Genesis 11
McGeeCHAPTER 11THEME: The building of the Tower of Babel; from Shem to Abraham
Genesis 11:1
THE BUILDING OF THE TOWER OF BABELI do not know what language the people spoke at that time. A friend of mine who was a fellow Texan, a preacher in Texas, facetiously said to me, “You and I are probably the only two who really know what they spoke before the Tower of Babel because it was Texan.” Well, I’ll be honest with you, I’ve come to the conclusion that it could have been something else. What the language was, we simply do not know. I believe whatever that language was will be the language that will be spoken in heaven, and it will be a much better language than we have today, with more specific nouns and verbs, adverbs, and adjectives.
Genesis 11:2
“As they journeyed from the east"notice it was from the east. Mankind was apparently moving toward the west. “They found a plain in the land of Shinar,” which is in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley.
Genesis 11:3
Down in that area there is no stone, and so they made bricks. That in itself reveals something about the substantial character of their buildings. Even today brick is a popular type of building material. Yet the brick was used there because of its practicality; it was a necessity.
Genesis 11:4
Notice that they said, “Let us build us a city …and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad.” They had a bad case of perpendicular I-itislet us make us a name! In my opinion, the sole purpose of this tower was for a rallying place for man. The Tower of Babel was a ziggurat. There are many ruins of ziggurats in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. I have a picture of the ruins of one in Ur of the Chaldees where Abraham lived. It was made of brick, solidly constructed, and around it was a runway which went to the top. Apparently, on top of it was an altar on which, in certain instances, human sacrifices were offered. Later on children were offered, put in a red-hot idol. All of this was connected with the ziggurat in later history. But at the time of its construction, the Tower of Babel represented the rebellion of mankind against Almighty God. Apparently it was Nimrod who led in this movement. He was the builder of the city of Babel and evidently of the Tower of Babel also. It was to be a place for him to rear a world empire that was in opposition to God. In order to realize his ambition and to make his dreams come true, two features and factors were essential: First, he needed a center of unity, a sort of headquarters, as it were. He needed a capital, a place to assemble, a place to look to. This was why he built the city of Babel. It fulfilled one of his requirements to carry out his dream of world empire. Secondly, he needed a rallying point, not just geographical but psychological, that which gives motivea spark, an inspiration, a song, a battle cry, sort of like a “rally-around-the-flag-boys.” There had to be some impelling and compelling motivation. There had to be a monument, Lenin’s tomb is where Communism meets, and in Nimrod’s day it was the Tower of Babel. “Let us make us” is defiance and rebellion against God. “Let us make us a name” reveals an overweening ambition. Now let’s see what the Tower of Babel was not. It was not built as a place of refuge in time of high water. He wasn’t building above the flood stage, as some expositors suggest. In fact, I consider that a very puerile interpretation. After all, Lenin’s tomb is not a place of refuge when the Volga River overflows! No, this tower revealed the arrogant, defiant, rebellious attitude of man against God. God had said to man that he should scatter over the earth and replenish the earth. But man in essence answered, “Nothing doing. We’re not going to scatter; we are going to get together. We are through with You.” The Tower of Babel was against God. Also, the Tower of Babel was a religious symbol. It was a ziggurat. All through that valley, as I have indicated, there are ruins of ziggurats. They were places where people worshiped the creature rather than the Creator. Some ziggurats were round, others were square, but all of them had runways leading to the top, and on the top the people carried on the worship of the sun, moon, and stars. After all, when they could see the sun, moon, and stars, they knew they were not going to have a flood, and they felt that God had been pretty mean to have sent the Flood. Now notice God’s reaction to the Tower of Babel
Genesis 11:5
This is a tremendous statement! Since all the people spoke one language, they didn’t have the great language barrier. They could get together and pool their knowledge and resources"and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” We find here that man has a fallen nature in spite of the Flood and that he is totally depraved. God cannot ignore this rebellion, for it is a rebellion against Him. God is going to put up a protective wall. He is going to throw up a barrier.
This was necessary because man is such a very capable creature. He can go to the moon and he can fly in a jet plane. I still am amazed that I can sit in a jet plane, flying five miles high in the air and be served a delicious dinner. I just can’t get over it, I’ll be honest with you. It seems unbelievable. Man has done that, friend.
Man is a very competent creature. You can see what mankind would do with one language if they all came together against God. So notice what God did
Genesis 11:7
Now man is scattered over the face of the earth. They were together in their rebellion, but now they can’t understand one another. You know, a language barrier is a wall that is higher than the Wall of China. It is higher than the Berlin Wall and more effective. It is that which separates people, and it is stronger than any national border and any ocean. There are a great many who say that languages developed gradually. But God said He confounded their language so that right then, while they were building, they suddenly couldn’t understand each other. The building project came to a sudden halt, and folk moved away from Babelthey went in every direction. This is a tremendous thing that took place. Here is a “speaking in tongues” when they couldn’t understand each other. It is a miracle, a miracle of speaking and a miracle of hearing. They spoke different languages, and those who heard could not understand them. Let me ask you a question: Was this a blessing in disguise, or was it a curse upon mankind? Well, for God’s purposes it was a blessing. For man’s development away from God, it was definitely a judgment. Down through the centuries mankind has been kept separate, and it has been a great hindrance to him. One thing that is happening today through the medium of radio and television and jet travel is that these walls are being broken down. They are tumbling down like the walls of Jericho. This is one reason that I believe God is coming down in judgment again. Now let’s put over against this tongues movement those events of the Day of Pentecost. That was another great tongues movement, and that time we find that the gospel was preached in all the languages that were understood by the people there. This was not speaking in an unknown tonguethat never was involved in the tongues movement to begin with. On the Day of Pentecost, God is giving His answer to the Tower of Babel. God is saying to mankind, “I have a gospel and a message for you, and I’m coming to you with the gospel in your own language.” This is the thing that God has done, and today the Bible has gone out in more languages than any other book. It is still being translated into tongues and dialects and is being brought to literally hundreds of tribes throughout the world. The gospel is for all mankind, and the reason and the purpose for the talking in tongues was to let the human race know that God had answered the Tower of Babel. He had a redemption for man now. The mission has been accomplished. It is no longer necessary for man to try to work out his salvation.
He can listen to God’s message and turn to Him. The gospel is for you, whoever you are and whatever tongue you speak. It’s for you. It’s for all the nations of the world. We are told in the final book of the Bible that there will be gathered into His presence “…a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues …” (Rev_7:9).
Genesis 11:10
FROM SHEM TO ABRAHAMNow we will take up the line of Shem since it is the line which will be followed throughout the Old Testament. Shem’s genealogy is given in the following verses, then we read:
Genesis 11:24
You see that we are following the line of Terah. Why Terah? Notice the next verse:
Genesis 11:26
Now we are going to follow the line of Abram, whom we know as Abraham. We’re following the line of Shem, and we are actually going right through the Bible following this line. The Word of God will follow this line directly to the Cross of Christ. God has recorded all of this as preliminary. God now has demonstrated to man that he is in sin. In the incident of Cain and Abel, we find that Cain would not acknowledge that he was a sinner. In him we see a demonstration of the pride of life.
At the Flood we see the sin of the flesh because the people then were given over to the sins of the flesh. They were indulging in violence and their every thought and imagination was evil. They were blind to their need of God. They were deaf to His claim, dead to God, dead in trespasses and sins. God gave them an invitation through Noah. They spurned the invitation and remained in the sins of the flesh.
Then, here at the Tower of Babel, we see the sin of the will, rebellion against God. That was the Tower of Babel. Do you have your own little Tower of Babel which you have built? Are you in rebellion against God? Well, it is natural for human nature to be in rebellion against God. Little Willie was being very cantankerous one evening. He was really cutting up, and his mother was having a great deal of trouble with him. Finally, she had to get him and put him in a cornersat him down with his face to the wall and told him to sit there. She left him and went back to the living room with the rest of the family. After awhile she heard a noise in there, and she called to him, “Willie, are you standing up?” He said, “No, Mom, I’m sitting down, but I am standing up on the inside of me!” Well, believe me, there are a lot of men and women in our day who are standing up on the inside of them, standing against God. They have built their own little Tower of Babel. Now as we follow the line which is going to lead to Christ, here are the generations or the families of Terah
Genesis 11:27
The name Haran means delay.
Genesis 11:32
This bit of history is given to let us know that we are going to follow Abraham, and his story will begin in the next chapter. It is at this point that the Book of Genesisand, for that matter, the Bible as a wholetakes a turn. There is a great Grand Canyon which goes right down through the Book of Genesis. The first eleven chapters are on one side, and the last thirty-nine chapters are on the other side. In the first eleven chapters we cover over 2,000 years, as long a period as the rest of the Bible put together. Contrast that 2,000 years with the 350 years from Genesis 12 through 50. In these first eleven chapters of Genesis we have seen the Creation, the fall of man, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel. These are four great events which covered that long span of years.