Yet in doing so, they had directly violated what God had commanded to Noah and his sons just two chapters earlier in Genesis 9:1. They formed a city such that a vibrant and thriving economy could develop. They journeyed together to the plain in Shinar and decided to settle there. 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." At first read, it wouldn’t appear that these people did anything wrong up to this point. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. Verses 1-3 says, "Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. ![]() We must look at what the people of ancient times did wrong so that we don’t repeat the sins in our time. This is important because the sins of the people of Babel of old will be repeated throughout history until the very end. It could also be translated Babylon, as in the case of the Babylonian empire which encompassed the region many years later or as in Babylon as symbolized by the evil world empires and forces that have pervaded the earth throughout history and will certainly be in play in the last days (Revelation 14:8,17:5,18:2). Now we should note before we read this passage that Babel was and is a literal location on the earth near the Euphrates River in the Middle East. Genesis 10 records the existence of different languages and nations, and the account of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 refers backward, to explain how and why the languages were split.Genesis 11:1-9 is the account of the Tower of Babel. Is this a contradiction? Did the languages exist prior to the Tower of Babel story? To make sense of this, we need to remember that the life spans were still lengthened during that time ( Genesis 11:10-25) and the genealogies in Genesis 10 cover hundreds of years. Another interesting detail to note: after the flood, the Bible records Noah’s descendants spreading out over the earth “by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations,” but this was recorded in Chapter 10, before the story of the Tower of Babel. For more on the origin of races, please refer to this article. The Bible does not say this, it only says that the languages were confused. Some scholars believe that this incident at the Tower of Babel was also the beginning of the different races of humanity-that is, that God actually created the races when He separated the languages. This encouraged them to split into tribes and settle in other parts of the land, so that God’s original plan to fill the earth would come to pass ( Genesis 11:8-9). He then confused their languages, so that they could not understand one another. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them” ( Genesis 11:6). ![]() ![]() When God saw that the people were creating the Tower of Babel, He said “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. This goal was in direct opposition to one of the first commands God gave man both at creation and after the flood, which was to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” ( Genesis 1:28 9:1). The people said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth” ( Genesis 11:4). The purpose of the Tower of Babel was to reach to heaven. Babel was part of the kingdom of Nimrod, a descendent of Noah ( Genesis 10:10). The Tower of Babel was a structure built by humanity after the flood, in the land of Shinar. What is the Tower of Babel? What happened there? from Compelling Truth
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |