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Genesis 11:4-32
00:26:01
What happens when mankind rejects God and focuses all of its attention on itself? That’s what we’ll find out as we learn about how the Tower of Babel was used to worship the sun, moon, and stars—not to glorify God—and how in return God confounded...
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Congregational Singer
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord is made for your faith in his excellent word.
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Steve Schwetz
Last time on through the Bible, Dr. J. Vernon McGee told us the Tower of Babel was a rallying point of defiance and rebellion against God. Well, in this study, we're going to hear what happens when man rejects God and focuses all his attention on himself. I'm Steve Schwetz welcoming you aboard the Bible bus for another great adventure in God's Word. Now, before we begin in Genesis chapter 11, I want to ask you to join us in honoring America's national day of prayer. Philippians 4, 6, 7 says, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Jesus. And first Timothy 2 says, Prayer for our nations is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So, as you know, we got a lot to pray about for our country, don't we? And really not much has changed since the stories we're hearing about in Genesis. Dr. McGee often commented on this subject, so let's listen to a few of those thoughts.
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Bible Bus Host or Commentator
Now, we have seen that God has given to mankind generally a morality even before the Ten Commandments were given. But then he spelled it out in great detail that morality is the morality on which he judged the world twice by a flood and then again at the Tower of Babel. And today we are seeing the breakdown of that morality. That's the morality that this nation was founded upon. Bible morality. We've heard about the all American boy. Well, he was raised on this kind of a morality. May I say to you, we hear a great deal today about atheism and about those that have rejected the morality of God and they don't want to hear anything about it. May I say that there's nothing quite as un American as that. For our nation was founded on this morality. And the warning is that God judges nations that reject this morality.
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Steve Schwetz
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word that guides and directs us. Would you open our eyes and our minds so that we can hear from you and then help us to take to heart what we discover to be true so that we can live each day for your glory in Jesus name. Amen. Here's Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our study of Genesis 11 on through the Bible.
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Dr. J. Vernon McGee
Now, friends, last time I only got down through the third verse of the 11th chapter of Genesis. And if you have your Bible, we'll pick up at the fourth verse. Now, I did read verse four last time, but I want to begin there today. And this is the Tower of Babel that man built. It was built, as we saw, of brick and slime, not of stone and mortar to begin with. It wasn't down in that valley. And I read now verse four, and they said, go to. Let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven. And let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Now the emphasis here is upon us, let us, let us. You notice a bad case, as we said last time, of perpendicular Aedis. But apparently it was Nimrod that led in this movement. He was the builder of Babel, and evidently the Tower of Babel. And it was to be a place for him to rear a world empire that is opposed to God. And in order to realize his ambition and make his dream come true, there are two factors and features that are essential. He needed a center of unity, a sort of headquarters, as it were, a capital, a place to assemble, a place to look to, as it were. And that was the city of Babel. And then there had to be a rallying point, not just geographical, but psychological. That which gives motive or reason, a spark, an inspiration. Sort of like Rally round the flag boys, or a song or a battle cry. Remember the main, remember Pearl Harbor. There must be some impelling and compelling motivation. Must be a monument. Lenin's tomb is where communism meets. And in that day it's the Tower of Babel. And the Tower of Babel, Let us make us is defiance and rebellion against God. Let us make us a name overweening ambition. Now let's see what the Tower of Babel was not. It was not a place for man to go in time of high water. He wasn't building above the flood stage. That's a very trivial and I think puerile interpretation. After all, Lenin's tomb is not a place to go when the Volga river overflows. This tower revealed the arrogant, defiant and rebellious attitude of man against God. God said to man, scatter over the earth and replenish the earth. Man said, nothing doing. We're not going to scatter. We're going to get together. We're through with you and the Tower of Babel. We was against God. Now it's not just a symbol, it's not non religious. It was religious. It's a ziggurat all through that valley, as we've indicated, the ruins remain today, as I told you, I have a picture of the ruins of the ziggurat that was at Ur, the Chaldeans. And this was the place where they worshiped the creature rather than the Creator. They worshipped the sun, moon and stars. There was a Runway on the outside of it was more or less solid. Some were round, some were square. But this Runway led to the top. And on top they worshiped the sun, moon and stars. After all, when you could see the sun, moon and stars, you're not going to have a flood. And God had been pretty mean to send a flood according to them. Now will you notice God's reaction? And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, behold, the people is one, and they have all one language. And this they begin to do. And now nothing will be restrained from them which they had imagined to do. Now, this is a tremendous statement. You see, language has been a tremendous barrier. And they are now going to attempt to build a tower and get together. They are all one language. You find here fallen nature, in spite of the flood, man, totally depraved. And that question is, now, God cannot ignore this rebellion, and this is rebellion against God. God's going to put up a protective wall. He's going to throw up a wall. And he has to do it for several reasons. And one reason is man is a very capable creature. He can go to the moon. He can fly in a jet plane. I'm amazed, sitting five miles in the air in a jet plane, being served a delicious dinner. I just can't get over it myself, I'll be honest with you. Seems unbelievable. Man's done that. Friends. Man's a very competent creature. Now. You can see what he would do with one language if they all came together against God. So God put up a barrier, and so notice what he did. He says in verse seven, go to, let us go down. Man said, let us? Well, God says, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build a city. Therefore the name of it is called Babel Confusion. Because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. Now man is scattered over the face of the earth, and he's scattered now because here they are Building the Tower of Babel, they can get together and now they can't understand one another. You know, language barrier is a barrier and a wall that's higher than the wall of China, it's higher than the Berlin Wall. More effective it is that which separates people, and it's stronger than any national border or any ocean. The language barrier where there's no communication. Now, the question has always been raised. In fact, a great many try to say, well, this took place gradually. Well, it says that God confounded their language. So right there, as they were building, they couldn't understand each other and they went in every direction. Now you have here this tremendous thing that takes place. He hears us speaking in tongues, and they couldn't understand each other. Also, it's a miracle of hearing as well as speaking because you have a miracle of tongues or ears. Here. They spoke a different language, and the ear couldn't hear what the other one was saying. Now, frankly, this is something that God did. And the question arises, and I'd like to ask you the question, was this a blessing in disguise or was it a curse upon man? Well, for God's purposes, it was a blessing for man's development away from God. It was definitely a judgment, and it's been a great hindrance. As you well know, down through the centuries, man has been kept separate. And one of the things that's happening today through this matter of radio and TV and the jet plane is the walls are being broken down, and the walls of Jericho are certainly come tumbling down today. And that is the reason that I believe that God's coming down again in judgment is because of that. But I'd like to put over against this tongues movement. The day of Pentecost, that was another great tongues movement. And at that time, why we find the gospel is given in all the languages that understood that it wasn't given in an unknown tongue that never was the tongues movement to begin with. And you find on the day of Pentecost, God's giving his answer to the tower of Abel. God is saying to mankind, now, I have a gospel and a message for you, and I'm coming to you with the gospel in your language. And that is the thing that God has done. And today the Bible has probably gone into more languages. Well, not probably it has than any other book. It's gone into more languages than any other book. And today it's being translated. And the gospel is being brought to literally hundreds of tribes throughout the world today. You see, the gospel is for all mankind. And the reason and the purpose for the talking in tongues is to let the human race know that God had answered the Tower of Babel and he had a redemption for man. Now the mission has been accomplished. No longer necessary today for man to try to work out his salvation. He is now to turn to God and listen to God's message. And the Gospel, therefore, is for you, whoever you are today. And whatever tongue you speak, it's for you, it's for the nations of the world. And we're told that finally, in the book of Revelation, they gathered there in his presence out of all the tribes of the earth. Now that brings us to the end of the Tower of Babel. And frankly, I think that's about as far as we care to go with that. There are many other things that we'd like to see. Now, you'll notice that we're going to take up the line of Shem, because it's the line of Shem, and that we're going to follow verse 10. These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old. And then when you follow down through this, why, you have his genealogy given, and you come way down to verse 24, and we read, and Nahor lived 9 and 20 years and begat Terah. And Nahor lived after he begat Tirah, a hundred and nineteen years, and he begat sons and daughters. But you see, we're following Terah. Why terah? Well, verse 26. And Terah lived 70 years and begat Abram, Nahor and Haran. Now we're going to follow Abram's line. You see, we're following the line of Shem, and we're going actually right through the Bible, following this line. In other words, the word of God is going to begin now and go directly to the cross of Christ. That's exactly. God has put down all of this as preliminary. And you see that God now has demonstrated to man that he's in sin. There at Cain and Abel, we find that Cain would not acknowledge that he was a sinner. You have pride of life there. And then at the flood, you see the sin of the flesh, they were given over to the sins of the flesh. They were indulging in violence, and every thought and imagination was evil. And they were blind to the need of the person of Christ. They were deaf to his claim, dead to God, dead in trespasses and sins. And God gave an invitation through Noah. Those are the sins of the flesh at the flood. And then here at the Tower of Babel, it's the sin of the will, may I say, it's rebellion against God. This is the Tower of Babel. And do you have a Tower of Babel? Your own little Tower of Babel that you built away from God? And are you in rebellion against him? Well, it's natural for human nature to be in rebellion against God. Little boy, he was really very cantankerous one evening, it was a rainy evening, and he was really cutting up. And his mother was having a great deal of trouble with him. And finally she just had to get her little boy, little Willie. And she put him in the corner and sat him down with his face to the corner and told him to sit there. And she left him in the room and she went out into the living room with the rest of the family and. And after a while, why, she heard a noise in there and she said to him, willie, are you standing up? And he says, no, Mom, I'm sitting down, but I'm standing up on the inside of me. Well, believe me, friends, there are a lot of men today and women standing up on the inside of them against God. Their own little Tower of Babel. Now, we are following this line that's going to lead to Christ. Verse 27. These are the generations of Terah. You see, we're following the families. These are the families of Terah. Terah begat Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran begat Lot. Haran died before his father, Terah, in the land of his nativity in early Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took them wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarah. And the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. But Sarah was barren. She had no child. And Terah took Abram his son. And Lot the son of Haran, his son's son. And Sarah his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife. And they went forth with them from Ur, the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. And they came unto Haran and dwelt there. Haran means delay. And the days of Terah were 205 years. And Terah died in Haran. Now that is given to us to let us know that we're going to follow Abraham. And his story will begin now in the next chapter. And that will tell to us the story now and the book of Genesis. And for that matter, the Bible now takes a turn. Now, you'll recall at the very beginning we said that there is a Great Grand Canyon that goes right down through the book of Genesis. The first 11 chapters are on one side and then from Genesis 12 all the way through the 50th chapter is on the other side. In these first 11 chapters we cover 2000 years plus as much as the rest of the Bible put together. And it's put over against just 350 years from Genesis 12 to Genesis 50. Now you have in these first 11 chapters, Creation, Genesis 1 and 2 and the fall in Genesis 3 and 4, the flood in Genesis 5 and 9, the Tower of Babel, Genesis 10 and 11. And we have seen these four great events and this has covered a great deal of territory and it's the reason we've spent so much time here. Now at chapter 12 we go to the other side of the Grand Canyon. The atmosphere is altogether different now because we are going to slow down to a walk just as we are in this five year program. But not only that, the emphasis is from events, stupendous events, to great personalities, or shall I say important personalities because some of them can't quite be called great. We have four here in Genesis. And of course there'll be more to follow in the other books of the Bible. Abraham is the man of faith, Genesis 12:23. Then we're going to have after that Isaac, the beloved son, and then Jacob, the chosen and chastened son, and then Joseph, suffering and glory, the one who's more like Christ in his life and the events of his life than any man who ever lived. And yet he's never mentioned as a type of Christ anywhere in the Bible. Now I just want to introduce us here to chapter 12 today. That'll be coming up next time we have here in chapter 12 and we probably ought to say this. We're halfway through the Bible, friends, chronologically, and a five year program just getting underway. And we are halfway between creation and the cross. And now God has turned from the nations to a man through whom God will make a nation. And in turn from that nation will bring the Savior of the world. Now Abraham, by any person's measuring rod though is a great man. He's one of the greatest men who's ever lived on this earth. And how do you measure great men even today? Well, to begin with, a man has to be famous and Abraham certainly measures up to that. I think that he's probably the world's most famous man. Did you know that probably more people have heard of Abraham than have heard of anyone else than the President of the United States or any movie star or any athlete more have heard of Abraham. May I add to that that the three great religions of the world go back to Abraham. And I'm having to put Christianity in that. Now we have first of all Judaism and then we have Islamic and then we have Christianity. They all go back to Abraham. Abraham is very important. Literally. There are millions of people in Asia and Africa today that have heard of Abraham. But they never heard of the ones that make the headlines in our country today. That's one of the marks of a great man. Abraham was a great man. What is another mark of a great man? Well, he must be a generous man, a noble character. Well, can you imagine anyone that's more generous than Abraham? I doubt whether there's a man living today would have done what he did. When he and his nephew came back into that land. He told lot to choose any portion he wanted and he'd take what was left. You think any man would do that today in a business deal? I don't think so. They don't even do it in the church today friends, let alone in a hard boiled business world today. But Abraham was a generous man. And have you ever noticed how generous he was with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah? He told them, I won't take the booty, I won't even take a shoestring from you, a piece of thread. God is the one he was looking to. And then a third. A great man must live in a momentous time. He must be, as Napoleon said, a man of destiny. The man and the right time must meet at the crossroads of life. That was certainly true of Abraham. And then the fourth thing I believe the world would agree with me up through the first three I've mentioned, but maybe not on this one. He must be a man of faith. And you'll notice that all great men, even when they're not Christian, have something that they believe in. Now Abraham has been called a Columbus of faith. I doubt whether that's true. But we are going to see. He had seven great visions and four backslidings and each time brought him closer to God. And it's said of Abraham, the greatest thing that's said about him in the Bible is that he believed God. Abraham believed God was counted to him for righteousness. I mention all of this so that you will know next time when we take up Abraham in the 12th chapter, we are taking up one of the great men of all time. And the great man of either secular or sacred history. No one quite measures up to him who is just altogether human. And we'll be looking at him next time and spending some time talking about the man that's probably mentioned more than any other, the Word of God. So until next time, my beloved, May God richly bless you.
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Steve Schwetz
If you'd like to take your study in Genesis deeper, well, we'd like to help. You can Visit us@ttb.org where you'll find an entire virtual library of resources available to you, including our Bible Companions. Download your copy for free, or order a print version of our New Testament Bible Companions for group study online. Again, it's ttb.org or by calling 1-865-Bible. And don't forget, May is letter month and we'd love for you to drop us a note. What's God shown you through His Word? Is there something specific that you've learned about him or his nature? Maybe something that's begun to shape the way you live, pray, or trust him more deeply? Why don't you tell us about it? You can contact us through our app. You can email us@biblebusttb.org or send your letter by mail to Box 7100- Pasadena, CA 91109 in Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario N6C 6B1. You can also call 1-865Bible and leave a message. And when you're in touch, tell us how you listen to through the Bible. Is it by our app online? How about YouTube? Maybe it's your favorite radio station. However you hop aboard the Bible Bus, we want to know. This little bit of information is a huge help as we follow God's lead in taking his whole Word to the whole world. So so thanks in advance for your help. Well, the Bible Bus rolls along through the entire Word of God next time. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'll save a seat just for you.
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Congregational Singer
Jesus made it home all to be my own sin had left the Crimson sa.
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Steve Schwetz
We're grateful for the faithful and generous support of through the Bible's partners whom God uses to take the whole Word to the whole world.