Genesis Session 18

Our study in Genesis begins to move us from focusing on Noah and his immediate family… to the descendants of his family and to the re-population of the earth.

Remember… after the flood, God’s blessing on creation remained. “Be fruitful and multiply” was the instruction given by God to Noah and the family.

Chapter 10 and the beginning of chapter 11 shows us the results of that blessing. They followed God’s instruction and we see two sections of Scripture that reveal what took place.

Chapter 10 gives us detailed information regarding the sons of Noah and their descendants. We are given an account of the Japhethites, the Hamites, and the Semites.

With each son comes a list of clans or groups that came from that son. And… with each son came a declaration that we need to pay special attention to.

Regarding the Japhethites:

Genesis 10:5 NIV

5 (From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.)

Regarding the Hamites:

Genesis 10:20 NIV

20 These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

Regarding the Semites:

Genesis 10:31 NIV

31 These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

We know that Moses was the author of Genesis and the data recorded here was as it was in Moses’ day.

Each group had their own territory, nations, AND LANGUAGES.

Genesis 10 tells us how it was and where the clans and nations came from. But Genesis 11 shares with us how those people became “scattered” and how their independent languages emerged.

Following the flood, Noah and his family were the only people left on earth. The language spoken by the family would have become the one and only language of the land.

Being able to understand each other is a very important thing!

Last night, around the dinner table, we were randomly talking about why it is important for everyone to be on the same page.

For instance, when measuring something, a ruler becomes the standard. When a person says an inch or a foot, we know what that is.

You can measure things a million different ways! Use a string, your forearm, a piece of paper, etc. However… if you want everyone you are working with to understand the measurement, you will opt to use a system people understand.

This is true in everything… the more universal the system, the more understood it becomes.

So imagine the understanding that came with a world that spoke one language. There was one system… one standard.

There was no debate between metric and standard, Fahrenheit or Celsius, drive on the left or right side of the road. EVERYONE WAS ON THE SAME PAGE.

And apparently… things were going good for the people.

Genesis 11:1–4 NIV

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

Okay… the people were enjoying the conditions they found themselves in. They desired to create a city with a tower that would promote unity and togetherness. What’s the harm in that?

The harm came in their deeper motives. “to make a name for ourselves.” The people had it so good that they began to take credit for the good they were living in. “Look at we we have done and can accomplish.”

There is no doubt that humankind can achieve amazing things when we work together. But when our achievements begin to supersede our need for God… then trouble begins to creep in.

The problem wasn’t that they spoke one language. The problem wasn’t that they wanted unity and togetherness. The problem was in WHY they wanted unity and togetherness. THEY WANTED TO MAKE A NAME FOR THEMSELVES. They were promoting themselves higher than God. Such pride and arrogance is sin.

And with sin… comes consequence. That consequence would never come in the form of a world-wide flood again… but God took notice of what was taking place.

Genesis 11:5–9 NIV

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

So What Happened?

From the flood to the tower… what happened? Why would it be necessary for God to confuse the language of the people in response to what they were trying to do?

The people were losing sight of who was most important. In their strength and standardized condition… they were walking away from the Lord.

Does God have anything against His creation doing great and amazing things?

No… for our ability to create and build comes from being made in the image of the Lord.

However, when that ability causes us to puff ourselves up instead of bring honor and glory to God… that is where the problem comes in.

And before we look down on the people at Babel… we need to stop and consider how we operate when all seems to be going well.

We most often neglect our relationship with God… in the good times. We like to coast in the comfort of things going right. And there is nothing wrong in enjoying seasons of happiness… so long as we do not become distracted in our walk of holiness.

Let’s face it and be honest… we like feeling strong. We like feeling accomplished. We like feeling like we have what it takes.

But we can never forget who it is that makes us strong. We can never forget who it is that completes us. We can never forget who it is that supplies for us what we need.

What happened at Babel is what happens when we think we have it all together.

And what God does… is simply amazing. All He did was confused their language.

He didn’t shut down their brick factory.

He didn’t send an earthquake to topple the tower.

He didn’t make the plain of Shinar inhabitable for the people who were living there.

God simply confused their language and in that confusion, the tower could not be completed. God then scattered the people all over the earth.

The problem was: the nation’s sophisticated culture and power deliberately excluded God from the picture.

Sound familiar?

Are we Doing it Again?

So now let’s move from the beginning to the end… from Genesis to Revelation

Revelation 17-19 reveals the fall of something specific during the Great Tribulation on this earth. Does anyone know what that is? It is identified as Babylon… and it represents the systems of men.

What is interesting is how the Bible portrays this system… it is illustrated as a prostitute… a prostitute that the kings, nations, and people are all in bed with.

Those who rejected Christ, accepted this system that excluded God from the picture.

And interestingly enough, this system will reach it’s climax when there is only one world government and one world currency.

In other words… the people are coming back together like they did at the Tower of Babel… they have constructed a “system” to make a name for themselves.

To be clear… this system will be a direct rejection of Christ. It will go so far as to require a person to receive a mark… a mark that is the number of what? The number of man.

A person will not be able to anything unless they have this mark.

This mark, is much like a brand. It identifies the system that the person belongs to. It reveals the placement of the person’s trust and allegiance.

Mankind will once again aim to make a name for themselves. And God… once again… will come down and do a work only He can do.

But this time… He won’t confuse a language. This time, He will send in Jesus. Jesus… the name above ALL names… will return and those who were a part of the world’s systems, will watch that system burn as they weep over her.

My point in bringing this up to us this evening is this: The story of Babel may seem very distant to us because of the amount of time that has passed. Yet… even in our day… humankind is working relentlessly to make a name for itself.

“I don’t need God” is taking hold in hearts. People are moving away from the Lord and working to build a system of strength and spoil.

The more technologically advanced we become and the more comfortable we become, the less we depend on God.

Friends, I hope we never find ourselves in a place where the conveniences of the world become more important to us than the presence of God!

What Can We Do?

So the answer to this dilemma is rather quite simple. The same problem the people faced at Babel is the same problem that is overtaking our culture today. That problem is Godlessness.

The people of Babel wanted to make a name for themselves. In essence, as they increased in importance, their dependency on God decreased by the day.

Our culture is suffering in this same problem this very day. We are pushing God out as pride and arrogance take over. “We don’t need God” is heard over and over again from a society that thinks it can do better for itself.

The reality is… we desperately need God. We need the Lord to move powerfully in His people and church. We need believers who are desperate for God to move in and through them.

We know the end of the story. We know the world will continue to push secularism and human reasoning and understanding. We know people will reject the truth.

However… we know the truth is still capable of setting hearts free! We are NOT without hope. We are NOT without direction. We are NOT without strength.

The people of Babel thought they knew what strength looked like… yet their pride became their greatest weakness.

God is the source of our strength and He gives us what we need to make it through each and every day.

What we can do… is remain faithful. What we can do… is never take our eyes off Jesus. What we can do… is remain humble and reverent to the Lord.

We are NOT here to make a name for ourselves. We ARE here to lift up the name of Jesus! The name that is above ALL names!

Despite all of our advances and discoveries, we are unable to overcome the universal sin problem that every person faces. Our efforts have and will always fall short.

But God sent His Son and did what we could not do. And we now have the opportunity to come out from under the system of men and to be sealed by God’s Holy Spirit, marking us as one who belongs to Him.

Jesus is the key to being set free.

There is nothing we can build with our hands or construct with our minds that will do for us what Jesus has done.

Christ gave all… so we could receive all. Let’s continue to forever place our faith and trust in Him.