Good morning my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
The skyline of most cities in the world boasts tall buildings. Did you know the “Empire State Building”, standing at 102 stories, was the tallest building in the world from 1931 until 1971? Many other skyscrapers followed, of course. But all are dwarfed in our day by the “Burj Khalifa” in Dubai reaching up into the sky at 2,727 feet tall!
Did you know people in ancient times also had visions of constructing what we call ‘skyscrapers’? Genesis 11 has a remarkable story about a tower called Babel and today let’s visit it.
Genesis 11 tells us the descendants of Noah, and his family populated their region of the world just as God had told them to, and as with all people groups, some were pioneers always looking to see what was over the horizon. “So, people moved eastward, and they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.” (Gen. 11:1,2) While we don’t know exactly where the Garden of Eden was, we do know the region where Noah’s ark settled after the flood, was in the mountains of Ararat in modern day Turkey. Noah and his family came down from those mountains and settled in the region we know as the Middle East.
Noah had three sons, and the descendants of Ham seem to be the ones especially in view in the Genesis 11 eastward migration. (Genesis 10:6-20)
The open ‘plain in Shinar’ is seen by many Bible scholars to represent the area which centuries later was the heart of the Babylonian kingdom with Babylon as its capital. You’ll remember the city of Babylon appears frequently in God’s story especially in the Kings & Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and the prophets Daniel, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Some Bible scholars believe this Shinar plain may have also been the large plain where King Nebuchadnezzar raised up his 90ft statue of himself demanding the worship of all leaders in the region.
Do you remember Daniel’s three Jewish friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused and they ended up in the fiery furnace but unharmed and King Nebuchadnezzar’s response was to declare that their God was the only true and all-powerful God? (Daniel 3)
As people settled in this ‘plain in Shinar’ some had natural leadership abilities and strong personalities. Among them was a man named “Nimrod” mentioned in Genesis 10:9-12. We presume this Mr. Nimrod may have been a strong voice in rallying the people to join together in building a great tower reaching up into the sky. (Gen. 11:4) While this tower was neither a residential nor business tower, like most of the skyscrapers in recent history, the underlying motivation for the tower of Babel seems to me to be a similar motivation for the great towers of our day.
Do you see it in Genesis 11:4? “Come let us build a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves…” It’s the same for almost every great endeavor in our day be it a building, bridge, movie, TV program, athletic achievement or even political aspiration. Would you agree? So pause a few seconds and let’s ask ourselves how often our choices or words or actions have the same motivation: to make a name for ourselves?
Now contrast that, my friends, with the disciple Peter’s admonition in 1 Peter 5: “All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because: ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.‘ Humble yourselves therefore, under God’s mighty hand that He may lift you up in due time… Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, standing firm in your faith…” (1 Peter 5:5-9)
Do you see the contrast between Nimrod’s call to build a tower for their fame, and Peter’s call to live humbly so God receives all the glory? Pause a few seconds to think about that and consider which statement describes your frame of mind most often?
God is always watching everything happening on earth! Did you know that? Many verses in the Bible assure us of that truth. On the one hand that truth is very comforting, especially when we are facing tough times, right? But this same truth is a warning for all of us when our attitudes or choices rebel against what God desires for our lives.
Genesis 11:5 tells us God was watching what was happening on the plain in Shinar and God concluded it was time for God to take action! You see, at that time everyone was speaking the same language Noah, and his family spoke. I don’t know for sure what language, but Noah’s descendants, like you and me, generation after generation learned the language of their parents, so by the time thousands of people were working on a tower on the plain in Shinar, their common language was very helpful to construction progress!
But in God’s much bigger plan for our human race and our huge planet earth, the Genesis record tells us: “The LORD said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language, they have begun to build this tower, then nothing they plan will be impossible for them. Come, let US go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” (Gen. 11:6,7) Now let’s be careful friends in our understanding of what’s happening here. First do you notice God’s use of the plural pronoun “US”? That is once again a confirmation of the Tri Unity of God…one God in three persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
But does the statement almost sound as though God was feeling threatened by Nimrod and the people working on a tower? Of course, we know NOTHING is a threat to Almighty, all-knowing God, the Creator of the Universe. No God is not threatened by human potential, rather God was using this tower situation as an opportunity to bring diversity and dispersement to humanity. God’s sudden intervention by creating many new languages on the work site of this tower of course initially confused and frustrated the workers, and construction slowed to a halt.
But far more significantly, different languages naturally drew people together in groups who understood each other. Friendships quickly formed and people moved into neighborhoods of common languages. It was a genius idea for scattering the early inhabitants of our planet from all living in one relatively small area to courageously exploring as far as the eye could see in all directions.
This one statement summarizes what happened: “So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel – because the LORD confused their languages…” (Gen. 11:8,9) As far as we know history shows this great tower project ceased and was never completed. As we see in Genesis 10:8-12 many other great cities eventually were built including Babylon, the great capital of the Babylonian Empire (Daniel 1:1,2) and Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. (Jonah 1:1,2;3)
If you like genealogies, you’ll love the next section of Genesis 11:10-26 which gives us the family heritage for one of the most famous men in the Bible...Abraham. You’ll see his original name was Abram and he was born into the family tree of Shem, son of Noah. If you know much about the story of God, the Grand Narrative, Abram’s name was changed by God to Abraham, and he became the father of two sons Ishamel and Isaac. Most of the people living in what we call the “Middle East” today trace their family heritage to Abraham through either of his two sons, yet they are NOT one big happy family as you know! Daily, for centuries, the news headlines from that part of the world have been rooted in the family feud which goes back all the way to Ishmael and Isaac as we will seek to understand over the next few days in God’s “Grand Narrative”.
Let’s pause right here my friends and this weekend I urge you to reflect back on all we’ve covered this week in the first 11 chapters of Genesis which is the beginning of God’s story! What do you see was God’s overall objective in these first 11 chapters of human history, and how did our ancient ancestors both cooperate with and fight against God’s purposes? What lessons can we learn from it all?
Here’s a wonderful worship song to help us in our reflection and I hope you gather with some friends for a wonderful time of worshiping Almighty God this weekend. I’ll see you again here on Monday!
Today’s Scripture: Genesis 11:1-26.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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