At one time
all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words.[i]
(Genesis 11:1, NLT)
After the
flood, Noah’s family grew quickly. Genesis 10 says, “This is the account of the
families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah. Many children were
born to them after the great flood.” (Genesis 10:1, NLT)
They were
all one family, and they all stayed together.
They had gone from a world with an immense population to being the only
8.
As the
family grew, they moved together as a unit.
Genesis 11:2 says, “As the people migrated to the east, they found a
plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there.” (NLT)
Noah lived
350 years after the flood (Genesis 9:28). He was able to see a few generations
of his family. Two years after the flood
Shem had Arphaxad (Genesis 11:10). When Arphaxad was 35 years old he had Shelah. Thus, Shelah was born in year 37 after the
flood. When Shelah was 30 years old he
had Eber. So, we can put Eber’s birth at
year 67 after the flood. No one has died yet that we are aware of. Noah is still alive. Shem, Ham and Japheth
are still alive. When Eber is 34 years old his son Peleg is born. This puts Peleg’s birth at 101 years after
the flood. Although there might have
been deaths by this time, the Bible does not report any. The family is still
intact.
Calculating
the population of the world at the time of Peleg is a guessing game. How many children were born to each family?
If you would like to get deeper into the population question, read an article
by Henry Morris on the web at http://www.ldolphin.org/morris.html. He goes into
the subject in depth. I am just going to
say that at the birth of Peleg at 101 years after the flood the world
population could have been anywhere from 700 to 1,200 people.
Imagine
that family. They were all living
together in the area of Babylonia, and just starting to develop what seemed
like a significant population. Approximately 1,000 strong, they all spoke the
same language. Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth
and their wives were all still there.
Peleg has a
significant name. Genesis 10:25 tells
us, “Eber had two sons. The first was named Peleg (which means “division”), for
during his lifetime the people of the world were divided into different
language groups. His brother’s name was Joktan.” (NLT)
From
this, we are able to put a time on the tower of Babel incident told of in
Genesis 11. As Eber watched the family break up, divide and scatter, his son
was born. So, he gave him the name Peleg. It was 101 years since the
flood.
The family
set out to build a tower to keep them all together. This is what the Bible says:
4Then they
said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches
into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all
over the world.”
5But the
LORD came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. 6“Look!”
he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After
this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! 7Come,
let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t
be able to understand each other.” (Genesis 11:4-7, NLT)
What is the
big deal?
Why does
God care that the family wants to stay together?
Let’s try
to answer these questions.
In verse 4,
the New Living Translation says, “This will make us famous.” The Hebrew from
which this is translated says, “And let us make to us a name.” Many
translations translate this, “Let us make a name for ourselves.”
Digging a
little deeper, let’s consider what is meant by making a “name.” Here we find the New Living Translation on
track. The word used here means “fame”
or “renown”. As part of its meaning it
carries the idea of giving one a posthumous life. Thus, it means a name never to be forgotten.[ii]
This is the
big deal.
This big
deal has always been a big deal. It will
always be a big deal.
The human heart has always been drawn to the same sin.
Examine the
Scriptures and see if this is not true.
The sin
that Adam and Eve committed is the sin that each succeeding generation has
committed. It is the same sin that
knocks at the door of our hearts. It is
the sin that happened at the tower of Babel.
Let’s go
back and look at what sin tempted Adam and Eve.
In Genesis
3:5 the serpent tells Eve, “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as
you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” (NLT)
I am
suggesting that the core of the temptation was and is “you will be like God.”
How
interesting that throughout history men became kings and reigned as gods. Pharaoh was supposed to be a god. The Emperor of Rome was supposed to be a
god. The emperor of China was supposed
to be a god.
In January
1989, Jeretta and I were in Japan. We
watched on television as a long funeral procession drove down a major
expressway in the Tokyo area. The
emperor Hirohito had died. He was the 124th emperor of Japan. We saw
on the screen of our television a picture of a shrine where a ceremony was
taking place. The 125th emperor of Japan was going through a special
ceremony where he was becoming a god. It is a strange thought to be watching
the funeral of a god. It is stranger still to think of the graves of 124 gods.
Are gods
supposed to die?
There are
many teachers who say that we all must get in touch with the divine in each of
us. These ways of thinking appeal to that part of ourselves that the tempter
appealed to in the garden. We all try at
some point to be the god of our own little world. We try to extend our godlike control over
those around us. Or, at least I should
say, I catch myself trying to extend my control over circumstances and people
around me.
In Genesis
11 we see God responding to what the people were planning to do. In verse 6 it says, “Look!” he said. “The
people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing
they set out to do will be impossible for them!” (NLT)
Here again,
let’s look at what the Hebrew actually says. The word translated “impossible” is a word
that means barricaded or fortified. The
old King James Version is probably the closest translation when it says, “now
nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” It is
talking about the restraint of the imagination.
In Genesis
6:5 we learn about man, “The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on
the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently
and totally evil.” (NLT)
Within 100
years of the flood, while Noah was still alive, the problem of the imaginations
of the heart of men was back.
Genesis 12
introduces us to a contrasting attitude.
We find it in the person of Abraham.
Abraham believed God and it was counted to Him as righteousness.
We learn in
Hebrews 11:6, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who
wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who
sincerely seek him.” (NLT)
When Noah
and his family left the boat they were told, “Now be fruitful and multiply, and
repopulate the earth.” (Genesis 9:7, NLT) This was all that was required of
them.
Why did
they think they needed to be famous? Did they ask who they were being famous
for? Who were they trying to impress?
We can ask
ourselves. Who are we trying to
impress? Who are we trying to be famous
for?
Jesus
taught us to pray, “Thy will be done.”
God wanted
to bless the earth of Noah’s day. Consider
how he blessed Abraham. The difference
was in the attitude toward God.
Micah 6:8 says
it this way, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD
require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with
your God?”[iii]
(ESV)
God wants
to bless us. He says so in His Word (Jeremiah
31:3, Psalm 81:10, Matthew 23:37). He
has created each person for a purpose.
He has gifted each one and positioned each one where He wants each one
to be fruitful. What He does not want is for us to try and take His place. He wants us to trust Him, believe in Him, to
walk with Him.
Another
proof of what I am saying is contained in John 3:16. “For God loved the world
so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him
will not perish but have eternal life.” (NLT)
[i]
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible: New Living
Translation. Copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House foundation. Used by
permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
[ii]
Word studies for this article were done at: http://biblehub.com/hebrew
[iii]
Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good
News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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