902 Biblical Characters - Babelites (Gen.11.1-9)
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Q. What is fame? It has to do with notoriety. A person who is well known for some talent or position they hold
- You could say that it is to become famous or respected/admired by a lot of people
- When I was working in the GCCC we would be hearing of streets that get named after Council Alderman – these who are the local representatives in Council
- It seemed rather pompous to me that they were naming streets after themselves
- I’m sure there were more worthy people in the community than politicians, but there you go - that is the way of the world
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- If we are honest, we love to be admired & frankly to be famous
- Now if a person strives or jockeys themselves into a position for the express purpose of obtaining fame for themselves, then it seems to run counter to a walk with God
- When God makes a name for a person – that is, He makes them famous, then that is God’s doing
- King David sought to always elevate God, but it was God who elevated him
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- Here in our passage today, mankind gets together to elevate themselves, to make themselves a name
- Not just to enjoy fame, but to enjoy a godlike status as they aim to build a tower up into the heavens
- Instead of obeying God – fill the earth – they congregated in one place as they saw fit
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- These fundamental foundations you see here in Genesis are very important to grasp, for they give us great insight into what God thinks
- He certainly does not like the arrogant stance of man who thinks he can make himself god – or, at least – take on the same prerogatives as God Himself
- What we see here is a deliberate effort to not only oppose God, but to make themselves equal with God
1. A Unified Attempt for Equality with God (Gen. 9:1-4)
1. A Unified Attempt for Equality with God (Gen. 9:1-4)
Q. Do you think people set out, to consciously strive to be equal with God?
- I don’t think they necessarily do – who consciously strives to do wrong?
- Some people might do, but usually it is due to those tempting forces at work in us
2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
- The NT calls this tempting force, the flesh & in opposition to the flesh is the Spirit of God
- The Christian has been freed from sin & from the forces of this power called flesh, if they keep consciously choosing to walk in the power of the Spirit
- When a person walks in the Spirit, they carry out God’s desires
- But when a person walks in the flesh they carry out its desires
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Q. What happens when this erupts on a grand scale?
1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
- Here we have some of the makings of this desire to be equal with God
- Boastful, arrogant, lovers of self, brutal, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God
- When self is the focus & not God, the tendency is to elevate self & lower God
- Of course, that’s going to happen – how could it not!
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- When man obtained the knowledge of good & evil – something God knew was not for man – he/we changed
- You say, why? - why could we not have the knowledge of good & evil & be fine?
- For one very plain but, perhaps, allusive reason – we’re not God
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—
- It’s very obvious that man had no capacity to handle this knowledge
- The knowledge of good & evil is not just education or information
- It’s real experience – it penetrates deep into a person & has a control over them
- Adam & Eve after receiving this knowledge were working like a computer dipped in water
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
Q. What happened between the time when they were happy to be naked until the time when they were aware of their nakedness & labelled it evil? What happened?
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- Their eyes were opened – they received something that they were totally unfit to be able to process – they came to see evil in what was good
- They are human & not God – they are not His equal
- Ever since this time, we have mankind arguing, constantly arguing, over what is good & what is evil
- Twitter & the social media; politics are alive with these arguments
- For the Christian, there is only one way to settle on what is good & what is evil – you listen to the One reliable source for the truth – God!
- As you understand the revelation of Himself in Scripture & the propositional teaching in the Scripture, you can then determine what is right & wrong; good & evil
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- I asked a question on last week’s sermon outline on Telegram
Q. What does it mean to put aside our ways and thoughts and to adopt God's ways and thoughts? - Think through what God says in Is. 55 especially verses 7-9
6 Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Q. What does it mean to “return to the Lord”? What does it mean to seek Him?
- The answer is there: Negatively - “ket the wicked/unrighteous forsake 2 things: his ways & his thoughts
- Positively, opposite of forsake is to ADOPT 2 things: God’s ways & thoughts
- God then elaborates through Isaiah the means by which this happens
11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
- God’s word is what is truth – He tells us what is good & what is evil
- He is the authority & final arbiter of truth
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- But you have legions of people who are like little dinghys trying to survive out on an ocean – they are tossed back & forth never being grounded in any objective reality but pushed about by the waves & the wind
- That is, the social trends of the day – that which is trending
- They are happy to condemn what people have done in the past & pass judgement on them
- But, in a hundred years time, guess what? That generation will pass judgement on them
- If you have no fixed point of reference other than opinions & perceptions of an unredeemed & self-interested humanity, then you will always have shifting goal posts on what is good & evil
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- Here in this passage, we find that it doesn’t take long before mankind begins to go his own way from God
- They have a mother tongue – no doubt because Noah & his family survived the flood & spoke the same language
1 Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.
- Humanity, in this passage, is able to communicate & work with each other on a universal project & it seems that they decided to gravitate & gather together on the plain of Shinar
- They want to build a city with a tower that will reach into the heavens
Q. For what purpose? It’s stated there…
1. To make a name for ourselves
2. That they won’t be scattered over the whole earth
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- Most of the time in Scripture, making a name for yourself is frowned upon by God
- There seems to be a concerted effort here to elevate humanity to share an equal place with God
Gordon Wenham says: “Mankind is seen organizing and arrogating to himself essentially divine prerogatives: he builds a tower to reach to God’s dwelling in heaven; he tries to make himself a name and he schemes on his own account.”1
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- The 2nd problem here is that man was told to multiply & fill the earth, not gravitate into a city
- You can understand that spreading out to unknown places is frightening – it can be harsh & uncomfortable especially with little resources for survival
- However, they were to trust God in all this & their gathering together rather than spreading out reveals that mankind was all too ready to go on independently of God
- Interestingly, we have some very early Sumerian writings that say that the Sumerian gods saw diverse languages as undesirable & that one language improved the human condition for worship
- But Genesis holds that the confusion of language was God’s antidote to human arrogance
- Sumerian writings see the human condition of getting together – humanism – as improvement
- The other – Genesis – sees humanism as a deterioration of humanity
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- So in their minds, this titanic city & tower that is equivalent to our modern skyscraper would bring a certain fame & immorality to humanity
- If God makes a name for Himself through His epic work, then they figure that humans can make a name for themselves through their epic work
- This is humanism in a nutshell – humanism that leads to secularism
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- On the other hand, God has selected individuals like Abraham & David whom He says will make their name great
9 “I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth.
- You can gain a great name in one of 2 ways: either through sinful humanism that acts independently of God, or you honour God & allow Him to make you a great name
2. Distressed By Lack of Obedience
2. Distressed By Lack of Obedience
- I have mentioned before how much of God’s heart we actually see in the pages of Genesis
- We see once again something of God’s heart & concerns
- The irony here is punchy – their efforts to build a tower into the heavens is puny
- The builders erect a tower up to the heavens but its like God can’t even see it & has to come down to see what they have done
22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
- They fall way short of ever reaching the heavens
- We call this hubris don’t we – a higher inflated view of oneself than is warranted – excessive pride or self-confidence
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- God comes down & notes this devious plan against His will & says...
6 The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.
- If in this early stage of human history they are acting like this, then there will be no end to their mischief
- God is saying that their deviousness & defiance will by limitless
- If this is what they have begun to do, unless I do something, they will continue to pursue a path of godhood for themselves
- We call this, today, humanism
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- There have been two major judgements in Genesis up to this point
- The first was when Adam & Eve aspired to godhood & took from the tree of knowledge of good & evil
- The judgement was that in the day you eat of it - of that tree - you will surely die & they died & we do too
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- The 2nd judgement was on the “sons of God” whoever they are in Gen.6
- The earth became corrupt & violent & God destroyed the earth with a global flood
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- Now, here there is a 3rd judgement – God is going to do something to stop mankind & his movement towards humanism
- The Lord, therefore, confused their language so they could not get together with their plans to form a world with man as the ultimate boss
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- I was reflecting on this & found it disturbing how humanism has again taken root in the majority of the world – the western world
- We have for many years now been moving toward a unified language as in the English language which is practically universal throughout the world
- Even when we were in mainland China in 2007, we could order Pizza at a Pizza Hut in Beijing and the Chinese waiters clearly understood English
- I asked them why they decided to learn English & they said that it is compulsory throughout their school years
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- We started a couple of hundred years ago using the Telegraph & sending Telegrams to one another
- Information then started getting out quicker with the use of radio
- It become pictorial with the use of the television set – where information from around the world beamed into your living room every night
- Now we have the internet
- Not only are we getting information the second it is released from anywhere in the world, we are able to communicate to anyone in the world face to face in real time
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- Coupled with this, society has become so humanistic, so secular
- Science is now the god of the human race & even though science is just a tool & a tool with extreme limits, it stands as the means by which man can feel like he’s God
- We are living in the days of a reversal of the judgement of God which separated the aspiring humanists
- They are back together & humanism is dominant - study up on the Enlightenment & you will see how this happened
3. God Initiates Communication Breakdown
3. God Initiates Communication Breakdown
Q. Have you ever asked the question why God wanted mankind to scatter over the whole earth?
- I think there is a good explanation for this
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- When in Gen. 1:2 the Holy Spirit was moving over the surface of the waters, what is implied by that is that God is bringing order out of chaos
- This motif of order out of chaos is a biggie & I want you to remember it
2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
- After this, we have a series of “Let there be…” light, sky etc. & then God made an orderly separation of day from night; water above from water below; dry land from water in the sea; living creatures in the sky, in the sea and on the land etc.
- God was about bringing order out of chaos
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Q. What was that commandment God gave to mankind at the beginning?
28 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.”
- There is a sense here to mankind being caretakers of the world God has created
- We have been made in His image with the mandate to uphold the distinctions & order that God has built into the earth
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- At times, I get sick of doing the same repetitive things day in day out, don’t you?
- Moving lawns, pruning bushes, doing dishes, cleaning clothes etc.
- You are never out of work with these items
- Yet, instead of seeing these as useless & unproductive work, we should see it as contributing to who God made us to be
- People in His image bringing order out of chaos
- It is holy work we do even in the mundane things of life
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- We find the opposite problem today
- People don’t want to rule over the earth, they want the earth to rule over them
- The earth has grown a form of godlike status where leaving the earth in disarray or disorder is now the moral thing
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- I called the council once just to check to see if it is ok to pick up some broken tree branches for my bbq - twigs & such that have fallen on to the side of the road out along the road to Echuca Village
- Any sane society would thank me because, in doing so, I’m making it easier for any mowing or clearing that has to be done - esp. with fuel reduction
- But no, I couldn’t take wood that had fallen on the ground – I might damage an ecosystem – as if the world is that fragile
- But its not the fragility of the world the council is worried about, but the godlike status of pure, raw, nature - to them it is hallowed turf
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- This is not new - the ancients worshipped the sun, moon & stars (Pantheism) & the works of their hands as Paul has said in Romans - they worshipped the creature or the creation (Rom. 1:25) instead of the Creator
- He says… “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen”
- Our role as God’s stewards who are to fill the earth and subdue it is to bring order out of chaos - not abuse the world, but use the world as God intended
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9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.
- This was God’s remedy to man’s insolence
- Caused him to not communicate with others so that he would separate & fill the earth as God had originally commanded
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- In chp. 10 we see that one of the key leaders of Babel is Nimrod & his forefather is Ham – Noah’s disgraceful son - whose line is cursed - here is the line of Ham...
8 Now Cush became the father of Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went forth into Assyria, and built Nineveh and Rehoboth-Ir and Calah,
- Babel means “mixed” or “confused” – the language was confusing & it stopped these “chickens from organising” (for you who know the movie called “Chicken Run”)
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- Someone might argue, “but why confuse the language, why not just topple that tower”?
- Well, for one thing, towers are replaceable
- All God would have done is solve the problem temporarily
- It’s not the tower that must go, but the means of how humanism gained its power – through communication & group think
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- One more interesting note & we must go to the NT for this
- On the day of Pentecost, nations & languages of people from all around the world gather on Pentecost to celebrate the feast
- They hear the apostles proclaiming the resurrected Christ in their own native language
- God confuses the languages of the world & then, gives the apostles gifted speech, enabling them to speak different languages so all could hear of this most marvellous message
- It was such an amazing miracle that they thought the apostles had had too much to drink - because the people were unfamiliar with all these different languages they were speaking
- Peter responds & quotes the prophet Joel
- “And it shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind… (Acts 2:17)…
21 ‘And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Q. What makes these people different that they may have the blessing of hearing the message of Christ & His forgiveness in their own language?
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- Because God is doing the thing through which He planned right from the Garden of Eden
- That an offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent
- Jesus triumphed over death!
- Through the serpent’s actions, death came into the world - through Jesus, the offspring of the woman, the serpent’s & his offspring’s days are numbered – he received the fatal blow & will lose - humanism will lose!
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- God is now assembling a number of people – the redeemed of the Lord from every language, nation & people who will come together under one shepherd – Jesus Christ
- What a blessing to be living in a time where we can experience the fulfilment of life in Christ & yet still have an even greater future awaiting when the Lord returns & puts an end to the effects of death on us
- Of course, I’m speaking of resurrection which the Lord has promised to those who call on His name
- Are you one of those who call on His name?
1Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1–15, Word Biblical Commentary, (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1987), 1:237.