genesis 10 :: sounds like a fun get together, maybe…

so i’m reading through genesis still, writing it all out, and today i got to one of those places where you think, “oh, fantastic…” the list of names of all those decended from noah’s boys. names like sabtah and dedan. it’s kind of difficult to identify those guys as real people. we don’t know their story at all, other than they were part of the first few generations after the flood. they were the ones to rebuild civilization. so we can be appreciative of that…

but i really have a hard time with these guys, because i want to know who they are, and what they did. we get a small glimpse of nimrod’s life and passions, but everyone else is left floating as a faceless name. these guys lived, aged, had families, and grandchildren. they built cities, expanded empires, and helped repopulate the earth. some of them were mighty hunters, or warriors or the much less exciting – public works directors. but they were an integral part of who we are today, and in a very global sense.
decisions they made then affect us still today in thousands, or millions, of tiny, imperceptible ways.

so for me, thousands of years later, why do i care about these guys? none of them were prophets as far as we can tell, so it doesn’t seem like they had any perception of just what it was they were doing, and how it would affect the world. they were surviving and thriving and building. but they were in places like babylon and shinar and gaza. my world today is so far removed from their then. or is it?

solomon said that there was nothing new under the sun…but he spoke those words over 2500 years ago. and he’s still right today. people do not change. arphaxad and i aren’t really that different. sure, we’re separated by thousands of years of history, but the conditions of our hearts and our capacity for love and living a godly life, and our bondage to sin, leave us in the exact same boat.
they had the same chance then as i do today to exact change in the world around them. they were given the same opportunity to serve God or to chose pride and selfishness. to elect for themselves a life of busy time wasting activities, or to live for the fullness of God.
history records them as being part of the backdrop for our world today. the foundation layers. and so today, we must also choose if we want to build on the foundation God laid out, or to pursue our own selfish desires.
history will show each of us for who we really are based on that decision. will we be a mighty ______________ before the Lord, or do we fade into obscurity by our lack of action for God.