Genesis 11

Genesis 11

Posted on March 2, 2013 by tracijoy

Humanity has once again settled in on the earth. Some have settled on the coast lands, according to chapter 10, but now in chapter 11 we are still with Nimrod’s group. It has been years since the flood, and now, all of a sudden they feel the need to make a name for themselves. There is no mention of strife, or fighting, or wars at this point. Yet for some reason, man feels the need to be seen… to be recognized for something. So they decide to build this tower…. to reach the heavens.  I wonder… is it just instilled within the fallen human spirit to want to be noticed?  To be better at something than someone else? To be like God? It happened in the garden… and now it’s happening again. 

God recognizes this in us.. and he recognized it in the people building the tower. Pride. Pure and simple. What I find most interesting in the account of the Tower of Babel is God’s reaction. He sees the people banding together… he sees the tower going up… and He says… “Check this out… look what they can accomplish when they join together. NOTHING will be IMPOSSIBLE for them. We need to put a stop to it.” So God says let US go down there and confuse them. And suddenly everyone spoke different languages and they separated from each other and were scattered across the earth. (Some believe a ruined ziggurat that sits along the banks of the Euphrates river is the remnant of the original Tower of Babel, while other archaeologists and historians state that the Tower had to be built in the Upper Khabur River triangle where Syria is today.)

It’s amazing what God says is possible in unity. Ponder that. Not everyone building the tower was the architect. Not everyone carried the bricks to the top. Not everyone mixed the sand and tar and made the bricks. They united together for one common purpose… each one with a different job that was as important as the other.




We need to learn from this in the Kingdom of God. The building of the tower was done in pride and arrogance… but God noted that anything the people united to do together COULD BE DONE. Imagine the great things that could be done for the Kingdom if we joined together for the purpose of winning souls, helping the poor, the brokenhearted… and just encouraging each other in the Lord. People would WANT to join us. If we grouped together for JESUS…. nothing would be impossible to us.

So God scatters the people… and life moves on. Years come and go and we have another dry genealogy list. At least now, in this list, the writer finds it appropriate to say that “so and so had sons AND daughters.” And since Eve… it’s the first time another woman is mentioned in the Bible… Sarai. In verse 26 we are introduced to our patriarch, Abram. And in verse 29 Abram takes a wife… Sarai.  And Terah, Abram’s dad, and Lot, Abram’s nephew, along with Abram and Sarai leave their homeland of UR… and relocate to Canaan. They made it halfway and settled in Haran.

(worldreligions.psu.edu)

A lot of history needs to be acknowledged here. Abram grew up in the land of Ur, which is known for its worship of the moon god. Today, the land of Ur is located in Iraq, and the ziggurat still stands in southern Iraq. It was uncovered by archaeologists in the 1920′s. When Abram and his family moved on to Haran, it was also a place of idol worship. He was surrounded by idol worship…. was he an idol worshipper himself before he was called?? If you look carefully at the dry stuff (genealogy) you will see that Abram was in alive when those who had been close to God were. He was a close descendent of Noah, and was 58 when Noah died. Although he was surrounded with idol worship… he must have also heard stories of the ONE true God… a fact that is pivotal to the next chapter.