Genesis 10 is one of those chapters that can be a bit tough to get through. It seems that it should be exciting to see the expansion of humans after the time of Noah. My visually/digitaly framed mind expects this to be some sort of blockbustor movie, at very least it should be a fun surprising end credits scene, and then it turns out that it isn't. Our modern minds don't read lists of people and places well. That doesn't mean you can't have some fun here. Often when I find myself with these sorts of lists that provide little details about the individual people or places I'll use the time to go on a quick historical expedition or a fun fact chasing search. It's easy to do, just start asking questions...
Who was that? Where was that? Why did that happen?
I'll throw a few out and see where we can go:
Can we think of the traditinal enemies of the Hebrew? Do you see them in the line of Ham? Do we see how much damage was done when Ham and Noah had their experince that ended with Noah cursing Ham and his descendents?
Speaking of which...
Why didn't the author put Put's family in there?
Is Put or his family mentioned elsewhere?
Did you know that Put means bow? (As in a bow and arrow, didn't we just have another story about a bow? Note: They are different Hebrew words but both mean bow, a weapon of war. Probly nothing, but fun to thnk about.)
Who may have founded Lybia?
What ancient city listed here holds what is perhaps the world's largest ivory collection today?
What does it mean to be a "mighty hunter before the Lord" --and why does Nimrod get this little bit of a break out story here?
Consider just pelting the text with questions. You have vast ammounts of human knowledge at your figertips--dig in--search--get lost a bit if nessesary, it's not about the answers you find, it's about the journey. Chasing geese with the Spirit is one of my favorite passtimes.
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