Genesis 11:1-32

It is obvious that the flood did not remove the sinful hearts of men.  God had told Noah and his family to multiply and fill the earth.  It becomes very apparent that man did not desire to fill the earth but decided to congregate.  This is not what God commanded and not what God desired so once again He interrupted the course of history and judged mankind.  We can accompany this progression in this chapter.
CONCEIT: When we look at the intent of man’s heart, it is very easy to see that one of his basic problems in conceit or pride.  When the God of the universe gives a command, those who recognize their proper place in life humbly submit to Him.  Arrogant men rebel against God and refuse to obey.  Society feared separating from one another, so they decided to build a city where everyone could live and in the city they built a tower.  Possibly, the purpose of the tower was to have a means to escape the judgment of God should He flood the earth again.  Apparently this tower became some sort of religious temple and a center of worship and idolatry.  It seems that Nimrod was one of the leaders of this effort and we will see that this Babylonian religion eventually becomes one of the stumbling blocks for the children of Israel.  We must realize that God is in charge of our lives and the His will is always best for us.  We might fear what He asks us to do, but we must be submissive to His command and not think that we can go our own way.  The conceit in each of our hearts desires to follow our own ways.  We must fight this pride in our hearts, recognize God’s sovereignty and humbly obey His will.
CONFUSION: God sees the intent of man’s heart and know that as long as men are united and depending upon one another that they will not be submissive or obedient to Him.  His solution is to confuse their languages and spread men throughout the face of the earth.  It is hard to know how God spread men to different parts of the planet.  It is possible that this migration happened naturally according to the variety of languages that men were speaking.  However, it is also a possibility that just as God supernaturally confused the languages that He supernaturally transported the different groups of people to different parts of the globe.  The text says that the Lord scattered them just like it says He confused the languages.  Either one of the options are possible.  However, a supernatural scattering would explain how there are ancient populations on many different continents.  I guess that this is one of those questions that we can save up to ask God when we get to heaven.  God judges the conceit of men in order to help men experience the joy of being under God’s authority.  It really is best for man to honor and glorify God.  It is the only way that we will find joy and fulfillment in our lives.  All other attempts to fill our lives with power, pleasure or pride leave us feeling empty.  God’s judgment is for our good and it is for His glory.  The derivative of this judgment is a diversity and richness of culture and language that reflects the majesty and glory of our God and I believe will continue to do so for all of eternity.  God is able to take even our greatest failures and use them for His glory.
CONTINUITY: We now can follow the generations of descendants from Shem up to Abraham.  There are only 390 years between the birth of Shem and the birth of Abraham.  This tells us that Abraham was born when the earth was 1,955 years old.  Noah had only been dead for 40 years at Abraham’s birth.  One thing that stands out in contrast between this genealogy and the previous one is that men had children much earlier in life and lived only about half as long.  Adam’s genealogy had men living into 900 years and they only started having children at about 100 years.  Noah’s genealogy has men fathering children at 30 years and living to about 400 at first and then down to 200 as we approach Abraham.  We are now introduced to Abraham who at this point is called Abram and this man will be the focus of much of the rest of this book.  I like to remember the book of Genesis as covering four events: creation, fall, flood and Babel, and four men: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. No matter how conceited and confused the history of man may appear, it is a blessing to know that God’s control and plan is constant. 

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