September
29, 2013
Lesson
God Scatters the Nations (Genesis
11:1-9)
By Sam E. Stone
After Noah and his family came out
of the ark, they sought to follow God’s directions (Genesis 8, 9). Chapter 10
is sometimes called “The Table of Nations,” listing where the families of
Noah’s sons settled after the flood. The chapter concludes, “These are the
clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their
nations” (10:32).
The Setting
Genesis 11:1, 2
Noah’s descendants were evidently
nomadic people. They moved south and east to the land of Shinar. At some point,
they determined to build a city in the region around the area later known as
Babylon. Some students believe that Shinar is near where the Garden of Eden was
located, since the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers both ran through that region.
E. F. Kevan suggests that when
Genesis states the world had one language and a common speech, it means that
everyone spoke in the same way both as to pronunciation and vocabulary. Basil
Atkinson agrees, pointing out that the Hebrew word translated language means
literally lip and that speech means literally words. “Perhaps the former refers
to phonetics, the actual sounds and their pronunciation, and the latter to
vocabulary.” Various dialects and speech patterns had not kept the people from
understanding one another up until this point.
The Scheme
Genesis 11:3, 4
The people determined to build a
large tower, one that reaches to the heavens. The original purpose of the
structure may have been for defensive security and political domination. The
tower may have also had a religious and astrological significance. Some Bible
teachers feel that this was a kind of temple tower, common later in the cities
of Mesopotamia and known as a [ziggurat]. Such buildings were used for pagan
worship.
James E. Smith explains, “The
motives of the tower builders are not entirely clear. . . . They hoped that the
tower would provide protection from another Flood or from enemies who might
attempt to scatter them. So the tower pointed to man’s attempt to glorify and
fortify himself.” C. F. Keil suggests, “The real motive therefore was the
desire for renown, and the object was to establish a noted central point, which
might serve to maintain their unity.”
Genesis 11:5-9
The people were not “putting one
over” on God by their plans. The Lord had carefully observed all that they were
doing. He knew their hearts as well. If as one people speaking the same
language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be
impossible for them. The power of sin will continue to grow. Sin rules in a
corrupt heart. Wrong desires lead to wrong action (James 1:15). No wonder
Proverbs 4:23 teaches, “Above all else, guard your heart for it is the
wellspring of life” (NIV 1984). In the case of the tower of Babel, “God moved
to deprive them of the ability to comprehend one another, and thus [affected] their dispersion” (Keil).
E. F. Kevan points out the
significance of Babel (Babylon) in Scripture. “Right through to the book of
Revelation, Babylon represents the idea of materialistic and humanistic
federation in opposition to God.” He adds, “The proud builders of the city had
called it Babel (the gate or court of God), but God, taking up their word and
derisively giving it another meaning from a similar sounding root, also called
it Babel (confusion).”
God said, “Let us go down and
confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” The “us” is
most likely a reference to the Trinity. By confusing their language, the Lord caused
the people to leave their construction project and scatter across the face of
the earth. This brought the building of the tower to an abrupt halt. The place
was called Babel, “confusion,” to commemorate this judicial act of God.
Significantly when the church began
in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost many years later, people were there from
every nation (Acts 2:5), and all of them could hear the message of salvation in
their own language. With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, the
confusion of Babel was replaced by a single divinely-directed message preached
by the apostles (Acts 2:1-11).
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