The Heritage of the World

Introduction

The world after the flood was meant to be a new creation. All the evil and wicked people in the previous generation had been wiped away. Only the one righteous man left on earth, along with his family, survived. However, this didn’t work and the story of Noah’s flood serves as a rebuttal to the charge, “why doesn’t God just stop all the evil in the world.” He wiped out ever wicked person on the planet and started the world afresh and yet the spirit of Cain survived. Through the wickedness of Noah’s son Ham the disparity between the righteous and the wicked continues into the new world that had been created. This was no surprise to God, however, as he notes right after Noah gives a sacrifice that the thoughts of man’s heart is wicked. This should stand out to the reader since God purposely only saved the righteous and not the wicked, and yet even this righteous man and his family will be the bearers of evil thoughts and intentions into the rebooted creation. The problem is not just that some are wicked and some are righteous, what we learn from the flood is that all are wicked in their heart of hearts and that if humanity is going to be saved from evil, they first need to be saved from themselves. Even the most righteous people have wickedness hidden in their hearts that will ruin creation and their relationship with God if not addressed. So we see God has shown us through this critical story the real problem cannot simply be solved by getting rid of all the evil in the world since evil exists inside of every human heart. From here on God will begin to reveal his plan to solve this most important problem through a man named Abraham through promises that will work themselves out through the OT and be fulfilled in the NT.

So we are at a crucial turning point in the story of the Bible, but before we cross into the story of Abraham there are two small sections that we will cover today. Both these sections have to do with the descendants of Noah’s sons Ham and Japheth. The first follows their physical descendants in what is known as the Table of Nations and the second follows the spiritual descendants of Ham and Cain, that is, those who reject God and try to live life as if he doesn’t exist. As it turns out, this will include everyone in creation until God sets one apart for his own purposes.

The Table of Nations

Ever since sin has embedded itself in the hearts of human beings, and ever since there has been a rivalry between those who trust in the Name of YHWH and those who trust in themselves. The line of Cain Vs. Line of Seth became the Line of Ham Vs. the Line of Shem after the flood. One line seeking God in faith, waiting for his promises and worshipping Him, and the other relying on their own structures and human devices to care for themselves and create their own laws, doing what is right in their eyes without regard to the Word or Character of God. Before the flood we saw two archetypes, one from each line stick out, first Lamech the descendant of Cain who became the worlds first recorded Tyrant, killing as he pleased and cursing anyone who would stand to hold him accountable. Second, Enoch the descendant of Seth who walked with God and was taken to heaven because of this close walk. However, it is clear who is winning this rivalry by the time the flood hits. Only Noah is left as a faithful son of Seth, all the others have turned to follow Cain’s godless legacy. Eventually the flood comes and things start over with the righteous seemingly having the advantage. However, this doesn’t last. With Ham’s corruption, only two brothers are blessed and considered righteous at this stage. As we get into the Table of Nations, we follow where these families go. This becomes a general history that gives us the context to understand who everyone is and where everyone came from in the ANE when the main Biblical narrative continues with Abraham. This will be especially important because it is vital to know who the descendants of Ham are. If we didn’t know that, the whole story of Ham and his father in the tent would be somewhat useless.

The first family line that is followed in this text is the line of Japheth. Jepheth's children are the furthest removed from the story of Israel at this point. Their descendants will not come into play until many many years later, after the Babylonian exile. For now, all we need to know is that his descendants inhabited the northern regions of the Mediterranean area. Many of Japheth’s descendants become coastal people and probably early Europeans. Greeks, Medes, Persians, and other nomadic people come from Japheth. Again, he isn’t as important to the story so less emphasis is put on his line.

Next the line of Ham is examined. This becomes very important in he narrative as we see all of Israel’s enemies come from this son. Egyptians, Syrians, Canaanites, and Philistines all come from him. It is important to remember that the curse put on Ham is meant to signify the beginning of a new rivalry between God’s people and the world. This rivalry will end with God’s people choosing to join the wicked in worshipping their gods and practicing their ways by the time Abraham comes around. There is actually no reason to believe that, by the time Abraham lived, anyone was left who still worshipped YHWH. It is only through his special revelation to his elect that he did this. Later on in the book of Isaiah God will actually say that he will call Assyria and Egypt his people, meaning that in the future God plans on overlooking this curse and actually bringing the Kingdom of God to the descendants of Ham. If you are concerned as to whether you are a descendant of Ham or not, you are missing the point of this text. Ham, like Cain, represents those who follow themselves rather than God. Ham’s anscertors will be punished by Israel in war, not because of the sin of Ham, but because they follow Ham in his sins. Nevertheless, these nations become Israel’s enemies and these nations will eventually either become defeated by Israel or beat into submission by Japheth’s descendants later on. From the line of Ham rises a great warrior, hunter, king, and tyrant named Nimrod. While it says that Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord, this does not mean he worshipped God, only that of all people God considered him mighty in power. He builds such cities as Babylon and the hebrew words that discribe him show him to be a tyrant and king who was perhaps the first great dictator of the world. The idea to build the tower of Babel may well have been his.

Last, the line of Shem is examined. Although there isn’t a whole lot to say about this line other than he is anscestor that we eventually follow to Abraham, he is interesting. The word “Hebrew” comes from his descendant Eber. Peleg is a descendant whose name means “divide” and this is pointed out, probably referring to the incident at Babel. Most of the other descendants become Arabian tribes or inhabit parts of north Africa. Reading this may leave you wanting a fuller history of the world, but we must remember that the main point isn’t to learn world history, but rather the history of God’s interaction with mankind.

The Tower of Babel

This is why the next story is so important, the tower of Babel. This story begins by telling us that everyone on earth had one language and one tongue of which they spoke. Since the part about Japheths line talks about many languages, we can assume that what is about to happen happened sometime early on when the descendants of all three sons still lived and wondered about together. We are given the idea that most people at the time were nomadic, probably wondering around in tents in generally the same area, rather than spreading out. They reach a place that looks fruitful enough and begin to build a city. If you haven’t noticed already with the building of the city of Enoch, but while cities aren’t inherently bad, in the book of Genesis they usually represent man’s rebellion against God and self sufficiency. Cities represent the power and confidence that people tend to have in themselves collectively rather than in God. This is exactly what happens to these travellers, giving us the idea that by this point everyone on earth had already abandoned God. Worship of YHWH didn’t last long and soon not only has wickedness completely overtaken the human race, but this time there doesn’t appear to be a single righteous soul left.

Another Man-centred city

So what exactly does this tower that they begin to build mean, and why is it wrong? First, it is important to know exactly what the purpose of building this brick structure is. There certainly isn't anything wrong with them building a tower. King Solomon would build great structures in Jerusalem and was never reprimanded for it. This is similar to what we saw when we looked at the family of Cain. Cain's descendants invented many good things, including musical instruments. Certainly building cities wasn't seen as a bad thing in God's eyes. What was seen as wicked to God was the attitude with which these things were built. It was a symbol of human strength against and even over God's strength. The type of tower in mind here is likely what was known as a ziggurat. a ziggurat was a circular tower with stairs that wound around the outside and led to a flat top where astrology and other cultic practices would take place. Interestingly, these ziggurats were seen as a place where men could go up to heaven and gods would come down to earth. They were literally seen as staircases to heaven and even some of the well-known ziggurats that archaeologists have found were named accordingly. One famous ziggurat was called the house of the link between heaven and Earth, for example. So we can see the mindset here, they wanted a way where they could bring themselves up to heaven and thus inherit eternal life their way. It was also a place where the gods would come down and bless them with this life as a reward for their efforts in building this tower. So when the text tells us that God came down, there are two different plays on the wording. First, it emphasizes how small of their tower is compared to God's throne. God has to come down just to see this so-called stairway to heaven. Second, the gods that they were expecting to come down and bless them were the gods of their own imagination as the ziggurats were never built in worship to Yahweh. Instead of their gods coming down to bless them, the one true God comes down to punish them. just like Cain, these people have decided to abandon the worship of the one true God, refuse to rely on him for good things and blessings that come through faith and obedience, and instead tried to find their own way to God through their own strength. Paganism has its own kind of works salvation that always emphasizes man’s effort above God's grace. when God comes down he sees that together mankind is plotting to overthrow God himself in what they are doing. Although the violence that prevailed before the flood doesn't appear to be present, the same rejection of God and his rules do and thus prove what God has already said about the human heart. The state of society is at a point where judgment is deserved and could easily be dished out.

But God is a God who keeps his promises and this case is no different. Well God has kept his promise through the flood with the survival of Noah, he will keep his promises now by dishing out judgement in a different way. This judgment is more temporary and less thorough as God pushes people in the direction they are supposed to go according to their design in his image. The judgment address is two things that people are doing wrong. First, they are combining their efforts to oppose God and his will together. The combined rebellion of humanity against God pits creation against its creator. Although this group of people could obviously never even come close to rivaling God, God's lordship over creation is at stake since those he created to display his authority and will on earth have completely rebelled against him. The second thing this judgment addresses is the fact that people were created to inhabit the entire Earth and fill it with the glory of God that is inherent in the image bearers that he created. Been kind is not doing its job because they are too busy doing their own thing. With these two ideas in mind God and leashes the judgment of confusing the languages, making communication between different groups and clans and possible and thus halting the establishment of this tower. The great works of men failed it's just something so simple as not being able to speak to one another. God's will is done even though those doing it are resistance to it. Human pride crumbles and God's promise endures. The one thing that should be taken away from this story is how patient God is being with humanity and how he is providentially bringing about his promises.

Another kind of judgement

But God is a God who keeps his promises and this case is no different. While God has kept his promise through the flood with the survival of Noah, he will keep his promises now by dishing out judgement in a different way. This judgment is more temporary and less thorough as God pushes people in the direction they are supposed to go according to their design in his image. While God’s judgement is far less severe for now, he is not about to get on the sidelines and watch humanity do their own thing. The judgment addresses two things that people are doing wrong. First, they are combining their efforts to oppose God and his will together. The combined rebellion of humanity against God pits creation against its creator. Although this group of people could obviously never even come close to rivaling God, God's lordship over creation is at stake since those he created to display his authority and will on earth have completely rebelled against him. The second thing this judgment addresses is the fact that people were created to inhabit the entire Earth and fill it with the glory of God that is inherent in bearing his image. Mankind is not doing its job because they are too busy doing their own thing. With these two ideas in mind God unleashes the judgment of confusing the languages, making communication between different groups and clans and possible and thus halting the establishment of this tower. The great works of men failed it's just something so simple as not being able to speak to one another. God's will is done even though those doing it are resistance to it. Human pride crumbles and God's promise endures. One thing that should be taken away from this story is how patient God is being with humanity and how he is providentially bringing about his promises, while at the same time God is showing his judgement to those who worship themselves rather than God.

Conclusion

God resists the proud and turns their pride into shame.

The flavour of our lives should be one of trust in God, not in ourselves and our achievements.

God’s promise endures and his faithfulness overcomes human evils.