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Bro. Otis Fisher
So get your Bible and open to the book of Genesis, to the 9th chapter, and the 24th verse. We left an awful scene last week. We left Noah drunk, and now he's going to wake up. Verse 24,. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
Please notice the phrase done. Greg, it has just a little bit of a ring. The word know, or knew, to perceive and see, to find out and discern. The word done means to do, work, make, produce, to act, act with effect.
Drunkenness is the shame of nature, the extinguisher of reason, the shipwreck of chastity, and the murder of conscience. It's hurtful to the body. I believe the cup kills more than the cannon. It fills the eye with fire and the legs with water, turns the body into a hospital.
Drunkenness. And he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brothers. I'd like to know what you think about Noah at this point in his life. We've been off the ark now for quite some time for the great plants to be planted, grapes to be produced, wine to be made.
Was the wine made that he made now different, Bill, do you think, than the wine he made previous to the flood because of the direct sunshine? Do you think, I'll ask Bill again, do you think that Noah was innocent in his act of getting drunk?
Do you do or you don't? I find it a little strange that if he should have known better, therefore he was guilty, that God would use him as a prophet. But he did. And he pronounces a curse upon Canaan.
Who is Canaan, Roger? No, here in verse 25. Descendant of who? Who was the son that had done this? Ham. So he's a descendant of Ham. David, why would the curse be pronounced upon the grandson instead of upon the son?
Where'd David go? There he is. Was Ham exempted from this? We have the curse here and we had a curse earlier upon Cain. And then Noah continues and he said, The word servant means slave, servant, manservant, bond, man, bondage.
The descendants of Ham settled mostly in the areas of the world that are today black. And the word Ham means black. And he shall dwell in the tents of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant. So we have the curse reaching into the descendants of Ham to be servants.
The question was asked a couple, three weeks ago, from where did the Oriental come? In trying to answer that question, I tried to trace the descendants and into what part of the world they went. Japheth was head of the upper part of Asia.
Then they crossed into North America, to the Eskimo, down to the Indian, and finally into America, and then into Mexico, and on down into the southern South America. The Mexican today is a cross between the Spanish and the Indian.
So I would say the Indian, the Eskimo, and the Oriental have come from Japheth. And in those, at least in the Indian, Eskimo, and Oriental, you can see it in their eyes. I was not very successful in finding all of the areas.
It certainly could, only it's not... I would say that it means that Japheth shall dwell in the tents of Shem, that they will share, that they will be compatible, which they will not with Ham. The reason I say that is because the pronoun he is not capitalized.
Well, it certainly could be, because that's what happened. But I think it means exactly what's taking place today. The Jew and the, what are we, Caucasian, are mingled together. And I don't mean race-wise, I mean in society or in the country.
But we do have the black also. There's very, very few pure blacks left in this country. Very few. They've been diluted. So I would take 27 to mean that Japheth and Shem shall dwell together in peace most of the time.
Not so with Canaan, because he used to be a servant of both. The descendants of Japheth also went into Europe, England, and North America. Noah lived after the flood 350 years, and all the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.
The flood did not diminish the lifespan of man immediately. I think the consequences have since then. I can say that safely because man doesn't live that long now. I did find the nations descended from each son.
From Japheth there are 14 nations. From Ham there are 30 nations. Shem there are 26 nations. How many nations are there in the world today? Does anybody know? Does everybody not know? No, I don't, and I just heard it last week.
That's how long my memory is. I still remember that I heard it. Oh, I think there was 300 and some. There might have been 30, I don't remember. Like the little boy, little nephew, I think, of a friend of ours.
I don't remember how old he was, probably four or five. He got scared during the night, and they asked him, there's a noise he heard outside. He said, what do you think it is? He said, well, it's either a pigeon or a wolf, and I don't know which.
Now we come to the 11th chapter, and it gets a little bit more interesting, perhaps. 10th chapter. Well, we almost went to the 11th. 10th is not quite so interesting. Now, these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
And unto them were born sons after the flood. Now, as you probably have guessed, I'm not going to pronounce all of those. But in verse 5, these were they that the isles of the Gentiles were divided in their lands, everyone after his tongue, after their families and the nations.
So we know that this is talking about history in the future, because tongues have not yet, different tongues have not yet arisen. The sons of Ham, in verse 6, we have Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. Then we follow Cush.
Cush begit Nimrod. There's a name that we recognize. Nimrod. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Wherefore, it is said, even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. Now, I would urge you to not form your characterization of Nimrod based upon that verse.
You'll have to read some more. And the Bible gives it to us, especially in the New Testament. But this man, Nimrod, let me read to you what was said in the Targum on 1 Chronicles 1 .10. It says this, Nimrod began to be a mighty man in sin, a murderer of innocent men, and a rebel before the Lord.
Then the Jerusalem Targum says, He was mighty in hunting and in sin before God, for he was a hunter of the children of men in their languages, and said unto them, Depart from the religion of Shem, cleave to the institutes of Nimrod.
The Targum of John ben Israel says, From the foundation of the world, none was ever found like Nimrod, powerful in hunting and in rebellious against the Lord. Nimrod was an awful, awful man. He married his mother.
They had a child. The child died. A green tree sprung up from the grave of the child. From that came a green Christmas tree. Nimrod had his own worship order. We learned about worship this morning. Let me ask right here, Which comes first, the real or the false?
The real, or there would never be a false. So Nimrod established a religious order, meaning there had to be the real order. He had his temple. He had his temple virgins. He had his priests. He had sacrifices.
He had everything that he could think of. And most of the sacrifices, or at least the high sacrifices, were human sacrifice. The beginning of his kingdom took place where? Babel. What land is that in today?
Babylon. Who's head of that country today? He has said that he is going to re-establish the city of Babylon with all of its worship. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel. And Erech, Achad, Kalani, in the land of Shinar, he built cities.
He hunted people. He had slaves. Out of that land went forth Asher and built Nineveh. Nineveh is an extremely old city. We just finished reading about Noah and how he didn't want to go there. And they said, Rehoboth.
But I've always tried to get Noah going there. And I guess he would if it wasn't for my wife. There's some other name. What was it? Hwayo. You'll have to forgive me. Now I want to go over to verse 32, if you will, please.
Anytime you want to know from where someone come, you can read these or look at the chart I gave you. In verse 32, these are the families of the sons of Noah after their generation in their nations. And by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.
Now we come to chapter 11. And the whole earth was of one language. Roger, that must have been... Well, it wasn't to them because they didn't know any different. But it would have been something for us if everybody spoke the very same language.
From this chapter, we learn that if you want to accomplish something with someone else, you both better speak the same language. Was of one language of one speech. The word speech here means lip. Of one lip.
Language. This was a very simple way of talking. They didn't have complicated words. They didn't have many syllable words. They talked in one syllable words. Such as me, he, and B .C. One simple syllable.
And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, we're going west now, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there. Anytime it says, and it came to pass, that means that several years passed.
In the Vulgate, we find Shinar. And in the inscription from that, Shumar. Probably identical with Babylonia or southern Mesopotamia. Extending almost to the Persian Gulf. Here, the Tower of Babel was built.
In the city of Babylon. The name occurs later in Jewish history. Verse 3, and they said one to another, now make note of pronouns. They said, let us make brick. And burned them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and slime.
They had for mortar, brick. And I go back to my learned friend Bill again. Brick today is from clay and being fired. They would not have had an electric kill. And if they fired it, it would have to be from the burning of a furnace.
But there's another way of making brick too. Can you tell us about that? But they did sun-dry some of them. And the sun in that part of the desert is hotter than it is here. But they did fire some and they did sun-dry some.
But they are able to make brick. Now remember, Noah and his three boys were the only ones who brought any information from the old world. 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. A corrupt great man is a great corrupted man. When the vices of the rulers of others are made the rules of vices to others, the offenses of all great ones must needs be the greatest of all offenses.
This is Nimrod. We learn now about the design of God to have people living all over the earth. They're not doing that. They knew they were or they would not have been concerned about being scattered. These folks knew.
But instead they wanted to build a tower so high that they could reach heaven. Is that what you think they did? Is that what they wanted to do? Have another way to heaven? How many of you know better than that?
What they want to do, Trudy, say it again. These people were human sacrificers also. They were not trying to reach into heaven. But the philosophy at that time, at least Nimrod's philosophy, was to get a tower so close to God that they could offer human sacrifice right in his face.
Now we say, well, that's foolish. Well, it was, but it was not to them. That brings up another question. Roger, does reality ever change? It doesn't. There was a time that reality said this world was flat.
Now he's trying to hedge. But it's after the fact. In man's viewpoint, I should have said, reality changes. They thought that they could actually do this. We know better. They didn't. They didn't know anything much except what Nimrod dictated.
It's impossible for man to do a good or virtuous action, for he would not if he could, and he could not if he would. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men were building.
This is anthropomorphicalism. Did you ever hear that? What? Anthropomorphism. I can't say it. Anthropomorphic. Does anybody know what that means? Clarence, you should. Bill does. Bill? All right. It's assigning human attributes to God.
And we find this throughout the Bible. The eyes of the Lord, the arms of God, and so forth. He doesn't have eyes or arms, but is presented as man's viewpoint. Anthropomorphic. And that's what it is when it says the Lord came down to see just what was going on.
We know he didn't have to come down, June. We know that he knew what was going on because he had ordained it. But it's written in such a way that even the smallest child can get some idea of what's happening.
And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one lip, one language. And this they begin to do, and now, and draw an underline, Nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do, Since they all think and talk the same.
So, Greg, it just simply tells me that if you want to get anything done in a company, Then you must all talk the same language. And by that I mean think the same. The words mean the same. It'll surprise you how many times you'll talk to someone and explain something, And they think entirely different than what you're thinking.
Even in their own language. So I used to tell our salesmen, I don't want to know what you sold them, I want to know what they thought they bought. Because it makes a big difference. And it'll surprise you how many times they thought they was buying something that the salesman wasn't selling.
So we have the formula right here. Go to. God speaking, let us. And Greg, who would the us be? What? Alright. Let us go down. And there confound their language, their lip, That they may not understand one another's speech.
Now, that seems like a very, very simple, almost insignificant action. Let's just go and change the language. Well, first of all, only God could do it. And it was nothing for him. You know, Roger, a situation that seems so disastrous to us, Let's take smog in Dallas, or Houston, or L .A. Blankets the city.
It'll kill you if you live in it. If you would back off into space, And hold your thumb up, you could cover that whole disaster with just your thumb. God is farther out than that. So, to him, it's nothing.
To him, there I go talking in man's terms. So the Lord scattered them abroad. They didn't scatter themselves, he scattered them. From thence upon the face of all of the earth, and they left off to build the city,.
And, of course, the tower. They were not only building a tower city, The central point was to be the place of sacrifice. Therefore, it is, Therefore is the name of it called Babel,. Because the Lord did there confound the language of all of the earth,.
And from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad. Now, I want you to put on your thinking caps for just a moment. You women are at home. The men are slaves made to work on building the city. They have brick.
They have slime from mortar, which was by Tuman. And they have men carrying bricks with a hod. They have people mixing mortar. They have engineers. They have everything conceivable to build and construct something.
A bricklayer calls for fresh brick, And the man brings it. The next time he calls for fresh brick, And the language just changed, What's going to happen? The words didn't change, but the meanings changed.
He asked for a brick, and they gave him a hammer. And this began to show up all over the construction site. Well, it's easy to see that production would stop. And then, Virge, you're one of those people, a bricklayer, And you're not able to cause him to understand what you want.
What do you do? Yes, you do. Just think for a moment. What would you do? Russell? All of you thinking about mad. Another mad person. Would you not look around for somebody that could understand? Then you would go home.
On your way home, what would you be wondering? Right. You're just hoping that they can understand what you're saying. All these people have gone crazy on the job. So you get home, and sure enough, everybody can understand what you're saying.
And you try to explain what has happened. And they cannot believe it, because they haven't been out of the house all day. But then the family goes next door, and they don't understand them. Then the family would begin to look for someone that did.
When you found another family that understood your language, what would you do? Right. Right. Then the two families would look for another one, and then another. And you see how he scattered the world, scattered the people?
They just, by naturally searching, they congregated together the people that could understand each other. And they were scattered throughout all of the earth. And it's still that way today. Except in the United States.
I think so. It's going to reach about the same conclusion. Well, these are the generations of Shem. Shem was 100 years old in Begat. Arthrax. Arphaxed. Antrax, that's what it was. And Shem lived after Begat.
Arphrax. That guy. 500 years in Begat, sons and daughters. Then we go through Selah. Eber. Eber is a recognizable name. Pelic. Ru. Ru stands in the genealogy. And Surig lived 30 years in Begat-Nahor.
Now we're coming into an area in history that we're going to slow down. Surig lived after Begat-Nahor 200 years in Begat, sons and daughters. And Nahor lived 9 and 20 years in Begat-Terah. How many remember Terah?
Who is Terah? Who was Terah? All right. Terah lived 70 years in Begat-Abram, Nahor, and Haran. These are the generations of Terah. Terah, Begat-Abram, Nahor, Haran, and Haran-Begat-Lot. Abram was not the firstborn.
But he's mentioned first simply because he's the most important. We're going to stop with Lot. We're going to spend a lot of time with this man, Abram. In fact, most of the rest of the... Well, about half of the rest of the book.
Then we take up Jacob. But pay attention to Abram and Lot. Those two especially. And Ur of Chaldees. If you don't know where that is, try to find it on a map. It's on there. All right. Anything else? Well, let's stand and go home.
After we have a prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this brief time that we can meet together. We thank you for your holy word that you've given us. Teach us not only the word, but the truth as it applies to us.
And that this week... This week, this very week, we will live accordingly in the name of Christ.