This article is part of a series of articles that
resulted from my time preaching through the book of Genesis. The commentary on
the passage is my own, resulting from hours of research and exegetical study.
It is my intent to draw a biblical theology chapter by chapter through the book
of Genesis that places the events of the narratives into the broad picture of
the entire Bible, demonstrating the progressiveness of theology and the
sufficiency of every Word of Scripture. It is my prayer that these articles are
helpful to those seeking a better understanding of the book of Genesis and of
the Bible as a whole. The sermon series and other resources can be found at www.fbcroxana.com.
In Genesis
3, Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, bringing the curse of sin and its fruits
into the world. God was gracious to promise a Redeemer who would come to crush
the head of the serpent and deal with the sin problem. The depravity of man was
shown to be a massive problem that evoked God’s righteous judgment when God
wiped out all of the earth in the Flood except for eight people who were
righteous in His eyes. As these eight repopulated the earth, Genesis 10
highlighted the fact that people were spreading out over the earth into
isolated people groups, leaving the reader to wonder how the Seed of the woman,
the Redeemer, will be found when He appears. Chapter 11 presents another aspect
to this problem: the language barrier.
1 Now the whole earth used the
same language and the same words. 2 It came about as they
journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled
there. 3 They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks
and burn them thoroughly.” And
they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. 4 They
said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us
make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face
of the whole earth.”
The people did not obey the LORD’s command to spread out over the
entire earth, but grouped themselves together and built a city. In this city,
they also built a tower that would reach high into the sky. The point of this
was to make a name for themselves instead of being scattered throughout the
earth. In defiance against God, they wanted to establish their own name over
His.
5 The Lord
came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 The
Lord said, “Behold, they are one
people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do,
and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.
Just as in Genesis 6, the LORD comes to observe what the people were
doing. He observed that the people, acting in concert, were capable of great
evil. At this time, all the people spoke the same language and dialect (v.1 –
same words). So God said,
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 the whole earth; and they
stopped building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called
Babel, because there the Lord
confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face
of the whole earth.
God, in an inter-Trinitarian dialogue (“let Us”), decided to confuse
the language of the people so that they could no longer act in concert. In
doing so, God scattered them throughout the earth, just as He had commanded
them to do. So the people spread out according to their families, tribes, and
nations. According to Genesis 10, this occurred during the days of Peleg.
This also creates another problem for the Seed promise of Genesis 3:15.
God promised that the Seed of the woman would come and crush the serpents head,
taking care of the sin problem that Adam and Eve had brought into the world.
Genesis 10 introduced the problem of the people multiplying exceedingly and
spreading out over the earth, and now Genesis 11 amplifies the problem, for the
people groups cannot even understand one another. The problem is not simply
finding the Messiah in a sea of people spread out over the entire earth. The
problem is intensified by the confusion of languages, for how will the peoples
communicate to one another when the Messiah is found? The remainder of the book
of Genesis (and the Old Testament) begins to answer this question.
To answer the question of how the Messiah will be found in a world full
of people who are separated by language and geography, Moses narrows our attention
to one family.
10 These are the records of the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred
years old, and became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood; 11 and
Shem lived five hundred years after he became the father of Arpachshad, and he
had other sons and daughters.
12 Arpachshad lived thirty-five years,
and became the father of Shelah; 13 and Arpachshad lived four
hundred and three years after he became the father of Shelah, and he had other sons and daughters.
14 Shelah lived thirty years, and
became the father of Eber; 15 and Shelah lived four hundred and
three years after he became the father of Eber, and he had other sons and daughters.
16 Eber lived thirty-four years, and
became the father of Peleg; 17 and Eber lived four hundred and
thirty years after he became the father of Peleg, and he had other sons and daughters.
18 Peleg lived thirty years, and became
the father of Reu; 19 and Peleg lived two hundred and nine
years after he became the father of Reu, and he had other sons and daughters.
20 Reu lived thirty-two years, and
became the father of Serug; 21 and Reu lived two hundred and
seven years after he became the father of Serug, and he had other sons and daughters.
22 Serug lived thirty years, and became
the father of Nahor; 23 and Serug lived two hundred years after
he became the father of Nahor, and he had other sons and daughters.
24 Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and
became the father of Terah; 25 and Nahor lived one hundred and
nineteen years after he became the father of Terah, and he had other sons and daughters.
26 Terah lived seventy years, and
became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
Now we meet Abram, who was descended from Shem. What is notable about
this genealogy is that Abram was born when all of his ancestors in this list
were alive. Shem would have been 390 years old when Abram was born. In fact,
according to this genealogy, Shem would have outlived Abram by 35 years. Not only
that, but Abram would have been 60 years old when Noah died!
Whether it was genetic or a result of the Post-Flood atmosphere,
lifespans decreased dramatically, so that by the end of the list, the lifespans
are only around 200 years. Abram himself only lived 175 years. By the time of
Moses, the expected lifespan was between 70 and 80 years (Psa 90:10).
27 Now these are the records of the generations of
Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran; and Haran became the
father of Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father
Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 Abram
and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and
the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of
Milcah and Iscah. 30 Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Here we are introduced to characters that will be important to the
upcoming narratives. Out of all the masses of people on the earth, the
Scripture now narrows down to the family of Terah.
31 Terah took Abram his son, and Lot
the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s
wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the
land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and settled there. 32 The
days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.
It is recorded here very simply that Terah had plans to travel to the
land of Canaan, but stopped for some time in Haran, which was about halfway on
their journey. Terah died there in Haran.
Conclusion
Now the focus will be on Abram, who will receive a covenant from God to
receive a kingdom: land, people, and kings. Most importantly, the promised Seed
would come through the line of Abram to one day reign over the people in the
land and bless the whole earth. Of course, it must be apparent that before He
could take the throne, the Seed would have to deal with the sin problem. He did
this when He came, being born of a virgin, and dying on the cross at the hands
of godless men in order to pay the penalty of sins and make full atonement for
all those who believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins. This, of course, is
Jesus the Son of God. To all those who trust in Jesus Christ, He gives eternal
life and citizenship in His kingdom which is to come.
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