With verse 25, verse 24 actually, when Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. He also said, blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood. The sons of Japheth, Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshach, and Tyrus. The sons of Gomer, Ashkenaz, Riphthah, Tagarma. The sons of Javan, Elisha, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. From these, the Coastland people spread in their lands, each with his own language by their clans and their nations. The sons of Ham, Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush, Seba, Havila, Sabda, Rayama, and Sabtica. The sons of Rayama, Sheba, and Dedan. Cush fathered Nimrod. He was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel or Babel, Erech, Akkad, and Kaneh in the land of Shinar. From that land, he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Kala, and Rezon, between Nineveh and Kala. That is the great city. Egypt fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lahabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrussim, Kasluhim, from whom the Philistines came, and Kapturim. Canaan fathered Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth. and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvidites, the Zemurites, and the Hamathites. Afterward, the clans of the Canaanites dispersed. And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar, as far as Gaza, in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma, Zeboim, as far as Lasha. These are the sons of Ham by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations. To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born. The sons of Shem, Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. Arphaxad fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber. To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother's name was Joktan. Joktan fathered Elmodad, Shalef, Hazal, Hazarmaveth, Gerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Dikla, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joctan. The territory in which they lived extended from Misha in the direction of Sephar to the hill country of the east. These are the sons of Shem, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations. These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies and their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood." Amen, God's Word. Alright, any questions? Okay, back in chapter... Well, they just don't name them. Yes. There's at least as many daughters as there are sons. And also, it doesn't name all the sons. These are just the ones that are named. So there's more sons. We just don't know who they are. These are the ones that were the ones that God said was important enough for us to see. In your notes, you'll actually see that these are the names. In fact, I didn't read on, but if we go into chapter 11, you will also see the several more men that are named that are on the table of nations, which is in your handout that I gave to you. I think it's the last page of your handout. Okay, well, let's back up to Genesis chapter 9. Let's finish that. So we're on page 5, and we left off talking about the curse of Noah upon Canaan, the son of Ham. The critical phrase there, which he says, he's a servant of servants. This critical phrase, which has perplexed many, has also been used as the justification for slavery of the African nations in the past. The contention was, and by some still is, that since the African nations are descended from Ham, and they are, at least some of his descendants, not all of them, okay, and that's actually part of the problem here, only some of his descendants, there are others who are not the African nations. So then, of course, what they say is, well, then the curse is the justification for their enslavement and servitude to the Shemite and Japhethite nations. However, the problem is that Ham had many descendants, among whom were the Sumerians, the Egyptians, Ethiopians, Phoenicians, There are also indications that some of Ham's descendants went east and are included among the great Asiatic nations such as China and Japan. And the question then would be, does the curse extend to them as well? Right? Because if that's true, then not just the African nations, but we should include China and Japan and some of those other Asian nations as well under the curse. But of course, we don't consider them to be slaves, do we? And this is a recent, really a recent thing in the last like three to 300 years, of course, with African slavery being what it was. And so, unfortunately, it doesn't hold up under the scrutiny of scripture. Some commentators suggest that the phrase servant of servants shows the servitude of the descendants of Ham in the physical fulfillment of the dominion mandate. Now here's what they mean. Since man is a tripartite creation composed of mind, spirit, and body, what these scholars teach is that each of the sons of Noah exhibits one of these characteristics. For example, Shem exhibits the spiritual aspect of man, Japheth his mind or his intellect, and Ham his body or the physical aspects. And so since the dominion mandate, which was to fill the earth and subdue it, was for man to fill the earth, subdue it, and it was to do so in those three spheres, not just physical descendants, but to actually subdue the earth in spiritually way and in an emotional and an intellectual way as well. And so the descendants of Shem, what they say, is they predominantly led the human race in the spiritual things. So for example, if we think of the fact that from Shem comes, of course, Abraham, or Abram, right? And then Abram gives birth to Ishmael, And then Ishmael, from him come what we would characterize as the Arab nations today. And the Arab nations are characteristic by what religion, of course? Islam. Islam, right? Yes. And Islam is a monotheistic religion. And of course, from Abram comes who? Right, through Isaac. And then, of course, Isaac has Jacob, and Jacob is Israel, and the 12 sons, and the tribes, and all of that. And, of course, what religions do we get from Israel? Christianity and Judaism, both as well monotheistic religions. And so if you think of it in those terms, there is some truth to this. And so they predominantly influence humanity through their spiritual influence, that is through religion, right? Now, of course, we're not putting Islam on par with Christianity and saying that Judaism and Christianity are Equal either obviously as Christians. We have the full canon of scripture We believe Jesus is the Messiah the fulfillment of those things. We reject things like the Islamic teaching of the Quran, etc But what we're simply saying is is that these? descendants of Shem Primarily, it seems in world history have had a spiritual influence upon Humanity does everybody understand where we're going with that? Okay. Now secondly would be Japheth And where was Japheth's descendants? We're gonna find out tonight when we get there. Japheth's descendants, among them, were some of the descendants that we find among the Greeks. And mainly, predominantly, amongst what we would call the Indo-European nations. And the Indo-European nations are going to produce lots of different things. One thing they're going to produce is some of the greatest empires the world's ever seen. Right? For example, even Persia is related to the sons of Japheth, which we'll see here in a moment. But then, of course, after Persia, we have Alexander the Great. And then, of course, after Alexander the Great and the Grecian Empire, what do we have? We have the greatest empire of the ancient world, which was Rome, of course. And then, of course, we could even argue and say, well, you've got the Greek philosophers. I mean, Western culture Western democracies, Western ideas are based upon Greek philosophy coupled with the ideas of the Senate of Rome and Roman republicanism and even Western culture, which even though Rome may have fallen in the 450s, is carried on through the traditions of the Roman church, of course, for a thousand years. You see what I'm saying? And so the greatest Mines and the greatest empires of history in the last 2,000 years have all come from the sons of Japheth, right? Then, of course, we have Ham. And then with Ham, we ask, okay, so if Ham then is the, represents the physical aspects, and what would that entail then? That would entail things like invention, things like, that would be necessary for the perpetuation of the human race, like clothing us, like giving us things like the wheel, and other inventions of such, like machines and that sort of thing. And scholars tell us that actually the Hamites, as we can refer to them, many of those nations were responsible for many of those interesting things that really were part of the physical maintenance of humanity. So, for example, if you'll look here, you'll see I've got a list here. This comes from Henry Morris's book on Genesis. And he lists, what is it? Eight different things that, now he's quoting from a scholar named Arthur Custance. The book is called Noah's Three Sons. And he suggests that these are the things that the Hammites were responsible for in the sense of the physical survival of man traced back to one of the Hamidic peoples, okay? For example, first of all, They were the original explorers and settlers of practically all parts of the world following the dispersion at Babel. Second, they were the first cultivators of the most basic food staples of the world, potatoes, corn, beans, cereals, and the first ones also to domesticate animals. They developed structural forms, for example the wheel, building tools, materials. They were the first to develop textiles, fabric for clothing, weaving, and sewing. They discovered and invented medicine and surgical practices and instruments. They invented most of the concept of practical mathematics, surveying and navigation. They developed commerce and trade, money, banks, postal systems. And then lastly, they developed the alphabet, paper, ink, block printing, movable type. We can trace these things back to peoples like the Egyptians, for example. And we all know, I mean, some of those famous structures of the ancient world are You know, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Sphinx. And then you think of things like, well, the last one here, alphabet. The alphabet and written language. Who do we attribute that to? Anybody know? What's the name of our alphabet? The characters. Does anybody remember? There's actually a system, a name for the system of the characters that we use. Do you remember? It starts with a P. Yeah, that's where we get our word phonics from. That's right. Yes. Phoenicians. The Phoenicians. The Phoenician alphabet. Why do we use the Phoenician alphabet? Because according to his history, from what we know of recorded history, they were the ones to invent the alphabet as we know it today. And the Phoenicians, guess where they're descended from? Ham. They're a Hamite nation. So very interesting, all those things. And so the suggestion then is that the descendants of Ham, being the first to discover and develop these things, they eventually served the servants, a servant of servants he shall be, they served the human race in those basic elemental things from the very beginning. Think of commerce. Where did commerce originate? Again, the Phoenician peoples. They were the ones who were known for their shipbuilding. They were the ones who sailed through the Mediterranean all the way out. Some even suggest that the Phoenicians may have even discovered what we call North America thousands of years ago. It's possible that they had done that and discovered Great Britain and Ireland and those things thousands of years before we ever thought was possible. the commerce of the Mediterranean was conducted mainly because of what great empire of the ancient world? The Egyptians, right? And of course, we see that right in the biblical story, right? So that even by Moses' time, Egypt was the central power, right? The first nations that we know of in history, what were they? The Sumerians. And where did the Sumerians descend from? Ham, we just read about Nimrod. Well, we're going to look at Nimrod in a couple weeks, okay? So I'm not gonna talk about Nimrod tonight. He's gonna be the subject of my lesson in two weeks. But Nimrod, as it says here in the text, in chapter 10, verse number eight, Cush fathered Nimrod. He was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Verse 10, the beginning of his kingdom was what? Babel, Babel, right? So there's Babel. So there's the connection to the tower at Babel. And then what does it say? After Babel, what did he do? He went to what? Assyria, and built Nineveh. Assyria and Nineveh are some of the most ancient empires and cities in the world. Okay, and of course Nimrod, son of Cush, son of Babel. So it really does fit well in that, if you interpret it that way. But what happened to the Hamites? Many of those nations over time, what happens to them? Eventually the descendants of Shem and Japheth take over these territories. They acquire their inventions and systems. They develop and perfect them to their own advantage, often resulting in higher and more sophisticated civilization and conquest. While this is a valid interpretation, it is subject to scrutiny. I'm not saying that this is a perfect interpretation. I'm not saying that we should just accept it for what it is. But it is a possible interpretation of this servant of servants. I believe, though, that the main point that Moses is actually making is a theological one. Because remember, who's Moses writing to? Even though these are ancient things he's writing about, his primary audience is Israel. And what's Israel about to do? They're about to go into the land of the Canaanites. And who's Canaan a son of? Son of Ham, right? And so he's saying the Canaanites are always seen in the scripture as the enemies of God and his people, always. And when we get into chapter 10, you're going to see that the sons of, all the sons of Ham, he's going to name a bunch of them. and also his grandsons. Many of those nations that are going to be named are among the nations that are in Canaan. Because Canaan is not just one nation. It's a conglomeration of a bunch of city-states. A bunch of nations. Not nations like we know them today. You remember from your history class they had city-states? How many of you remember the story of Troy? Right, of course, we all know the city, right? The city of Troy. Troy is considered to be a city-state. So the state itself was a city and the Greeks came against it. Of course, we all know the famous story, right? That was very common in the ancient world and it was very common in this day and age. And we're actually going to see this a little bit later on with Abraham. with Sodom and Gomorrah. There's going to be five kings, five cities that go against the six kings of six other cities, right? And there's going to be a battle amongst them. There's going to be a confederation of these ones. And of course, what's in one of the city states is a place called Salem, which is later going to be called Jerusalem. And who was the king of Jerusalem or Salem in the time of Abram? We preached on it for a couple weeks in Hebrews. Melchizedek, right? Yeah, he was king of Salem. Okay, so this is the idea here. As you go into Canaan, there's a bunch of these city-states, and each one of them is part of one of these nations that are descended from Ham. Okay, so let's continue here. The Canaanites, as I said, always seen as the enemies of God. In essence, they are the continuation of the seed of the serpent and Israel as the seed of the woman. I'm sorry, I have Genesis 15 there. That should be Genesis 3, verse number 15, of course. That's a verse that you ought to have memorized or at least embedded into your brain. Genesis 3, 15. Genesis 3, 15. Genesis 3, 15. The seed of the woman will crush the seed of the serpent. That is what we're seeing throughout the Old Testament, right from here, going all the way through until we get to the New Testament. And what do we see there? Who's the serpent crusher? Jesus Christ. And what is the first thing we see Jesus doing before he begins his public ministry? Being led into the wilderness to be tempted by the serpent, the devil. And what does he do? He doesn't crush him, but he defeats him. Right? But then on Calvary's cross, what does he do? He crushes the head of the serpent, and Satan is a defeated foe. Fast forward to the end of the book, and what do we see in Revelation? The same imagery again. Serpent. We see a dragon. It's the same thing over and over again. So this is why it needs to be embedded into our brains as we go through Genesis and through the rest of the scripture. We see this theme being played out over and over again. And I believe that is the main point here. The Canaanites, as a people, are being pictured here as the seed of the serpent. Not the literal seed of the serpent, but spiritually, figuratively, okay? And now we see, now let's go to the next thing here. Let's go to the blessing now. He says, blessed be the Lord God of Shem. And the blessing goes upon Noah's second son, Shem, who shares the characteristics of faith and godliness of his father. Shem is associated with Yahweh Elohim, the covenant name of God over his people. Notice, that's what he says to him here. Cursed be Canaan, servant of servants, shall he be to his brothers. Verse 26, blessed be, what? The Lord and what is the Lord is all capital letters. What is that in the Hebrew? That's Yahweh. That's that's that's the tetragrammaton. It's yod-heh-vau-heh. That's Yahweh, right? And then the God of Shem. So that's Yahweh Elohim, literally. That's who he's associating with him. Now again in Moses day, As soon as they see Yahweh, immediately they're thinking, God of the covenant. Right away. That is His covenant name. So the covenant name of God goes on which one of the sons? Goes on Shem. And the implication there then is, who's going to be the son of the covenant through whom the seed of the woman is going to come? It's through Shem. It would be obvious to them. I'm pointing it out to us today because it doesn't immediately pop off the page because we're not reading it in the Hebrew. This strongly implies, as I said, that through Shem, God will fulfill His promise to mankind once again. And this strengthens the theory that the Semitic nations are the ones who have led mankind in spiritual and religious pursuits. The repetition that Canaan would be his servant emphasizes the nature of the descendants of Canaan as representing the seed of the serpent under the heel of the seed of the woman. Who's the seed of the woman in Moses' day? That's Israel. What are they doing to the Canaanites? They're putting them down underneath their heel. In fact, when we get to it, if when we ever get to it, one of the things it there's the account after Jericho, after AI, there's a big battle. And Joshua defeats a bunch of these kings. They all band up together and come against Israel. And they capture those kings in battle. They bring them to Joshua. And what does he symbolically do? The elders, what do they do? They put their foot on the necks of the kings before they behead them. What's that symbolically of? The seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent. There it is. Now, fast forward again, and I just thought of this. Can you think of somebody else in the Old Testament who takes the head of the seed of the serpent? Yeah, and who was his opponent? And what was Goliath's nationality? Oh, is there a Philistine found in here? Well, blow me down. Verse number 14. Look at that. Pathrusim Pazluhim, from whom the Philistines came. Now, he wasn't even born yet, but he was already anticipating that the Philistines were going to be also the seed of the serpent. And that is absolutely what they're seeing throughout the history of Israel, right? We see the Philistines. Of course, who's the first one really that we see going after the Philistines? Among the judges. Mr. Judges, you've been reading through it? Yes? Amy? Samson, right, that was his main enemy, wasn't it? Yeah, he went after the Philistines and he slaughtered lots and lots of them. And then of course, he even kills a bunch of them at the end. So the Philistines as well there. All right, any questions about that? Any comments about that? Please feel free to say something. Well, it's many that have been born And what they did and where they were, they've been fighting over there for centuries. If they would stop, they're fighting relatives, right? Could it be? Yes. They're intertwined? Sure. Yeah. So they're fighting over land that. Yep. Exactly. It's true. Yep. Yeah, they've been fighting with each other. Right. That's right. Exactly. Well, stop fighting. Bow the knee to Yahweh Elohim. Right. And Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Messiah. Exactly. The Prince of Peace. Bow the knee. All nations will confess Him as Lord. Right? Exactly. Exactly right. Next, then, may God enlarge Japheth. Now, Japheth actually means enlargement. That's what it means. The lack of the covenant name of God, which is Yahweh, shows that Shem alone is blessed with the covenant promise. Notice he doesn't say Yahweh Elohim to Japheth. He just says God. That is Elohim. So of course, what that means is Japheth is still under God. But I would say that in the Gentile nations, which is what these represent, they're under God in the sense under the general covenant of Noah. But Shem is going to be under the particular covenant, which is later going to be articulated through Abraham and then, of course, through Israel. Notice what he says, Japheth shall be enlarged and dwell in the tents of Shem. Now, if Japheth does indeed represent the intellectual dominion of man, then his descendants have certainly fulfilled this prophecy. Greek philosophy and architecture are good examples of this. Alexander eventually conquered the Persian Empire, which is, of course, composed of Shemites and Yamites. He Hellenized the known world. The word Hellenization means, for all intents and purposes, it means making things Greek. which is what he does, which is, of course, way in the future. We're gonna see that word Hellenized here in a moment when we look at some of the sons. And then, of course, through the Japhethite Roman Empire, expanded to the mightiest and largest of all the ancient empires. And Western culture for the last 2,000 years is essentially Greco-Roman, right? And if you don't believe me, well, if you've been to DC, all you have to do is look at the architecture. What's the architecture? It's Greco-Roman, right? You know, even churches still use the Greco-Roman architecture. So there's no doubt about that. For 2000 years, the greatest expansions and empires of history were the Western European empires, eventually creating what we live in today. Of course, what's the greatest empire really in modern times up until recent times has been the British Empire, right? And of course, America was a part of the British Empire. America wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Britain's expansion. And of course, that extends all around the globe. They used to say that the Sun never set on the British Empire right because they had Empire holdings in in the East and even in Australia and of course all around the world in interesting and all the descendants of What we know as Britain and the Western Europeans guess what they're all descended from Japheth one commentator suggests that the descendants of Japheth have essentially absorbed, conquered, or appropriated much of the lands of Shem himself." I think even of, say, for example, if you want to get political, let's just talk about the modern-day state of Israel. Well, even before they became a modern-day state, where did the Jews go? Where did they live? Primarily, they lived in Europe. Russia, right? The pogroms there, Germany, France, Spain, all those places, England, of course. And then, of course, you come right into the 20th century and you come even to America. And what do you find? Where, where do you find, where do you find the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most The greatest population of Jewish people in the world is in America. There's more Jews living in America than there is actually living in the nation state of Israel. So in this sense, the children of Japheth have absorbed the shemites but we but they've lived in their tents in the sense that they've taken you could see you could see it one of two ways either you could see it as the the tent of their religions or you could see it as they've taken over their tents and live in their tents okay you could see it that way as well um okay any questions about that i have a question yes yes and how to work this, that the flood happened, everything was destroyed, but yet the first Well, yeah. Yeah. Well, we looked at it last week. The reason is because, of course, what Ham did to his father Noah. And that was by basically defiling his father's authority as the head of the patriarch of the home, seeing his nakedness and Gloating in it somehow in in a sense that yeah We we looked at it basically as a violation of the fifth commandment Which is honor your father and mother ham didn't do that ham was very disrespectful to his father whereas Japheth and Shem They covered the nakedness of their of their father now We also saw that being parallel then to Adam and Eve because Adam and Eve of course They also were naked Noah's naked, Adam and Eve are naked. God comes, and what does he do with Adam and Eve? Well, he covers their nakedness, right? Their shame, so to speak. Noah is now naked after having drunk, after having partaken of fruit, just like Adam and Eve partook of fruit. Does Ham cover the nakedness of his father out of respect for him. No, he doesn't. He goes out to his brothers and can't wait to tell them. But his brothers, in respect for their father, they act in a godly way, the way God covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve, they cover the nakedness of their father. That's the picture there. And so the curse then goes not on him, but on him son. and his son Canaan specifically, and what we suggested was one of the reasons perhaps that he curses Canaan was because in cursing his son, he was giving him the same treatment that Ham had treated his father with. That he was also going to have a disrespectful son who wasn't going to honor his father. So what would be worse than to have a son who does the same thing that you did to your father? And there is that generational sin that's passed down as well, which is an ancient concept. We still have that today. We talked about that. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, that sort of idea where we actually get the attributes and traits of those who go before us. And then the other thing was some of the rabbis have suggested that Noah curses Canaan because in the beginning of chapter 9, God had already blessed the three sons of Noah. That would include Ham. And so then he can't curse Ham because God's already blessed him, so he curses his son instead. That's the idea. But I think the overarching thing there, Randy, though, and I think just to kind of pick up on that point, what you're saying, is that the depravity of man is still there. In other words, man is still a sinner, right? It hasn't changed. His heart is still rotten to the core, and it shows itself almost immediately after the flood. We still have this sin problem. in man, and of course, God's going to have to deal with that sin problem, right? So, yeah, it's obvious there. And then, of course, in the New Testament, that theology of that is all over the place, you know, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You know, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. So, we see that all throughout the Word of God. So, yeah, absolutely. Okay, lastly here, we're on page seven. Let's see. The death of Noah. Lifespans of men are going to diminish over the next few centuries, as indicated in the following chapters. But Noah is the last to live past 900 years, dying at the ripe old age of 950. You realize that there's only two other men that lived longer than he did. Jared, he lived 962. And of course, the very famous Methuselah, 969 years. So if there's no generational gaps in the record, Noah certainly was alive at the time of certainly the dispersion of Babel, right? Or Babel. May have even lived long enough to have known Abraham and Job, perhaps. Okay. And we'll actually talk about Job in a couple of weeks as well. I want to make a brief comment about Job because scholars tell us that Job was probably a contemporary of Abraham. And Job is the oldest text that we have. Now, obviously, we know Genesis is dealing with history that's much older than Job, but Moses wrote Genesis, right? And Moses lived many years after Abraham. So if Job was contemporary with Abraham, that would make Job's book the oldest book that we have in the Old Testament, okay? And it's possible that he may have known Noah or at least known that he was still alive, right? Taking genealogical numbers, it is at this point 2006 years after creation, and this finishes the fourth Toledot, or Book of Generations, the generations of Noah, and literally closes the book on Noah, so to speak. Noah's story is finished. He's completed the task that God gave to him, finished his race, gone on to his reward, and we're reminded once again that death has not gone away. It's still part of the curse on man and creation and will remain so until the resurrection. All right, any questions about that? Sir? Your observations, comments, thoughts on Verse 29, that Noah was one of the last ones to live that long, and after the flood, the lifespan decreases. Have you heard, or do you agree, disagree with the thought that maybe the water canopy, the river, was protected from some of the radiation from space, and now that that disappeared, and we have a regular hydraulic cycle now, that may have had an effect on the lifespan? Yeah, I think I mentioned that a couple lessons ago as well when we talked about the flood itself and just the difference between the pre or the anti-Diluvian and the post-Diluvian world. And we suggested that very thing that the water canopy, whether it was frozen or whether it was liquid that it protected earth from those harmful rays exactly like you said and that and then also would have contributed to a greater carbon dioxide and oxygen in the atmosphere well not oxygen but certainly greater pressure sort of like a barometric chamber, which would have fostered things growing larger, flourishing much more, longer lifespans, all of those sorts of things. And then after the flood, that being removed, like you said, the hydraulic cycle, the way we know it today, contributing to genetic defects and deformities and therefore limiting the lifespans of man, I think. Theologically, though, I would also argue that and say that the antediluvians being closer to Adam, think of living for 900 years. Think of people right now that live, say, to be 100. You know, somebody that's 100. I think there was someone who lived 120 years. Imagine what they have seen, the changes just in our culture alone, going from when they were little children to, you know, having to walk everywhere. And the fastest thing was like a steam locomotive. to going to seeing the invention of the automobile, mass production of automobiles, you know highways and then interstates and then you know going from you know the first world war and all the technology there to the second world war to the atomic bomb and then you just think of how and by the time they died you know having flat screen plasma tvs at their fingertips you know, from when they were first born, none of that existed. And that was only in 120 years. Now imagine living 500 years. Think of the places you could go. Right? And if you had strong health for that time period, we're not talking about you're 500 years old and you're in a nursing home and you can't move. We're talking about you're still in good strength of health and you can travel and you can go places and you can do things. What would you do if you had the means? And who's to say they didn't have libraries and learning and all sorts of architecture and things like that? The learning, the knowledge, that people would have had after just a few centuries. And imagine living to be 900 years old. That's almost a millennium. Now, again, I use that word purposely because think of when Christ returns. How long is he going to rule and reign physically on the earth? For an entire millennium, right? So there's an image there. There's a foreshadowing there. But also, what happened when people lived that long? with their depraved hearts, right? They were able to, the imaginations of their heart was what? Only evil continually. And it didn't take very long after the flood before there they were doing it again. Nimrod, building a tower, all of that. And what does God say? Actually, this is fast forwarding a bit, but in Genesis chapter 11, Verse number six, the Lord said, this is very similar to God coming down before the flood, right? What did he do before the flood? Came down to see what they were up to. Here he is again, doing the same thing. Behold, they are one people. They have all one language. And this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. No. We'll talk about the tower, had nothing to do with getting to God. Not in that same way. They weren't trying to build a ladder to get to heaven. No, it's a spiritual thing. Totally. And the reason, I'll just give you a tidbit. Think of what in the ancient world, where did the gods live? Nope. On mountains. Exactly. And then they would build temples. And then the gods would come down from the mountain to the temple. Think of the Greeks, you know, where did the Greek gods live? Mount Olympus. Well, we'll get to that too. We'll get to that too. But the point being though, is that Babel, the tower was a man-made mountain. That's what it was. A place of worship. Okay? 100%. That's a place of worship. And what were they worshipping? They were worshipping man as a god, is what they were doing. We can be like God, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3 again. It always goes back to Genesis 3. Always. No. Not in the sense that we think that they were trying to climb up to heaven. No. They were symbolically showing their superiority to God, that we are gods. That's Satan. Again, Genesis 3, guys. You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Right? And all of those things. So, anyway. Well, we do it ourselves in our own lives. We, we want to be kings of our own little kingdoms though, Mike. We don't like people telling, do you like, do you like people telling you what to do? You do? We are. Oh, okay. living illustration. No, I'm kidding. Every one of us are subject to that. Okay, now some just have a greater ambitions than others, but reality is each one of us wants to be our own little God doing our own thing. We don't like people telling us what to do. He doesn't say anything about reaching God. No. And they said, come let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves. Exactly. So it had nothing to do with reaching God. They wanted to be equal or better than God. So there's another, hold on. There's another aspect to this. Now, we talked about the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent as being one of the main themes of Scripture, right? There's another main theme of Scripture. Can you think of what it is? What is God building? What? A kingdom. The word kingdom. That's the next one. Adam and Eve were king and queen in the kingdom of God. God was the king. They were his vice regents. Dominion, remember, is kingdom language. But then Satan comes. And then through the fall, now what do we have? The kingdom of the serpent. And the kingdom of the serpent is represented by the kings of this world. And who is the first one after the flood? The first kingdom, Babel. And Babylon is what Babylon comes from, Babel. Okay, now again, folks, fast forward to the end of the story again. What's one of the main themes of Revelation? What's the kingdom you see there? Babylon the Great. See, there it is. And it's a continuation of all the kingdoms, starting with Nimrod. Nimrod was the first. Correct. The Antichrist. Exactly. The Antichrist. He's an Antichrist. That's exactly what he is. Correct. Right on through. That same theme. The Kingdom of the Beast. The Beast. Babylon the Great. The empires of this world are always seen that way. As diametrically opposed to the Kingdom of God. And what do the kingdoms of this world do to the people of the Kingdom of God? They persecute them. Exactly. They persecute them. They go after them. And that's what we see all throughout the scripture. The same theme over and over and over again. So we have the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. We have the kingdom of Satan and we have the kingdom of God. And it begins right here, well, from Genesis 1, obviously, but especially now, this is what Babel is going to symbolize. Now, I've given you a preview that's two weeks from now, but it's something for you to chew on. And as you're reading the scriptures, folks, this is why I love the meta-narrative. And when I say the meta-narrative, like, I'm a big picture guy, okay? I love the big picture. I don't like getting lost in the weeds. I like to pull back every once in a while and look at the whole thing. And that's what you see. So that's what we're seeing here. And that's why it's important that we know that so that when we do zoom in, we don't get lost in the weeds and just the little particular things and get like, oh, distracted, distracted. No, remember, keep the big picture in mind. Always, always. Where does this fit into the big picture? That's what you always keep in mind when you're coming to the scriptures. Got it, Mike? Always keep the big picture in mind. You're a big picture guy, aren't you, Mike? Are you a little picture? Are you a detail guy? Detail? Yeah, see, I'm the big picture guy. So, see, we would work well together. In the sense that like, I'm the big picture guy, I see the whole thing, but you can get down in there and get the particulars and pull them out. So don't get lost in the particulars though, right? The why? Right. And that's the why. The why is, again, that's the big picture. The why is the heart of man is bent upon evil and destruction. It's the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of Satan. And that's... I know God does more than I know. So, when he destroyed, like, entire families of thousands of people at one time, I'm sure that he knew that everyone he destroyed was never going to turn to him. When you look at it from just the perspective of all these people who destroyed it one time, they didn't even have a chance to live their life in it, but then again God knew. Right. Yep. Yep. Yes. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. You know, God knows, I know. Something in Him. He'll be merciful to who He wants to be merciful to, and show no mercy to those He doesn't want to. Right. But, that's what I look at when I do read some of that stuff. You know, if I'm just reading a particular book. The whole picture, I understand, you know. I know what the final, the final one. Remember something else. From your point of view, from my point of view, we might look at something at some an incident like that one, for example. And we might say, well, why would he punish the the guilty with the innocent? First of all, you don't know they were innocent. You don't know that. And that's where we need to say, again, the omniscience of God. God knows. And actually, that's the argument of Abraham when he's pleading for the lives of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. What does he say? Will not the God of the earth do right? Is he not just? Will he destroy the righteous with the wicked? Remember, that's what he said. He absolutely did, right? Down to 10 people, right? In both. And actually there was a third city, it was Zohar. It was actually three cities. And you're right. So, but God knew. So for you and I, and this is where we need to be careful. We can't sit up here and go, well, you know, God punished the innocent with the wicked. You don't know they were innocent. We don't. Well, there were some that were guilty that should have been. Exactly. Yeah, so that's something we also need to keep in mind. And that is that, again, there's another overarching theme of scripture is that man is depraved. And so there's no such thing as an innocent person. There isn't. There isn't. There's only one person in world history who is innocent. exactly. He's the only one. And he's the only one then who was tried unjustly, crucified on a cross. If you could say anybody didn't deserve to die, it was Jesus. Everyone else did deserve to die at some level because we are all sinners. See, and that I think is another really important thing to keep in mind. Right? Yes. Just, if you'll permit me, two thoughts. Sure. Build off of the user. Yeah. You know, the people that came to Jesus and said, well, what about the innocent people at the Tower of Siloam? Yes. Or the ones that they mingled the blood with the sacrifices. Yep. He didn't explain the tragedies of those mass martyrs. No. He said, their dead are gone. Unless you repent, you'll like what you are. You're going to have the same end result. That's right. I think it's just our minds. Is it any more tragic that 100 people die in one location at one time, a building collapse, as opposed to just 100 people in the hospital dying individually? Correct. Yeah, there's an old saying amongst the guys in reporting, and that is, if it bleeds, it leads. Right? Correct, that's right. Yep. And, you know, the other aspect that is ubiquitous, and this is again the point that we're making here from chapter 9 to chapter 10, we made it back in chapter 5, I believe it was. What was one of the words that we saw there over and over, the phrases? And he died. And he died. And he died. And he died. Even though he lived 969 years, he still died. And that is the reality because of the curse. No matter, even if you live 969 years, you go, wow, that's amazing. He still died. Exactly. Whether they lived a year or whether they lived a 969 years. The wages of sin is death. Death is still coming for us. There's only two people that we know of in all of history that didn't die, that God took. One of them we already mentioned back in chapter five, Enoch, right? And then the other one's going to be, yeah, a few centuries later is Elijah, right? Yeah. What about him? That's true. Go back and listen to my sermon. Actually, you can't because the recordings didn't get recorded properly for those. So there's a couple different theories on who Melchizedek is, which again, we'll get to him here in a few chapters, obviously, but I will make just a quick comment about him, though, because he is linked to Shem. There are some who believe that he is Shem. In fact, I think even in our Seder on Friday night, one of the things we did read was that Melchizedek was Shem. Now, whether he was or not, the Bible doesn't say. I personally don't think he was. I think he was a type of Christ. He wasn't Shem himself. Some believe he was the pre-incarnate Christ. Right, but when he says that though, when the writer of Hebrews says that, again, what's his main purpose? It's not to give us a genealogy of Shem or of Melchizedek, but rather to make a theological point because he's paralleling him to Jesus, right? Without generation, right? He didn't have... Correct. Correct. Whereas whereas Aaron's was you could trace Aaron's all the way back to Adam literally In fact, that's what first Chronicles the first two what three chapters of crop first Chronicles is nothing but genealogy And he he lists all the Levites, you know and all the way back So yeah, absolutely So we don't know that for sure, but there is a theory that Shem was Melchizedek. So I But we'll deal with that when we get to it. It's an interesting one. Okay, let's go to the next Toledot, which is chapter 10, verse 1. These are the generations of the sons of Noah. So when you see the word generations there, once again we see a new book. Here, remember Genesis is a compilation of books or family histories that have been passed down to Moses, and Moses is compiling them here, putting them together. Even unbelieving higher critics have acknowledged that the Table of Nations is a remarkably accurate historical document. Once again, according to Morris, he said there's no other comparable catalog of ancient nations in any other source. He quotes Dr. William F. Albright, who was an expert and leading authority on the archaeology of the ancient Near East. He said, and this man was not a Bible-believing Christian, but he was an expert in the ancient archaeology of the nations and here's what he said about Genesis chapter 10. He said it stands absolutely alone in ancient literature without a remote parallel even among the Greeks where we find the closest approaches to a distribution of peoples and genealogical framework. In other words, the Greeks were really good at doing this, but even what they did didn't even come close to this. The Table of Nations remains an astonishingly accurate document, spoken like an unbeliever. You and I, should we be astonished that it's accurate? Not at all. Why? Because we believe it's the Word of God. Amen? Handed down to Moses. Inspired. Accurate. Because God inspired it. Right? So we're not shocked by this at all. But it is nice when even unbelievers will acknowledge the absolute accuracy of this chapter. The Table of Nations is the name of what scholars call this particular document. It is an important historical link from the historic nations of ancient times to the antediluvian prehistoric times of Noah. And the Bible is the only book which gives an accurate account of the prehistoric world and how it is linked to the next age after the flood. I've just listened to something by Jordan Peterson, and he was talking about the Enuma Elish, which is the Babylonian account of the beginning of the world and where everything came from. When you listen to that, and then you compare that with the Genesis record, you can see there are some parallels there, like there's some things that kind of sound similar, But nothing like this. Nothing. Without the Bible, we literally would have no understanding, real good understanding, of what it was like before the flood. We would have no clue. None. All we would have was ancient myths and legends from which we get things like Atlantis, the legend of Atlantis, and some of these other pre-flood stories that are myths and legends. Now, are they based upon a truth? Yeah, I think they are. And that's, Mike, just to speak to what you mentioned earlier about, say, the gods of Olympus. Not that the gods of Olympus are real in the sense that they're literal the way we would understand God and Christ in the New Testament. but they were based upon truth from the ancient world, but perverted over time as they told those stories over and over and over again. And lots of untruths and legends got added to it, to what it became in the time, say, of Homer, when he wrote the Iliad and things like that. So I'm not saying that, you know, like Zeus was a real person, But he represents, I think, certain aspects of, say, for example, Genesis 6, where you saw the sons of God coming down to the daughters of men. Again, they came down. Where did they live? Mount Olympus. We see those same themes over and over again throughout the ancient times. The Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Norse gods, even the gods of the East, even amongst the North American peoples, the South American peoples. They have similar tales, similar legends, different names. They're not always the same, but there's similarities. And the reason the similarities is there is because they're all coming from the same source. And the source, of course, is the Word of God. But through hundreds and thousands of years, they've been perverted. So that's why I would say that, you know, No, the gods of Olympus weren't literal real in the way we understand them, but I think they do represent archetypes of some of these biblical things that we see. And this is why we as Bible-believing Christians should hold to the narrative of the biblical text so closely, is that we do have the truth and everything else is compared to it, right? We judge everything else by what the text says in the scripture. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yes. Or Shem. You could say Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the fathers. Yeah, they became, yeah, yes. Or Adam. Adam becomes associated with Marduk. And then Eve becomes associated with Ishtar. Or Nimrod actually will be. Nimrod will be deified. You're absolutely right. And his wife, Semiramis, will be deified as well. So yes, that's absolutely, that's what I'm talking about. Yep. Okay, next. Some have suggested that Moses had access to this important document from his time in Egypt. Perhaps it was a family record that was kept by one of the patriarchs. Certainly, we have good evidence by reading this that it was Shem who originally wrote this down. And it would have been in Shem's best interest to write it down. Why? Because to him and to his seed, through the blessing of Noah, back in chapter 9, it was through his seed that he was receiving the promise of the blessing that he would have the seed of the woman would come to crush the seed of the serpent. So he therefore would want to keep good records of all of his descendants. So we can trace this back. And then, of course, it also encompasses, well, we see from the life of Shem, which we're going to see over in chapter 11, 500 years. 500 years after the flood. Actually 502 years after the flood. Two years after the flood is when he has a son named Arphaxad. And that's in chapter 11 verse 11. So 500 years after the flood, that's plenty of time to have seen Babel. and perhaps to have even known Abraham as well. So it does lend credence to Washem Melchizedek because he would have been alive when Abraham was alive for sure. Further evidence is also found in the fact that the descendants of Japheth and Ham are only given to the third and fourth generation after the flood, whereas Shems are recorded until the sixth generation after the flood. It is possible that Shem lost track of the other branches of the family as they moved away after the Tower of Babel, which we're going to see. Shem also seems to have given his signature. to the table of nations. Notice that in chapter 11, verse number 10. So he's giving you, as we read in chapter 10, these are all the children, right? And then chapter 11, then he tells us the story of Babel. And then at the end of Babel, verse 10, these are the generations of Shem. It's sort of like Shem's signature, and it's even a period there in the text. What's the next sentence? It should be a different verse, actually. When Shem was a hundred years old, he fathered a fax head two years after the flood. That may have been the last thing Shem wrote. Who knows? And then someone else picks it up. Maybe it's our fax head. who now picks up, he's sort of handed the family Bible, right? The family records. Okay, here you go, Arphaxad, you get it now. Now you keep records. And so then he begins to keep records after that, and then it's all handed down until it gets down to the last one, of course, is Abraham, or Abram, right? Okay, so. Is it mentioned that it was a regular practice to keep records like every family, or was it unusual for that No, I think there were records kept, but see, I mean, what happens in our day to records? Yeah, they get lost, you know, there's a house fire, everything burned down. We lost it all, right? All the family photo albums and all the birth certificates are all gone, right? I mean, it happens very common. So it's been common throughout history. So I don't think it was unique to Shem, but obviously this is one of the reasons why we believe the Bible is inspired and preserved. God preserved these records so that by Moses' time, hundreds of years later, he still has access to them. And that's amazing. Perhaps. Yeah, I don't think that nostalgia is something new. Right? It's something that goes back thousands of years, people. And the thing is, is that, again, back then people didn't have the media and entertainment we do today. So how did they entertain themselves? Yes, but primarily storytelling around the campfire. Yep. But how do you pass on the family stories? Around the campfire. Yep, there was the time when your old crazy Uncle Joel went on that hunting trip. And how do you preserve the family histories? Orally. Orally. And tribes and families of the earth have done it for thousands of years until someone eventually writes it down. Right? Like you said, how providential that the Jewish people specifically kept these. Ezra and Nehemiah, when they came back, they had to have the genealogies to be able to serve the Gospels. Absolutely. Okay, let's skip the next two pages because we'll look at them next time. I want you to look back at the... I gave you several charts, genealogical charts. I love genealogical charts, just saying. I love them. Yes. Okay. So, first of all, you should have a map. Looks like this, right? And then the next page, I believe you have the one that has the genealogy of Adam. Okay. And then after that, you have the genealogical table of the descendants of Noah, correct? All right, so let's just take a look real quick at these and then we'll call it a night. So we've got Adam, and then we have, of course, we're not going through the whole thing of Adam. If you want to see that, go back to Genesis 5, right? And then you have Ham, Shem, and Japheth after Noah. And then from Noah, or Shem and Japheth, so from Japheth. We have seven sons, Gomer, Magog, Medi, or yeah, Medi, Javan, Tubal, Meshach, and Tyrus. Then the sons of Ham were three that are named. Remember these, they may have had more. We don't know, but scholars believe they probably had more sons. They just only list them. They only list these, because these are the important ones, okay? Cush, Mizraim, and Canaan. And then Shem, three of his sons are named, or actually five, excuse me, Elam, Asher, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. Now, we're going to look at Japheth next time. Seven sons, only two of his sons were given the grandsons of, their sons, Gomer and Javan. And now again, why is Moses doing this? By the inspiration of the spirit. And the reason is because all of these names on here, including several that we're going to come to in chapter 11, which I have another table I will give to you next time. And that is the 70 nations. This is why it's called the table of nations. In the Masoretic text, the Hebrew, there are 70 nations. These are the nations from whom all the nations of the world come from. No matter how far back you go, no matter where they are, they can trace their roots back to one of these 70. Now there's another principle there, but I won't deal with that for a couple of weeks when we get specific. Gomer has three sons Ashkenaz, Rifath, and Tagarmah. Javan has, bless you, Elisha. That's not the Elisha, obviously the servant of Elijah. It's the same name, but not the same person. Tarshish, Ketim, and Dodanim. All right, and those names are very important for us because as I'm looking out here, I'm seeing everybody here with white skin, light hair, light colored eyes for the most part. We come from one of these nations of Japheth. Unless you have somewhere in your lineage way back, maybe there's Shem, one of the Shem Semite nations, or maybe even a Hamite nation. But I think most of us, because I think all of us, our ancestors came from Europe. either Eastern Europe or Northern Europe. Therefore, we're all Japhethites for the most part. Okay, so that's why these names are important and they will come into world history. We'll see their names and how their names originally were then. If this is where they were originally, but then they would have changed over time as names do and we may know them by a different name. today, but certainly we're going to see them throughout history. So if you'll look at your map there, for example, you'll see, again, these aren't for sure, but these are pretty good. A lot of scholars think that this is where the original 70 nation, the 70 people spread out, and then of course they would have eventually spread out from these areas. So notice that you have Kush and his descendants mainly staying south, either in Arabia or in Africa. Of course, the nations like the Ethiopian nation, the Egyptian nation, the Libyan nation, those nations are all African nations, they're all Hamites. Many of those ancient Arab nations, like Sheba and Dedan and others, are all Hamidic. But then you have the Semitic, and Semitic mainly stayed within what is so-called the Fertile Crescent, what we call that Middle Eastern area. But where did the descendants of Japheth go? They went out. Look where they are. They're going to end up up there all the way in the Black Sea. North of the Black Sea is what we call... They just had a... Brain cloud there. Yes, so the Russian nation, I was thinking, no, right on the top of the Black Sea. Oh, well, there's the Ural Mountains is east. Let's see here. Oh, the Crimea. Yes, that was it, Crimea. So there's the Crimean Peninsula. If you look at the very top of your map, see where the Black Sea is right in the middle, sort of in the middle there? Sorry, these aren't colored. Maybe you could take some pencil crayons and color these in. But see the Black Sea? Everybody see that? Yes? Okay. Right at the very top of the Black Sea, there's like a little thing sticking down. That's Crimea. Okay, so right above that, On the right-hand side would be what we call modern Russia today. And then on the other side would be Ukraine. And that's the disputed area of what's going on right now. So that's Crimea. Notice where Mishek, and Magog, and Gomer, and Tubal, and Tagarmah, and Rifaf, and Ashkenaz. Where are they? All up there in that northern area. And all those places are going to become associated with many of the nations that we even think of today. For example, the Armenians. The Armenian nation is one of the most ancient nations in the world. They literally go back to this time period. And then, of course, you're going to have them go west. Notice where Meshach, Magog, Tubal. What nation is that today? Anybody know your geography? Yes, sir. Turkey is a really important nation. In fact, the seven churches of Asia that John writes to, In Revelation, guess where they are? They're all in what we call Turkey today. Asia Minor, as it was known. That's the Turkey area. So those people are going to go across. That's the Aegean Sea. What's across the Aegean Sea? Right, yeah. That's a little bit north of that. Yep. What's right across the GNC? Yes, Greece, Greece. Okay. And then north of Greece is what you said. Yep. That's the what they call the Balkans today, you know, so Slovakia and Hungary and the Czech Republic and those places. That's all down in that area as well. And then across From there, what's the little boot sticking out into the Mediterranean? Everybody knows that one. Uh-huh, right. And they're the descendants, many think, of the Etruscans. And then, of course, if you go all the way to the left of the map, the very far west, what do you see there? Tarshish right and Tarshish is where we would see that's what we call the today We call that the Straits of Gibraltar that Spain there and then of course around the horn Going north you're gonna end up where in Great Britain gonna end up in the British Isles So and that's where they believe that a lot of those people spread out over there So we'll talk about them more later in a couple of weeks any questions about any of that stuff. I This is all well-attested, by the way, in scholarship. The Jews, as well, in their targums, they talk about these things, who these descendants are, who the peoples that they fathered, okay? Very, very well-attested in history. I mean, there's some debate as to, you know, certain exact names and places and things like that, but I think, for the most part, the general consensus is pretty, it's pretty standard right across the board that these are where the nation's spread out from. Okay? Any questions? Any comments? I think it's pretty funny. Me and Paula had no idea who each other were before we got together. And then after we got together, we find out we're both from, initially, like going back very much. Both from the Czech Republic. Yeah, it's interesting. Slavic. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. And you share traits of your families going back all the way to those answers. So. OK. All right, let's pray. Father God, thank you again for this time together. We thank you for the details of the Word of God. We thank you also for preserving it for us. What an amazing document that we have, inspired by the Holy Spirit, preserved from ancient times for thousands of years, even records that predate the flood that were handed down. What an amazing, amazing book that we have in our hands. And it really all directs us towards you and how great you are, that you in your love and your grace would see fit to preserve this for us so that we know not only your plan, but where we came from, who we are, and what you're doing in world history, of course, eventually through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And so we rejoice in those things, we marvel at them, and Father, we thank you again for them. Thank you for giving us these things and preserving them for us, and then giving them to us in our own language that we can read it and understand it. What a blessing that is. So Lord, as we reflect upon these things, may we again be directed towards you, your greatness, your holiness, your power, but also your grace and your mercy in our lives. We thank you for loving us. Thank you for condescending to do these things for us and giving them to us. And so now I pray that you'd please go with us as we leave this place. I pray that our lights would shine before men, that they may see our good works and glorify you who is in heaven. Father, we ask that you would protect us and keep us safe. Bring us back together on Sunday as your people to worship you. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.