So out of Genesis another sermon
chapter 11 the tower of Babel and if you say Babel Okay, but
we read the first nine verses first nine verses of Genesis
chapter 11 And the whole earth was of one
language and one speech, one lip, one tongue. And it came
to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain
in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there. And they said one
to another, Go to, let us make brick, burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone
and slime had they for mortar. And they said, go to, let us
build us a city and a tower whose top may reach into heaven. And let us make us a name, lest
we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And
the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the
children of men built it. And the Lord said, Behold, the
people is one, and they have all one language, and this they
will do. And now nothing will be restrained
from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down,
and there confound their language, that they may not understand
one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad
from thence upon the face of all of the earth, and they left
off to build the city. 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
upon the face of the earth. I'd like to begin by pointing
out in the scripture there are some very important events in
the history of the Bible that shaped and recorded and directed
the providential guiding of God of the world. How he brought
his world into what he would have it to be, brought to pass
exactly what he would. The human family, therefore,
was guided by the sovereign providence of God, even in matters like
this that we have read today. One of the great events, of course,
was the sin and the fall of Adam. That affected the entire world
every being in it. Again the flood in Noah's day
which reduced the earth's population to a mere eight souls to a mere
eight people and it was in a sense a new beginning for the race. Another event was the call of
Abraham and the separation of Abraham from his country from
his family and to make of him a great nation and a spiritual
as well as a secular. Another was the deliverance of
the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, transferring
them into the land of Canaan, where there the worship of God
was set up and endured for a long time. And of course, the most
important event in all the Bible is the incarnation of our blessed
Lord, when our Lord took on flesh and the Word became flesh. Now, our text today certainly
qualifies as being among that list of important events. Why? Well, it deals with extensively
the enlarging of the human family as it began, again, to fill up
the earth. And it began, again, the different
languages that we have in the world, continuing them today.
And it was a way of God assigning various people, nation, and nationality
to their own habitation in the earth. And to get a grasp of
this, we ought to expand our study so as to include Genesis
9, chapter 10, chapter 11. that we might look at the larger
or the overall picture context to help us get our contextual
bearing concerning the Tower of Babel. By the flood, as you
know, the human family was squeezed down again to but eight persons,
Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their wife. But when the
flood was ended and they exited the ark, They received from God
in Genesis chapter 9 and verse 1 the same essential command
as was given to Adam back in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 28,
be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. We read
in Genesis 10 and verse 1 that to the three sons of Noah, whose
names were Shem, Ham, and Japheth, there were born sons after the
flood. They did begin to multiply. And in Genesis chapter 9, 18
and 19, we are told that from these three couples, the whole
world again was populated. The command was fulfilled in
them, multiply and replenish the earth. And in chapter 9 and
verse 19, we read, and of them was the whole earth overspread. Something else. in Genesis chapter
10 and verse 32. These are the families of the
sons of Noah, according to their genealogy, by their nation, and
out of these nations were divided in the earth after the flood. Now note, The population of the
earth after the flood only came after the three sons of Noah,
and Genesis 10 contains the genealogy of those three sons and of those
three kinds of people, tracing out the three-fold future development
of the human race or of the human family. And the three sons of
Noah, again, are Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And there is an incident
in the end of chapter nine. You probably remember it. It
has a bearing on all of this. Maybe not as big a bearing as
we might think, but it has a bearing on this, and it has a bearing
on a part of the posterity of Noah. And that is, after the
flood, Noah became a husbandman on the earth, he planted a vineyard,
and on a certain occasion did over-indulge in the wine, and
he became drunk, not out in public, but in his tent. And while he
was there, drunk with wine, he was uncovered in his tent. And his son, Ham, saw his nakedness. Now, this is just one example
of the things that one might do when they are inebriated with
strong drink. But Ham must have done something
or acted in such a way that Robert Canlis termed it a, quote, irreverence." For his son Canaan,
that is Ham's son Canaan, for what his father had done was
put under a curse and was made a servant of servant all the
days of his life. Manoah had slept off his drunkenness
and learned what his younger son, Ham, had done. And evidently,
Ham had gone in, uncovered him, made some kind of mockery, some
kind of jest, then brought his other brothers in that they might
see their father in that condition, making probably some very immodest
remarks. We are not told about that. But
at that time, Noah was granted a spirit of prophecy concerning
his sons, much like Jacob was in Genesis chapter 49. And when Noah is under that spirit
of prophecy, you could read there, he pronounces a curse upon Canaan,
the son of Ham, Genesis 9, 25. Cursed be Canaan. And then we
notice that he is sentenced to be in degrading servitude the
days of his life, saying, A servant of servant shall he be to his
brethren, the lowest, the most degrading, and the most abject
kind of slavery. But then of Shem, Noah prophesied,
Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. It is not blessed be Shem, but
it is blessed be the Lord God of Shem. For God would be the
God of Shem and his descendants and blessed in his people and
his nation, whose God was to be the Lord in time to come. Thirdly, there's the son Japheth.
Genesis 9 verse 27, God shall enlarge the tent or the border
of Japheth, multiply, increase them, make them numerous. But
with this, quote, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, unquote,
there shall be some closer association between these two than between
they and Ham. Now, since the human family was
in the days of the flood, reduced to eight souls, and be so that
all races and all nationalities descended from the three sons
of Noah. Some hold that the descendants
of Ham were the dark-skinned people, races of the world, the
African and such like, while Shem is by some thought to be
the progenitor of the people that became the seed and the
children of Abraham. And Japheth had a posterity that
would be principally or largely Gentile. And as Matthew Henry
thought, the descendants of Japheth lived in such places as Egypt
and perhaps even America. We're not sure of that. But a
part of Asia, these peoples came out of the sons of Noah. Now, it is clear that Shem's
progeny, the son, included the family of Abraham, that Abraham
was ascendant of the family of Shem. From Genesis 11 and verse
10, Shem's line or generation is traced down to Abraham. And in Matthew chapter 1 and
verse 1, Jesus Christ is called the son of Abraham, as his lineage
is traced from Abraham to Joseph, who was married unto Mary, and
whom Jesus came the flesh in and through Mary now coming to
Genesis chapter 11 and the tower of Babel and we find here that
God did two very significant things number one He confused
their language and so confused it until it interrupted their
communication and greatly destroyed their unity in their project. We'll say more about that soon.
The second thing that God did is he scattered and dispersed
them all upon the face of the earth. And no doubt the first
was the instrument of the second, that the confusion of languages
led to their dispersing one form another. So that those that now
had yet a common language were drawn together, And they had
more in common, and they congregated and made up a people, just as
a common language had held them together before. So now it would
be the instrument of confusion in dividing them. though it must
have been the language used by Noah and his family that they
first were using at the Tower of Babel. And even if there were
multiple languages before the flood, they were to reduce to
that one of Noah that his dialect survived with him, so that all
then that were with him were of one lip and words, as in verse
one. Now we have two facts to begin
chapter 11, both of which God would change and overrule. And the two things were, A, a
common language, all could understand everyone else. and b, a strong
determination on their part not to be dispersed or scattered
upon the face of the earth. For in verse 4, they devised
a plan they intended to prevent being scattered abroad upon the
face of all of the earth. So what would they do to avoid
that? Verse 4, let us build a city
and a tower whose top may reach into heaven and let us make a
name for ourselves. Notice, both a city and a tower. Perhaps a city with a tower in
it. to their greatness and to their
art and their culture, and so tall as if it could be said that
it would reach into heaven. Again, their motives were twofold. A, that they make a name for
themselves, Leave a good reputation that the monument rather the
tower and the city be a monument under them Consider if you would
Daniel 430 old King Nebuchadnezzar where in verse 29 He walked in
or literally in the margin of upon the palace of the kingdom
of Babylon. And in verse 30, the king said
either to himself or some of his nobles or visiting dignitaries
or someone that he was trying to impress, is not this great
Babylon that I built for the house of the kingdom by the might
of my power For the honor of my majesty, oh yeah, this will
leave a great notion of me, he thinks to himself. He takes all
the credit to himself, applies it unto himself, extols what
he thinks is his greatness that he would be remembered by, and
considers all of it a standing memorial or monument to his greatness,
his majesty, and unto his skill. In verse 31 of that chapter of
Daniel and following, we read a very fearful thing, that while
the words were hardly cleared out of the king's tongue, God
sent an awful, awful judgment upon the king. He pronounced
a severe judgment against the king for his failure to acknowledge
God and to lift up and to exalt himself. What did he do? He turned
the king into a quasi-beast, if we may say so, and he sent
him out into the field to eat grass therewith and like and
among the beast. the pastor now the lesson from
that for us to be learned is Daniel chapter 4 and verse 32
that the king might acknowledge that the most high God rules
in the kingdom of men and he gives it to whomsoever he will
compare again Daniel 5 17 through 21 Now, how about those today who
boast of being the world's largest church? We have the world's largest
church. We have 20,000 members. Our budget
is $100 million a year. We're on 400 radio stations and
650 television stations. But another thing about them
being, they aimed at to avoid being dispersed over the face
of the earth, and to build and establish there such a mighty
cathedral or a fortress-like stronghold that they could not
be overcome or overrun, a monument to their ingenuity, including
a mighty tower whose top seemed to stretch into the heaven. two
questions here for our consideration. Why did they not want to be scattered? I don't know if I can give you
the answer to that or not. Then secondly, why was it in
the mind of God that they be scattered? And I think we can
answer that one. First as to why they did not
want to be scattered. Now that raises the question,
Why did they think that they might be scattered? Or they fear
it or think that it might come? And if so, why did they fear
it and seek to resist it? I wonder if the answer can be
as simple as Calvin suggests that it was inevitable as they
multiplied and more and more people came that they would certainly
be moving out into new realms of the earth. So we see in some
cases, however, how very fond men are in the world of national
and of unity. and how they try to get together,
hold together for the good of mankind. And this has given us
such monstrosities as the United Nations and United Churches and
that kind of thing, the World Council of Churches. People just
seem to have the idea that we need to all get together and
things somehow would be better. But then secondly, there is the
greater question, why was it in the mind of God to scatter
them and for them to become sectarian and separate? For the text makes
it clear, the Lord would have them scattered And he took definite
measures to bring it to pass, and it was successful. Now look
at certain things in our text, as if he sees all and knows all. In verse 6, the imagination of
their heart. is set upon this evil scheme. Remember Genesis chapter 6 and
verse 5 and Genesis 8 and 21? They are determined. They are
devoted. They are committed to this act in defiance of Almighty
God. But in verse 7, the Lord confounded
their language. which one expositor called, quote,
a linguistic change, unquote, and it certainly was. Now, this
is not explained. It is simply stated. But it must
have been a phenomenal occurrence. And it produced amazement and
wonder among the people. And all of a sudden, they could
not communicate with one another anymore. They could not continue
their project any longer. And so they left off to build
the tower. Perhaps a good way to help us
understand this is for us to remember the opposite phenomena
when yonder on the day of Pentecost. We remember the day of Pentecost
when every man heard in his own language the wonderful things
of God. Suddenly, just all at once, they
began to hear in their own language all of the wonderful things of
God. Now all the speakers were Galilean,
yet every man heard in his own language the things of God. But to return to the thought
that it was a mind of God to scatter them as stated in verse
eight of our text. So the Lord scattered them abroad
from thence upon the face of the all of the earth, and did
it at least in part by causing great catastrophic in regard
to their language, dialect, or barriers. Now, two thoughts are
here. Number one, God willed to scatter
a people the way he did not before the flood. He wanted to scatter
these people as he did not before the days of the flood. Number
two, there was, of course, a divine purpose to the scattering of
the people that did reach all the way to the incarnation of
Christ and beyond. God's purpose was to scatter
mankind into all the parts of the earth. What does Paul tell
the Athenians? Acts chapter 17 and verse 26. God hath made of one blood all
nations of men for to dwell upon the face of the earth and hath
determined the time before appointed and the bounds of their habitation."
In this context in Acts 17, Paul says that it is true against
the belief of those Athenians. Many of those Athenians, oh,
I forgot what they call them, but they believed that they sprung
up out of the earth. They literally believed that
they had sprung themselves up out of the earth. And so Paul
says, no, God has created all things, set the bound and the
habitation of the earth. Paul may have had in his mind
something which Moses told the congregation, found in Deuteronomy
chapter 32, and it is verse 7 and verse 8, if I can turn there
real quickly and find it. Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse
7 and 8. I'm in the chapter, now for the
verse. All right, 7 and 8. Remember
the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask thy father, and he will show
thee thy elders, and they will tell thee, when the Most High
divided to the nation their inheritance, when he separated the sons of
Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number
of the children of Israel. We may refer there to verse 9
under our next point. Moses reminds them of old days,
long ago what God had done, what their father's generation could
tell them if they could speak unto them. Here we morph into
our next point as to how the dividing of the nation had the
purpose of God concerning the nation of the Jew and of the
Gentile, and then Messiah coming into the world after the flesh.
Again, Deuteronomy 32 8 and 9 following he set the bounds of the people
According to the number of the children of Israel for the Lord's
portion is his people Jacob is his lot in his inheritance When
we come to Genesis 11, 10 and following, the author there carefully
traces the posterity of Noah's son, Shem, of which line Abraham
did come, from which the nation of Israel was propagated, where
God put his worship, made a revelation of himself, where there were
the adoption, the promises, the covenant, the services of God,
and such like. And so here let us recall the
prophecy of Noah in regard to his son Shem in Genesis 9 And
26, blessed be the Lord God of Shem. But blessed be that God
who is the God of Shem. And when the nations were divided
and the land was allotted, as dwelling places, and the languages
were assigned and was in place, then I think probably it must
have been true what Matthew Henry said, even then God had Abraham's
seed in his mind and in his eye. And the land of Canaan was promised
of the seed of Abraham. And in Genesis chapter 12 and
7, though Genesis 12 and 6 The Canaanite was then in the land. There were people dwelling in
the land. So once more, let's recall the
words of Moses, Deuteronomy 32 and 8, that God, in his infinite
wisdom and pursuant under his own purpose, set the bounds of
the people according to the number of the children of Israel and
from Abraham as head and father, we learn, are developed into
a land and into a people that God made much use of it. Now, concerning the institution
of the different languages, Jonathan Edward, in his book entitled
The History of Redemption, makes this point, that in preparation
for Christ's coming, in preparation for the appearance of the God-man
in flesh, and the proclamation and revelation of the gospel
bringing to light life and immortality. The Grecian empire was established
with Greek as the language known and spoken throughout most of
the quote known world of that day. And this enhanced the preaching
of the gospel in the early years of Christianity of Christ and
the apostle and Paul. Ah, but in the consideration
of these things, the dividing of the sons of Adam and the assigning
of territories, let us not forget the life of another son of Noah,
and that's Japheth. And the descendants of Japheth
had for their inheritance some of the choice portion of this
terrestrial earth or ball. For a large part of it, the gospel
was handed off when the Jews were cut off, and the gospel
then went into and among the descendants of Japheth, like
England, and Germany, and Switzerland, and Scotland, and then finally
the United States of America. That is, the descendants of Japheth,
that son, became the means of calling of the Gentile into the
grace of God by the gospel of our Lord. Then on the other hand,
consider those multitude who have fallen into Buddhism, Islam,
Confucianism, Hinduism, Shintoism, and all of those things that
are enemies to God and the gospel of our Lord. John Owen was adamant
that pagan idolatry took its rise from Babel. that here pagan
idolatry was born in the new world. And when the Lord God
instituted the worship among the seed of Abraham, then pagan
idolatry took a twofold form. A, the worship of graven images
and tangible thing, and B, the worship of created things, things
that God had made, so they worshiped the created more than the creator. And hereby came paganism and
idolatry sprung up and flourishing in the world till the gospel. Now concerning the confusion
of language and the dispersion, consider, if you would, two things
apart. Number one, through the confusion
of language was a major part of the dispersion, yet at the
same time it made for an orderly dispersion and a congregation
of people and nationality. By these were a common language
drawn together. Not so anymore, but it was in
that day. And secondly, it prepared the
way both for the coming of Christ and the calling of the Gentiles. And the question is here, was
this the origin of nationalities? Is this where nationalities began? We're not told a lot about it,
but could it be? And who would doubt that God
did this? It was the Lord God that did
it. Surely there was one language before and then there were many
and by that God accomplished his purpose. Sometimes I wonder
about that statement found in Revelation 17 and 5 and it puzzles
me Mystery Babylon the great the great the mother of heart
the abomination of the earth Ah, but that's another subject
altogether God did scatter the people he confounded their language
and He sent them to their respective abodes in the world by his great
sovereigntial power. Now isn't it amazing? He didn't
send another flood, he didn't send fire and brimstone to destroy
them, but he sent the confusion of languages and it accomplished
a great part of the purpose of God.