PART FOUR

Noah and his family emerged into the new world after having spent over a year in the Ark.  They were eight persons - Noah and his wife, Noah's sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their wives.

After leaving the Ark and organising the removal of the animals from the old world to the new, Noah's next action was to offer a sacrifice to God:

“And Noah built an altar to Jehovah. And he took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” (Genesis 8:20)

This was also a meal for Noah and his family, and was most likely the first meat they had eaten for a year. [Notice that Noah offered a sacrifice only of clean animals and birds.  Noah had of course not read what Moses would later explain about clean animals and birds, but he still knew of the distinction between clean and unclean animals and birds.  Because, obviously, God had told him which animals He (God) would accept as a sacrifice, and therefore which animals God had approved for human consumption.]

So, on Mount Ararat, the Mountain of Descent, in what is now Turkey, close to Armenia, Noah and his family began a new civilisation. Just eight people.

Noah was in this position, the founder of a new world, because he was a man who did things the way God wanted:

“Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9)

And Noah brought God's way into this new world.  That is, the way Noah did things in those early years was the right way. And the right way was very simple: Respect and honour God, rest on the seventh day, and treat each other with consideration and respect.

And, since there was to be no government in the new world, God authorised people to administer their own justice:

“At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, his blood shall be shed by man; for He made man in the image of God.” (Genesis 9:5-6)

Now to remind ourselves of our thread:

“Jehovah God said to the serpent, because you have done this...I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; the seed of the woman shall be continually striking your head, and you shall be continually stinging the heel of the woman's seed." (Genesis 3:14,15)

The seed of the Woman emerged into the New World in Noah. It descended through Noah's son Shem, and on eventually to Abraham and beyond.

But what of the adversary of the Woman's seed? What of the seed of Satan?

There were only eight people whom Satan could infect with his hatred.  Noah's righteousness, and presumably that of his wife, made them immune from evil, so there were only Noah's three sons and their wives for Satan to attack.

The victim turned out to be the line of Ham. Ham himself was probably not infected by Satan, the evil entered into Ham's sons. Or perhaps only into Ham's first son, Cush.

But whether or not Ham was infected, his line was certainly excluded from any blessings.  After an obscure incident of improper behaviour on the part of Ham's son Canaan, we read that Ham's line was cursed:

“And Noah said, Cursed be Canaan. He shall be a servant of servants to his brothers. And he said, Blessed be Jehovah, the 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 their servant.” (Genesis 9:25-27)

This was probably about 30-40 years after the flood, and probably around the time of the birth of Ham's grandson Nimrod. Nimrod was the son of Ham's firstborn son, Cush. [Noah would live for about another 300 years after this time.]

After that incident with Canaan, the Satan-inspired resentment against Noah's authority festered in the line of Ham until it eventually revealed itself in open rebellion against everything Noah stood for:

“And Cush fathered Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before Jehovah. Therefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before Jehovah.  And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.  Out of that land he went forth to Asshur. And he built Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,” (Genesis 10:8-11)

This adventure, by what we'll call the Cushites, ended in a fiasco:

“And Jehovah said, Behold! The people is one and they all have one language. And this they begin to do. And now nothing which they have imagined to do will be restrained from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they cannot understand one another's speech. So Jehovah scattered them abroad from that place upon the face of all the earth. And they quit building the city. Therefore the name of it is called Babel; because Jehovah confused the language of all the earth there. And from there Jehovah scattered them abroad on the face of all the earth.” (Genesis 11:6-9)

Notice that the Cushites were scattered over the earth. This was a scattering involving only one group of people - the Cushites and their allies. But, although it's not entirely clear, it seems the world had been divided some time before the time of this rebellion. In the time of Peleg:

“And two sons were born to Eber. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided...These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations. And from these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.” (Genesis 10:25,32)

The reason why it seems there was likely an earlier division, or scattering if you like, of the people is this:

“And it happened, as they traveled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar. And they lived there. And they said to one another, Come, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, Come, let us build us a city and a tower, and its top in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered upon the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:2-4)

If they were traveling from the East it necessarily means that they had previously gone to the East. And therefore their scattering after their attempt at world government was not the division of the earth in Peleg's time which must have been earlier.

Not a crucial point of course, but it has implications for other things we'll be discussing.