Genesis 11
When the world scattered
I am a native Floridian. I was born and reared here. Those folks running around with Flo-grown stickers in their back windows. Newbies. When I was a teen it was “Florida Native stickers and tags and I have 2 of the license plates in my shed. That being said, I had never gone to Miami other than to get a passport, or to the key until several years ago.
Several years ago a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to use his time share. We were excited. Gladys, Drew and I and one of our nieces went to Miami. They got a little irritated the I picked up and couple of donated Christmas trees for Christmas in the Country while we were down there, and stored them in our room, but other than that we had a good time in Miami and for the 2 days we ran over to the keys.
Now, when my friend offered us the time share, one thing he didn’t tell us was that it wasn’t in the nicest part of town. As a matter of fact, the whole week we were there, we only saw 2 other gringos in that community, and the restaurant owners in that area were surprised we didn’t speak Spanish.
I’m in Florida, born and reared here, and english is not acceptable?
I’ve spent a little time out of the country, and each time I’ve needed a translator. Why is that? Why is it that I cannot communicate with everyone living in my home state? Why is it that when I leave the country I often need a translator? Why have Tim and Bunny, and so many other missionaries spent years having to learn new tribal languages so they can share the Gospel? Why is it that we are working to get people out of Afghanistan who worked as translators for us. Why were their services needed in the first place? The answer to that and so many other questions is found in the Bible.
Turn with me please to . . .
- Read Genesis 11:1-9
Verse 7 says the Lord confused their languages, and verse 9 tells us He scattered them throughout the earth.
Why do we have different languages? It’s because God caused it, and scattered them.
Now, when I’m talking about God confusing their languages, I’m not talking about little differences, like my sister-in-law and others from England who don’t know the difference between a boot and a car trunk; or a dust bin and a trash can; and I am certainly not talking about those confused folks from up north who don’t know where yonder is. My word, we used to have a couple in the church from the bronx who tried to get my little son to say ya’ll with a northern accent.
That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about Greek, and Hebrew, and Latin, and English, and Spanish, and the 700 languages spoken in India, and the 297 languages spoken in China, and the many other languages spoken in the world. Why are there so many and why do we have so much trouble understanding one another? The answer is that God caused it.
God told folks, after they came off of the ark, be fruitful and multiply and cover the earth. And what did the people say?
I. MAN’S PLAN
1. Let’s improve what we have. - v3
- Read Genesis 11:3
There were no stones in that area. Concrete hadn’t been invented, so man discovered how to make bricks, first by drying them in the sun, and later by firing them in a furnace.
There were tar pits in the area, so they decided to use asphalt as a mortar to hold the bricks together.
Folks began to develop some technology, they began to improve on their environment and their setting. They used the God-given talents and skills and creativity they had and they began to invent and build. They said, “Let’s improve what we have.”
2. Let’s build a city and a tower into the sky - v 4
- Read Genesis 11:4
Let’s build a a city and a tower into the sky. Archeologists have uncovered the foundations to some towers in that part of the world, in Iraq. In many of the ruins they have uncovered, they have found evidence of the zodiac. In other words, one of the reasons they were building was to worships the stars, the moon and the heavens. They wanted to worship what was created instead of the Creator.
How often do we get things out of order and set our priorities on the wrong thing. We worship the gifts instead of the Giver. God blesses us, and we are more excited about the blessing, than we are about the One Who took notice of us, and Who helped us in our difficulty, in our situation.
Man said, let’s improve what we have. Let’s build a city and a tower into the sky so we can worship other things. Third, “let’s make a name for ourselves”.
3. Let’s make a name for ourselves.
- Read Genesis 11:4
Let’s make a name for ourselves.
Do you remember where we left Noah in Genesis 8?
> Genesis 8:20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. . .
Later when God meets with and calls Abraham we read in Genesis 12:7
> Genesis 12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring[a] I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.
But here, sandwiched between these 2 God-fearing men, the people are saying, “Let’s make a name for ourselves”.
How much like the Devil can we be? Let’s make a name for ourselves.
Of the Devil we read in Isaiah 14:13
> Isaiah 14:13 You said to yourself, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will set up my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly, in the remotest parts of the North.
2 times we are most like the Devil, when we are lying and when we are seeking to put ourselves above others and trying to claim honor that belongs to God.
You ever notice how many buildings have the names of the builder, or the name of the owner engraved in marble on the corner of the building? A year and a half after we started River of Life, or something like that, the former pastor of Enterprise Baptist Church got in touch with us, and the long and the short of it is, that we were given that little church building down in Enterprise, next to Temple Baptist Church. We recently sold that property to finish paying off this property; but anyway, one of the things that former pastor suggested we do was to put a marble plaque on the corner of the building listing him as its last pastor.
Really? I didn’t build the building. I didn’t start the first congregation. But, how about putting my name on the building so I can make a name for myself.
Do you remember what Jesus told the disciples when they came back from their first missionary journey, telling Jesus that even the demons were subject to them? Jesus said, in Luke 10:20,
> Luke 10:20 However, don’t rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Hey, that’s where I want my name written. That’s where I want my name known. I want it written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
The people said, “Let’s make a name for ourselves”. These days they refer to that as branding. I was reading an advertisement for a college recently where the college bragged that if you attended there that in addition to them helping you find a job, that they would also help you with your personal branding.
Really? That’s our purpose? That’s our goal, to built our personal brand?
> 2 Thessalonians 1:12 Paul prays, “so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified by you, and you by him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who’s receiving the glory? Jesus.
> Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Who’s receiving the glory? The Father. That’s even the goal of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in John 15:26
> John 15:26 “When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father —the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me.
So soon after the Flood and after mankind emerged from the ark, he did several things. He improved on what he had. He built a city to the sky. He decided that he wanted to make a name for himself, and lastly, he said, “Let’s do the opposite of what God us.”
4. Let’s do the opposite of what God told us
- Read Genesis 11:4
They said, “Let’s do the opposite of what told us.” Let’s make a name for ourselves so we won’t be scattered. God told them, “Be fruitful and multiply and cover the earth.” Man said, “Let’s stay here.”
It is an unhappy place, when we are out of God’s will. It is an unhappy time when we are out of God’s timing and out of His will.
God said this, but let’s do this, I think this is better.
In blatant disobedience and rebellion, man said, “I don’t really like God’s plan, let’s do this.”
So man sinned.
Now, unlike some believe and unlike some have convinced themselves, God does not take sin, disobedience and rebellion lightly. He doesn’t overlook our disobedience and say, “Well, they’re only human. They’re doing the best they can.” No God sees and knows what’s going on and He responds. Look at God’s response to man’s disobedience.
II. GOD’S RESPONSE
- Read Genesis 11:5
Let me ask you something, “Do you think the Lord had to come down to look over the city and the tower the people were building?”
Let’s think again about a couple of things we know about God.
A. God is Omniscient - He knows everything. There is nothing God does not know.
> Hebrews 4:13 No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.
God knows everything.
> 1 John 3:20 For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
David says in Psalm 139:4
> Psalm 139:4 For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
God knows everything. Second, we also know that God is everywhere.
B. God is everywhere. There is no place you can go where God is not present, that’s why I can pray here and the Lord can work in Afghanistan. That’s why you can pray at work or at home and the Lord is able to help your children wherever they are. God is everywhere.
King David says in Psalm 139,
> Psalm 139:7-12 Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I fly on the wings of the dawn and settle down on the western horizon, even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night”— even the darkness is not dark to you. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to you.
David reminds us that God is everywhere. There is no place you can go where you will not find God.
If God knows everything, and if God is everywhere, then what does it mean when it says God came down to look over the city?
It is a word play. It is a picture. God’s response? First He laughs.
1. God laughs
It is a word play. It is a picture. It is God laughing at man’s pride at his accomplishment.
Parents, have you ever had your child come to you squalling, like they have a life-ending injury, only to discover that you can’t hardly even see the wound? Oh yeah, if I adjust my glasses just right, and if I get the light from over my shoulder just right, can faintly make out that little scratch.
Your child acts like it’s the end of the world and you can barely see it.
That’s what’s happening here. God is laughing. Oh, mankind, this is your great accomplishment? This great tower to the sky? This is how you are going to make a name for yourself? Here, let Me get My glasses on so I can see the thing. My word, with the most powerful telescope I have in heaven I can’t even see the thing. Let me come down there and look at your great accomplishment.
Meanwhile, over yonder, is a mountain so huge it makes the tower look like a molehill. And over there is a volcano God made that can cover the tower in an instant. And over God’s shoulder there is the sun He made, shining light all around. The Sun is 864,400 miles (1,391,000 kilometers) across. This is about 109 times the diameter of Earth. The Sun weighs about 333,000 times as much as Earth. It is so large that about 1,300,000 planet Earths can fit inside of it. Here it is shining light all over the place, and man is crowing about his accomplishment and the name he is making for himself.
And God laughs.
> Psalm 37:13 The Lord laughs at him because he sees that his day is coming.
> Psalm 2:1-11 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
Let me come down there and see this “Great” thing you have done.
God laughs and then He punishes.
2. God punishes
- Read Genesis 11:7-9
Can you imagine what it was like the next day at work? The foreman is frustrated because his employees can’t understand him when he tells them how to build the tower.
The employees get frustrated because the boss can’t understand them when they try to talk. Neighbors can’t understand one another. It is utter chaos.
Mankind, out of frustration, scatters and does what God wanted them to do in the first place.
If you moved from where you live now, what kinds of things would you take with you? You’d take some of your most prized possessions. You’d take your family. You’d take your history and your family stories.
As the people scattered from the tower of Babel, they too carried with them their family history and their stories. They carried with them the account of the Flood.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, there are accounts of the flood scattered among people groups all over the world, in people of many different languages. All over the Americas, native American’s have accounts of the Flood.
* Hawaiians have a flood story that tells of a time when, long after the death of the first man, the world became a wicked, terrible place. Only 1 good man was left, and his name was nu-u. He made a great canoe with a house on it and filled it with animals. In this story, the waters came up over all the earth and killed all the people; and only Nu-u and his family were saved.
* Another flood story is from China. It records that Fuhi, his wife, three sons, and three daughters escaped a great flood and were the only people alive on earth. After the flood, they repopulated the world. (Answers for Kids Bible Curriculum. Stacia McKeever. Answers in Genesis. p 63)
Mankind, out of frustration, scattered and did what God wanted them to do in the first place.
My friend, that is always the best option. That is always the best choice. To do what God wants you to do now, rather than waiting until later.
The Bible says that one day every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. It’s better to do it now and enjoy the benefits of being on the Lord’s team, than it is to wait, face the discipline of God and miss out on His blessings.
So, what is a disciples response to God?
III. A DISCIPLE’S RESPONSE TO GOD
1. Do what you know to do.
My friend the key to discipleship is obedience.
> John 15:10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
What happens when you follow and obey Jesus? You remain in His love.
> John 14:21 The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.”
What happens when you follow and obey Jesus? Jesus says He will reveal Himself to you.
> John 13:34-35 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
What happens when you follow and obey Jesus? You give evidence that you are His disciple.
What is our response to be to God’s commands? A true disciple obeys them.
2. Build alters instead of towers
Second, a true disciple of Jesus works on building altars instead of towers.
A true disciple seeks to build altars instead of towers. It is a true disciple’s goal to bring honor and glory to God instead of himself. It is his goal to please God.
Do you remember how Jesus taught us to pray? They kingdoms come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
A true disciple seeks God’s will and God’s glory.
