Sermon Tone Analysis

An arrogant spirit precedes a fall, God’s Word says.

I have experienced the truth of these words this summer.

One of the things I enjoy doing in my free time is gardening, so this summer I determined to use a portion of our lot for a small vegetable garden.

Things have gone pretty good overall, but I have one problem, rabbits.

Expecting the varmints to cause problems soon after our lettuce, beets, and turnips sprouted, I built what I thought was a pretty ingenious fence, but I quickly found out that our fence’s holes were large enough for a rabbit to slip through.

So after adding some deer netting, I confidently declared as I looked over my work, that I’d love to see those rabbits try to get in the garden now.

I was delighting in how this would frustrate them.

But an arrogant spirit precedes a fall, and a couple of days later nearly all of our bean sprouts had been gnawed to nothing because those rabbits had gnawed their way through the netting.

I still haven’t totally subdued the rabbits.

We have studied several origins in our series on : creation, life, humanity, marriage, sin, and death.

introduces another origin: nations.

provides a genealogy of Noah’s descendants.

Each son’s family tree is traced out to the nations that they became from Japheth to Ham to Shem.

The details of the genealogy probably felt tedious to read this morning, but it is the Word of God and that means it is profitable.

This list of names sets up our reading the rest of Scripture, particularly the Old Testament as many of the nations listed here appear in the history of Israel in some way or another.

But not all these names are equal.

The genealogy has an interesting way of emphasizing the really important names we should remember: Many of the lists begin like v2, Japheth’s sons colon.

These are the less significant names.

The ones we should pay attention to are the ones that begin like v8, “Cush fathered.”

The names Shem and Eber are particularly emphasized; only twice in this chapter (v21, 25) is the passive verb were born used.

The Scriptures use this to set up the end of chapter 11 where we find out that Shem and Eber were the forefathers of Abraham whose family becomes the focus of the rest of Genesis.

All of those listed after the phrase, “so and so fathered,” are those that had significance to Israel in some way or another.

It starts with Cush’s children in v8-14.

They were the founders of Babylon, Ninevah, and the forefathers of the Philistines.

Then we have Canaan’s descendants highlighted in v15-19.

Interestingly, the Scriptures transition toward people groups that descended from Canaan instead of the names of his children.

These were the people whom the Israelites were to expel from the promised land.

Later, in v26, We find Eber’s nephews who became important trade partners with Israel particularly throughout the time of the monarchy.

Chapter 10 has value for at least one other reason as well.

It ties together chapters 9 and 11.

At the beginning of chapter 9, God blesses Noah and his sons with fruitfulness and the whole the earth to fill, and it is clear that each one of the sons of Noah is blessed as their lineage is recorded in chapter 10.

Even Canaan who was cursed at the end of chapter 9 still receives the blessing of 9:1 as God multiplies his children.

One pattern that these early chapters of Genesis follow has been to tell a story, then to zoom in on the details of that story.

That is what happens here, even though chapter 10 isn’t a story per se.

V5, 21, & 30 all emphasize the lands, languages, and nations of Japheth, Ham, and Shem respectively.

Wait . . .

lands? languages?

nations?

When did they go to these lands, start speaking different languages, or start nations?

After the Scripture introduce everyone, they explain how all this came about in chapter 11: the tower and city of Babel.

What was the problem with Babel?

Why did God scatter the Noahites there?

V4 says that they desired to make a name for themselves to avoid being scattered all over the earth, and God’s response in v6 is concerned about their ability to work together in rebellion against Him.

So the problem seems to be their failure to embrace God’s blessing and fill the earth which stemmed from their proud desire to make a name for themselves.

In this we see the emphasis of these chapters that human pride rejects God’s blessings, and recognizing that pride, we are called to the humility of the Psalmist:

Please take home this truth with you today and live it this week: Human pride rejects God’s blessings; therefore, we must humble ourselves before God.

Human pride rejects God’s blessings; therefore, we must humble ourselves before God.

One of the greatest blessings that humanity enjoys is being created in God’s image.

Humanity is at its fullest when we accurately display God’s glory, but often we reject that blessing and pursue our own fame.

Perhaps you are here this morning and you are pursuing your own fame instead of God’s.

Are you struggling to find the purpose of your existence, discourage by how life seems meaningless?

Are you insecure and want to feel accepted?

Are you tempted to live for the moment, thinking nothing of high risk behaviors because they make you feel alive?

If you are in any one of these situations, you are in the same place as the Noahites.

Without realizing it you have rejected God’s blessings in human pride, but humility brings hope.

If we can only humble ourselves and accept God’s blessings, He can change us.

But how do we humble ourselves?

Noah’s lineage provides us

Noah’s lineage at Babel reveal two man-centered deficiencies we must avoid in order to humble ourselves before God.

Avoid man-centered hero worship (10:8-12)

As I mentioned earlier, chapter 10 is an expanded look at Noah’s lineage that coincides with the tower of Babel narrative in chapter 11. 10:8-12 provides us with some insight on the building of Babel before we find out the details.

V10 says that Nimrod was the leader at Babel.

This generation was following Nimrod whose empire expanded beyond merely Babel even as far north and east as Nineveh in Assyria.

Basically, Nimrod controlled the entire Euphrates river from the Persian Gulf into Assyria.

This is what the Scripture is referring to when it says that “he became a mighty one in the earth.”

This language is reminiscent of the Nephilim from who are described there as being “mighty men,” the same Hebrew word.

Nimrod also achieved great feats to impress his fellow men.

He was such a good hunter that they developed a saying about him, “Like Nimrod a might hunter before the Lord.”

This meant that no one else on earth could hunt like Nimrod.

Put all this together and you have an empire building famous hunter who had won the hearts of his fellow men.

The Scripture paints a picture of Nimrod as a charismatic leader with great influence, and since his kingdom starts with Babel; the Scripture at least intimates that this whole idea was his to begin with.

Do you ever do this?

Do you ever elevate another human to hero status looking to their influence to provide meaning or acceptance?

Or maybe your hero is your security, the one in whom your hope lies?

Hero worship is a subtle form of pride because it isn’t personal pride as much as species pride.

We start looking to our human hero to be our savior in order to feel accepted, safe, or satisfied, which in turn feeds our personal pride.

If our hero accepts us, we brag that we are accepted by the popular person; or if they deliver us, we brag that we supported them all along.

The problem with these kinds of attitudes comes back to the problem this passage emphasizes.

When we worship human heroes, we reject the blessings of God.

God had chosen to save Noah and his family from the flood.

He had given them all the earth in which to dwell, and He had multiplied their children.

But they rejected those blessings for a false-savior and hero, Nimrod.

Instead of accepting God’s blessing and humbly submitting to Him, Noah’s lineage made Nimrod their leader, yea, even their god, and followed him to build an empire to exalt their own name as they exalted the name of Nimrod.

We aren’t much different: We look for acceptance at our jobs, so we give in to the boss’s unethical demands.

We look for safety and security, so we make our politicians heroes, and trust government more than we trust God.

We long to feel like successful winners so we elevate sports figures, celebrity pastors, and big organizations as our heroes.

We long for to live the lifestyles of the rich and famous, so we pursue it vicariously by dreamily following the lives of celebrities.

The problem with these human heroes is two-fold: Because they are sinners, they are susceptible to bad ideas at best and rebellious ideas at worse.

Just as Nimrod’s kingdom building ideas brought the race down with him, so your hero’s ignorance and sin has the potential to destroy you too.

Also, because our heroes are sinners, they will inevitably let us down.

Humans are constantly failing each other, and it is only a matter of time before your hero rejects you or fails to provide the safety and security you are looking for.

God’s Word provides an alternative, a real hero, worth following: Jesus Christ.

Jesus provides acceptance that no human can offer; consider

Jesus provides incomparable safety and security:

And Jesus alone can provide the satisfaction that you’re missing;

Because Jesus is God, everything He does is good and righteous, and because He is God; He can never let us down.

So avoid the deficiency of man-centered hero worship and humbly depend upon Christ for all that you need and want.

The Noahites provide us with second man-centered deficiency that we must avoid, in addition to avoiding hero worship, we must also avoid God resistance.

Avoid man-centered God resistance (11:1-4)

As I alluded to earlier, the particular sin at Babel wasn’t the building of a tower to heaven as is often emphasized.