Gen 11:1-9
Notes
Transcript
Today we are going to look at the historical event often known as the tower of babel. Based on the biblical records these events occured about 4,200 years ago. Just 100 years or so after the flood of Noah. In chapter 10 we and at the end of Chapter 11 we are given the the family line from Noah’s kids, Shem, Ham and Japheth. Using those records is how we can come up with approximate dates for these events.
In those genealogies we notice it tells us what people groups came and what languages they spoke, which is how we know the tower of babel happened before any of those nations came to be.
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
We are looking at a period when all people still spoke one language. Its interesting because people that don’t believe in the bible have a hard time explaining where the original language came from. and its interesting because nobody really knows what that first language was. it didn’t have a name, there was only 1. Then as historians look through time, it seems like over night over 100 languages just appear. This confuses historians but if you read the bible this makes perfect sense.
Also you may find it odd that it says they spoke “one language and of one speech” or using the same words. Having lived in multiple countries I’ll tell you when people with the same language settle in different areas, they start using new words. This process had not happened. They all spoke the same language, had the same culture and the same way of speaking.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
They traveled from the area that we call now Iran, from Mt. Arate to the land of Shinar. when they first went their it didn’t have a name because nobody had ever been there, at least not since the flood. but moses uses the name that they new the land to be called in mosses’ day. Look at the picture, you may be wondering why they chose this land. They came through the desert areas of Iran then came to this valley, it had everything they needed, fresh rivers, flat land that they could farm. It was a perfect spot to build a city.
3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
Slim is funny, other translations use the word tar, So we see all the people of the world, Noah his sons, grandchildren and probably great grandchildren settle down and start building a city. Somewhere in this story people did wrong and God punished them. lets see if we can find out where it went wrong. God told Noah in Gen 9:1
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. He had children, and multiplied but did they fill the earth? now obviously that takes time, did we really expect that they would never build some sort of a city in that process? No, I don’t think the city is the problem.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
So was building the tower the issue? They say it will reach to heaven. many try to say they thought they could literally reach heaven and God with this tower. I highly doubt that was their mindset since the Hebrew word for heaven here just means sky. They are gonna build a tower in the sky. No, the tower was not the issue.
Look at the last half of the verse, “let us make us a name” Isa 43:6-7
6 I will say to the north, Give up; And to the south, Keep not back: Bring my sons from far, And my daughters from the ends of the earth; 7 Even every one that is called by my name: For I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
So why were we created? For God’s glory or to bring God praise. What we see is people once again forgetting the reason God created them, to bring Him praise!
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
what else do we see, “lest we be scattered” they were told to fill the earth, to bring God the praise He desired, they were to fill the earth. The people decided they did not want to bring God praise, they wanted to worship themselves and they rebel against God command to fill the earth.
Building little cities along the way would have been ok even building towers would have been ok, but pridefully worshipping themselves and forgetting God was the problem.
lets see Gods response.
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
God comes down to see everything and knows that this rebellion will continue and this is only the start of the things that will happen.
7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
a funny meme I once saw said, thanks babel, now I have to learn 3 languages. and its funny but I was thinking, when I travel to other countries that use english, I still have to learn they way they use it becasue its not the same as in Michigan. even if I travel to other parts of America, they say things I don’t understand. Heres and example. some friends of ours moved to West Virginia, We went and visited them, the son told his mom, “we went down by the halla” to this day I have no Idea what he said. If people would have moved on from Shinar and continued to settle new areas, new cultures and language changes would have still happened. God’s plan did not change, but how he was going to get there did. God was forced to use the language change to force the desire for people to fill the earth.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
This is where all of a sudden around 100 languages just appear in history. Historians can’t explain it, but God can. and from those 100 languages we now have an estimated 8,000. so yes, had the people spread out like God told them too we would still have many languages they just would have came about over time and we could trace where they came from.
Now as a matter of the tower. Here is an estimate of what it looked like. archeologist call this a ziggarut.
Here are pictures of other Ziggaruts from all over the earth. notice they all look very similar. When the people spread out, they took the design and idea for the tower of babel with them, and in the exact same time period we see thousands of these ziggaruts appear all over the world. this is more proof that the biblical account of history can be trusted.
So what is the main point of this whole passage, what are we to learn about God and people from this?
God made us to worship and praise Him! that is our purpose for life. People ask all the time, why am I created, the simple answer is, to praise God and worship Him!
When we don’t fulfil that purpose, especially as christians, God will do what it takes to bring us back around to that purpose. God created us and has the right to demand worship from the people He created. all through History people have been going against this and because of that we see the chaos the world is in today.
Jesus paid for our sin and offered us salvation we could not earn salvation on our own. what is salvation though? is it just so I can go to heaven and not to hell? If that is my reason to be saved, I am doing the same thing as the people in the land of Shinar, worshipping myself. Jesus Died on the cross to “buy us back” to make us His own. To be saved is to be called out by God to serve God and His purposes. Salvation is all about being transformed by the power of God so that I can now properly bring God praise and Glory with my life. before I was saved I worshipped myself, I did what made me feel good, if thats why you came to jesus, thats not salvation. I came to Jesus to be made into a new creature, to be changed from the selfish rebel I was to a servant of the most High God!
