Read Genesis 11
The Tower of Babel
1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
From Shem to Abram
10 This is the account of Shem’s family line.
Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. 11 And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
12 When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah.13 And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. 15 And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. 17 And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. 19 And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. 21 And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. 23 And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. 25 And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
26 After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
Abram’s Family
27 This is the account of Terah’s family line.
Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 28 While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. 29 Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah.30 Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.
31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.
32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.
Go Deeper
In Genesis 11 the narrative takes us to humankind defying God’s order in Genesis 9:7 “As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” We see the people of earth act defiantly towards God by choosing to remain in the same place and attempt to make a name for themselves, and in the attempt to not be scattered over the face of the earth (v. 4). As a result of their disobedience, God “confused” (the Hebrew word ‘balal’ means confuse or confound, which is where we get the name Babel) their language and scattered them throughout the earth.
Humans have attempted to make a name for ourselves until this very day. How often do we think about what others think of us when we walk into a room, or work, not unto the Lord, but unto the fame of our own names? Let us not live this life for the building up of our names but for the only name that is above all names, Jesus Christ (Phillipians 2:9).
In Acts 2, The Holy Spirit rests on the apostles and they begin to speak in different tongues. During the Festival of Pentecost, (the Feast of Weeks from Numbers 28:26), Jews from the known world came to Jerusalem, and by the power of the Holy Spirit Peter preached the first sermon of the Church. This was a reversal of what we read today: God gathered people from different nations and tongues and enabled them to understand one another’s languages in order to hear the Gospel message of hope, truth and love. It says in Acts 2:37 that the words Peter spoke “cut to the heart” and they asked what they should do in response to this message. The response was to repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).
The genealogy we see at the end of this chapter sets up that the narrative of the text is going from universal history to national history as we see the patriarch Abram enter the scene.
Questions
- How do you try to make a name for yourself?
- How can you live today to make God’s name renowned?
- Read Acts 2, what similarities do you see to the text in Genesis 11? What differences?
A Quote
Author Andy Crouch says this about the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:
“The truth is the confusion of Babel is actually mercy of God. Rather than let them do this consolidated project of forgetting their human calling and settling down and becoming like God, the confusion is a necessary step in the reestablishing of the image bearers.”
5 thoughts on “Genesis 11”
Woven into human DNA is a propensity of self-gratification, to make a name for ourselves and be noticed and applauded by others. How polar opposite to what Christ demonstrated as he came to seek and save the lost. His mission was always others-centered, as he demonstrated so clearly when he laid down his life as a ransom for our sins. No human achievement will ever come close to matching that. He calls us to join him in not elevating ourselves but to join him on the greatest rescue mission ever known, not in building an earthly, perishable kingdom, but an eternal one that will fill the deepest longings of our hearts.
Man disobeys God BUT GOD in His grace makes a new beginning.
These stories in Genesis shows us BUT GOD moments big. Proverbs 16:18 says Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. We not here to build our own “tower” but to help build the church of Jesus Christ. Romans 12:1 Be not conformed to this world. 1 John 2:17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it , but he who does the will of the God abides forever.
The importance of the geneology is for the world to know God’s sovernity. He had man record the begats so that we know Jesus Christ lineages were perfect. God is faithful in watching over His people and fulfilling His promises. People are not perfect, not always obedient, but the fulfillment of God’s covenant was accomplished. Now we get to be a part of His remenant that follows God by faith and keeps our eyes towards the Hope.
God thank You for Your divine power that has granted to me all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of You who called me to Your glory and excellence. Thank You for granting me Your precious and very great promises, so that through them I may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. God for this very reason, I will endeavor to make every effort to supplement my faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. God help me to have these qualities and to increase in these ways so that they keep me from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. God help me to be all the more diligent to confirm my calling and election, for Your word says if I practice these qualities You will help me to never fall.( 2Peter 1:3-10) God I am desiring You to guide in me in the minutes of only this day. Help me be a light. Help me to love Your people. Thank You for all that You do that I do not even know about. God I give You praise, honor and glory. I am sooooooooo thankful, grateful and blessed in Jesus name amen.
WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is interesting that in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, the languages were confused and people scattered.
And, in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, it is corrected as the multitude comes together and praises the Lamb in one voice.
“After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!””
Revelation 7:9-10 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rev.7.9-10.NLT
8 “So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.“
Thanks for the interesting insight that it was God’s will that humans go forth into all the world and yet the Tower of Babel was keeping them from doing that. The Bible seems to have many references to this idea that we are to get out to the ends of the earth.
Genesis depicts the people of Babel as both denying and defying their God, selfishly wanting to make a name for themselves through building a skyscraper, so that they would be remembered. Today their city is dust, and they remain nameless. Look around the city of Waco and see all the names on the sides of buildings Hmm, history repeating itself yet again. But there is hope, Jesus!