Transcript Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s And unto God

IN THE BEGINNING
Genesis from the Creation
to Abraham
GENESIS CHAPTER TEN
• Theme:
• PS. 127:1
• Unless the LORD builds the house
They labor in vain who build it.
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.
• v. 1-32
• Now this is the genealogy of the sons of
Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth…
GENESIS CHAPTER TEN
• v. 1-32
• Japheth’s sons went north and west
(Europeans)
• The descendants of Ham travelled
south and west (Africans and
Canaanites)
• The descendants of Shem went south
and east (the Arabs and Mideasterners)
GENESIS CHAPTER TEN
• Nimrod was Ham’s grandson
– Nimrod is described as a mighty hunter
– A valuable skill in the days of increased
animal violence
– The name Nimrod in the Hebrew: marad to
rebel
• He built Nineveh, Babylon, and likely the
Tower of Babel
GENESIS CHAPTER TEN
• Josephus (1st century AD historian) wrote:
• Nimrod persuaded mankind not to ascribe
their happiness to God, but to think that
his own Excellency was the source of it.
And he soon changed things into a
tyranny, thinking there was no other way
to wean men from the fear of God, than by
making them rely upon his own power.
• “Unless the Lord builds the house…”
GENESIS CHAPTER TEN
• Satan has raised up many, many Nimrods
over the centuries:
– Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander
the Great, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the
Caesars, Stalin, Hitler
• All came “in the spirit of the antichrist”
• They all potentially were the antichrist,
but God’s plans were not yet fulfilled
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• v. 1-9
• Now the whole earth had one language and one
speech. 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. 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. And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a
city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us
make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered
abroad over the face of the whole earth." But the Lord
came down to see the city and the tower that the sons
of men had built. (cont.)
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• v. 1-9 (cont.)
• …And the Lord said, "Indeed the people are one and
they all have one language, and this is what they
begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do
will be withheld from 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 all
the earth, and they ceased building the
city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because
there the Lord confused the language of all the
earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad
over the face of all the earth.
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Chapter 11 details the story of the building
of the tower of Babel
• The builders used bricks for stone (man-made,
in contrast to quarried, God-created stone)
• I Kings 6:7
• And the temple, when it was being built, was
built with stone finished at the quarry, so that
no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard
in the temple while it was being built.
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• The Tower of Babel’s top would reach into
heaven
– Some commentators believe this is best
rendered “whose top was the heavens,
the Mazzaroth, the Zodiac”
• The builders wanted to “make a name for
themselves” and protect themselves
– From others not in their scheme
– From God
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Ps. 2:2-3
• The kings of the earth take their stand,
and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His
Anointed: “Let us tear their fetters
apart, and cast away their cords from
us!”
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• The first city builder was Cain, the father of
man-created religion and worship (Gen 4:9-17)
• Cain did not trust God’s mark to protect him
– He sought and created more security for
himself and his family
– He pursued security away from the Presence of
God
– He lived in a dangerous world, a world with
murder (which he started)
• The human city in the Bible is always a
symbol of defense and protection
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• “Unless the Lord builds the house…”
• The city also is the symbol for the base
of operations for attack and aggression
• Cities start wars, in history, not rural
folk
• Cities are the epicenters of hard,
unreasonable labor (think: the
industrial revolution)
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Nimrod is the next great builder of cities we
encounter in Scripture after Cain
– He is the grandson of Ham, the descendant
of one under a curse that he would have to
be a servant to his brothers’ kin
• Nimrod’s life is a challenge to the curse, to
overcome it
– To rule others, rather than be ruled
– A noble, but violent and oppressive goal
– “Do unto others before they do to you.”
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Babylon, the city that likely remained from
Babel, in the land of Shinar, becomes the
symbol of all “evil cities” in the Bible
• Zech. 5: 7-11
• And behold, the leaden cover was lifted, and
there was a woman sitting in the ephah! And
he said, "This is Wickedness." And he thrust
her back into the ephah, and thrust down the
leaden weight upon its mouth. Then I lifted my
eyes and saw, and behold, two women coming
forward! (cont.)
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
•Zech. 5: 7-11 (cont.)
•The wind was in their wings; they had wings
like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the
ephah between earth and heaven. Then I said
to the angel who talked with me, "Where are
they taking the ephah?" He said to me, "To
the land of Shinar, to build a house for it.”
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Two of the Nimrod’s cities built will in due
time conquer and enslave the people of God
(due to their unfaithfulness, idolatry, and
failure to let the land rest on the Sabbath
– Nineveh (the Assyrian conquest of Samaria in
721 BC)
– Babylon (the Babylonian conquest of Judah
586 BC)
• Egypt (descendants of Mizraim, a son of
Ham), enslaves Israel for 400 + years as
well
GENESIS CHAPTER TEN
• Ps 83:2-8 (the enemies of Israel united)
• For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; And
those who hate You have lifted up their
head…They have said, "Come, and let us cut them
off from being a nation, that the name of Israel
may be remembered no more." For they have
consulted together with one consent; they form a
confederacy against You: the tents of Edom and
the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagrites; Gebal,
Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the
inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with
them…"
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Who was the first great builder in Israel? Solomon
• II Chron. 8:1-4
• It came to pass at the end of twenty years, in
which Solomon had built the house of the Lord
and his own house, that the cities which
Hiram had given to Solomon, Solomon built them;
and he settled the children of Israel there. And
Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and seized it. He
also built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the
storage cities which he built in Hamath.
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• How did things go for Solomon?
• I Kings 11:4
• For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his
wives turned his heart after other gods; and his
heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the
heart of his father David.
• Solomon’s son Rehoboam was asked by the
people to not work them so hard
– Rehoboam refused to listen, rebellion occurs,
and Israel split into northern and southern
kingdoms
• “Unless the Lord builds the house…”
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Just as Israel became captive to Babylon,
the Church is a high risk of becoming
captive as well to its culture, its “city.”
– Daniel and Israel in Babylon
• Indeed, whenever in history, and where ever
now the church collaborates with civil or
religious government heavily, the church is
“dwelling in Babylon.”
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Babylon is a symbol for all the cities of
the world and all of our attempts to live
by our own means, with our own
protection, apart from God
• Babylon is contrasted in the Bible with
the Heavenly city, the New Jerusalem,
the city of God
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Rev. 18: 1-2; 4
• After these things I saw another angel coming
down from heaven, having great authority, and the
earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried
mightily with a loud voice, saying, "Babylon the
great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a
dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul
spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated
bird!”.. 4 And I heard another voice from heaven
saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest you
share in her sins, and lest you receive of her
plagues.”
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• The verse in Revelation warns the people
of God to “come out from her.”
– Recall the angels leading Lot out of
Sodom (Gen. 19:16)
• The great city in Revelation, although
called Babylon, is also implied to be
Rome and Jerusalem in apostasy
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• I Peter 5:12-13 (traditionally believed to
be written from Rome)
• By Silvanus, our faithful brother as I
consider him, I have written to you
briefly, exhorting and testifying that this
is the true grace of God in which you
stand. She who is in Babylon, elect
together with you, greets you; and so
does Mark my son.
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Rev. 11:7-8
• When they (the two witnesses) finish
their testimony, the beast that ascends out
of the bottomless pit will make war
against them, overcome them, and kill
them. And their dead bodies will lie in
the street of the great city which
spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt,
where also our Lord was crucified.
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Every city of the world can be Babylon
(and is, to a degree)
– What should we do?
• Try to allow the Lord to build our houses
• Ps. 127:1
• Unless the Lord builds the house, they
labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord
guards the city, the watchman stays awake
in vain.
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Prov. 29:2
• When the righteous are in
authority, the people rejoice; but
when a wicked man rules, the
people groan.