Sermon – The Tower of Babel

1. The People of the Tower of Babel

1) After the flood, Noah and his family begin repopulating the earth.

2) God commanded Noah and his family to “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth? (Genesis 9:1).

3) Genesis 10:32 says, “These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.”

4) Some commentators have suggested that the tower of Babel wasn’t built until 100 or so years after the flood.

5) Assuming this period of time, six generations could have come and gone and the earth could have been populated with as many as 30,000 people including men, women, and children.

6) It is this group of people, or a large portion of them, that we find in Genesis 11:1ff.

7) We also know that it wasn’t long after the flood that man’s problem with sin once again erupted both with Noah and Noah’s sons.

8) Six generations of people also brought six generations of sin.

2. The Language of the People

1) In verse 1 of Genesis 11, we’re then told that these people all spoke the same language and that they were all together in the same place.

2) It used to be commonly believed that the language that these people spoke was Hebrew.

3) The Bible, however, doesn’t specifically tell us what the language was that they spoke, only that they spoke the same language.

4) The continued to speak the same language because they continued to remain together as a group.

5) God’s command to Noah and his sons was to replenish the earth. This they were not doing.

6) Had they dispersed like God had intended them to do they would have naturally developed different languages.

7) Since, however, they were together, their single language persisted.

3. The Place of the Tower of Babel

1) We are told that the ark landed on the mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8:4).

2) This would be in modern day eastern Turkey north of Iraq.

3) From here Noah and his family moved to the south and southwest or as Genesis 11:2 says they came from the east.

4) They would be most interested in valleys and plains where crops could easily grow.

5) The Tigris river is southeast of the mountains of Ararat.

6) The Euphrates is west of the Tigris.

7) A westward trek would be in order from Ararat to the Tigris and then to the Euphrates.

8) The Greek historian Herodotus said that this was in the neighborhood of what would later be known as Babylon.

9) The plain (as 11:2 says) was fertile due to the river running through it and provided ample space for a people of 30,000 to locate.

10) This is where they intended to permanently settle.

4. The Plans for the Tower of Babel

1) It was the purpose of the people not merely to stop in this area for a while, but to settle here permanently.

2) This is evident from what we are told about their building materials.

3) The area was not abundant in large stones and such they needed to construct housing.

4) So, they cooked bricks.

5) To hold them together they used bitumen or an asphalt. It made for a type of cement to hold the bricks together.

6) With these materials, they could build permanent houses and a city in which they could all live.

7) In addition to the housing and city, the proposed to build a tower.

8) This was for the purpose of making a name for themselves so that they would not be dispersed in the earth.

9) It seems that they thought that if they, as a society, were great enough, that they could undo God’s will for the earth.

10) Again, it was not God’s plan for them to do this. They were supposed to disperse throughout the earth.

11) Their plans for the city and for their tower are now 100% opposed to God’s plan.

5. God’s Punishment for the People

1) God noted that the people were unified in one place and with one language.

2) It wasn’t that God had a problem with their being unified, but with their being unified for the purposes they had in mind.

3) They were working against God’s plan, not for it and being unified as they were, God’s concern was that there wouldn’t be anything that they wouldn’t do.

4) This is what is meant by “Nothing…will be impossible for them.” I.E. They won’t be thwarted in any of their plans even if they are against the will of God.

5) In other words, they would soon come to consider that there was nothing that ought not to be done.

6) This was the problem with the world prior to the flood.

7) Genesis 6:5 says, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

8) There was no sin that they wouldn’t commit which is why God destroyed the earth.

9) No doubt, He didn’t want the same thing to happen again.

10) The punishment that God levied upon them fit their situation.

11) They had failed to obey God’s command to replenish the earth so God would, more or less, force them to comply.

12) He did so by changing their languages so that not everyone spoke the same language any more.

13) We get the picture that not just two, but several languages came as a result.

14) With these new languages, those who communicated with each other would separate and develop their own communities in other places.

15) We should also note that God dispersed them.

16) The language change was a miracle of the mind.

17) The dispersion may have been miraculous as well.

18) Or it may simply have been a result of the language change.

19) It’s not 100% clear.

20) The bottom line is that God’s purposes were now fulfilled.

21) We also learn from Moses how the different nations and languages of the world came about.

1. Where people exist, the problem of sin will also exist.

1) Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned…”

2) Sin is the constant problem of man.

3) We must seek not to sin, but to do good.

4) Hebrews 13:16 says, “But to do good and to share forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”

2. God’s will is to be obeyed regardless of circumstances.

1) I don’t know why they didn’t initially want to separate.

2) Perhaps they loved their families.

3) Perhaps they wanted to be a great people.

4) Perhaps they wanted the easy life.

5) They eventually came to want to “make a name? for themselves.

6) Whatever the reason, God’s will was not obeyed.

7) Hebrews 5:9 says that God saves those who obey Him.

3. Pride will always cause us to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

1) The people together were very confident.

2) They didn’t think that there was anything they couldn’t do.

3) They wanted to make a name for themselves.

4) Perhaps they thought that if they did such then God wouldn’t separate them.

5) Pride causes us to behave in ways that we normally would not.

6) Romans 12:3 says, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

4. We ought not to think that there is anything that we can’t do – sin is off limits.

1) Certainly, regarding good things, we have no law against such (Galatians 5:23).

2) However, sometimes we need to ask not “Can we do it? but “Ought we to do it.”

3) We may advance far in our society in knowledge so that we can do a lot of different things.

4) But we need to ask, “Ought we to do them?”

5) Man’s actions need certain limitations if they are going to be orderly and pleasing to God.

6) Colossians 3:17 says do all things by the authority of Christ.

5. God’s plans will not be thwarted.

1) God had a plan for man’s salvation through Jesus.

2) This would unfold according to God’s wisdom.

3) Man’s “wisdom? and plans threatened to undo God’s plan for man’s salvation.

4) Hence, God miraculously intervened.

5) Paul wrote, “Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:20-21).

6. No society is so great that it can undo God’s will.

1) Many societies have, in the past, tried to ignore God’s will.

2) It has only been to their detriment.

3) Where is Babylon? The Roman Empire? Greece? Persia?

4) What about Sodom and Gomorrha?

5) What ancient cultures and societies that opposed God are still around today?

6) A society that opposes God is not a society that will exist for long.

7) Daniel 4:34-35 “And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?”

7. God’s punishments are just.

1) God’s punishment for the people was to give them what they wouldn’t do.

2) By changing their languages, the people dispersed.

3) This was what God wanted all along.

4) This was a just punishment and reasonable

5) The Judge of all the earth does right! Genesis 18:25.