The Tower of Babel

Introduction:

Today we come to our final sermon in our series going through the first eleven chapters of Genesis we’ve titled “Prologue.” In our study we’ve seen the origin of all things that comprise a full and biblical world view.

We’ve studied the universe in its origin, the origin of time, action, space, matter. The origin of the solar system. The origin of the atmosphere. The origin of all life. The origin of mankind. The origin and definition of marriage. The origin of the family. The origin of sin, and the origin of guilt, and the origin of redemption, and the origin of forgiveness. We’ve studied the origin of culture and civilization and animal husbandry and metallurgy and other enterprises, the origin of poetry, the origin of music. Today we will see the origin of nations and the origin of languages. And all of that runs up through the eleventh chapter, so that by the time you open chapter twelve, you have the origin of the chosen people, through whom the Word of God and the Savior of the world would come.

From chapter 12 on, through the entire Old Testament, the focus is on Israel, the chosen people of God. Everything happens in and through and around that nation.

Then when we open the New Testament. Israel has failed to fulfill its responsibility to God to be the witness to the world that they were called to be, so they are temporarily set aside. And in the place of Israel, God establishes a new chosen people, made up of Jew and Gentile, called the church. And everything that happens in the New Testament then begins to focus in and through and around the church.

The event we have just read together takes place many years after Noah and his family left the ark to begin their new life in the area of Ararat. For five generations the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth grew and grew to such a point that many think the population could have been as high as 30,000 people. Whatever that number was, by the time you get to Nimrod and Peleg (Genesis 10:8-12 & 25) the population was very large.

I mentioned two people named Nimrod and Peleg, who were they and why do they need mentioned?

In order to answer that question, we need to glance back at chapter 10 for a minute. Chapter 10, gives us the three branches of the human race who descended from Noah’s three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

From Japheth came the Indo-European people. His descendants settled in India, Persia and then spread into Europe. Besides the Indian and Persian peoples, the descendants of Japheth include:

The Gauls of France.

The Celtics of Britain.

The Galicia of Spain.

The Germans.

The Welsh.

The Irish.

The Grecians.

From Ham came the Oriental, African and Asian people groups. His descendants settled in:

Arabia.

Ethiopia.

Egypt.

Middle East

Far East.

Africa

From Shem came the Hebrew and Arabian peoples.

In Genesis 10:8-9

Genesis 10:8–9 NKJV

8 Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.”

Nimrod was the son of Cush who was the son of Ham. HE was the first tyrant/dictator in the post flood world who set out to build the first world empire.

In Genesis 10:25

Genesis 10:25 NKJV

25 To Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.

Peleg was a great grandson of Shem and his name means “divided”. Scripture tells us it was in his day that the earth was divided. There is much speculation given as to what this phrase means, but tracing the timeline of the events of Babel in chapter 11, it is most likely referring to the scattering of the human race following the events we will study together this morning.

Based on what we know regarding the time frame here in our text in ch.11, by the time of Nimrod, the people decided to migrate from the mountains of Ararat to the plains of Shinar (modern day Iraq). This could have happened do to famine, or more fertile soil for farming, or, what is most likely, is that Nimrod decided he wanted to expand his empire. If that’s the case, he would have most likely left a small group of people behind in Ararat to claim that land for his empire and then move the bulk of the people to Shinar. Upon arriving there, he founded the city of Babylon.

Genesis 10:10 NKJV

10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

Then in Genesis 11:2-3

Genesis 11:2–3 NKJV

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.

That is the geopolitical background of the events in our text this morning.

Now, we must establish two major facts about the human race at this time as well.

v.1 of our text tells us that all of the people on earth had one language and speech. In Hebrew “one language” refers to the spoken language and “one speech” refers to the vocabulary. In other words, not only did they speak the same language but their concepts and thoughts were the same as well.

This common language is what allowed for them to live and work together. It is what enabled them to advance as a society and civilization so rapidly.

With all of that background in mind, let’s examine together this morning

The arrogance of the people at Babel. (v.3-4)

The intervention of God at Babel. (v.5-9)

In doing so, we will see the the hubris of man is no match for the power of God.

1.) The arrogance of the people at Babel. (v.3-4)

Sometime after the people began to settle down in the land of Shinar and to establish this new civilization, Nimrod as their ruler must have realized they needed to do something to hold the empire together. So they presented a vision to the people of building a great city and in that city a giant religious center in the form of a giant tower called a Ziggurat. This city and tower would likely have formed the capital city of the empire Nimrod was building for himself.

The people were excited for this project and gave their whole hearted effort and support (v.3-4). They were more than willing to carry out Nimrod’s plan to the best of their ability.

The people had a three fold purpose for building this city and tower:

A.) They wanted to get famous. (v.4)

“make a name for ourselves”

Understand, there is nothing wrong with building a strong nation or a well planned city. Those are good things in order to meet the needs of people and form a healthy society. But, that is not why they undertook the building of the tower, their reason was purely motivated by the sinful desire to gain fame and glory for themselves. By bringing God down to earth and enshrining him in their ziggurat.

They were only concerned with boosting their pride and ego by displaying their power and might. They wanted people to look at what they had built and think “man those people were something.”

Their motives weren't about the worship of God or the service of his people. It was all about their own egotism and self sufficiency.

God was left completely out of their plans. They were building a godless empire and a man-made religion that focused on their own glory.

B.) They wanted safety and security and protection apart from God’s provision. (v.4)

“ lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the earth.”

They knew the population was going to continue to grow and expand further and further. As this happened, new factions would rise, skirmishes and wars would break out. The solution to this is to keep everyone unified under the same empire . One rule, one state.

Again, there is nothing wrong with security and unity but when God is left out of the security and unity and instead its based on a worldly and humanistic purpose it becomes impossible.

God is the only one who can provide real security and unity amongst a people. Once a person has been truly reconciled to God, he loves God and he loves the people of God. God is the basis upon which a nation and people must be built.

B.) They sought to form a religion based on themselves and their own ability. (v.4)

“a tower whose top is in the heavens;

Notice, there is no mention of God anywhere in their plans. No mention of them living for God in any way whatsoever. Only self and only man is worshipped.

Man will build this city for and by himself. God is not needed. He is forgotten, ignored and neglected. In building this tower, they were attempting to build a world wide religion with Babylon at its center. Their desire was for Babylon to be the religious center of the world.

This tower was being built to be a symbol that the people were building a stairway to heaven, a stairway to God. They were building a man made religion in order to reach God. Their own path way to God. Attempting to earn eternal life via their own means. They were building a religion based on their own effort and works. They thought they were good enough and righteous enough to reach God by their own works and efforts.

Application:

Sadly, we are still making the same mistake today. Most people still try to reach God by:

Their own works and effort.

Their own morality and goodness.

Their own man made ideas and steps to God.

But, scripture tells us we are doomed to failure when we try to merit Salvation on our own.

God is perfect and any person who is going to enter heaven and live with Him must be perfect. But no person is perfect. We have all sinned and come short of God’s glory, of His perfection. Therefore, no matter how many stairways we build up to God—no matter how good we try to be—we are not good enough because we cant be perfect.

Because of this, we can’t reach heaven and enter God’s presence. If we are ever going to be good enough to enter heaven, God has to remake us and perfect us. But before that, He has to take care of our sin and death problems. This is the glorious gospel. God has taken care of all this through the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we truly believe in Jesus Christ, God takes our belief and counts it as the righteousness and death of Jesus Christ. God counts us …

• as righteous in Jesus Christ

• as having died in Jesus Christ

The punishment for our sins has been borne by the death of Jesus Christ. We stand righteous, sinless, and perfect before God through Christ. We enter heaven and are acceptable to God—counted perfect—through Christ and Christ alone.

Romans 3:23–24 NKJV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Romans 5:8 NKJV

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Galatians 2:16 NKJV

16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

No matter what the religion is, if its emphasis is upon works and human goodness, it comes up short and fails to reach God.

2.) The intervention of God at Babel. (v.5-8)

v.5 uses anthropomorphic language for God. (They ascribe to God human traits.) It reads that “God came down”. God already knew about the city and the tower. This is descriptive language meant to give us a clearer understanding of what happened.

God saw the sinful purposes of the people in the building of the tower and came down to earth to give judicial action.

God knew how prideful and egotistical the people were and knew if he didn't intervene and they remained of one language and speech the hubris would know no bounds. They would continue in their evil ways and only get worse and worse.

So, God constrained their evil and godless purposes by confounding their language. (v.7)

Language is something that you have to learn and as it is learned, our minds develop an ability to arrange and organize thought patterns in a certain way. Just how our minds do this is determined mostly by the language we learn.

When God confused the languages of the people at the tower of Babel, their minds as it relates to concepts and thoughts would have changed as well. It created a total lack of communication and understanding. It seems to be that the ability to communicate was related among familial groups.

In doing this God stopped their godless purposes in their tracks, but also began setting his purposes in place by preparing and raising up a godly people through the nation of Israel.

Conclusion:

When God’s judgment was complete, work on the Tower of Babel stopped. Whole tribes fled the city together to set up new civilizations where the people spoke the same language. Babel came to mean “mixed up and confused”. A place wear God, scattered the people. Not just in judgement but in an act of Grace. In leaving Babel, the people could begin to seek the true and living God again.

Even today, we must leave Babel, the land of confusion and trying to make it to God on our own. We must abandon our hearts of Babel that tries to scale heaven on our own. We must leave the chasing of a name and find our identity in Christ alone.

John 1:12 NKJV

12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: