Genesis 9:18-11:9

For our study in Genesis, we are using a simple outline:

God’s Work in Creation (1-2)

God’s Work with Humanity (3-11)

• • Adam (3-5)
  • Noah (6-10)
  • Nations (11)

God’s Work with His Covenant People (12-50)

• • Abraham (12-25)
  • Isaac (25-26)
  • Jacob (27-36)
  • Joseph (37-50)

Today we will end the second section, with the account of God dealing with man’s pride. But before we get there, let’s wrap up Noah’s story. We know that after the flood, two truths continue. First, man is born in God’s image. Second, sin remains fixed in the human heart. After the flood, God said, “The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21).

Noah was a righteous man, and sin remained in his heart. After the flood, Noah, who is described as “a man of the soil,” planted a vineyard, made some wine, and enjoyed his drink a little too much. In a drunken stupor, he lay naked and uncovered in his tent. Here’s where the story gets interesting.

Noah’s son Ham went into the tent and “saw the nakedness of his father” (Genesis 9:22). Some have said that Ham had sex with his mother; others that Ham had homosexual relations with his father. Neither are true. In the ancient days, seeing a person’s nakedness was a moral and ethical offense. And remember, Ham is not a child stumbling into his father’s tent. He is one hundred years old at the time. Instead of covering Noah to spare him embarrassment, Ham mocked and disrespected his father by announcing what he saw to his brothers. They took a blanket and walked backwards to cover their dad. When Noah woke up and found out what had happened, he blessed Shem and Japheth, who had covered him, and cursed Ham’s sons—Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. We’ll be considering the lineage of Ham throughout the rest of Genesis.

Genesis 10:1-32 is a list of Noah’s descendants. You can read through the list and observe the beginnings of nations and kingdoms that appear throughout the Old Testament. This genealogy is summarized in Genesis 10:32.

Genesis 10:32
These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.

In Genesis 10:25, we are introduced to a man named Peleg. Moses explains that “in his days the earth was divided.” This seems to describe what is going to happen in Genesis 11. Remember how Moses wrote about the entire creation story in Genesis 1, including the creation of mankind. Then in Genesis 2, he went back to describe in more detail how Adam and Eve were created. Moses is using the same style here. He makes mention of the tower of Babel when he says that in Peleg’s days the earth was divided. In Genesis 11, Moses gives the full account of how and why the earth was divided.

Today there are 7,139 known languages in the world, but in Genesis 11, five generations after the flood, “the whole earth had one language and the same words” (Genesis 11:1). In Genesis 9:1, God’s instruction to Noah was to multiply and fill the earth, but the community had a better idea. They decided to settle in one spot. We all tend to think we know better than God. The place where they settled didn’t have an abundance of stone, so they made bricks out of mud and used tar for mortar. Made in God’s image, humanity is creative and resourceful. When you see great building projects of ancient man, like the pyramids in Egypt, it is amazing that these were accomplished without modern-day equipment. These were not cavemen evolving. Early man was made in the image of God. And because of the fall, “the intention of man’s heart is evil” (Genesis 6:5; 8:21). The people of Genesis 11 wanted to make a name for themselves.

Genesis 11:4
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 face of the whole earth.”

The use of hyperbole demonstrates the bold and independent spirit of this society. They desired recognition and purpose. They were building a monument to themselves, an artificial mountain reaching to the heavens. God knew that to allow this would produce individual and communal pride. Humans would continue to try to work their way to God.

Genesis 11:6-9
And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel,[1] because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

One commentator, in summarizing this story[2] writes,

The tower of Babel would have actually been what is called a ziggurat—a stair-stepped, pyramid-shaped edifice. Literally, it was a stairway to heaven; an attempt to gain, by human effort, what only God can give. They thought that, if they could just provide themselves with enough fame and fortune, there would be heaven on earth.^[3]

Some things never change. People are still trying to build their own stairway to heaven, still trying to provide heaven on earth!

PERSONAL TIME WITH GOD
Read Genesis 9:18-11:9. The story of the tower of Babel can be reduced to one word—pride. As you read today’s passage, focus on the hubris of humanity to think that we can build a stairway to God.

Prayer and Application
Are you trying to build a stairway to God by human efforts and good works? Ask him to show you any areas of your heart that resemble those in Genesis 11. Ask God to break away your pride and infuse your heart with godly humility that depends on him for life and eternity.

Have Questions?
The tower of Babel is a fascinating story. Maybe you have some questions we didn’t answer in today’s teaching. Our team is here to assist you as you explore God’s Word. Simply submit your question below, and we’ll get back to you soon.

[1] The word “babble” is still used today. It means “to talk rapidly and continuously in a foolish, excited, or incomprehensible way.”
[2] It is interesting to note that archaeology has unearthed literary documents from the Sumerian culture in Mesopotamia which assert that at this time all people spoke in one tongue (i.e. Samuel Noah Kramer in his article “The Babel of Tongues: A Sumerian Version” in Journal of the American Oriental Society, 88:108–111). The popular Hebrew etymology is “confusion” (i.e. balal, BDB 93), which seems to describe God confusing their one language. Babel literally means “the gate of God” (Akkadian bab-ilani), which is very similar to some of the names of ziggurats, which were large structures with a temple on top to worship the astral deities. Babylon becomes a symbol of a fallen world power, exemplified in Nimrod, later in Nebuchadnezzar, and finally in the sea beast of the book of Revelation. (Robert James Utley, How It All Began: Genesis 1–11, vol. Vol. 1A, Study Guide Commentary Series (Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International, 2001), 127).
^[3] Kurt Strassner, Opening up Genesis, Opening Up Commentary (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2009), 54.