Genesis. 11:5-9 Can We Communicate?

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1 Genesis 11:5-9 Can We Communicate? O ne of the basic difficulties in most marriages, troubled or not, is a lack of communication skills. In fact this is a general problem for most people in all aspects of their lives. But in marriage it is especially troubling. One factor seems to be the environment in which each spouse grew up. The wife grows up in a home where very little communication goes on. When it did it was very quiet and gentle. On the other hand, the husband comes from a culturally volatile family who communicates a lot at a high volume level with much gesticulation. Needless to say, the communication between the two is messy. The wife thinks the husband never communicates, just yells. The husband never hears anything the wife says because she is so soft spoken. But the problem with communication in marriages usually goes beyond just skills and styles. There is a fundamental fracture in the relationship that is a direct result of the fall. It requires even more effort and dependency on the Lord to bring healing. Nevertheless, much of the difficulty with communication is tied to issues of technique. Generally we can identify at least six factors practical factors which make understanding one another difficult. Here is what goes on when we attempt to communicate. 1. What you mean to say. 2. What you actually say. 3. What the other persons hears. 4. What the other person thinks he hears. 5. What the other person says about what you said. 6. What you think the other person said about what you said. Confusing isn t it. So communication is a big problem, because even when we speak the same language we aren t always saying the same things. Now add to that the fact people speak many different languages and now what? Now we have the actions of God, carried out for our own protection. V. Rerun Sin Part 2 Chapter 11 A. The Tower of Babel 1. The Sin Verses The Sentence Verses 5-9 a. The Babel Road: b. God s Intervention Verses 5-9

2 Introduction: The scene has shifted from Noah and his children to humanity in general. It is always important to recognize that these are generalizations. Even when all the world was in rebellion against God, there was still one righteous man, Noah. Here, as we are introduced to the conditions that lead to the building of the tower of Babel, we are seeing those who are in rebellion. This group s rebellion is demonstrated by their commitment to staying in one place in spite of God s command to spread throughout the earth. So to prevent being scattered they decided to build a city and a tower as the symbol of their pledge to unity. a. The Babel Road: We can trace Babel to Babylon throughout scripture, starting here and finishing up in the book of Revelation. It has constantly symbolized apostate religion. It pictures man setting himself up against and above God. We can certainly see that this is the case with the intent behind the original tower. It was, as we have already noted, a rallying point in the rebellion against God. In this sense it appears that by linking Babel and Babylon it might be said that Nimrod was the founder of the system of false religions, at least symbolically. Dr. Harry Ironside summarizes the writings of the Rev. Alexander Hislop in The Two Babylons, when discussing Nimrod as the apostate leader of his generation. Ancient lore now comes to our assistance, and tells us that the wife of Nimrod-bar-Cush was the infamous Semiramis the First. She is reputed to have been the foundress of the Babylonian mysteries and the first high-priestess of idolatry. Thus Babylon became the fountainhead of idolatry, and the mother of every heathen and pagan system in the world. The mystery-religion that was there originated spread in various forms throughout the whole earth and is with us today and shall have its fullest development when the Holy Spirit has departed and the Babylon of the Apocalypse holds sway. Building on the primeval promise of the woman s Seed who was to come, Semiramis bore a son whom she declared was miraculously conceived! and when she presented him to the people, he was hailed as the promised deliverer. This was Tammuz, whose worship Ezekiel protested against in the days of the captivity. Thus was introduced the mystery of the mother and the child, a form of idolatry that is older than any other know to man. The rites of this worship were secret. Only the initiated were permitted to know its mysteries. it was Satan s effort to delude mankind with an imitation so like the truth of God that they would not know the true Seed of the woman when He came in the fullness of time 1 Without going into great detail the practices of Babylon can be traced through the history of humanity. They have often become intertwined within the church. This has been especially true in Roman orthodoxy, but Hislop s view that Mystery Babylon is Rome and the Papacy itself, is simplistic. With the rebuilding of Babylon in the middle-east and the rise of false religions around the world it is premature to try to identify any specific system with the future world apostate religion. To try to identify Mystery Babylon with Roman Catholicism or for that matter New Age philosophy is as fruitless as trying to set the date for Christ s return. It is neither possible nor fruitful. It is clear from Revelation, Chapters 17 and 18, that during the Tribulation there will be two Babylons covering both the religious/political and economic lives of the world. The apostate 1 Ironside, Harry A., Lectures on the Book of Revelation, (12th ed.), Loizeaux Brothers, New York, NY, 1942, p ) 130 (

3 church will be a copy of Christianity in that it will promote Satan, be headed up by the Antichrist, and empowered by the false prophet. Commercial Babylon will be the center of Satan s power. It may well be a literal city. This is in contrast to the religious system of Mystery Babylon. But while the Anti-Christ will put an end to the religious system when it suits his purposes, God will bring down destruction on the commercial system. Scripture s focus on Babylon is for the purpose of presenting a type of the worst of man s efforts at self-deification versus worshiping the one true God. The one thing to note here is there will be only a true unified one world religious system under Satan s direction. And God s church can never, and never will find unity with any of the churches of the world. The two systems are an anathema to each other. The point of all this is to show that the system of idolatry and rebellion against God can be traced all the way back to this period immediately after the flood until its final destruction during the Tribulation. If nothing else, this certainly says something about humanities commitment to rebellion and self-aggrandizement. b. God s Intervention: Verse 5: Now let s move back to the plain of Shinar. God, who watches over all the works of man, takes special interest in this latest construction project. He is watching because He intends to intervene. Verse 6: First, God explains why men cannot be allowed to continue in this direction of rebellion. The problem isn t limited to the sin of the immediate act. The bigger issue is the potential for unlimited sin. As we have been noting over the last few weeks, when a fallen humanity can work together the magnitude of their evil cannot be imagined. Parenthetically, it should be noted that verses 6 and 7 seem to be presenting God speaking within the godhead, much as He did in the work of creation. What is really sad here is that we can see when men do work together they can accomplish great things. But because of the fall these great things are also fallen. The motivation is the problem. These great works are meant to lift up mankind, not to serve God. This can be true even within the Church. Often great amounts of money can be raised for projects that in no way can be said to serve the Lord. This has been the case where great edifices, towers of Babel, have been built. Political systems have been established and control over people has been the result. This can go on at all levels of Christendom. It is easy to find well know examples within contemporary Christianity. But other than making us feel good about ourselves, there is no real benefit. The real question is; We have to be conscious of the same dangers in our lives and the life of our church. We must be willing to let God identify where we are in danger of going off the track. Remember our focus needs to be on getting out the log in our own eye. ) 131 (

4 Verses 7-9: If unity of humanity was the problem, the obviously disunity must be the cure. One question frequently asked today is: Why can t men work together for peace? they can t because there is no peace outside of God, and the unified attempt to find is without God is just another form of sin. The proof of the pudding, so to speak, is the Millennial age. Here at last will be a prosperous age with worldwide peace, whether the world wants it or not. And at the end of this period mankind rises against the Prince of Peace with the intent of destroying Him. Once again God directly intervenes. He miraculously confounds human language. He brings confusion and disunity. Men are no longer about to communicate with one another. The system breaks down. And next God scatters humanity over the face of the earth. Nations, suspicions and tensions represent the state of the world. And there has never again been unity. Interestingly, at Pentecost, God demonstrated at the coming of His kingdom humanity will be restored to its full potential. He did this by allowing men to again understand each other. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? (Acts 2:5 12). Look over there at the tower. The site is deserted, an unfinished city and tower. It stands as an illustration of the futility of striving against God. Man will never win, no matter how much his self-delusion may lead him to believe he can. And this same self-delusion continues because, while that city and the tower stand unfinished, many other cities and towers continue to spring up. They are all intended to serve as testimony to the deity of humanity and a rejection of God. By the way, tradition tells us that the unfinished tower remained until the time of Nebuchadnezzar who at the second founding of Babylon completed it. According to Greek historians there was such an edifice within the midst of the city. Finally, it should be understood that God was protecting mankind from its own stupidity. It is for mankind s own protection that God has allowed disunity. In what way do you think the lack of unity has actually proved beneficial, from God s perspective. 1. God forced man to scatter and to replenish the earth. This had been intended as a blessing. ) 132 (

5 2. If humanity in a wholesale manner continued in the path he was taking, then God would have had to come and again judge the world at large. Though of course this is the inevitable end. The difference is, when He does judge He will be judging a world that had the availability of salvation. Conclusion: Consider that what God does through judgment is also merciful. This is especially true when He disciplines us. Taking off from this point Dr. McGee states: One thing that is happening today through the medium of radio and television and jet travel is that these walls (walls of separation) are being broken down. They are tumbling down like the walls of Jericho. This is one reason that I believe God is coming down in judgment again. 2 Imagine what he d think of today s global village. So Moses closes this section of Genesis on an ironic note. The city which had been called the gate of God is now called Babel meaning be confused. Now men, who were confused in their spirit, are confused in their world. Let me make one last point related to the question of the development of racial characteristics. Henry Morris notes: As each family and tribal unit migrated away from Babel, not only did they each develop a distinctive culture, but also they each developed distinctive physical and biological characteristics. Since they could communicate only with members of their own family unity, there was no further possibility of marrying outside the family. Hence it was necessary to establish new families composed of very close relatives, for several generations at least. It is well established genetically that variations take place very quickly in a small inbreeding population, but only very slowly in a large interbreeding population. In the latter, only the dominant genes will find common expression in the outward physical characteristics of the population, reflecting more or less average characteristics, even though the genetic factors for specifically distinctive characteristics are latent in the gene pool of the population. In a small population, however, the particular suite of genes that may be present in its members, though recessive in the larger population, will have opportunity to become openly expressed and even dominant under these circumstances. Thus, in a very few generations of such inbreeding, distinctive characteristics of skin color, height, hair texture, facial features, temperament, environmental adjustment, and others, could come to be associated with particular tribes and nations. 3 Thus concludes Moses history of the world from Creation until the world became the one we know. For the purpose of review, I d like to reiterate some of the points we have seen over the last months. Then next week we will move on into the introduction and life of Abraham. 1. The Creation of the universe was carried out by the Triune God. 2. In the Fall, Eve s sin was allowing herself to be tricked by Satan. Adam on the other hand deliberately sinned. 2 McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee, Volume 1, Genesis - Deuteronomy, Thomas Nelson Inc., Nashville, TN 1981, p Morris, Henry M., The Genesis Record, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1987, p ) 133 (

6 3. Mankind was alienated from God. Humanity was alienated from itself. Man and woman were alienated within the context of marriage. Humanity was alienated from Nature. 4. But in the midst of the Fall came the hope and promise of a Savior, God s plan of salvation. And while it is barely hinted at here it becomes clearer throughout scripture until fully revealed in Christ. 5. The pattern of disobedience was demonstrated by Cain s murder of Abel. Abel served God on God s terms, while Cain wanted God to accept him on his own terms. 6. Finally, we saw the destruction of a civilization as great as today s. This occurred because of a wholesale attitude of rebellion against God s will not just by individuals, but corporately, by humanity as a whole. The message of the beginning of Genesis is first obedience to God puts one in a position of separation from the world at large. But no matter how difficult the situation, God is there to strengthen and care for us. Second, God has judged a fallen world and will do so again. Our responsibility is to be His light and warning to individuals. Our lives and words are to be messages of hope and encouragement to the lost. But in the final analysis, it is God who elects, saves. Our job is to show up. His is to produce the fruit. I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness. You have said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations. Selah Let the heavens praise your wonders, O LORD, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD? Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD, a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him? O LORD God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O LORD, with your faithfulness all around you? You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them. You crushed Rahab like a carcass; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm. The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them. The north and the south, you have created them; Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name. You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face, who exult in your name all the day and in your righteousness are exalted. For you are the glory of their strength; by your favor our horn is exalted. For our shield belongs to the LORD, our king to the Holy One of Israel (Psalms 89:1 18). ) 134 (

7 Genesis 11:5-9 Can We Communicate? V. Rerun Sin Part 2 Chapter 11 A. The Tower of Babel 1. The Sin Verses The Sentence Verses 5-9 a. The Babel Road: b. God s Intervention Verses 5-9 Introduction: a. The Babel Road: b. God s Intervention: Verse 5:

8 Verse 6: Verses 7-9: (Acts 2:5 12) Conclusion: (Psalms 89:1 18) Personal Application: Remember we may not be spotlights, but each one of us is to be a mirror on which God s light can be reflected into dark corners. Prayer for the Week: Father, help me to keep my mirror clean for You. In Christ s name, amen.