Dr. Kenneth Mathews, Genesis, Session 9, The Nations and the Tower of Babel (Gen. 10:1-11:26)

[Music] [Applause] this is dr kenneth matthews and his teaching on the book of genesis this is session number nine the nations and the tower of babel genesis chapter 10 verse 1 through chapter 11 verse 26 [Music] session 9 is the nations and the tower of babel the significance of this section is important to us because it is the concluding section regarding chapters 1-11 the history of the universal families and it is significant also because it does gather to itself many of the ideas theologically that the author wishes to teach and so it will be important for us the idea of a genealogy in chapter 10 is not typically appreciated but we will find that it is something that is comprehensible and can be appreciated as the author guides us through the importance of the table of nations for israel and for ourselves now there are actually two superscriptions that we'll be looking at today the first one occurs in chapter 10 verse 1. this is the genealogy or the account of shem ham and japheth noah's sons who themselves had sons after the flood the description after the flood is not incidental because now we enter into a new era the post-flood world we have a background in chapter nine which i will speak to in a moment then there is a second superscription in chapter 11 verse 10. this is the account of shem and so we have a genealogy in chapter 10 and a genealogy in chapter 11 verse 10. sandwiched between is the narrative concerning the tower of a babel so here is the structural arrangement chapter 10 has a genealogy chapter 11 the tower of babel and then chapter 11 verses 10 through 26 and a repetition of genealogy well when it comes to chapter 10 you will notice with me that the last part begins in verse 21 the shemites the shemites so these are the descendants of the son shem and then we have the tower of babel and then the genealogy of shem is given a second time beginning in chapter 11 verse 10 and runs through verse 26 well why do we have two genealogies of the shemites one reason is because there's an emphasis in the mind of the author pertaining to shem in his descendants and this is because of what we find in chapter 9. you recall in chapter 9 god makes a covenant with noah and his descendants after the flood and this is found in chapter 9 verses 1 through 17. then there is an interlude of chapter 9 verses 18 and 19. verse 20 picks up with noah who like adam the first adam now noah like the first adam is the new noah who will be the father of all the peoples of the world and he like adam was a cultivator of the soil in the description in verse 20 is dealing with planting a vineyard he was a developer of viticulture whereas in the ancient near east the gods are said to have been the developing wines uh genesis makes it quite clear that the vineyard is a creation of humanity of humans and that wine is not divine a divine gift but rather in the context of genesis we know that all productivity that comes from the soil is a gift from god now he becomes drunk you'll recall that and ham [Music] ridicules uh noah by seeing him in his nakedness within his tent and then gossiping about it when he goes outside and tells others about it we have japheth and shem who stepped forward and they covered up their father without looking upon him they did not have the kind of contempt for their father like that of him and remember ham is the father of canaan and canaan would have been a special interest to hebrew readers since they were living in the area of canaan noah when he awakens he recognizes that he has been defamed and ridiculed by him and so he utters a prayer of invocation asking god to bring curse upon canaan and then he blesses the lord as the god of every good gift for shem and japheth so when we look at canaan you'll remember that we spoke of how kanan most likely in some way perpetuated the contempt that his father had and hence there is the curse that's delivered to canaan now this helps us understand what is the purpose of the table of nations that follow in chapter 10 because we have a moral map that is provided for the readers of genesis the descendants of the hamitz are to be treated with some suspicion whereas those of the japanites and the shemites are given a more favorable viewpoint now that doesn't mean that all of the hammites are condemned and consigned to wickedness by any means it simply means that there is a moral map provided to the hebrew people who are going to be introduced once they enter into the land to all these various people groups and a question would be raised who are they and where are they from also a second reason for giving the genealogy of shem is at a results in the most important transitional figure from the universal history of humanity in chapters 1-11 and then the particularistic specific history of the family of uh well one family abraham and this is because at the end of chapter 11's genealogy we have the birth and the life of terah and tyra is the father of abraham so we are in a position to understand the linkage that the genealogy provides for us as we think about the different types of genealogies that occur in the bible we spoke of this on an earlier occasion when we looked at genesis chapters four and five chapter four is the segmented genealogy of a cane and remember a segmented genealogy gives more than one descendant of a patriarch that's what's taking place in chapter 10. it is segmented so you will have all three sons the japanites the hammites and the shemites and then within them will be further segmentation or branching of various descendants from each patriarch the other kind is called linear and this is found in chapter 5 regarding the sethites this is a streamlined approach by the author as he in rapid pace shows the direct lineage by naming one person per generation and so it begins in chapter five with adam and then his son seth and all those who came after seth one by one when we move to chapter 11 verses 10 through 26 we have that same kind of arrangement of a linear genealogy and then in our mind's eye if we will bring these two genealogies together then we find that chapter 5 results in noah in the naming of his three sons so there is at the conclusion of chapter 5 a branching of shem ham and japheth and then we pick up with that descendant shem in chapter 11 in chapter 11 verse 10 through 26 is also linear if you look with me at verse 26 of chapter 11 after terah had lived 70 years he became the father see the branching abraham nahor and haran and then we will have in chapter 11 verse 27 a new superscription here we have the genealogy of terah and this actually introduces the abraham narrative which we'll speak of in our next session what this tells us is is that god is by virtue of the linear is definit is distinguishing from the others the genealogy through him and by him he will bring about the deliver promised to adam and eve in chapter 3 verse 15 and that this deliverer will be the offspring of the woman as it turns out historically we see then that noah is an unexpected kind of a deliverer that god uses to preserve the human family and survive the worldwide cataclysmic flood so we move from adam created an image of god who gives a virtue of inheritance the image but also adam's sinful preoccupation his nature has given us to sin in rebellion that will always result in death and then he died so it goes from adam which introduces chapter 5 to seth and that's why it's identified as the sethites it ends with noah the genealogy is picked up in chapter 11 with the shemites and goes to terah the father of abraham so we have in effect then the uh connections the interdependence of the nations in chapters 5 and 11. it begins with adam seth moves to noah and into abraham when we come to looking also at this broader structure of genealogy the babyl narrative and then genealogy again you will notice that there is a dischronization there is a way in which we find that there is a reversal when it comes to a chronological arrangement of chapters 10 11. because chapter 11 verses 1 through 9 describes the causation and chapter 10 describes the result of that cause in other words cause effect chapter 11 verses one through nine the tower of babel incident ends with the scattering of the peoples at babel and how there will be then a multiplication of diverse people groups that are scattered around the world and that's what you find listed in chapter 10. why is it why we have this dischronization and that is because of the arrangement that's important to the author who wants to show that the chapter 10 nations leads to the tower of babel with its rebellion with its pride in the necessity of god as we sing repeatedly throughout these early chapters of god stepping in to deliver the people from themselves and that is by an act of grace to preserve and to maintain through the human family the blessing that god has intended for the human family whereas the genealogy of just shem in its linear fashion takes you down to a deliverer and that is abraham and so in doing so the author of genesis by virtue of arrangement is explaining how god is going to work through the shemite genealogy leading to abraham and creating of abraham a new nation and this would accord well with what we find in the curse and the blessing described in chapter 9. now let me speak of some of the characteristics of the genealogy and that is you will find that there are 70 nations and listed and these 70 nations are representative of all nations they're selective for example it says in chapter 10 verse 5 regarding the japanites from these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations each with its own language so you can see there that there's more that could be named various maritime peoples to follow so these must be representative as you know in the bible there is an uh emphasis and appreciation interpretation of seven and multiples of sevens and we will find the same thing taking place an emphasis on the sevens you will find that there is a highly structured arrangement with various kinds of repetition at the end of each family the japhethites hamitz and shemites you will find a concluding what is a colophon it occurs in chapter 10 verse 5 i named it already territories by clans nations and language and then if you look at chapter 10 verse 20 the hamitz these are the sons of ham again clans languages territories and now nations chapter 10 verse 31 these are the sons of shem by their clans and nations in their territories and by their clans and languages in their territories and nations then a grand finale in verse 32 of chapter 10 these are the clans of noah's sons according to their lines of descent within their nations from these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood so what we have in the cola funds would be the criteria by which the inclusion of these various people groups were made and there are three general ideas and that is that the table of nations is going to be gathered on the basis of the criteria of language so it's ethnoethnicity linguistic and then we will find that it also involves geopolitical ideas that is territories and the various political groups that are associated with that and then third the ethnogeographic and this would be the geography of these various people groups so we have languages we have territories and nations and then the territories mentioned here so it is not strictly speaking a genealogy of a biological idea when we generally think of genealogies let me give you an idea of what's in mind here let me give you one example of how a the genealogy names people groups verse 13 of chapter 10 says that mitzrayim and by the way mizrahim is the hebrew word for egypt and it means the two egypts the upper and lower egypt mitzrayim egypt was the father of these various ites and they are listed in 13 this would be people groups but then i want you to notice in verse 15 that we have reference to a city and so in verse 15 canaan was the father of sidon sidon was a phoenician city an important city and he identifies sidon as his firstborn so what we have in mind then is that the uh collection of these various nations would reflect not biological descent at every place but maybe what we have would be a desire to show linkage between groups that would be nations that would be individuals now embedded you will have at places some explanation with elaboration and we find that with nimrod in verses 8 through 11. let's look at it together cush that would be from the sons of ham in verse 6. cush was the father of nimrod who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth verse 9 he was a mighty hunter before the lord and that is why it is said and here is a proverb like nimrod a mighty hunter before the lord and then he goes on to listen the successors to nimrod and these you know are nations that are described in verse 10 cities in verse 11 such as nineveh now there's been some dispute as to what does this mean before the lord and some see it as a very positive statement this is with the blessing others see this as rather neutral just observing that god is overseeing the development of the nations i tend to agree with those who think what is taking place before the lord is like what we find in chapter 6 verses 1 through 8 describing horrific sinfulness and depravity of the peoples that brought about the flood and there it says that god saw in verse 4 he saw how wicked the people had become as a result of the intermarriage between the canaanites and sethites and that also here it is not um a positive but a negative appraisal that was un that was uh received and in uh before the lord now why do i say that well because of babylon babylon was one of the arch enemies of the hebrew people and because what we find with the tower of babel in chapter 11. i think that is one way in which we can understand uh nimrod that has much going for it now there are a couple of other ways in which the table of nations has repetitive uh reputation and that is when it has the sons of and you'll see that for example in verse 2 of chapter 10 the sons of that is an emphasis on the ancestor so the sons of japheth is emphasized and then like we saw in verse 8 you have another which uses the language the father of and there's an emphasis on the development of the offspring of that particular ancestor well what did we just say about the message that we find in chapter 10 and that is that we have noah's blessing in chapter 9 verses 1 through our repetition of one and also verse seven and this is an introduction to the covenant that god has made with noah verse one of chapter nine reminds us of the blessing at creation in chapter 1 verse 28 then god blessed noah and his sons saying to them be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth now certainly when it comes to the genealogy that's found in the table they are highly fruitful and they ought to fill the earth and that's what's taking place in chapter 10 a description of the diversity of the peoples and yet they are still under the blessing of god a second lesson to be learned is the interconnectedness of the nations and as what brings them together is not based on language they have diversity of language diversity of culture diversity of ethnicity but why is it that they have a connection with one another and how is it that this relates to god's blessing what brings them together is their humanity created in the image of god what brings them together is god benevolent plan and purpose for the various nations a third advantage of the table of nations is that there's even a blessing for israel's traditional enemies see god is not in wanting to destroy but rather to redeem and there is a plan that will be unfolding in genesis to show how he will ultimately rescue the various people groups who opposed him who oppose the israelites but one day will be blessed through the israelites and i've already mentioned one when it came to nimrod he's the father of the babylon region and then you can go on to read verse 11. you have nineveh mentioned and that's a chief city of assyria egypt is mentioned these are the classic traditional enemies of israel but you see what's at work here is the way that god is configuring the nations to achieve the blessing and so this is the sovereign outworking of god and when we look at the purpose in other words the grander stage the broader framework we can understand and appreciate the steps that are necessarily taken by god to bring representatives of all people groups into the proposed and planned blessing of god this uh is uh reminiscent of what we find in chapter 32 verse 8 wherein it's deuteronomy 32 verse 8 where moses says when the most high god gave the nations their inheritance and divided the human race he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the people of israel and here the number of israel would have been jacob and his sons and their families constituting 70 people in the jacob family that descended into egypt and then the apostle paul in his sermon in athens acts 17 verse 26 here he says from one man god has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live so this all falls within the plan of god intending to bless when we think about what follows the tower of babel i know there's one thing i did overlook and i want to race back and remind us that when you read chapter 10 and look at the 70 nations you will notice that israel itself does not occur and i think this is because there's an assumption that the israelites reading this know there is israel for any of those outside of israel are reading this then they know that this book of genesis and torah comes from israel so there's an assumption that israel does exist and then all of this is to be read and appreciated and understood and by israel's readers now let's turn to the tower of babel in the tower of babel we have a structure that shows as as we have seen already on several occasions the mastery of the language and literature that biblical writers exhibit and the author of genesis does very much the same and so it is not a haphazard of weaving together uh unrelated information maybe from books listings of genealogies that would be the writings oral recollections a variety of genre such as narrative and poetry and as i've already said genealogy weaving together a coherent telling of how god created in the early history of humanity the consequence of sin in the garden [Music] the [Music] uh grave enemy that is the grave itself and then he died and then he died and then how god steps in at each threat to the blessing delivers a remnant and provides for the blessing for the human family and we see this taking place again because in chapter 11 verses 9 through 1 through 9 we will find that the structure highlights its theological message and we'll come to that in a few moments but let's look at verse 1 and also verse 9. this is what you call a beginning and an ending of similar language and it functions like brackets the literary language that's used to describe that is called inclusio or inclusion verse one now the whole world had one language and a common speech verse 9 says that that is why it was called babel because there the lord confused the language of the whole world and from there the lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth so as you probably know from earlier reading or hearing some recounting of this story the issue is the city babylon and by the way the narrative focuses more on the city than it does the edifice built and that's the tower and we are reminded time and again in the narrative that the people were united and this of course was in conflict with the blessing god had intended where in chapter 1 verse 28 and chapter 9 verses 1 and 7 there is in the mind of god the privilege and there is the advantage of blessing by giving people an inheritance for each people group a territory a land a part of the created order of the earth and so this is what god wanted them to do was to migrate to populate and collectively to execute uh control over a stewardship over the earth that god had made and in this way they were carrying out the creation of humans and his image so they have a derivative role as vice regents serving under the lordship of god who had created and had declared a special uh a purpose for those created in the image of god now uh along the lines of the structure what is uh important is the idea of a reversal it's called chiasmus or chiastic structure like an x and there's a reversal you might think of a mirror image and so in verses 1 through 4 we have the description like we saw in the flood narrative the ascent the building of the tower and then in verse 5 we were going to have a reversal in the flood narrative you remember it was chapter 8 verse 1 where there god sent a mighty wind the spirit of god and there the destroyed uncreated it becomes a new the recreated and so you have the receding of the waters descending coming down and that's what's taking place here verse 5 shows us the peak so to speak but the lord came down and in coming down he sees the city and he inaugurates a plan to save the babylites from themselves because they were not carrying out the plan of god [Music] and their motivation was out of pride it's as specifically stated when it says in verse 4 we may make a name see reputation for our selves now in the entire babylon we have a number of wordplays and the best known word play would be on the name of babel itself let's look at it and verse 9 reads that is why it was called babel because there the lord confused the language of the whole world now there's a play on the sound of babel because the word that's translated confused is balal you can hear it can't you babel and bella and so from the perspective of god in the hebrew reader what we see here is that babel was not a paragon of virtue or a great achievement but rather was nothing more than confusion also we find with literary features why this is such an entertaining narrative and also why is so beautifully constructed in terms of its cohesion and that is irony there are a number of ironies the chief of which is what we have already found in verse 5. here they are producing this tower a monument to themselves and uh but even though it is a tower that they hope would reach to the heavens verse 4 that ironically the lord had to come down to see what was taking place and this of course is a highly human description of god so as to ridicule the intention of humanity humanity in a unified fashion is designing an act which does not take into account a loyalty to god but rather a loyalty and purpose to themselves and so the author would have us know that verse 5 but in contrast the lord came down and indirectly brought about a judgment against the united peoples by confusing their language because obviously by having one unified language their communication enabled them in a expeditious way enable them with a higher level of competency in building this tower so another way in which the literary features are instructive would be what we've already said at each point in looking at these features and that is the unity of the people versus scattered and that's why you will find how they say to one another in verse three they say to one another come let's make bricks so you see is a cooperative effort on the part of these united peoples and then again in verse 4 they say to themselves let us build ourselves a city and then again the plural let's make a name for ourselves and not be scattered but of course scattering does take place and that's the purpose of god for confusing their language so in verse 8 it says that the lord scattered them how did he do that indirectly by changing their language into various dialectical differences in language and then you will find that is stated again at the end of verse 9 scattered now that's what's taking place of course in chapter 10. but let me give you one example of that if you will turn back to chapter 10 18 10 18 the latter half of verse 18. later the canaanite clans scattered and were divided so this is the effect of the confusion of the language it achieves god's purposes now what can we say about the message well the first and most important message to be learned here is the threat of pride see they have a technological uh ambition what they want to do is use their advanced technology in mesopotamia by taking mud bricks firing them and then using mortar to make for themselves by their advanced technology of the age a very stout and strong uh tower and that's what's taking place then in verse three come let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly and then the commentator says they use brick instead of stone in tar for mo mortar so this is versus stones and why is that significant because in canaan there is a a great new a great availability of stones and stones were the primary building tools for the common people in canaan so this reflects then what they mean by making a name for ourselves do you remember that in chapter 6 verse 4 it speaks of the warriors who renowned who were renown of old and that word renown is the hebrew word name they were making a name for themselves working with their hubris and pride also there's uh a false unity a message having to do with false unity now for those of you who who've read the new testament you're very familiar with how the apostle paul emphasizes the importance of the unity of the christian family the christian church and that there is no place for rivalry within the christian church so why is it here that the unity of the nations are disparaged this is because the unity of the nations is not grounded or founded upon god but rather upon their pride when you think about god's creation you have a unified six day creation account that provides for sustaining human life that provides for a beautiful world a place for blessing and a place for life but also there is within that diversity within the animal families within the human family itself male and female so diversity is a blessing of god but unity while it is sought after that unity must be grounded in their common humanity created in the image of god all you see under the rule and reign of god so when it comes to various ethnicities that is not an occasion for us to charge or that one ethnicity is preferred over another but rather that the diversity is a blessing from god as long as the diversity works within the unity of the common human family that god is blessing when you read the book of revelation for example in revelation you will find settings of heavenly worship around the throne of god around the throne of the crucified savior christ depicted as the slain ram or lamb of god and you will have this language occurring the language of various people groups ethnicities language all in a harmonious unified word of praise and thanksgiving now one of the purposes of the tower of babel is to put babel so to speak mesopotamia gentile pride and technology where it belongs and that is to be suspicious of it the mesopotamian religion for example let's speak to it in mesopotamia they did build superstructures and there is a similarity between the idea of a tower that would reach from earth to heaven and this is called a ziggurat their resiguarites built they were stair step in construction and they were flat rectangular or square at the bottom and then it would ascend up to a peak to a top which would be a way of an image of a mountain mountain as you know from looking at it at from horizon there you have earth and then at the horizon you will see it appears to touch the skies and so the ideology here is that what we have here is reflective of a ziggurat then you have mesopotamian political pride the political pride is reflected by the naming of the city babylon babel of course confusion babylon sounds like the hebrew babel sounds like the hebrew bylaw and babylon actually means a gate to a god or we could say just simply together with gods and that was the way they envisioned themselves the gentile powers in the case of babylonia that they were constructed at the leadership of the gods but there was nothing divine about the ziggurat nothing divine about babylon because this we are told repeatedly in this narrative was built by men by humans and so we want to keep that in mind for example verse 5 but the lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building not the gods now what are we to learn from this as christian readers as christian readers we recognize that within the world itself that one of the great hurdles for peace as we attempt to cohabit in a peaceful relationship among the nations is the hurdle of language the hurdle of language is a part of different cultures and the problems that different cultures create for us where nation is opposed to nation but god in his gracious acts has in mind a way in which to bring peace about on earth in acts chapter 2 we see how this has begun and is continuing to this day in acts chapter 2 you had a jewish population in jerusalem and many pilgrims who would come to jerusalem at the time of a great festival in the hebrew bible known as the festival of weeks pentecost may be the term with which you're most familiar the greek term and at pentecost then in chapter 2 of acts we have a description of the way in which god is going to overcome the burden of diverse languages diverse cultures and hence the friction and the breaking down of the way people understand each other and can work together in peace verse 4 reads that the people who had gathered the disciples were filled with the holy spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them now there were staying in jerusalem god fearing jews from every nation under heaven when they heard this sound this is the blowing of the wind of the spirit of god a thunderous sound a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard see this is where the diversity is overcome because each one heard their own language being spoken utterly amazed they asked aren't all these who are speaking galileans the disciples for the most part were from the northern region of galilee and had a galilean dialect versus that of the jewish judahite dialect that would have been heard in jerusalem they continue then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language so there's a listing of the nations that were represented in the pilgrimage that came to jerusalem and these are nations that are listed in our genesis chapter 10 so they were speaking the language of that particular territorial residence the national language and verse 9 and 10 lists them really goes all the way through 11 parthenians needs elamites these are residents of mesopotamia judea and cappadocia pontus and asian phrygia pamphelia egypt and the parts of libya near cyrene visitors from rome both jews and converts to judaism cretans in arabs we hear them declaring the wonders of god in our own tongues so god again as we've seen repeatedly we find that we have sin [Music] god's judgment but grace greater than our sin is human beings so it is the enabling work the spirit sent by the father and the son to transform the diversity of peoples into a unity a unity founded upon grounded in the oneness of god it is a unity that involves living the life of god enjoying what god had in mind from the outset and so as we conclude this section chapters 1 through 11 and have been thinking about the early history of humanity i want to ask you as we saw with enoch as we heard about noah are you too are we also working walking i should say walking with god is god our friend is god our companion is he giving himself to us and are we giving ourselves to him this is made possible as you know from our lord jesus christ god had to step in in a special way by sending his own son jesus christ who became fully completely a human being who did not rebel against the lord unlike the first adam but obeyed his father and all things who died on the cross for our sins who was raised from the dead ascended into heaven sitting at the right hand of god the father making petition making a provision for us as the blood of christ is eternally effective and this is what jesus prayed in his days on the earth in john chapter 17. you'll find this in verse 3 on the night of his arrest and then trial the next day his crucifixion humanity has always been striving like our first parents for eternal life and that eternal life was lost in the garden but now it's possible being created a new a new people transformed into the image of our lord jesus christ so jesus prays to the father this is eternal life this is eternal life that they that is the disciples may know you and this knowledge of god is interactive it's relational it's personal we spoke of that god is spirit he created men and women his image as spiritual beings who can have this companionship this relationship that they may interact with you that is know you personally the only true god this is reality the only true god this is the real real and the one you father have sent and then jesus refers to himself jesus christ this is eternal life that they may know you the only true god and the one you have sent jesus christ and so there is a challenge here for us to recognize the identity who is the true one god and to also come to understand ourselves for once we come to understand ourselves in god's benevolent plan for us then we have an opportunity to enter into his life this is the overarching message of genesis and it has been a focus for us in genesis chapters 1 through 11. when we come to the next session we will see a major step taken by god to ensure that the blessing of god the purposes of god for you and for me and for all peoples who will turn from our selfish prideful self building tower the question is is whether we're willing not any longer to build our tower but rather to submit ourselves in receiving god's life to contribute to live in god's kingdom [Music] [Applause] this is dr kenneth matthews and his teaching on the book of genesis this is session number nine the nations and the tower of babel genesis chapter 10 verse 1 through chapter 11 verse 26. [Music]

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Keywords: Kenneth Mathews, Genesis, Babel, Tower of Babel, Ted Hildebrandt, biblicalelearning.org

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Length: 66min 32sec (3992 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 06 2021