I have been working on finishing my lesson on the nations of Genesis 10 for the Old Testament Survey study. I noticed something from the list of men in Genesis 10 that formed the nations that I took the time to talk about with my family during our family worship time tonight.
First I mentioned that the Lord does not want us to know much about the pre-flood world except that it was very wicked. When I looked at the names of Genesis 10, there are a few names that are similar to the pre-flood names. Tubal is similar to Tubal-cain from Genesis 4. Canaan is similar to both Cain and Cainan from Genesis 4 and 5. Raamah is similar to Naamah (possibly either Noah’s or Ham’s wife) of Genesis 4.
There is one name that comes directly and exactly from the pre-flood world and it is the only name that is used twice in Genesis 10. It is used both for a descendant of Ham and a descendant of Shem. That name is Havilah.
I asked my family why they thought this was so and I think we found the answer in Genesis 2. In describing the four rivers that went out of the garden of Eden, Genesis 2:11 says, “The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.”
It seems one of things that people had remembered or at least were trying to remember was where the good gold was. Havilah, the land, seems to be Arabia and I believe two men were given this name to lay claim to this land.
Havilah is the southern part of the promised land and what was pre-flood Eden. Its on the edge. The gold is called good. I wanted my family to know from this lesson that gold or for that matter any kind of treasure is not evil, it is called good here. However, chasing after gold leads many times right to the edge of sin and moving away from the center of God’s will.
The second thing I wanted my family to know was that gold or money is a very strong motivator. Many things that don’t make sense at first glance do make sense when you follow the money trail. In fact I see two major motivators in the scriptures, the love of God and the love of money or power. You cannot serve both.
George