TOWER OF BABEL

Chapter 10

Migration of descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Japheth – Coastline of Turkey, Greece, Italy

Ham – Northeast Africa (Egypt, Ethiopia) and Palestine. Talk about Nimrod. Man of great reputation. “Your like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before God.” Your like Michael Jordan, a great basketball player.” Your like Paula Dean, a great cook.” Founded two great cities that play a major role in the Bible - Babel/Babylon and Nineveh.

Shem – Eastern Mesopotamia. Present day Iraq, Iran, and Arabian peninsula. We get the term Semite/Semitic from the word Shem. Eber – some scholars associate with the name Hebrew. Peleg – either born or lived at the time of a great earthquake.

The events in Genesis chapter 11:1-9 take place somewhere in chapter 10 a few generations after the Flood. Descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth had yet to spread across the earth.

Read Genesis 11:1-9

1. What observation is made in verse 1 concerning the people of earth? They speak the same language and the same words.

The land of Shinar is located in present day Iraq. History refers to this region as Mesopotamia. Show on map.

2. What did the people want to do and for what purposes? Build a city and an extremely tall tower. Purposes – a) Fame. Selfish, prideful, egotistical. b) Maintain unity. They did not want to spread across the earth.

3. Read Genesis 9:1. What did God tell Noah and his three sons to do? Have lots of kids and fill up the earth. Spread out across the earth.

These people were disobeying God’s commandment. Their purpose for building a city and a tower was to assert their independence from God. “We know what’s best for ourselves. That is to remain together. To prove it, we’re going to build a city. Symbol of our independence will be a great tower that will reach to the heavens … God. We don’t need God to come down to us. We’ll go to Him. Relate to God as equals (like gods.) If there is one sin God despises above all others, it is pride. Why? I think it reminds him of the first sin – Satan’s rebellion. Isaiah 14:13-14 - You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' Pride excludes God from your life completely.

The tower the people were building is known in history as a ziggurat. Very prominent in ancient Mesopotamian cities. A stepped pyramid. At the top was a shrine where the god of the city could come down and reside in. Purpose was to connect heaven with the earth/gods with humanity. See that in names of some of the early ziggurats: ex. Temple of the foundation of heaven and earth built in Babylon.

4. Who came to see the city and the tower? God. Something funny about people building a tower to reach God and God coming down to see them.

5. vs. 6. How would you characterize God’s reaction to what He was seeing? Impressed by what humanity had accomplished in a short span of time. What all goes into building a city? Engineering skills; architectural planning; mathematics; technology that went in to building the city and the tower was amazing. Organizational skills. Everyone working together.

6. What do you think motivated God to say, “And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them”? Fear that humanity would pose a threat to Him? No. It was out of concern for humanity’s future. In their present unified state, humanity will be able to accomplish anything. But for what purpose/whose purpose? Good or evil/God or humanity. Repeat why the people built the city and tower. What could be the outcome? If purpose is evil, out come could be self destruction. Examples – nuclear technology, the internet.

7. What did God do to get the people to scatter across the earth? He confused their language. Someone said “Bring me that tool.” The person he spoke to could not understand what he was saying. It was like this throughout the city. People could not understand what other people were saying. Consequently, they could not complete building the city or the tower. The people spread out across the earth as God intended.

The reason why the city was called Babel – After God confused the language, when someone spoke what they heard was “ba, ba, ba,” … a bunch of babbling.

God’s problem with the people of Babel was not advancements science and technology. His problem was with their hearts’ motivation for building the city and tower. Selfish motivation; ungodly.