From the Start - Part 21 | The Tower of Babel (A Genesis Sermon Series Part 22)

Turn in your Bibles to Genesis Chapter 11.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

We'll be in Genesis 11 this morning.

For those who are new with us this morning, let me fill you in

on what you've dropped into here.

Back in the fall, in September, we began a study in the book of

Genesis and you can see from the slide it says parts 21.

So today is the 21st message in this series in Genesis and we

are only in Chapter 11. Things will begin to speed up

here momentarily. But I should warn you we may

take a break for the summer and then come back to it again in

the fall. So I foresee us probably being

in Genesis another year, which is fine by me.

I hope. I hope you're OK with that.

But I am loving the study in Genesis.

So that's where we find ourselves this morning, Genesis

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

Chapter 11. Now if you stop and consider

ancient history, you'll be confounded by the number of

seemingly impossible human achievements and find yourself

asking how did they do that? The Great Wall of China,

Stonehenge, the Great Pyramids of Giza, Chichen Itza, Machu

Picchu, the Roman Colosseum, Petra and even the Moai of

Easter Island. All these projects baffle the

mind of modern day people and engineers.

How could they do that? How could they, with their

technology, build such impressive structures?

This morning's text gives us perhaps a little bit of insight

into ancient humanity's capacity.

If you're able, would you please stand as we read from Genesis

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

Chapter 11, verses one through 9 this morning?

Now the whole earth had one language in the same words.

And as people migrated from the east, they found a plane in the

land of Shinar and settled there.

And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and

burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone,

and by two men 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.

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower with

which the children of man had 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 they're confused 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 they're the Lord

confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord

dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

You may be seated. A few weeks ago we looked at the

table of nations in in chapter 10.

This was an extensive genealogy and it showed us where all the

people of the world came from. As we look at our text this

morning, I want to make sure you understand Genesis isn't moving

in a strictly linear chronological sense.

Strictly Chapter 11 is a a flashback.

Chapter 11 is inserting itself part way into the genealogy of

chapter 10. And as we begin our this study

this morning, we look at humanity United.

Verse one just told us the whole earth had one language and the

same words. When Moses referred to the whole

earth here, he wasn't saying globe, he was saying all the

people of the earth compacted into this one region all had the

same language. Now as an aside, it's hard for

me to think in terms of their world.

For example, the first time humanity saw this picture was

December 11th, 1966. This picture was not available

before December 11th, 1966, when the satellite ETS1 took a

picture of the Earth and for the very first time in history

revealed the entirety of the Earth's shape.

It blows my mind. Granted, the picture leaves a

bit to be desired, but that was the very first time that

specific image was recorded. As a result.

Now, when we read the word Earth, many of us, we think of

that. We think of the globe.

But here in Genesis 11, Moses is referring to all the people, the

world who lived there in Mesopotamia.

Those people, they had one language and the same words.

They had one language, the same words at that time, one set of

words. Having one language made it

possible for humanity to to unite together in carrying out

great projects. Now stop for a moment and

consider the fact that we all speak English.

Now we can say we all speak English, but that does not mean

we all speak the same exact words right?

If I said the golf clubs were in the boot then most of you would

think I was crazy. A few people here would say Yep

that sounds about right. Golf clubs would be in the boot

that is your trunk. If I asked you where you got

your sunnies, you'd be baffled as to what in the world I was

talking about. And you would say, well, it's

sunny outside, I get sun outside.

And you would be clueless as to the fact that I was actually

asking you where you got your sunglasses.

So we share the same language, but we have different words

sometimes. Having the same language made a

number of things easier, not simply just for communicating

with each other, but also being able to share ideas.

Communication was easy and it enabled mankind to easily work

together. By the way, I should say though,

I was born in Kansas City and I'm not sure what word they use

there. Though I was born in Kansas

City, I am a West Coast person, so as such I will always use the

word soda to refer to carbonated drinks.

They are not whatever it is that a lot of you refer to them as.

I can't even say the word. It is a soda, just to be clear,

in case there was any question on that.

For what it's worth. It's just that's just how it is.

You know, it's funny, I remember going to the South one time.

I would like a Coke. What kind?

A Coke, right? That was kind.

I was not ready, ready for that was not on my radar that I

needed to specify what kind of Coke.

Anyways, I digress. So in verses 2 and 4, two

through 4, we look at the building of Babylon.

Verse 2 through 4, as people migrated from the east, they

found a plane in the land of Shinar, and they settled there.

And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and

burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and

by tomb and for mortar. Then they said, Come, let us

build ourselves a city and a tower with this top in the

heavens, and make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed

over the face of the whole earth.

There are few things for us to 1st address.

First of all where we are. It's good to remind ourselves

that that our setting is still in the region of Mesopotamia.

The story has yet to relocate to Canaan, there to the West.

Everything all started here in Mesopotamia, Eden and in its

garden where we're there in in that region could have been in

the South of Mesopotamia, could have been at the north.

Those are the two options for where Eden may have been.

The first humans were kicked out of the garden just a little bit

to the east. So it could have been in Iraq,

could have been in Iran. Adams descendants all lived

there. Noah and his family lived there.

And the ark landed on the northern edge of Mesopotamia,

somewhere near in the mountains of the Ararat region.

So here we are, the text tells us in Shinar, which is the

southern part of Mesopotamia, largely located in modern day

Iraq, just South of Baghdad. Babel was where it says

Babylonia there on the map, the mighty warrior Nimrod.

He began his Kingdom here in in this region.

From this point on out, whenever Shinar or Babylon are mentioned,

the region isn't set up as a model of godly behavior.

Rather, Shonar is characterized by Pagan idolatry, sexual

immorality, human pride, and spiritual rebellion.

The prophet Daniel, he served in Babylon under King

Nebuchadnezzar. And whenever we see the

Chaldeans in Scripture, it also is a reference to the people of

this region. So how did they plan to pull off

this great feat of building a city and a tower with its top in

the heavens? Well, they invented a new form

of technology and this was fired bricks.

Fired bricks. Before this moment, people used

mud bricks and wood for building.

Any bricks that were used consisted of mud bricks set out

in the sun to to dry. The Babylonians came up with

this new way to make bricks, burn them in a kiln.

Burning bricks meant they were much more durable and were

sometimes referred to as artificial stone.

Now remember in art class when we we would make ashtrays.

I don't know why we made ashtrays.

I'm not sure why our art teachers thought that all of our

parents were smoking. Maybe some of them were, but we

made ashtrays for some reason. And then we took them and what

did we do? We fired them, right?

The the teacher put them in the kiln so that they would become

hard and they would last much longer.

That's is exactly what was happening here.

And then they also used bitumen to hold the walls together.

This is a binder and petroleum products.

And today it's used to bind concrete in asphalt.

So with these new stone like bricks and by two men as their

mortar, they were able to create structures that could last

longer, even outlast their own lifetimes, and be impervious to

the weather. Verse 4 continues.

Let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the

heavens, and make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed

over the face of the whole earth.

They planned to build a city and tower.

They plan to build a city and tower.

Of course, this wasn't the the first city to ever be built.

Cities had likely already been around for thousands of years

since Kane's son Enoch built the first city.

People had lived in cities before the flood, and here after

the flood, they're returning back to city building and

living. If you're like me, when I was

growing up, I always thought they were literally trying to

build a tower to reach all the way up to heaven, as though they

could build high enough to actually touch the the Skydome,

whatever it was that they thought was up there.

Growing up, I thought it looked perhaps something like this

picture, a very tall tower with its top in the clouds, I guess

kind of like Jack and the Beanstalk, something like that.

But you see, they weren't literally trying to reach heaven

or the clouds. When it says they were trying to

reach up to heaven, it's a way of saying they were trying to

seek heaven's favor. And so actually what they built

most likely looked something more like this.

Scholars believe they were trying to build a massive

ziggurats. We have evidence of this

ziggurat form the world over, not just in the ancient Near

East, but also in other parts of the world, even in the Americas.

Some of the high places in the Old Testament were likely

ziggurats. A ziggurat is a massive mud

brick structure that served as a temple for the gods.

These were completely solid structures with terrace levels,

each receding from the previous level and utilizing long sets of

stairs to gain access to their various levels as well as to the

temple on top. It was believed that the gods

lived in the temple at the top of the ziggurat, so only the

priests and other highly respected individuals could

enter them. The goal of the Babylonians was

accessing the realm of the divine.

They wanted to solicit the help of the gods, these false gods

that they were worshipping. When we talk about Babel, we

talk about the tower, but the city and the tower aren't

necessarily to be distinguished from each other.

The tower actually symbolizes the purpose of the city, and

that was to glorify themselves, Make a name for themselves.

That's what they wanted to do. They wanted to make a name for

themselves. In a couple weeks in chapter 12,

we'll see that God tells Abraham that He would make Abraham's

name great. So what's wrong with the people

of Babel having a great name as well?

Well, Abraham's name being great wasn't for Abraham's own sake or

for his own glory. The greatness of Abraham's name

points to the One who worked a miracle and chose this family in

order to bring salvation to the world.

The people of Babel. They wanted notoriety to be

distinguished above all the other peoples of the earth, to

have the spotlight pointed back on them.

Words like ourselves and and themselves point to the self

interested and independent efforts of these Babel lights.

They weren't concerned with Yahweh.

Abrams name was received as a gracious gift, not pointing to

himself, but rather to the one who made him the father of many

nations, even when it seemed impossible.

Their goal was to make a name for themselves and and also to

avoid being scattered. They wanted to avoid being

scattered. This was a form of risk

avoidance. They wanted to avoid risk.

Being scattered across the earth may sound mundane, but in a

world where there is a massive amounts of wilderness and open

deserts, being scattered is dangerous.

It's a dangerous thing to roam around the open desert and

potentially come across bands of Raiders.

Not to mention, if my little family and I are removed from

the city and sent out into the wilderness where there are no

support systems, it'll be much harder for us to survive.

We'll have to do everything on our own.

We have to grow our own food, and we also have to kill all our

own animals. No one would be around to help

us. This is a scary prospect.

So it was far easier to band together with others and build

cities, relying on each other for their provision and safety,

rather than relying on God. Next in the text, we look at

God's response and the undoing of Babylon.

Verse 5 says something interesting.

The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the

children of man had built. Now it's not good when God comes

to town. In Genesis 1820 and 21 Yahweh

says regarding the city of Sodom.

Then the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and

Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to

see whether they have done all together according to the outcry

that has come to me, and if not, I will know.

In both of these passages God is saying I'll go down there and

see what's going on, which is code for things are about to go

down. God is not happy, He's coming

down to earth means he's about to act in judgment.

Then verse 6 read, 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.

God took notice of the fact that they had this one language and

everyone was so well united behind this project.

CS Lewis coined the term chronological snobbery.

I love that chronological snobbery.

This is the idea that newer is truer, more recent is better

than historic, and people of today are vastly more

intelligent than the people of the past.

Chronological snobbery imports an air of superiority into the

conversation. People from ancient times

couldn't do the things that we can do today.

Well, there is some truth to this.

Since peoples from old couldn't clone wolves and sheep, they

couldn't build robots and they couldn't fly to space past the

moon and back, but they were still able to pull off many

impressive building projects. Even building a 450 foot arc

today is quite impressive. I'll say when we went, when we

went to the arc a month ago, the most, the biggest thing that I

just was astounded by, like it's cool what they've done.

Like it is amazing that somebody had a vision.

Let's build an arc in the middle of nowhere and people are going

to come to see it and we're going to make lots of money.

I'm sure they've made lots of money.

I know they've made lots of money, but I'd love to know what

the what cost them to build it. But you look at this thing and

even by today's standards, it's huge.

You walk through it and you're just impressed.

Doing that in Noah's day is just unimaginable.

But humanity had had such vast capacity for work and technology

and engineering. The unity of the ancient Near

Eastern peoples was remarkable, and God took note of that.

His final summation of these people was that they could pull

off anything they wanted if they came up with an idea they had

the know how to make it happen. Verse 8 continues So the Lord

dispersed them over the face of the earth and they left off

building the city. Therefore, its name was called

Babel because they're the Lord confused the language of all the

earth. And from there the Lord

dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

God had told them to feel the earth, but they weren't doing

that. Instead, they were choosing to

congregate in in urban areas. Though urban environments are

havens for crime and evil to hide out, they're also places of

relative safety, beckoning people to take refuge within

their walls. So God gave them different

languages. He stopped the building of the

city and tower and spread them out over the earth and and gave

the city a name. They wanted a name.

They got a name, Babel. In Hebrew the word is Babel and

in Greek it's Babylon. So these words both refer to the

same place. So what do we know about

Babylon? First of all, Babylon is

synonymous with confusion. It's synonymous with confusion.

The name Babel is a word play with the Hebrew word Bilal,

which means confusion. These words have the same root.

So Babel is to be interpreted as confusion because there the text

says the Lord confused their language.

It's also on a on amata poetic. We all know what that means.

Onomatopoetic means that it the word sounds like that sound, so

it's onomatopoetic. Nature means that the name of

the place is pronounced the same as what we call it.

When someone is speaking confusing gibberish, they're

babbling. It's Babble when we talk about

culture. The primary vehicle for cultural

transmission, that is to pass down culture from one generation

to another is language. It's language that enables

communication, the learning of traditions and stories, and

facilitates passing those down to following generations.

Now everything is a is a culture.

Culture existed prior to this point, but after this point is

where we begin to see diversity in culture as people have

separate languages and then they begin to move towards Europe,

towards Asia, as well as towards Africa.

If you want to know more about that, check out my sermon from

three weeks ago as I went through that chapter of

genealogy. Needing to transport words and

ideas into another language is a significant hardship, so

progress on the city ceased. God wasn't simply stopping them

from building the tower, but also from making a name for

themselves. God gave them the name, and now

Babylon is synonymous with confusion.

Next, Babylon is synonymous with rebellion.

They were rebellious people. Babel's reputation is that of

rebellion against God and his commands.

The first act of rebellion was staying in and building a city.

This wasn't just a little oops, it was rebellion against God's

commands. They literally began this

building projects, they said, so they wouldn't be dispersed

across the earth. They've been instructed to to

fill the earth. That was the original

instructions in the cultural mandate.

That was the original instructions to Adam and Eve.

And then the cultural mandate was reiterated when Noah and his

family got off the ark. Be fruitful, multiply and fill

the earth. But their rebellious hearts

instead chose to defy God's instructions to them.

And lastly, Babylon is synonymous with evil.

Babylon is synonymous with evil. The name Babylon appears more

than 250 times in Scripture from here in Chapter 11 all the way

through to Revelation 18 explicitly and then chapter 19

implicitly. Roughly 7 to 800 years after

Moses wrote the Torah, some of Israel's prophets began to

announce God's judgment on Israel would come to them

through through their oppressor Babylon.

It was completely unconscionable that God would use these

horrible people for His purposes and to discipline His people.

How could God use the Babylonians to discipline the

Israelites, God's people Nonetheless, it was Babylon who

carried away the 2 southern tribes of Judah into exile, and

they destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in the process in the

name Babylon. It figures greatly in the end

times. Now, some have suggested that an

actual Babylonian Kingdom will arise, such as that which Saddam

Hussein attempted to rebuild in the 80s.

I was not aware. I was 3 when he started his

project in 80 attempting to rebuild Babylon.

He, he was essentially going to be the fulfillment of scripture

is essentially what he was trying trying to do.

Well, not trying inadvertently fulfilling it, but he attempted

that back in the 80s. But actually it's more likely

that Babylon is a label given to the the forces who will

persecute faithful believers in the end times.

The people about wanted a name, so that's what they got.

A name that would literally never be forgotten.

Babylon will always be connected back to the events of this

chapter and the evil Kingdom that would take up residency in

Shannar. So what do we do with this?

Most of us have not been to Babylon.

I suspect somebody in here has has probably been been in that

region set to Baghdad. But how does this, how do we

live differently because of what we see with the Babylonians?

First of all, this will sound simple.

Live a life of obedience and everyone says, well, duh.

Yeah, right. Obviously we're supposed to be

obedient. I know it seems like a given,

but but we need to apply the Bible to our lives.

It's important that we understand what it means to walk

in obedience. Deuteronomy 533 says you shall

walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you,

that you may live and that it may go well with you, and that

you may live long in the land that you shall possess.

Walking in obedience is the key to living life well.

It's the key to success in life. And we're not just trying to

promote some health and wealth gospel or something like that.

No, we're defining success as living within God's standards

and and looking at his ways and his blessing, not measuring

success according to the world's.

So we uphold God's standards, we walk in his ways.

John in the New Testament, John devotes a significant amount of

space to writing on this topic. And in John 1415 he records

Jesus words. Jesus said if you love me, you

will keep my commandments. God's expectation is that we

will actually do what he says. We can fill our heads with all

sorts of knowledge and information about God, but if we

don't do anything with it, if it doesn't transform us, then it's

pointless, James says. If we don't obey God's words,

then then we are deceiving ourselves.

So walk in obedience to God. Do what He tells you to do right

away and with the right heart attitude.

The people of Babel lived in rebellion against God and His

commands. They didn't do what He said.

If God tells you to do something, well God, let's talk.

You know, that's a good suggestion.

That is not how we want to work. If God tells you to do

something, then do it. To not heed God's words is to

have an attitude of pride and to declare that God, I know what's

right. I know what's best.

News flash, if you got your way, your life would not be what you

think. I know that from my own personal

experience. Lastly, use your gifts for God.

Use your gifts for God. Each of us is born with a shape.

And I should actually take this moment to mention because I know

somebody will come to me and say, oh, the very last line on

your note sheet is a typo. Yes, I know it's a typo.

I realized you already noticed already already there.

I realized it last night and I just, my thought was, hey,

people will figure it out. Maybe I'll even say something.

The very last line should say something like how are you using

your shape? Are you using it for God or

something like that? I think it's how are you using

your shape? I forget what it actually says

there, but how are you using your shape?

So shape S is for spiritual gifts.

These are the Holy Spirit induced gifts that God gives you

at the moment of conversion, at the moment that you place your

faith in Him. They enable us to serve the

church effectively. H is heart hearts or or your

passions. What are the things that you

like to do When you get connected to ministry in an area

you're passionate about, then that helps make it extremely

fulfilling. Now I have to say, be careful.

For years I dreamed is there a way I can just ride the bike

like 4568 hours a day and I could get into professional

cycling and that could be my ministry.

Like, OK, there are some people who yes, surf ministry is their

thing or cycling ministry or, or being involved with professional

sports, whatever. There are people like that, yes,

they've God has worked something, managed to align

their hearts with ministry, but for most people, that's not

necessarily how it's going to work.

What are the things, though, that you are passionate about?

For example, when God called me into ministry on Christmas Day

of 1997, I was passionate about music.

So it made sense for me to spend the first nearly 25 years of my

career in ministry as a worship pastor.

That was what I was passionate about.

I still have passions about that, of course, but but in

recent years, in the last few years, God began to shift my

passions and give me a passion for sharing and preaching the

Word so that now I am engaged in ministry in another area that I

am passionate about. Being involved in ministry that

aligns with your passions can be extremely fulfilling.

So that's heart and passions. A is for aptitude or abilities,

special abilities and aptitudes. Josh Barnes works in finance for

von Marr. So what does he do for us?

He does financial things. We have a number of people who

are involved in IT, who do things for us that are behind

the scenes, and we couldn't do ministry without these people.

They have special aptitudes, special abilities and

personality. This is all the unique

characteristics and traits that make you you.

Fortunately, there's no one else like you.

Amen. We don't want another another

one of me just to be clear. But you are the only one who is

you, so you bring yourself to the table and offer yourself to

God. Lastly, E is for experiences.

Each of us has had different experiences in life, some of

them bad, some of them good, and we can take lessons we've

learned from the various aspects and the challenges, and we can

help guide others who might be going through similar challenges

as what we have gone through. Also, First Peter 410 reads as

each has received a gift. Use it to serve one another as

good stewards of God's varied grace.

This is to say that God has poured out his grace into our

lives. So then we take it.

We take God's grace and then we re gift it.

This is where we gifting is actually good.

Re gifting isn't just good for that white elephant party that

you're going to No, here we're taking God's grace and we're re

gifting it, giving it out to others.

The people of Babel, they, they took the gifts, the knowledge

and the aptitude, these great abilities that God had given

them and they use them strictly for their own purposes.

Obviously some of these areas will help you make a living,

those of you in finance IT and whatnot.

But what about serving God? Are you serving God in some

manner? What is it that you feel called

to? Don't abuse the gifts God has

given you. Use them for His glory.

Now, you would think that each generation after the flood would

have learned the lessons of Noah's generation, but that's

not what happened. Humanity was bent on redefining

right and wrong and glorifying themselves.

They were intent on becoming a God unto themselves and

excluding the lordship of the Creator, resting control of

their lives from God's hands. So my final encouragement this

morning is to live with clarity in our words and our actions.

Our lives should point others to God.

When people look at us, they should see consistency between

our words and actions. There shouldn't be any confusion

about about whether or not we actually believe what we say we

believe. And if we walk with integrity,

then people will know that we mean what we say.

And lastly, live with obedience in our lives and goodness in our

hearts. Obedience is further proof of

our relationship with the Savior of the world, and goodness

demonstrates the humility modelled by our Savior.

Let's walk the walk, be doers of the Word and not hearers only.

Let's bow our heads and close our eyes.

Father God, we come to you this morning.

God, thankful for the many ways that you have poured your grace

into our lives. You have for those of us who

have placed our faith in you. You have poured out your

salvific grace into our lives, and we're so thankful for that.

You've also given us common grace.

Everybody has received personality, abilities, gifts.

They have passions, experiences, all these things.

Everybody's received these. So may we all be diligent to

take these things that you have given to us and to use use them

to serve others. God, would you also give us

lives, hearts that are passionate for obedience.

May we not be stubborn and pushed back when you call us to

something, but when you call us when we be passionately

passionate about obedience. God, give us your humility that

we would not seek for our own name, but for Your name, Your

Honor. So we surrender us to You, and

we worship the wonderful name of Jesus Christ, the name that is

above every name. In His name we pray.

Amen.