Genealogy from Adam
1 Adam, Seth, Enosh, 2 Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, 3 Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, 4 Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth.
5 The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras. 6 The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, [a]Diphath, and Togarmah. 7 The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim and [b]Rodanim.
8 The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. 9 The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raama and Sabteca; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. 10 Cush [c]became the father of Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
11 Mizraim became the father of the people of Lud, Anam, Lehab, Naphtuh, 12 Pathrus, Casluh, from which the [d]Philistines came, and Caphtor.
13 Canaan became the father of Sidon, his firstborn, Heth, 14 and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, 15 the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, 16 the Arvadites, the Zemarites and the Hamathites.
17 The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether and [e]Meshech. 18 Arpachshad became the father of Shelah and Shelah became the father of Eber. 19 Two sons were born to Eber, the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan. 20 Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 21 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 22 [f]Ebal, Abimael, Sheba, 23 Ophir, Havilah and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan.
24 Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah, 25 Eber, Peleg, Reu, 26 Serug, Nahor, Terah, 27 Abram, that is Abraham.
It’s easy to look at a passage like this and think that there couldn’t possibly be any spiritual significance. But when you look at how difficult it is to trace records like these even back a couple hundred years, it’s quite stunning that God had the forethought to make sure folks wrote these things down when they did. Certainly, some of this was probably oral tradition, and some accumulated from various sources when Chronicles was first written.
But it’s a fascinating thing to see so many of the peoples of earth and where they originated. We have the ancestors of the Philistines, and Shebah–presumably the ancestor of the famous queen who visited Solomon. Nimrod, who gets a bad rap these days, and even Peleg. Now what is up with the earth being divided? It’s either talking about the incident of Babel, or possibly the earth was physically separated into continents in his time. Scientists hypothesize about these things, but if it happened, Peleg actually saw it!
The entire population of earth is represented in this passage, and that’s pretty incredible. While you may not be able to trace your ancestry back so far, it’s a reminder that all along, God has had a plan. What we think is random, or happenstance, is all a part of His masterpiece.
And that means you, no matter how small or great you might think yourself, are a part of God’s plan too. Whether you make it into some history book or not, you are not just in God’s “book”, you are in His mind. He knows you, created you, and has a purpose for your life. You are no accident, no happenstance, you were made uniquely, wonderfully, and intentionally, by the Creator of all things.