The Tower of Babel

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Genesis 11 and the Pattern of Human Sin and Divine Grace

Please turn with me, if you haven't, in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 11. The first 11 chapters of this book, of our Bibles, as we have said several times now, deal with the primeval history of the world, laying the foundation of how we, as Bible-believing Christians, see God, man, and the world.

And today we have arrived at the last part of that section. The history prior to the patriarchs now comes to a conclusion, and as we'll see, it is not necessarily a good one, though there remains some hope.

The scene in general is rather one of gloom, and it's really a pattern that we've seen several times now throughout our study of these very important chapters. Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, we've seen the utter and complete sinfulness of mankind.

It seems every account unveils a dark picture of human depravity, and the only light on that canvas is the grace of God, and that even in His judgment continues to shine through all the darkness. And so we cannot escape either one, neither man's sin nor God's grace.

I don't know about you, but with every account, though I'm familiar with them, though we know what happens, there's always part of me, I always hope, I long, honestly, to see that there's some good that man does when we come to these, that maybe finally he would please God instead of giving the Lord reason to descend on him in judgment, that for once we would not find him in opposition to his Creator.

I almost want to cry out, Lord, please let them do something that is right for once. But every time, again and again, we see the opposite. We were reminded of it last week, that depravity runs so much deeper than we ourselves know and are even aware of.

I would like to tell you that finally, after all this time, after the fall, Cain and Abel, Lamech and his descendants, Noah and the flood, Noah and his descendants after the flood, and their sin in the vineyard, that at the end of this section here in Genesis, things begin to turn around, that a last man understands his condition and departs from it, but I can't.

No, the pattern repeats and continues. We could say, here we go again. If there are two things that we would do well to take from our time here in Genesis over the last five months, I believe it is the sinfulness of man and the grace of God toward him despite this wickedness.

If that is the state of affairs still, that all men and women will repeat this cycle continually, that they cannot help themselves. I think when we come to chapter 11 now, the plea, really the cry of the reader by the time we get to this point, becomes God, please do something.

Intervene. Like we're ready to see the offspring of the woman crush the serpent's head. And unless your divine hand reaches down, grabs hold of the sinner's heart, transforms it, we won't change. And so we see this familiar pattern today, but in a way we haven't seen until this point and rarely get to see so clearly expressed throughout scripture, the very intent, the goal of evil is laid out before us.

Human Pride and the Desire to Make a Name

So as we work our way through this chapter, first we get one of the clearest purpose statements for prideful disobedience from the very lips of men. Man striving for glory, to make a name for himself.

It is of course what in many ways still drives the world. Think of athletes constantly pushing past their physical limits to reach the next level, to win the next competition, to be crowned the best in the world.

The musicians who wants to play on the biggest stage, to be the most famous, best-selling artist, win innumerable number of music awards. Or many politicians who want to protect the reputation, take credit for the good and push the blame onto someone else for the bad.

To make a name for oneself is for many people the very goal of life. Second, we'll see God opposing that prideful rebellion. He is neither threatened nor impressed by man who will not and cannot obstruct the Lord's plans.

The Lord has a purpose and that purpose will continue to stand despite of it. And then lastly, we'll see that the Lord out of sinful people will make for himself a people. A people that will humbly submit to him and make not their own name but his name great.

So brothers and sisters, I pray that we would come, that we would be humbled and have the eyes of our hearts redirected to the glory of God. Let us begin in verses one through four of Genesis chapter 11.

It reads, now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another to come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.

And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.

Chapter 10, last week, we've seen the nations that have come from Noah and his descendants after the flood and that spread over all the earth. Chapter 10, you remember, ends with a genealogy. And if we look at chapter 11 in its totality, it is mostly genealogy.

But between these two genealogies, almost in parentheses, the first nine verses of chapter 11, we find the story of the Tower of Babel. That's where we'll spend most of our time. In part, these verses here explain to us how the people did end up all over the earth.

Moses gives us a general description in chapter 10 that is then followed by a second account filling in some of the details. You remember, he did a similar thing in Genesis chapter 1 at the beginning of this book with the creation of man in chapter 1 and then describing it to us in more detail of how man and woman were made in chapter 2.

And so we read that there was only one language among the people that they had migrated and eventually settled in the land of Shinar. It's very possible that the people referenced here are led by the man Nimrod.

In chapter 10, verse 10, we're told that the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was, in fact, Babel along with some other places in the very land of Shinar. And Babel, we'll see later, will be the very name given to the city where the story takes place.

Based on verse 25 in chapter 10, it's also likely and a traditional view that is held among evangelical scholars that this occurs at some point during the life of Peleg, the great-great-grandson of Shem, because in his days the earth was divided.

And so as people began to multiply, some of them entered the land of Shinar to settle there. It may seem innocent enough to us at first glance, but a couple of things are actually worth noting here. First, the phrase migrated from the east in verse 2 could also be translated as migrated or journeyed eastward or toward the east.

The NASB renders it that way, for example. Now, for some of you, this might actually ring a bell right away. East or eastward has, in Genesis, no real positive connotation. You remember that Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden after they had sinned and a cherubim was placed at the east of the garden to guard it.

Cain, after being sentenced to a life of wandering for the murder of his brother, went away from the presence of the Lord, settling in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Later, Lot, when he separates from Abraham, chooses to go east, where he will eventually meet the disaster of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Heading east throughout the book of Genesis indicates a leaving of God's presence and or blessing. And so we ought to be a little bit on guard here when we come across this. Second, settling in Shinar.

Most commentators agree that this is in defiance to the command that God had given Noah in chapter 9 and verse 1 after the flood of filling the earth. I believe the context of our whole passage supports that idea.

In verse 4, we read of the people having a fear of being dispersed and wanting to stay in this place to make that name for themselves. Before then, in verse 9, the Lord ends up scattering them over all the earth.

And even in the greater context of this account, sitting between these two genealogies, describing the very multiplying and filling the earth, settling in order to be great in the earth, seems rather contrary to the Lord's command.

And so we find a disobedient people beginning to separate themselves from the Lord. Now verses 3 and 4 drive home that point for us. It's about independence and self-sufficiency apart from God. They make bricks to build a city and a tower.

There is so much debate about what this tower was and if it was meant for pagan worship, if it was a certain structure that the Babylonians built in their religious worship. What it was certainly not was a straight tower like a skyscraper with an infinite height.

Some even believe that this city and the tower are supposed to be taken together as a city tower, as a one-unit type of thing. I think these discussions, though they can be helpful and interesting, are going beyond the point that Moses is trying to make here.

I think he's telling us that in their defiance to God, they built a structure unlike anything that had been built prior to this point. It was for the sole purpose of making them famous, keeping them united in that place as one people against the command of God.

In short, John MacArthur summarizes it well. He says, They wanted it to be a high tower as a monument to their abilities, one that would enhance their fame and their pride. They were robbing God of His glory and seeking to establish their own.

Let us make a name for ourselves. They were chasing after glory. Now all men in some form or other are chasing after glory. The question for us, for you, Christian, really is which one are you chasing after?

You say, what a silly question. Well, I pray for all of us that it is none other than the glory of our God. I mean, we often say it, don't we? We even pray it. We are quick to pay lip service to it. Lord, glorify yourself for your glory, we pray.

We say it often without even thinking about it. But how often do you really mean it? And I mean earnestly. How often do you desire in your most inward being that God will be glorified? So many times, in countless subtle ways, we still prefer our name to be great and our actions to be known, don't we?

This applies to all of us. In the church, from the pastor who secretly longs for a greater audience that is preaching, would have a greater audience. The man that is proud and wants people coming to him asking him questions because he apparently has all the answers.

He preaches to please men and receive their praise. To the man, the woman in the pew, you want to impress others with fancy words and phrases when praying publicly. It feels good when others say to you they liked your prayer and were blessed by it, like the Pharisees.

You stand at the street corner, so to speak, wanting to be seen and honored. While you're praying, you're fasting, you're apparent godliness, you're glad. Perhaps you even make sure you're serving in a church as seen and recognized by others.

Or perhaps you're proud of your perceived humility. Brothers and sisters, we have to be on guard. We should, of course, let others know when we're blessed by them and encourage them. But at the same time, we must protect ourselves from serving others with the motive of receiving their thanks and their praise to feed our desire for recognition.

This can be so difficult for us to see and believe really because the underlying pride in making a name for ourselves of all the sins that we commit is possibly the best one in hiding and covering up.

So much so that some of you may be sitting here thinking, I don't know what you're talking about, but it's certainly not me. That is exactly the problem and what makes it so dangerous. There's a story I came across this week of a Spanish bullfighter.

His name was Jose. He was considered to be one of the best up-and-coming fighters in the 80s in Spain. This man was 21 years old and he had already had this tremendous career, many achievements. And then in 1985, he took part in this fight.

He wasn't supposed to, but he came in as a substitute for another fighter who wasn't able to partake, participate. And so this young man fights this bull and eventually he drives his sword into this delirious bull now, which is generally considered to be the final blow and to kill the animal and to end the fight.

And so he drives the sword into the bull, the bull collapses. And as the story goes, this young man considered the fight to be over. So he turns to the crowd, he celebrates and acknowledges the applause, but it turns out that behind him, the bull was not dead.

And instead he rose again and attacked the young fighter, piercing his lungs and hearts from the back. Before this kid really died and lost consciousness, he was able to say to his friend in this weak voice, this bull has killed me.

I'm afraid pride works much in the same way. We're in the greatest danger of it when we think we've killed it for good just for it to get back up. We can never consider pride and making our name for ourselves dead really before we are.

Krishna, I want to exhort you to not make your name great, even and especially under the guise of holiness or service. Be content, you know, even strive to disappear if you can help into obscurity so that God will occupy the seat of prominence.

A good place to start is to love him more than yourself. We exalt and treasure that which we love most and we love ourselves a whole lot. You know this, don't you? If he'd be more precious to you than your very own life, you'd care much less about your reputation and standing and bring him all the glory.

You'd be content to disappear that he may be seen. You don't have to end up becoming a missionary or a martyr to do this either. You can do this here, now in the daily Christian life, in your home, at work, in your serving the church, in and with the very smallest details.

I want to give you one example of this before we move on. The composer Johann Sebastian Bach, some of you may know this, when he was writing music, whether for the court or the prince or the church, he would often place initials at the beginning of his pieces.

Sometimes he would place JJ, Latin for Jesu Juva, Jesus help. At other times and places, he would place the all-familiar initials to us of SDG, Soli Deo Gloria, for the glory of God. This man didn't want to seem to have any fame either.

He's quoted as saying, all music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the soul's refreshment. Where this is not remembered, there is no real music but only a devilish hubbub. Brothers and sisters, you know the Lord uses means.

Understand the wonder that it is that he chooses people to exalt himself, that he works through you, allows you to be part of it, to bring him glory, to be a means through which others rejoice in him.

Let's not deprive ourselves of that very opportunity by seeking to be great. I believe rightly understood, it is one of the greatest joys of the Christian life that we get to serve for the purpose of glorifying the one who has called us out of darkness into marvelous light.

Let's not rob him of his glory trying to take it for ourselves. Secondly, in our passage we see God opposing this prideful rebellion. He won't allow such acts to succeed and continue. Look at his response in verses 5 through 9.

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man have built. And the Lord said, behold they are one people and they have all one language and this is only the beginning of what they will do.

And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come let us go down and there confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city.

Therefore its name was called Babel because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. There's almost an exact parallel of the words of men, the way God responds to the people.

Verse 5 he says, it says the Lord came down to see the city. Oh what words of condemnation really. Moses using this anthropomorphic language again and describing the action of God and the way he puts it is so ironic.

This great tower that the people wanted to build is nothing in the eyes of the Lord. I like how one commentator put it, quote, the necessary descent of God and the humanness of the enterprise shows the escapade for what it was.

A tiny tower conceived by a puny plan and attempted by a pint-sized people. End quote. It reminds us of Psalm 2 verse 4 doesn't it? He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord holds them in derision.

Man wants to go up reaching the heavens making a name for himself yet God has to come down to even see their weak efforts and attempts. No matter how great and amazing we think we or any other man may be, we all remain children of man before the Lord.

And so we see God now speaking his mind. He acknowledges that in their pride being unified, being a unified people with this common language they hold, they will most certainly accomplish that evil that they set out to do.

He's not threatened by their schemes as the one who does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth. He can do all things and none of his plans are thwarted. But he knows that if this evil is not restrained, dire consequences will fall on humanity.

And so he does intervene and he's almost mimicking the people. He says, come let us go down. And what does he do? He strikes at the very thing that united them. He confused their language. They can no longer effectively communicate.

No longer are these people one. He doesn't do anything dramatic, no cataclysmic event like the flood. The tower and the city don't just begin to fall apart and crush people as they're building it. No, they simply can no longer understand each other.

Regarding the weakness of man and the Lord destroying them without any difficulty, Calvin writes, the meaning of the words of this is, the meaning of the words is of this kind. I will not use many instruments.

I will only blow upon them and they, through the confusion of tongues, shall be contemptibly scattered. They may have thought they were a great people. Well, in reality, they were far from it. And so he scatters them.

It's so ironic. He makes them look so foolish and absurd, scattering them over all the earth. That's the very thing they wanted to prevent in verse four. The very thing they feared became their penalty.

They wanted to settle. God dispersed them. They were united, now divided. They wanted to build a place to make a name for themselves. Instead, that place is given the name of Babel. You might have a footnote in your Bibles.

This is a word play. Babel in the Hebrew sounds a lot like the word for confused. The people desired a name of renown, but gained a name of dishonor, representing prideful rebellion against God and become a witness to his power and glory.

The land of Shinar with the cities listed earlier in chapter 10 are considered to be the beginnings of the kingdom, what would be Babylon, which often represents pride, a seed of rebellion against God and pagan worship throughout the scripture.

So at the very beginning here, the people of Babel aim to reach the heavens. But at the end of our Bibles, in Revelation 18 verse five, we read that the only thing out of Babylon that ever reached the heavens are her sins.

David in the 34th Psalm writes, the face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The Lord opposes prideful rebellion against him. Pride, Proverbs 16 verse 18 says, goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Christian, you have absolutely nothing to gain by prideful disobedience, especially by seeking to make a name for yourself. You'll only find yourself opposing your God. If that's something you're still secretly harboring and nurturing in your heart, whether it's being recognized in the church or being recognized in the world, regardless if it's to a greater or a lesser extent, you have to realize that you are settling for much less than what you already have.

Any glory of this world is not worthy of the child of God. He has so much better and greater things for you to come. But not only things are to come, no, even now, no matter how much you're recognized by any man, no matter how much you serve them, please them or anything else, no one ever in a million lifetimes, if there were such a thing, I don't care who they are or who you are, will have more love and affection for you than your God.

Let me tell you something, what prestige, honor and fame in this life don't do for you. They do not make you his treasured possession. You are that through his son. They don't cause him to bestow on you any more favor than which was already poured out for you on Calvary.

They don't make him increase your eternal inheritance that you have through Christ Jesus. They don't make him forgive you more sins than he otherwise would. They don't raise you up from death to life and seat you in the heavenly places.

And they most certainly above all else don't cause your heavenly father to love you more than he loves you already. You have nothing to gain because you already have received everything through your Savior.

Man's praise pales in comparison to what he has given you. It is utterly worthless and insignificant in the eyes of the Lord. Why do you still seek the glory of man? Why do you still seek to make a name for yourself?

The Genealogy of Shem and the Line to Abraham

Now let's consider thirdly and lastly the ending of this chapter and the closing of the primeval history of the world. As already mentioned we find ourselves with another genealogy in verses 10 all the way to the end verse 32.

And with the story of the Tower of Babel now as a backdrop we'll see that that despite all the sin running so rampant and permeating all of humanity God is actively working. He's beginning to make for himself a people.

In verses 10 through 26 we have the genealogy of Shem. If you paid attention last week you'll notice that this is the second time a genealogy of Shem is mentioned. We saw the first one at the end of chapter 10 and Shem of course you remember was the one blessed by Noah at the end of chapter 9.

So it's not a huge surprise to us to see him mentioned again. However this genealogy is not exactly the same as the one in chapter 10. The previous one you remember is moving rather swiftly and broadly.

Where this one seems to slow down a bit. It zooms in a little bit. For one we're given the actual ages of the men that are mentioned. But secondly if we just look back at chapter 10 for a moment and beginning in verse 21 where the sons of Shem begin to be listed.

Now verse 22 gives us the the names of Shem's sons. And after we're given the sons of Aram in verse 23 the line continues now with Arpichad in verse 24. Arpichad fathered Shelah and Shelah fathered Eber.

But then verse 25 and 26 we notice something very interesting. Moses writes to Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg for in his days the earth was divided and his brother's name was Joktan.

Now throughout verse 26 and the rest of this list the descendants of Joktan are traced. Now if we go back to chapter 11 and look again at Shem's descendants we notice beginning in verse 16 that when Eber had lived 34 years he fathered Peleg.

And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters. Continuing in verse 18 when Peleg had lived 30 years he fathered Rehu. And Peleg lived after he fathered Rehu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Rehu had lived 32 years he fathered Serug. And Rehu lived after he fathered Serug 270 years and had other sons and daughters. Did you notice it? Joktan is not mentioned. The list here in chapter 11 traces Shem's line through Peleg until it ends with Abram in verse 26.

Here in chapter 11 we continue with the line of Peleg that would eventually lead to Abraham. What's the big deal? Moses is presenting to us the genealogy of the chosen line from Adam to Abraham which would then lead to the forming of the nation of Israel from which ultimately and eventually the promised offspring would come.

There's another great irony in this genealogy in verse 10. These are the generations of Shem. What did the people at Babel want? To make a name for themselves. What does that have to do with verse 10?

The word for name in verse 4 let us make a name for ourselves as the exact same Hebrew word for the name Shem in verse 10. You see when we put chapter 10 and 11 together in this context Moses is telling us, he says, look after the flood people were to multiply and fill the earth.

These are all the nations that came from Noah and his descendants. Then the story of the Tower of Babel. Now with this genealogy leading actually into the beginning of chapter 12 he says, but God despite the rebellion of men out of all these nations with all these different languages scattered all over the earth makes for himself a people beginning with the calling of Abram.

Of everything we've seen in Genesis so far the plan of God is not thwarted and ruined by man. Yes they sin, rebel, and disobey continually. I know things may look rather gloomy. God's plan still stands and he will fill his promise of the seed that will defeat that serpent.

He's calling a people together. He is making a great nation that will make him great and be a blessing to all the families of the earth. When he actually calls Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans early in chapter 12 he calls him right out of paganism.

In Joshua, Joshua chapter 24, Joshua recalled some of the history of Israel and in verse 2 he comments on Terah, Abram's father, and it says, and Joshua said to all the people, thus says the Lord the God of Israel, long ago your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates.

Terah the father of Abraham and of Nahor and they served other gods. Babel wanted a name and was dispersed. God calls Abram and makes a unified people in order to bless the earth. The tower of Babel served as this great warning for the nation of Israel of what might happen if they were to be disobedient and prideful.

A warning that we know through the witness of Scripture that was not heeded and they too end up leaving their God and bowing down to idols. But despite that the Lord preserved the line, even a royal line through King David until the time was right.

I was reminded of Acts 2 actually. When a man, Jesus Christ, finally came he had fulfilled the law and the prophets, died, resurrected, and ascended again to the right hand of the Father. On that day of Pentecost, you remember, when he sent his Spirit and the people began to speak in all sorts of different languages.

People from all over the world, even in the text it says from Mesopotamia which was the area in which Shinar and Babel were. And then Peter goes on in his sermon to say that God is pouring out his Spirit now on all flesh and that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Brothers and sisters, in closing here, Christ has ransomed a people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. They are one united people. Though they may not speak the same language now and may live in different places, what truly unites them is far greater and more precious than human speech or borders.

It is their Christ, it is their Savior, their God. Christians, we are now that very people, as divinely called people having experienced the sovereign intervention in our lives. We will one day, on that great day when Christ will sit on the throne of his glory and all nations are gathered before him, truly and fully be united as one people that willingly, humbly submit to him that will glorify him fully, truly, forever.

We will one day settle and glorify him to.

The fullest. Let's close in prayer. Thank you for listening to another sermon from Grace Fellowship Church. If you would like to keep up with us, you can find us at Facebook at Grace Fellowship Church or our Instagram at Grace Church, Y-E-G, all one word.

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