Genesis 10–11 — The Kingdoms of Man

This sermon is from Genesis chapter 10 and 11 and is entitled, The Kingdoms of Man.

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

It was delivered to Ecclesia Churches on Sunday, June 28, 2026.

In any really great story, you have a kind of pattern that's known as the narrative

arc.

And while every story is different, the vast majority follow a similar pattern.

You have a point where a problem is introduced and the main character works to overcome it.

And at the climax of the story, the problem is resolved.

And if we zoom in on the story, we actually see that this pattern usually repeats, but

on a smaller scale.

So the story looks like lots of little arcs that reinforce the larger narrative.

The mistake that we usually make when it comes to understanding the narrative of scripture,

especially Old Testament books that are narrative in nature like Genesis,

is thinking that humanity is somehow the hero.

If you look up heroes of the Bible, you'll find dozens of books that highlight characters like

Noah and Abraham and King David and others that we kind of make into the main character.

But the truth that scripture reveals is that man and his sinful pride is actually always the problem.

and he's not really the hero. We are revealed to be the villain in many cases, and this is proven

out over and over again. God gives us paradise and we try to possess what wasn't ours to take,

and God gives us good relationships and we twist that into a conflict for power. And the hero

is really this gracious God who somehow opposes these prideful people and their sin, yet

is also patient and merciful toward those who come to him with humility.

So today's passage begins the third part of the narrative of Genesis, moving on from Noah.

And we'll see the same familiar pattern play out here, though.

Mankind multiplies, and their role as enemies of God is revealed again, the conflict.

They attempt to elevate themselves by disobeying God.

God steps in to limit or restrain their capacity for wickedness.

And finally, God chooses someone humble to work through for our good and his glory.

So what I hope we come away from Genesis chapters 10 through 11 with is a desire to come to God

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

in humility, to intentionally seek the death of our pride so that we can live as recipients of

his grace, and to be built by God as part of his eternal kingdom. James chapter 4 verse 6 says this

James 4:6

better than I ever could, and this is the New Testament verse that we'll kind of keep coming

back to today. It says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So let's look at this

genealogy in Genesis chapter 10. And let's see it through the eyes of early Israel and the lens

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

of the New Testament as well. So though these people groups doubtlessly thought very highly

of themselves, the ones that are listed out in this chapter, it was God who was sovereign over

all of them. And if you've missed this so far in Genesis, don't miss it now. God is above every

kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is far greater than and far superior to the kingdoms of man.

And if you want to know how far, go back to Genesis chapter 1 and witness the creation of

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

the universe by the word of God. That should make us terrified if we are opposed to God,

but that should give us great peace if we know and trust God. We kind of got into this last week

covering roughly where the families of the three sons of Noah ended up and how God would shape

their future. God worked through the line of Japheth to spread people to the coasts and all over the

earth. People who would largely become known as the Gentiles later. God also worked specifically

through the line of Shem to create the nation of Israel, through which eventually came Jesus.

And we'll look at that family line a little later today, toward the end of chapter 11.

But first, we're going to go back and look at chapter 10, verses 6 through 20.

And instead of reading out this list, I want you to look at it with me.

I'm going to highlight a few names that would have stood out to the Israelites that Moses

is delivering this to.

So first, there is this man called Nimrod, and he is known as a powerful hunter.

but actually he establishes a legacy for himself of nation and city building.

And there are three nations in particular that come from him

that would have absolutely stood out to the ancient Jewish reader.

In verse 10, we have Babel, which would be the beginnings of the Babylonian empire.

In verse 11, we have him entering Assyria, which would become the Assyrian empire.

And from another of Ham's sons in verse 14, we have this people called the Kasluhim that

includes a footnote, from whom came the Philistines.

So to the ancient reader, this reads like a list of the worst enemies in the history

of Israel as a nation.

The Philistines would become the main military threat in the days of King Saul and David.

Goliath was a Philistine.

Assyria would devastate and deport most of northern Israel and then later threaten Judah

and Jerusalem.

Babylon would similarly rise up and conquer not only Assyria, but also Judah.

They would destroy the temple.

They would carry the remaining people into exile.

And so the vast majority of the pain and destruction that was inflicted on Israel in their history

was carried out at the hands of these three kingdoms. Yet, we also know that much of that

destruction was allowed by God and used to turn his people away from their own sin and back to him.

Then there are the cities that these people would build. Sodom and Gomorrah almost need

no introduction because they were so wicked and twisted against God that they were destroyed

completely by God, but even in their destruction, God still provided a way out for Lot and his

family. We'll get to that in a couple of weeks. Nineveh in verse 11 became so filled with violence

and wickedness over the course of time that God would later send a prophet via the belly of a fish

to warn them of their coming destruction. But in a shocking twist to that grumpy prophet,

they repented of their sin and God showed them mercy and spared them. All this history and these

stories would have ended up playing out in the mind of the Old Testament reader. And they show

us something really important, that God is above every kingdom and he is sovereignly working things

out for his glory and for our good. God is not taken by surprise by any of these people or cities

or nations, and that is of great comfort to those who find their security in God.

When I look out at the world and I see a whole lot of things spinning out of control,

when I see nations rising against nation, against the nation that I live in even,

When I see prideful men rising to power who do not have the best interests of their people at heart.

For the person who entrusts their security to the strength of the kingdoms of men,

seeing the enemy is terrifying.

But when you have peace with God as a follower of Jesus,

you have nothing left to fear because our God is sovereign.

He is over every kingdom.

So as we go into chapter 11, we're definitely going to see the way mankind tries to push

back against this sovereign God foolishly and how God responds.

But what I want us to pay attention to is the specific ways that pride leads them to

behave.

Because remember, we also struggle with the same temptations.

So God has been quite clear with humanity about what he wanted them to do.

And it had to do with spreading out over the face of the earth.

Genesis 1.28, it says,

And God blessed them, Adam and Eve, and God said to them,

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.

And then later in Genesis 9.1, it says,

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them,

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Many people of faith throughout history have taken up this kind of pioneering spirit that

requires them to trust God and strike out on something new.

Even more recently, the Puritans of the 1500s left the relative safety of their European

homes to build a new life in America with freedom to worship God and raise their families to

know and love him.

The pioneers of the 1800s did the same thing as they moved into the prairies and passed

the mountains of the American West. Yet the sinful condition of mankind also leads us to do

the opposite of what God has commanded, which seems to have won out in the case of the people

from Ham's line specifically in the beginning of chapter 11. Let's read verses 1 through 4 together.

It says, 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, 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 whole face of the earth.

So instead of trusting God's command and spreading out, they do the exact opposite when they come to

this land of Shinar. This is an area that we would later refer to as Mesopotamia or the Fertile

Crescent. It has fertile ground that is naturally watered by rivers that fork out into this river

Delta. They have food, they have water, they have a lush landscape. They even have this tar-like

substance that comes from natural oil underground to stick their bricks together. This area has been

called by historians the cradle of civilization because people arrived there and said, let's never

leave. Then they make three distinct decisions, which will for us really expose the nature of

their sin. First, they say, instead of trusting God to provide while we obey, let's stay here

and let's provide for ourselves. I don't want to trust the provision of God. I want to trust my own

provision. Second, they say, instead of trusting God to protect us as we spread out,

let's make bricks and build a city. Cities of the ancient world were built kind of like a fort with

a thick exterior wall around the city. So they're saying, I don't need the protection of God if I

can build a city to protect myself. And finally, they say, while we're at it, let's build a tower

that reaches to the heavens to make a name for ourselves. This would be what we would call a

ziggurat and typically ended up serving as a temple of some kind eventually. In this case,

the god that they were planning to serve was the god of their own glory and fame.

We know from both biblical and historical record that these cities had a tendency over time to fall

apart very quickly. So to provide for the city, the people that began these cities eventually had

to start conquering the countryside. And the walls that promised safety initially eventually

started to hold more criminals inside than they kept outside. And even the towers of self-worship

eventually led to deeper and darker spiritual practices. So in this case, God steps in and gets

involved in these people's plans. In verse 5, it says, the Lord came down, which is a phrase that

means God is evaluating and intervening. So we know that God is omnipresent, meaning he's all

places at all times. So he doesn't need to come down in order to see what man is doing.

This phrase in Hebrew means something like me saying, I'm going to roll up my sleeves and get

to work. It doesn't require me to actually have sleeves. It means I'm getting involved in something.

In the same way, when God says nothing will be impossible for them, God is talking about their

for wickedness. So part of being created in God's image is this capacity for creativity.

We were made to establish dominion and subdue, and we were made to do it for God's glory, yet the

fall means our creative capacity is now corrupted. And by our nature, we will devise all kinds of

awful, self-destructive things to do. And mankind may have a short-term memory problem,

But if you remember the last time we got on a roll, God had to flood the entire earth to deal with it.

So in light of that, I'm grateful for the language confusion option that God presents here.

God creates different languages.

And suddenly, these people can no longer work together.

And they are confused.

Babel means, in the Hebrew, confusion.

And as a result of this confusion, they have no option but to disperse.

with the people that they can understand. Without a common language, they have little else in common

and really in only a way that God can orchestrate, they begin to obey and spread out because they

really don't have a choice. So what do we do with this? Is this just a weird story about some people

who wanted to build a skyscraper but couldn't get past a language barrier? No. This is a story about

how pride and temptation toward it really doesn't change. I don't think it's a coincidence that in

Luke 4, Jesus is tempted by Satan in three ways. He's tempted to provide food for yourself by

turning stone to bread, protect yourself by commanding angels to catch you when you fall,

and exalt yourself now by worshiping me instead of humbly going to the cross.

Jesus responded each time with scripture because he trusted in the provision of God's word. He

trusted in God's provision, in God's protection, and in God's exaltation. Jesus showed us how to

deal with these temptations of pride, and the answer was humbly coming to God's word.

So what do these temptations look like today? How are we tempted to live for our own provision

or protection or glory?

I think this is an important question to ask

as we prepare for a very large national celebration next week.

This is 250 years as a nation.

We just hosted the World Cup here in America

and we've seen the accounts of many visitors

experiencing America for the first time.

And largely they're raving about our food and our freedom

and many of these good things that really should be celebrated.

And I am grateful for freedom that we have, especially to worship, freedom to share the

gospel, freedom to raise our families to know Jesus in this country without repercussions.

But I'm also wary of what the American dream has slowly started to become.

The American dream has changed over the course of time, and it's gone from this desire to

have freedom to live as we should and serve God freely to a desire to have freedom to live as we

wish and to serve ourselves. The World Cup attendees' description of America is encouraging,

but there's another description that I heard years and years ago that still sticks with me

to this day. A pastor from a third world country came to America for an international church

conference. And when he was asked by his American hosts what he thought about the greatness of

America, he didn't celebrate, he wept. And his assessment of America, specifically the church

in America, was to simply say, there are so many idols here. We are not immune to the sin of pride

and safe from the destruction that it brings just because we are Americans.

And we're not even immune to the pull of this pride because we are Christians.

The church sometimes falls for the same bait as the rest of the culture.

How else do you end up with megachurches that will create a massive brand

that prioritizes entertainment and growing a stage and crowd on Sunday mornings,

but will not prioritize the slow personal work of making disciples.

Or the idea that if you can come and volunteer for an hour once a week

to something with the word ministry tacked on to the end,

you've fulfilled your duty to Jesus somehow.

How else do you end up with a watered-down gospel that is pervasive in the American church,

that is failing to call people to repentance because that message fails to be attractive?

Christian brothers and sisters, we must in every way be putting to death our pride, or our pride

will be the death of us. And Jesus is the one who both set the example for us, but also

paid the price for our pride that we might humbly come to him. Because Jesus humbly came and lived

a life of humility and died a humiliating death on a cross so that by the grace of God,

we might be rescued from our pride. So it's by humbly coming to Jesus in repentance that we

receive something even better than our pride could ever offer. We receive the grace of God.

And that's actually very empowering, so much more than being full of pride, in fact. Because

to be full of pride is to experience a false sense of security as you waltz toward your own

destruction, but to be full of humility, the kind that comes from knowing Christ, is to know that

I am a sinner who has been forgiven and I do have peace with God. And what do we do with that peace?

Well, we walk humbly and obediently and we rely on the grace that God continues to provide to us.

When I'm not afraid of pleasing every person, I can actually focus on pleasing God with what I'm

When I'm not afraid of what tomorrow brings, I can actually focus on how I'm living today.

When I'm not consumed with building my own kingdom, I can rest in knowing that Jesus

is building his kingdom and I am a part of it.

The remaining verses of chapter 11 are the specific family line that makes the connection

from Noah's son, Shem, to the next character in Genesis, and that is Abram. We'll get to know

Abram very well over the next few weeks, but here we're introduced to where he came from

and the state of his family before God calls Abram out. And we've said a couple of times now

that God opposes the proud and he gives grace to the humble. So it should come as no surprise

that this man God will make a nation of does indeed come from humble beginnings.

When you're choosing a candidate for a job, or at least if I were, there would be two main things

that you would look at. You look at what is your background and what is your current qualifications

for the job. So if I were going to choose someone to make into a great nation that would represent

me and tell about my greatness, I would look for someone who A, already had a nation that served me,

and B, I would look for somebody with a large family. That makes sense, right? But Abram had

neither of those qualifications. His resume is a complete dud. Like, he would not make it far on

Indeed. For a background, he doesn't have any land of his own. And in fact, he lives with his

father-in-law, who we find out later in Joshua 24 has a reputation for worshiping idols. So,

no kingdom, doesn't come from a God-worshiping nation, not great. For qualifications, if we

are looking for someone who is going to build a great nation, you need them to have children,

many children, in fact. Abram is married, but his wife is barren, meaning she cannot have children.

For people, that would be strike two.

Abram, before we know much more about him, is an example already of the way that God

is gracious to the humble.

But also, that when it comes to the kingdom of God, God is the one building it, using

a people who are qualified by their humble faith in him.

So as we close this passage today, let's go to the New Testament and let's see how

God still chooses to build the kingdom of heaven using the most unlikely people.

In Acts chapter 2, we actually get to see some of the undoing of the confusion that happened

Acts 2 · chapter mention

at Babel.

The disciples start to, filled with the Holy Spirit, start to speak in tongues, which means

languages that they did not know.

And while the people are initially confused, there's all of these people in Jerusalem who

start to hear clearly in their own language, the gospel. It's a call to humility and repentance.

And thousands of people respond by choosing to be disciples of Jesus and be baptized in his name.

The clarity that God gives to people is a call to humble repentance. So if there's one thing

I want you to hear clearly and that you should always hear when the gospel is presented,

It's a call to repent and turn from your sin to life that's found in Christ alone.

And by doing that, we are not only saved, but called to be a part of this kingdom that

God is building.

And it is not a kingdom built by men with stone or brick or mortar.

It is a kingdom built by God and built with men and women who will come in humility to

Christ.

It is not a kingdom built for the glory of men, but a kingdom built for the glory of God,

which is the one thing that we will ultimately find our greatest satisfaction in.

As always, God's word says this better than I ever could.

And so I want to close by reading 1 Peter 2, verses 4 and 5,

1 Peter 2:4

which is this invitation to the lost to be found in Christ

and an invitation to the Christian to find your purpose in Christ.

It says this,

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious,

you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,

to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ Jesus.

This is a God who does oppose the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

So answer his invitation to come to him in humility.

Ekklesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Council Bluffs, Iowa and in homes

throughout the week.

We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching from Scripture and making disciples

of Jesus.

You can learn more about what we believe and contact a pastor at ekklesiachurches.org.