Gen 10:32, These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations; and out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood. Amen.
	This morning, we read of the genealogy of Noah’s descendants. While it is not necessarily the most captivating of reading, it is important because it is the manner in which the earth was inhabited after the flood. Our heritage, as human beings, as the creation of God, stems from the source of this lineage. It is also the accounting of how the nations of the earth came into being, spreading forth from the sons of Noah into all the corners of the world.
	Let us back track one chapter to Genesis 9 for a review of several verses which generate the impetus of mankind’s rehabitation of the earth. Immediately after the flood waters dried up and Noah’s family left the ark, God spoke to them in a very wonderful manner, as we read in Gen 9:1-3, And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the terror of you shall be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. 
	God blessed Noah and his sons… What a marvelous statement of the loving kindness of the Lord. Oh, that we would all come to know the blessing of God upon our lives. God didn’t just release Noah and his sons to do as He knew they would. He validated their endeavors with His blessing upon their procreation. Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 
	This hearkens back to God’s initial sanction at the very creation of both animal and mankind as we read in Gen 1:20-22, Then God said, "Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens." And God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." 
	God has instilled nature with His blessing to Be fruitful and multiply. There is beauty and glory in the evidence of God’s blessing upon His creation. Generally, spring is filled with all the fruits of new birth in nature, from flowers to insects to mammals to all the animal kingdom. God’s directive brings forth the manifold increase to fill the waters and the earth with abundance and with life. 
	Then consider the splendor and the magnificence and the joy as children fill families in response to God’s blessing. Gen 1:27-31, And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so. And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. …And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. 
	Now, as an aside, we are not taking the stance that some religious organizations promote in terms of having lots of children in order to fill the membership roles of that church. Neither are we stating that it is the duty of every husband and wife to procreate to the utmost extent of their abilities. 
What we are dealing with is the God given and inspired blessing that is ours as we honor Him in all that we do, including raising our children in the knowledge and the service of Him. Even if we are not parents in our own rights, we have the blessing of being part of the very family of God. We are all partakers of the joy of covering and keeping and teaching all the young of the family of God how to honor and to bless Him. It is in our heart’s dealings with the children of the Lord’s own that we are blessed of God and share in the fact that it is very good.	
God’s every design is fulfilled in His blessing and His instruction to …Be fruitful and multiply. It enfolds us into the absolute heart of what God has eternally ordained for this world in which we live. While the animals and the beasts and the insects and the fish carry out His instruction instinctively, we as humans tend to analyze and to evaluate and to instigate and to insinuate ourselves into it with often contrary results. We try to elevate ourselves into an arena that is not ours to inhabit. As was true before the flood, humanity perverted itself in the manner in which men viewed this blessing of God.
	Gen 6:1-5, Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 
	Mankind misused God’s blessing and filled the earth with evil intent and distortion. Rather than being fruitful and multiplying in the manner which would befit God’s blessing, mankind defiled himself and practiced depravity and wickedness at every opportunity. This ultimately led to the flood as God wiped the earth clean and began again with the race of men through Noah and his sons. 
This brings us back to the blessing of God recorded in Gen 9:7-10, "And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it." Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, "Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. 
Along with the repeated blessing and instruction, God makes his covenant with Noah and with all the creatures of the earth. This is an added benevolence of God’s heart toward mankind in the covenant that we have discussed in weeks previous. 
In this recorded genealogy of Genesis Chapter 10, then, we have all the earth eventually inhabited through the sons of Noah. Gen 9:19, These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was populated. There is the common heritage under the renewed blessing and command of God. This is traced through the scripture, as we will see, eventually being completely and gloriously fulfilled in Jesus Christ.     
We see it as the tribe of Israel is established by the same instruction of the Lord God Almighty. Gen 35:10+11, And God said to him, "Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name." Thus He called him Israel. God also said to him, "I am God Almighty; Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, And kings shall come forth from you. This is the core of what God was after in His blessing of humanity. Through the tribe of Israel would come forth the King in Whom all humanity could be brought into the perfection of a living relationship with God.
	The Lord continues to place this blessing before us in scripture as accounted to the Prophet Jeremiah in Jer 23:3-5. "Then I Myself shall gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and shall bring them back to their pasture; and they will be fruitful and multiply. "I shall also raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them; and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing," declares the Lord. "Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "When I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land. 
	This blessing of being fruitful and multiplying extends far beyond merely having numbers of children to dwell upon the earth. It includes the promise to all the nations of the blessing of the very heart of God by the Promised Christ to come. By virtue of His life, all the nations of the earth will be blessed beyond measure.
Ezek 36:8-12, 'But you, O mountains of Israel, you will put forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel; for they will soon come. 'For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be cultivated and sown. 'And I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities will be inhabited, and the waste places will be rebuilt. 'And I will multiply on you man and beast; and they will increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited as you were formerly and will treat you better than at the first. Thus you will know that I am the Lord. 'Yes, I will cause men — My people Israel — to walk on you and possess you, so that you will become their inheritance and never again bereave them of children.' 
	The fruitfulness of God’s blessing is manifested in Himself as He governs and rules in the lives of men. By the very Son of God, as Lord and Savior, all humanity is brought before the Sovereignty of God and given every opportunity to realize His blessing in the lives that are lived on this earth.
Acts 17:24-28, "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things; and He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His offspring.' 
In Jesus Christ, the blessing of God originally given to Adam and Eve, then further ascribed to Noah and his sons is fully completed. Despite the fact that throughout the Old Testament, it mainly focused upon the Children of Israel, today it is open to all who are encompassed into the children of God in Jesus Christ! We are the descendents of His so great promise and fully partakers of His blessing. We are fruitful and multiply on this earth as we live our lives according to the power and the majesty of Jesus Christ. In Him, the Church, the believers,the adopted children of God’s own family draw others unto Him. The fruit of His love causes others to become so blessed of God and participants in God’s eternal plan and purpose.  
    	As the Apostle Paul describes in Rom 9:3-8, For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; neither are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "through Isaac your descendants will be named." That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. 
	In Christ, we are blessed beyond all measure. We are not just of the genealogy of Adam and Eve, and of Noah and his sons, but we are of the offspring of the very blessing and promise of God. In dealing with our heritage and posterity, let us ever be the testimony of the Word of God. We must contribute fully to the glory that He is due in making us members of His very family through the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. By His death and resurrection, we are now the very children of the promise, fully encompassed in the blessing of God for all of eternity. So be it!
	These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations; and out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 104:31-34. Let the glory of the Lord endure forever; Let the Lord be glad in His works; He looks at the earth, and it trembles; He touches the mountains, and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. Let my meditation be pleasing to Him; As for me, I shall be glad in the Lord. Amen.