God's Plan For The Nations Series

In chapter 10 we see a record of the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. It’s referred to as the Table of 70 nations - a record of all the nations that came from Noah’s and his sons and as they were dispersed. What is interesting is that, chronologically, chapter 10 should come after chapter 11. It’s kind of like a Hollywood movie that opens up with the last scene and then cuts back to the beginning so we know how and why we got to this place in time.

In chapter 11, the nations are being dispersed but chapter 10 affirms that all of humanity, in spite of geographical and linguistic and cultural differences, share a common origin, nobility, and inherent value. Even though the nations went into different directions, God knows every tribe, people, and nation and He loves each one and has a plan of salvation for them. We see this expressed thousands of years later when Jesus sends out the 70 disciples to share the gospel to the known nations. God created the world and He desires to redeem it. Let’s read:

Genesis 11: 1-9 (SL 2)

1 Now all the earth used the same language and the same words. 2 And it came about, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of all the earth.” 5 Now the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they have started to do, and now nothing which they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth; and they stopped building the city. 9 Therefore it was named Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth (NASB 2020).

Let’s look at the nations’ plans vs. God’s plans. The first think we observe in this chapter is

They were looking for a place.

We see in v. 1 that all the inhabitants of the earth used the same language and the same words. Possibly other languages or dialects did exist in their day but they all had a common lingua franca. The earliest recorded language is Sumarian, dating back to 3,100 B.C. Archeologists estimate that the Sumarian culture dates back to about 4,500 B.C. One Sumerian epic recorded that at one time, all people spoke one language.

There is nothing wrong with having a common language. It isn’t evil, nor the cause of evil. Communication, community life, and unity was greatly enhanced by it. Potentially, a common language could have drawn men and women together in the worship and work of God but in this case, this common language was misused to accomplish selfish purposes.

In v. 2, instead of spreading out and populating the whole earth like God told them to, Noah’s son’s descendents chose to move east to the plains in Mesopotamia. “East” indicates trouble because throughout the book of Genesis “from the east” or “towards east” suggests movement away from God. Eastward marks events of separation. Some examples:

When Cain left the presence of the Lord, he settled in the land of Nod east of Eden (Gen 4:16).

When Lot departs from Abraham, he goes eastward.

When Jacob left his homeland, fleeing from his brother, he lived with the eastern people.

When the people in Genesis 11 migrated east, their plan was to find a place that looked good and to settle there. My Question for you -So is there anything wrong with finding a good place to settle and to build your life? In this context, what do you think was the real problem?

The problem was that this was not what God had called them to do - to disperse and repopulate the earth. Instead, they deliberately went against God’s mandate and did their own thing. They made a decision to move away from God, to separate themselves from Him. There were looking for a place because

They had a plan:

In verse 3, They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks.” It says they made bricks instead of using stone and used tar instead of mortar. Why is the author making the emphasis on the building materials? Because sun-dried or kiln-baked bricks set with tar was a Babylonian invention, whereas Israel, in Moses’ time, used uncut stone and mortar. When Moses wrote down this account in the Hebrew, the sentence translates this way, “We use stone; they have only brick!” The implication is that the people were using materials made by man not God, it was a man-made religious system and ideology that bound them together. But the building material was inferior.