Nations
Read Genesis 10.1-32
“.. by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations ..” (Gen.10.20)
The larger part of the chapter is given over to what is not so much a genealogy as a table of nations. Though the Lord will from this point on drive His purposes forward through just one people, He always has the nations in His ‘rear-view mirror’.
Nations can become ‘kingdoms’ (v.10): what light do vv.8-12 shed on the distinction between a nation and a kingdom?
The nations are spread out (10.5, 32), divided (10.25) and scattered (11.4, 8, 9) – sin is disintegrative in its effect: how is that seen in the world today?
Prayer: How I long for the day, O Lord, when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of Your Son: help me by my living today to hasten the coming of that day!