Transcript The Tower of Babel Gen 11:1-7 17 May 09

Gen 11:1-7
17 May 09
Artist: Marten Van
Valckenborch I
After the Flood (Gen 9:20 – 29)
• Noah and his 3 sons Shem, Ham and Japheth
settled down and became farmers.
• Noah planted a vineyard, and gets drunk on wine
and sleeps naked in his tent. Ham chances upon
this and tells his brothers instead of covering up
his father. Shem and Japheth do the right thing.
• Gen 9:24 “When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew
what his youngest son had done to him.
• Ham is not Noah’s youngest son, however
Canaan is Ham’s youngest. Perhaps Noah knew
Canaan had sexually violated him.
• Noah curses Canaan.
Fulfilment of Gen 9:25-27
• Gen 9:25-27 So he said, "Cursed be Canaan; A
servant of servants He shall be to his brothers. He
also said, "Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem;
And let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge
Japheth, And let him dwell in the tents of Shem; And let
Canaan be his servant."
• The fulfilment of this curse on the Canaanites is found in:
• Josh 16:10 They didn't drive out the Canaanites who
lived in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwell in the midst of
Ephraim to this day, and have become servants to do
forced labour.
• Judg 1:33 Naphtali didn't drive out the inhabitants of
Beth Shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth Anath; but he
lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land:
nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and of
Beth Anath became subject to forced labour.
Fulfilment of Gen 9:26-27
• Gen 9:26-27 He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, The
God of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant. May God
enlarge Japheth, And let him dwell in the tents of Shem;
And let Canaan be his servant."
• The fulfilment of Noah’s blessing of his two sons Shem
and Japheth is found in history:
• The Greeks and Romans were descendents of Japheth.
They became world powers and subjected the Jews (the
descendents of Shem)
• Dwelling in Shem tents, also speaks of the conversion of
the Gentiles, and the bringing of them into God’s
Kingdom, Eventually, Jews and Gentiles shall be united
together - one in Christ
• Eph 2:14 “For He Himself is our peace, who made both
groups into one and broke down the barrier of the
dividing wall”
The Genealogy of Noah – Gen 10
• Gen 10:2-5 records the generations of Japheth.
”From these the coastlands of the nations were
separated into their lands, every one according to
his language, according to their families, into their
nations.”
• Gen 10:6-20 records “These are the sons of
Ham, according to their families, according to
their languages, by their lands, by their nations.”
• Gen 10:21 to 31 records “These are the sons of
Shem, according to their families, according to
their languages, by their lands, according to their
nations.”
• This passage seems to indicate that the people
were already speaking different languages. Yet…
The Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9)
• Gen 11:1 “And the whole earth was of one language,
and of one speech”.
• Gen 11:2 It came about as they journeyed east, that
they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
• Unlike Gen 10, this passage clearly indicates that there
was one language. How do we reconcile this?
• Note Gen 10:25 “Two sons were born to Eber, the name
of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was
divided, ..” This is the 4th generation after Shem. (~120
years later)
• Nimrod settles in the land of Shinar and becomes king of
Babel. Gen 10:9-10)
• So we can see that Gen 11 does not take place
chronologically after Gen 10 but in fact occurs before
Gen 10.
Map showing Mt Ararat & Plain of Shinar
The Pride of Man
• Gen 11:3 They said to one another, "Come, let us make
bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick
for stone, and they used tar for mortar.
• Gen 11:4 They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves
a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and
let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be
scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."
• Man’s ingenuity and wilful disobedience to God’s
command to disperse and populate the whole earth. Gen
9:1b “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”
• Worse, they became proud and did not honour God.
They wanted to usurp God’s place by creating a heaven
on earth.
• The city would provide a defence against enemies and
they did not need to depend on God’s protection.
Man’s Fallen Nature
• It had been only about 100 years since the Flood
(Noah and his sons were still living witnesses!)
yet Mankind has again forgotten about the
judgement of God.
• How soon men forget and go back to their former
crimes! There is exceeding wickedness.
• Babel – Babylonian “Gate of God”, in Hebrew,
sounds like “to confuse”
• Today, Man is still constantly trying to build towers
of Babel.
Source: Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
God’s Response (Gen 11:5-9)
• "And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower
which the sons of men had built. 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. Come, let Us go down, and there confuse their
language, that they may not understand one another’s
speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from there
over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped
building the city. 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.”
• From Gen 10, we see that the Lord was merciful
and gracious to allow the people to still live with
their own extended families by having the same
language.
7000 Languages Today!
• The United Nations has 192 member
nations. The UN has adopted 6 official
languages Arabic, Chinese, English,
French, Russian, Spanish
• Wycliffe Bible Translators claims that there
is 6909 known living languages.
Wycliffe Bible
Translators
• Vision 2025 - serving in partnership worldwide to
see Bible translation begun by 2025 in every
remaining language community that needs it.
• 6,909 ...the number of languages spoken in the world
today
• 2,393 ...the number of languages without any of the Bible,
but with a possible need of a Bible translation to begin
• 200 million ...the number of people whose languages
have no translation yet
• 1,998 ...the number of translation programs currently in
progress for languages without adequate Scripture
As God confuses, God also enables
• Acts 2:4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit,
and began to speak with other languages, as
the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.
• I Cor 12:28 God has set some in the assembly:
first apostles, second prophets, third teachers,
then miracle workers, then gifts of healings,
helps, governments, and various kinds of
languages.
• Thank God for His compassion for the lost and
enabled the Word of God to be understood by
those who have yet to hear the Gospel.
Application
• Gen 11:10-26 lists the genealogy of Shem again
(see Gen 10:21-31). This time it traces down to
Abram (Abraham) (v26). This shows that the
call of Abraham in Gen 12 was not arbitrary. He
stood in a long line of those who received the
blessings and promises of God: Adam, Seth,
Enoch, Noah, Shem.
• Pause to give thanks to God for the Christians
who came before us and influenced our lives.
Pray that we will likewise be able to pass the
torch of faith to others, who will also serve and
please God with their lives.
In the Future
• Isaiah 66:18 "For I know their works and their
thoughts: the time comes, that I will gather all
nations and languages; and they shall come,
and shall see my glory.
• Rev 7:9 “After these things I looked, and behold,
a great multitude, which no man could number,
out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and
languages, standing before the throne and
before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with
palm branches in their hands. “
• In the imminent future, God will re-gather all the
people from all languages groups. Praise God!