it is with that present in
which the future lies enfolded. Never has the tide of emigration risen so high
as now; never were we so freely planting the earth with our energetic,
increasing race as the seed of future empires; never, then, did the duty of
planting it aright press so heavily upon us: and what is the prime essential
for its adequate discharge? Surely, far beyond all other, that with the seed of
fallen man we plant that Church of Christ, through which God the Holy Ghost is
pleased to work for his recovery. This, and no less than this, can fulfil our
obligations. (Bishop Samuel Wilberforce.)
In their nations
The characteristics of a nation
1. It is descended from one head. Others may be occasionally grafted
on the original stock by intermarriage. But there is a vital union subsisting
between all the members and the head, in consequence of which the name of the
head is applied to the whole body of the nation. In the case of Kittim and
Dodanim we seem to have the national name thrown back upon the patriarchs who
may have themselves been called Keth and Dodan. Similar instances occur in the
subsequent parts of the genealogy.
2. A nation has a country or “land” which it calls its own. In the
necessary migrations of ancient tribes, the new territories appropriated by the
tribe, or any part of it, were naturally called by the old name, or some name
belonging to the old country. This is well illustrated by the name of Gomer,
which seems to reappear in the Cimmerii, the Cimbri, the Cymry, the Cambri, and
the Cumbri.
3. A nation has its own “tongue.” This constitutes at once its unity
in itself and its separation from others. Many of the nations in the table may
have spoken cognate tongues, or even originally the same tongue. Thus the
Kenaanite, Phoenician and Punic nations had the same stock of languages with
the Shemites. But it is a uniform law, that one nation has only one speech
within itself.
4. A nation is composed of many “families,” clans, or tribes. These
branch off from the nation in the same manner as it did from the parent stock
of the race. (Prof. J. G. Murphy.)
Ham’s posterity
1. The most cursed man may
have a numerous seed: it enlargeth the curse.
2. Cursed ones bring out sometimes an eminent rebellious seed to
hasten vengeance (Genesis 10:8).
3. The greatest judgments will not keep wicked ones from sin though
being but a little escaped from them.
4. Under a wise providence, power and violence is suffered to rise
and spring in the earth (Genesis 10:8).
5. It is the property of giants in sin and earthly power to hunt to
death God’s saints to His face.
6. God makes in vengeance the names of such wicked ones a proverb (Genesis 10:9).
7. The beginning and chief of all the power of wicked ones is but
confusion, and the place of wickedness. Babel and Shinar (Genesis 10:10).
8. Wicked potentates are still invading others to enlarge themselves
(Genesis 10:11).
9. Edifying cities, and places of strength, is the wickeds’
security.
10. Great cities they may have, but such as are under the eye and
judgment of God (Genesis 10:12). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Nimrod
Nimrod
Nimrod was not merely a giant or mighty one in hunting, but also a
cruel oppressor and bloody warrior. He is represented by some ancient
historians as having renewed the practice of war, which had for some time been
abandoned for agriculture, and hence the well-known couplet--
“Proud
Nimrod first the bloody chase began, A mighty hunter, and his prey was man.”
Obscurity rests, and ever shall rest, on his particular
achievements, although his figure and name have been found of late in Nineveh.
What animals he slew, what weapons he employed, what battles he fought, with
the blood of what enemies he cemented the cities which he built, how long he
lived and where, how and where he died, are not recorded either in profane
history or in the Book of God. Imagination figures him as another Hercules,
clad in the skins of lions, and pursuing his prey with sounding bow and fiery
eye over the vast plains of Asia, and when wild beasts are not to be found,
turning his fury against his neighbours. Such men are the ragged and menacing
shadows which the sun of civilization casts before it; their “strong heart is
fit to be the first strong heart of a people”; their crimes, for which they
must answer to God, are yet made useful to God’s purpose, and from the blood
they shed springs up many a glorious harvest of arts and sciences, of culture
and progress. Without questioning their guilt or the evil they do, or seeking
to solve the mystery why they exist at all, we see many important ends which
their permission answers; and acknowledge that the page of history were
comparatively tame, did it want the red letters which record the names of a
Nimrod, a Nebuchadnezzar, a Charlemagne, a Henry the Eighth, a Rienzi, and a
Napoleon. (G. Gilfillan.)
Gospel archery
My text sets forth Nimrod as a hero when it presents him with
broad shoulders and shaggy apparel and sun-browned face, and arm bunched with
muscle--“a mighty hunter before the Lord.” I think he used the bow and the
arrows with great success practising archery. I have thought if it is such a
grand thing and such a brave thing to clear wild beasts out of a country, if it
is not a better and braver thing to hunt down and destroy those great evils of
society that are stalking the land with fierce eye and bloody paw, and sharp
tusk and quick spring. I have wondered if there is not such a thing as Gospel
archery, by which these who have been flying from the truth may be captured for
God and heaven. The archers of olden times studied their art. They were very
precise in the matter. The old books gave special directions as to how an
archer should go, and as to what an archer should do. But how clumsy we are
about religious work. How little skill and care we exercise. How often our
arrows miss the mark.
1. In the first place, if you want to be effectual in doing good,
you must be very sure of your weapon. There was something very fascinating
about the archery of olden times. Perhaps you do not know what they could do
with the bow and arrow. Why, the chief battles fought by the English
Plantagenets were with the long-bow. They would take the arrow of polished
wood, and feather it with the plume of a bird, and then it would fly from the
bowstring of plaited silk. The broad fields of Agincourt, and Solway Moss, and
Neville’s Cross heard the loud thrum of the archer’s bowstring. Now, my
Christian friends, we have a mightier weapon than that. It is the arrow of the
Gospel; it is a sharp arrow; it is a straight arrow; it is feathered from the
wing of the dove of God’s Spirit; it flies from a bow made out of the wood of
the cross. Paul knew how to bring the notch of that arrow on to that bowstring,
and its whirr was heard through the Corinthian theatres, and through the
courtroom, until the knees of Felix knocked together. It was that arrow that
stuck in Luther’s heart when he cried out: “Oh, my sins! Oh, my sins!” In the
armoury of the Earl of Pembroke, there are old corslets which show that the
arrow of the English used to go through the breastplate, through the body of
the warrior, and out through the backplate. What a symbol of that Gospel which
is sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and
body, and of the joints and marrow! Would to God we had more faith in that
Gospel!
2. Again, if you want to be skilful in spiritual archery, you must
hunt in unfrequented and secluded places. The good game is hidden and secluded.
Every hunter knows that. So, many of the souls that will be of most worth for
Christ and of most value to the Church are secluded. They do not come in your
way. You will have to go where they are.
3. I remark, further, if you want to succeed in spiritual archery,
you must have courage. If the hunter stand with trembling hand or shoulder that
flinches with fear, instead of his taking the catamount, the catamount takes
him. What would become of the Greenlander if, when out hunting for the bear, he
should stand shivering with terror on an iceberg? What would have become of Du
Chaillu and Livingstone in the African thicket, with a faint heart and a weak
knee? When a panther comes within twenty paces of you, and it has its eye on
you, and it has squatted for the fearful spring, “Steady there.” Courage, O ye
spiritual archers! There are great monsters of iniquity prowling all around
about the community. Shall we not in the strength of God go forth and combat
them? We not only need more heart, but more backbone. What is the Church of God
that it should fear to look in the eye any transgression?
4. I remark again, if you want to be successful in spiritual
archery, you need not only to bring down the game, but bring it in. I think one
of the most beautiful pictures of Thorwaldsen is his “Autumn.” It represents a
sportsman coming home and standing under a grapevine. He has a staff over his
shoulder, and on the other end of that staff are hung a rabbit and a brace of
birds. Every hunter brings home the game. No one would think of bringing down a
reindeer or whipping up a stream for trout, and letting them lie in the woods.
At eventide the camp is adorned with the treasures of the forest--beak, and
fin, and antler. If you go out to hunt for immortal souls, not only bring them
down under the arrow of the Gospel, but bring them into the Church of God, the
grand home and encampment we have pitched this side the skies. Fetch them in;
do not let them lie out in the open field. They need our prayers and sympathies
and help. That is the meaning of the Church of God--help. O ye hunters for the
Lord! not only bring down the game, but bring it in. (Dr. Talmage.)
Lessons
1. The last mention of the
Church’s line is not the least in God’s account.
2. Fruitfulness is given to the Church of God, for its continuance
on earth.
3. Visible distinction hath God made between the lines of the world
and of the Church.
4. Heber’s children are the true Church of God.
5. The name and blessing of Shem is on that Church.
6. Sharers in the promise are especially brethren.
7. The first in birth may be last in grace (Genesis 10:21).
8. Out of the same holy stock may arise enemies to the Church as
well as the right seed (Genesis 10:22). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Lessons
1. Syrians may arise from the
Father of the Church according to the flesh, very enemies to it.
2. God’s mind is to keep the line of His Church distinct; from all
who turn aside (Genesis 10:23).
3. The line of the Church is but short in respect of the world (Genesis 10:24).
4. Memorable as well as terrible is that division of people and
tongues which God hath made (Genesis 10:25).
5. Saints have been careful to keep in memory such judgments of
division; the naming of the child (Genesis 10:25).
6. Numerous is the seed departed from the Church (Genesis 10:26; Genesis 10:29).
7. God has given a dwelling place to degenerate seed (Genesis 10:30).
8. The Church hath its family, tongue, place, and people, distinct
from all (verse 37). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》