Theme: God Scattered the People.
Scripture:
A1 Outline
B1 Tower of Babel
C1 What the people are doing
C2 What the Lord does
A2 Notes and Questions
B1 Babel--Traditional site
B2 Some imagined ideas on what the tower looked like
C1
C2
B3 Area of Lake Van and Mount Ararat (give or take 300 km)
B4
C1 What is noticeable about this passage?
C2 Why is the language information repeated twice (same language, same speech)?
C3 When is unity good, and when it is wrong?
D1 Unity with Yahweh and His ways is good.
D2 Unity against Yahweh and His ways is evil.
D3 Is doctrine important? (Very important)
C4 Is there a Christian (?) and religious unity being promoted now?
C5 How do we avoid the wrong kind of unity?
C6 In , , and say the families were divided by their languages, yet says that all were of one language. How do we reconcile these apparent contradictions?
D1 Genesis 10 is a summary and Genesis 11 is the details.
D2 Genesis 10 tells us how the nations spread and came about. The reason they spread is in Genesis 11. After reading Genesis 10, one might ask how and why did all these people scatter? Genesis 11 has the answer.
B5
C1 They traveled east. Looking at the map, Shinar (Babylon area on the Mesopotamian plain) was about straight south. How do we account for this?
C2 They traveled east first, maybe to the Caspian Sea, then sough to the Zagros Mountains, then east to Shinar.
B6
C1 What is the significance of "Come" ("Go to" in KJV)?
C2 What is pitch (KJV)? It is bitumen, a tar that is sticky or black colored.
C3 What are they trying to do anyway?
D1 Defy God by building this tower.
D2 Making it waterproof.
D3 Not wanting to spread over the face of the earth as God wished. God is King!!!!
C4 What is their motivation for building this building? (Rebellion and arrogance).
C5 What was the tower to be used for? Some suggestions are
D1 Tower may have been used for astronomy and/or astrology.
D2 Tower may be a statement that it is higher than flood waters and is waterproof (brick and tar).
D3 Tower may be a place for the "gods" to come down.
C6 Why did they want to make a name for themselves?
D1 Be famous
D2 Pride
C7 What seems to be their greatest fear? (To be separated). Yet, what happened?
C8 When we fight God, who wins?
C9 Whose plans are these? ("...let us make..."). What plans should we be attentive to?
C10 Sons of man or humankind literally is sons of Adam.
B7
C1 How could Yahweh come down? Is He weak and could not have seen and known from heaven?
C2 What did He see?
C3 Couldn't He have seen this from heaven?
C4 What is wrong with people's heart? (Sin, here specifically pride).
C5 Where would other "gods" come from? (evil spirits)
B8
C1 What is the meaning of Yahweh's word "...nothing will be impossible for them?" Does this speak of a liberated free will?
C2 Is there selfishness and self-pleasing in the human race? What can we do about it?
C3 Does God hate?
D1 There are six things Yahweh hates, and seven things are abominations of his soul: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a devising heart, plans of deception, feet that hurry to run to evil, (, LEB)
D2 The devising of foolishness is sin, And the scoffer is an abomination to men. (, NKJV)
D3 ...slanderers, haters of God, insolent men, proud, braggarts, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, (, EMTV)
B9
C1 Note the 3 times "let us" is mentioned.
D1 Then they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. (, NKJV)
D2 And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." (, NKJV)
D3 "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." (, NKJV)
C2 Note the word confuse, confound, etc. The Hebrew word is בּלל bâlal baw-lal' and means mix thus here confuse.
C3 What are the three main personages related to Babylon?
D1 Nimrod-Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD." And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city). (, NKJV)
D2 Nebuchadnezzar-Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down. (, NKJV)
D3 Beast of the book of Revelation-Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. (, NKJV) and throughout Revelation. This is the anti-Christ.
C4 Do things happen to us that return us to God's ways?
C5 Are all trials in our lives chastening from God?
D1 Sometimes it is.
D2 Sometimes it is the effect from a fallen word (most sickness or accidents).
D3 Sometimes it is our own stupidity and bad decisions. We cannot blame God for our bad decisions and choices. What guide do we have to avoid bad decisions?
C6 Can God's plan be thwarted? Does sin thwart God's plan?
C7 How can we seek God and His Kingdom?
B10
C1 Whose plan happened? God's plan to spread out over the earth or these people's plan to stay in one place?
C2 What is God's plan and way of living for Christians?
B11 the summary.
B12 How do we serve God?
C1 What was satan's problem? Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.' " (, NKJV). Is this good advice for us?
C2 Can we serve two masters? "You cannot be a slave of two masters; you will hate one and love the other; you will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (, GNB92). How does this apply to those who teach "when you send in your seed faith, God will make you rich."
C3 Whom did Paul, the Apostle, serve? For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong, whom also I serve, (, EMTV)
C4 It comes down to we serve God by obeying the rules of the New Testament.
B13 Are we serving God?
B14 Noah served God. What happened to his descendants? How can we avoid this fallen situation from happening with our children/grandchildren?
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