Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

-For many months now we have dug deep into the first 11 chapters of Genesis.

It truly is a book of beginnings that is foundational to everything that we believe, and it sets the stage for everything that comes after.

It is of vital importance that we get the gist of what Genesis is saying to understand all the rest of Scripture.

-Some of the important themes have been:

1) God created everything, it did not just happen by accident;

2) Mankind was created in God’s image to be His representatives, to manage creation, to be stewards, which entailed multiplying and subduing the earth, taking dominion (and, yes, Adam and Eve were real historical people);

3) A spiritual rebel introduced sin into creation by tempting Adam and Eve to rebel against God’s commands, which changed the relationship that they had with God, with creation, and with one another, and changed their nature to one of death and sin;

4) Sin quickly overtook humanity such that the 2nd generation of humans saw the first murder, and things kept getting worse from there to the point that by the 10th generation mankind’s thoughts and actions were nothing but wicked all the time, leading God to regret making man and bringing the flood of judgment on the earth;

5) Yet God already had a plan in place to redeem mankind and defeat the serpent and his spiritual descendants, such that God had chosen lines of people through whom He would work and eventually bring the Messiah;

6) Noah, although still a sinner, was given grace and through him a remnant would survive the flood and through his descendants that chosen line would continue through his son Shem;

7) There was a cursed line through Noah’s grandson Canaan whose wickedness would increase, and once filled to the brim, would be the object of God’s judgment through the chosen nation of Israel;

-But this is where we find ourselves as we close out our study of Genesis.

Chapter 10 is known as the Table of Nations and it indicates how the lines from Noah’s three sons started to migrate to different places.

But before they did that, they needed a little push to fulfill God’s plans of subduing the earth and multiplying over the face of it.

The various lines wanted to stick close, but together they would do no good.

They would encourage one another toward rebellion.

So, in chapter 11 God ensured that they would not gather together against Him, but go forth and fulfill the various roles that He had for each of them.

-We see in Chapter 10 verse 10 that it was Nimrod, a son of Cush, son of Ham, son of Noah, who was a mighty man, and he started several kingdoms in the land of Shinar, including this area known as Babel.

-The earth’s population immediately after the flood all migrated to that area.

While there are descriptions in chapter 10 and chapter 11 of how certain descendants ended up in certain areas and how certain people groups ended up in certain lands (even saying that they had their own languages), that is a description of them after the incident that we read here.

In the immediate aftermath of the flood, all of the earth’s population made there way to Shinar, hanging out around Babel (which wasn’t properly named until after the incident we’re reading about here).

-Coming from the three brothers, the earth’s population spoke the same language.

You could say that they were all cousins, so they stuck around with one another even though after the flood God had specifically told Noah and his sons that they were to multiply and fill the earth—people were to move away from one another and set up nations all over.

But they didn’t do that.

They decided to stick together and make their home east from where they were into the Shinar area where Nimrod had settled.

So, it would seem, that not much had changed after the flood than what was before the flood—humanity was still going to shirk God’s commands and do whatever they wanted.

They were still going to rebel.

-All the groups wanted to stay in one place, be one people, and relish in their conjoined rebellion against God.

So, it is in Shinar, in Babel, that they want to declare their independence.

We know from later in the Bible it is here that a people would grow who would be the tool of God’s chastening against Israel (Babylon) but itself would be destroyed.

Yet, it would be used as a constant symbol of disobedience and insurrection throughout Scripture.

And it all starts here.

-So, they wanted to settle and build, but they wanted to have a central place for the peoples that would symbolize their unity.

One city with one tower where they would break off the chains of God and they would become their own masters.

They wanted God and the world to know that they ruled the roost.

-In the area that they chose for themselves, there was not a lot of stone readily available to build, so they would make and bake bricks, and the bitumen would make the brick durable and waterproof and would stick the bricks together.

For its time, it was a wonder of technological advancement.

So they used the brick to build their cities, their homes, their walls, and most importantly, to build a tower into heaven.

They wanted to empower themselves.

-The tower that was built was most likely a Ziggurat.

Let me read to you a lengthy explanation so you can get the picture of its purpose, because the people would try to copy what they did in Babel:

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy: Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Old Testament), Volume 1 (Tower of Babel (11:1–9))

1) Though [ziggurats] may resemble pyramids in appearance, they are nothing like them in function.

Ziggurats have no inside.

The structure was framed in mudbrick, and then the core was packed with fill dirt.

The façade was then completed with kiln-fired brick.

(2) Ziggurats were dedicated to particular deities.

Any given deity could have several ziggurats dedicated to him or her in different cities.

Furthermore, a given city could have several ziggurats, though the main one was associated with the patron deity of the city.

(3) Archaeologists have discovered nearly thirty ziggurats in the general region, and texts mention several others.

The main architectural feature is the stairway or ramp that leads to the top.

There was a small room at the top where a bed was made and a table set for the deity.

Ziggurats ranged in size from sixty feet per side to almost two hundred feet per side.

Most important is the function of the ziggurat.

... Though the structure at the top was designed to accommodate the god, it was not a temple where people would go to worship.

In fact, the ziggurat was typically accompanied by an adjoining temple near its base, where the worship did take place.

The best indication of the function of the ziggurats comes from the names that are given to them.

For instance, the name of the ziggurat at Babylon, Etemenanki, means “temple of the foundation of heaven and earth.”

One at Larsa means “temple that links heaven and earth.”

Most significant is the name of the ziggurat at Sippar, “temple of the stairway to pure heaven.”

The word translated “stairway” in this last example is used in the mythology as the means by which the messenger of the gods moved between heaven, earth, and the netherworld.

As a result of these data, we can conclude that the ziggurat was a structure built to support the stairway.

This stairway was a visual representation of that which was believed to be used by the gods to travel from one realm to another.

It was solely for the convenience of the gods and was maintained in order to provide the deity with amenities and to make possible his descent into his temple.

At the top of the ziggurat was the gate of the gods, the entrance into their heavenly abode.

At the bottom was the temple, where hopefully the god would descend to receive the gifts and worship of his people.

-The tower was mankind trying to reach God on their own terms and bring God down to their level.

In somewhat of an ironic twist, it says that Yahweh did come down to see what they built, but not in the sense that they were thinking.

The picture is that mankind is so puny and pint-sized that God has to get down on His hands and knees just to see this tiny little tower that they made.

Here, mankind thinks they are giants, building this tower to make a name for themselves.

In reality, it’s so small it’s as if God has to get a magnifying glass in order to see it.

-So, God gives His assessment of the situation.

As long as they are one people with one language they will continue to rebel against God’s commands about populating the earth, and their sin will only grow worse.

Who knows what other schemes they could come up with to keep from obeying the Lord.

So, in what actually was an act of mercy of God to prevent greater sin (and, really, to prevent humanity from harming itself further), and to force the people to do what He had commanded to begin with, God confused their language and forced them to separate from one another and take over different geographic areas of the earth.

Like in Genesis 1, God tells His heavenly court what He is going to do—confuse their language and disperse them throughout the earth.

-It is interesting that God involves the heavenly court in this.

I have mentioned the works of Michael Heiser in the past.

Heiser has some interesting theories about the spiritual realm, and this passage plays an important part.

He references:

Heiser says of this passage:

Deuteronomy 32:8–9 describes how Yahweh’s dispersal of the nations at Babel resulted in his disinheriting those nations as his people.

This is the Old Testament equivalent of Romans 1:18–25, a familiar passage wherein God “gave [humankind] over” to their persistent rebellion.

The statement in Deuteronomy 32:9 that “the LORD’s [i.e., Yahweh’s] portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage” tips us off that a contrast in affection and ownership is intended.

Yahweh in effect decided that the people of the world’s nations were no longer going to be in relationship to him.

He would begin anew.

He would enter into covenant relationship with a new people that did not yet exist: Israel.

-This can actually be seen through the end of chapter 11 which is another genealogy.

It is the line of Shem.

God still had His chosen line, and it would go from Shem and weave its way to Abraham through whom He would make for Himself a nation.

The other nations were handed over to other spiritual entities (or, as the passage reads, according to the number of the sons of God—an oft-used reference to spiritual entities).

If you remember in Daniel, Michael is referred to as the prince of Israel, but then in Daniel 10 it speaks of another spiritual entity that is the prince of Persia.

Michael looked over God’s nation, but other spiritual entities were over the other nations.

-Heiser indicates that Psalm 82 refers to how these spiritual entities led the nations away from God.

-And the description goes from there.

But the psalm ends like this:

-And that was God’s plan all along—to take back the nations.

But it starts with creating His own special nation Israel through Abraham.

And it was from this people that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come and through His death and resurrection create a people for Himself that had no national or geographic boundary.