Diminishing God

Genesis 10-11

We will examine Genesis 10-11 this morning.

· The last of the foundational materials.

· Here we have the last piece of the puzzle as to why God needed his "special revelation" that begins with Abram and continues to Jesus.

<<Briefly discuss general and special revelation.>>

· Through chapters 1-11 man spreads out over the Earth and his knowledge and obedience to God deteriorates in steps. Each step is more profound than the last. Until God begins to once again reveal to man who he is and what he demands of us.

· These two chapters are the final piece before the beginning of that "special revelation."

I. Introduction and anticipatory set

QUESTION and DISCUSSION:

What was the sin of Adam?

· Rejection of a close personal relationship <<See Genesis 3:8>>

· Here is a glimpse of the close personal relationship with God previously enjoyed by Adam and Eve. But because of their sin they now "hid" from God.

· Adam's sin was that they disbelieved God. Instead they took the council of Satan and traded away the intimate relationship with the creator for something that God has forbidden.

QUESTION and DISCUSSION:

Now fast forward the tape to the dreadful days just prior to the flood.

· In our lesson on Noah we said "At this point sin was no longer the work of individuals engaged in individual acts. Sin was at the very core of the culture and because of this God was grieved."

· So what was the sin that so grieved God?

<<See Genesis 6: 5-8>>

· The sin of the people in Noah's time was that the rejected God's blessings for unnatural and evil desires of their own heart.

<<See Romans 1: 21-24>>

IMPORTANT POINT: Remember however, in Paul's words in verse 21, "They knew God."

Remember that during the time of Noah, it is reasonable to assume that the people still knew God. They had already developed a pattern of prayer and worship.

<<See Genesis 4: 26>>

II. "Be fruitful and multiply."

So now we fast forward the tape again.

· Noah had sons...(Name them)

<<See Genesis 10:1>>

· The descendents of Noah's sons had populated the earth.

· They obviously had no trouble being "fruitful" and "multiplying"

We will not study the whole genealogy in detail but there are three observations to pay attention to:

· Universality

· Dischronologization

· Emphasis

A. Universality

· The chapter division that isolated chapter 10 is well placed: bracketed by v. 1 and v32.

<<Now compare Genesis 10:32>>

What is the difference?

· ANSWER: V.1 Begins with family records, while v.32 ends with the accounts of clans and nations.

Why is this important?

· HINT: In all other creation narratives, the god creates a special person or people. Then these or some subordinate creates everyone and everything else. There is an innate exclusivity imbedded in the story.

· Here God is the creator of all mankind. No one is exclusive. So all share in the inheritance of the tendency to sin.

· It also fits the patter that God follows throughout all of scripture. God SELECTS a remnant to be used as his tool for revelation and ultimately redemption.

The message of chapter 10 is that we are all "sons of Noah."

B. "Dischronologization"

· The narration is out of chronological order. First should come the account of the tower (first part of Chapter 11), then genealogies of Chapter 10, and finally the account of the genealogy of Seth in the last part of Chapter 11.

C. Emphasis

While all three of Noah's sons are listed in v. 1, Chapter 10 only accounts for the descendents of Japheth and Ham. Shem is dealt with following the interruption by the Tower narrative.

Why is this important?

· ANSWER: It separates out the chosen line. It is a literary device to isolate and emphasize the branch of Noah's family from whom will come both Abraham and ultimately Jesus. Shem's branch was chosen as God's tool in His redemptive plan.

Now let’s turn to the story of the Tower of Babel.

III. The "tower" narrative

The narrative in ancient Hebrew is full of word plays and other literary devices that add emphasis.

Hamilton suggests this was a strategy to pack a lot of "story" into a very economical text.

In 9 verses of one chapter we have:

· The reason for the geographical dispersion of the human race

· The reason for multiple language groups

This is a big ticket for so small a text.

A. The text

We are going to deal with the story as a whole unit rather than any significant analysis of individual verses.

<<Read Genesis 11:1-9>>

Some notes:

· Literally "one lip, one word."

· Shows a gradual movement "east"

· Still primarily as a single unified people.

· Repeated use of statements of intent "come let us":

· v. 3 - let us make bricks

· v.4 - let us build a tower

· v.4 - let us make a name for ourselves

· v. 7 let us go down and confuse their language

B. The offense

1. Possible explanations

DISCUSSION:

· They were arrogant and wanted to build something to their glory rather than Gods.

· The refused to spread out through the whole land as God had commanded.

· _________

Problems with these explanations:

· Why would God be offended because these people wanted to create, build and show the power and glory and creativity that God had given them? If we accept this then all grand schemes of creation are sinful if they are not directly completed for the glory of God.

· "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" was a blessing, why would God punish them since it is clear they are quite successful so far.

· QUESTION: So what was the offense?

2. The real offense

The offense of the people of Shinar was that they were trying to change God.

See Walton, p. 380. "

Follow the pattern shown in Romans 1:21-32

This is the inception of "paganism."

IV. Answer and Conclusions

A. The design and purpose of the tower

The purpose and design of the tower reflects the theology of a people who were changing God.

Ziggurat:

· Tall structure

· Residence of the god on top

· Stairway to the top not for man to ascend, but for God to descend.

· Not a temple for worship. Temple was nearby.

<<Read quote from Walton, p. 380>>

1. Here is the birth of Paganism

2. The degradation of the diety

Walton also writes that this slow degeneration of the nature and character of God continued into classical Greek culture: "It is said of Greece that it is not that the people became so wicked; rather, they abandoned their gods because their gods had become too wicked.

<<See Romans 1:21-25 again>>

· The arrogance of the people was the result of a far more serious sin.

· They abandoned the true nature and character of God.

RESULT: "God gave them over..."

B. It isn't about the people, it is about God.

This didn't hit me until I was struggling with this lesson early this morning.

· Bible study isn't about preparing good lessons

· It isn't about your needs as a class

· It is about me being obedient to what God has called me to do...to understand Him, His word, and its demands on my life. It is about you searching the scriptures to understand God’s character and His expectations for your life.

C. How are we guilty of the same sin as the tower buuilders?

· We manipulate God

Walton: p. 384

3. We dilute God by redistributing his power << See Exodus 20:3>>

1. We dilute God by restricting his authority <<See Exodus 20: 4>>

· We dilute God by regulating his authority <<See Exodus 20: 7>>

<<READ Walton, p. 386>>