[Music] so approximately a hundred years after the flood the Tower of Babel occurred so a 100 Years After the flood we've got these people wanting to build this Tower in Genesis 11 so the question I have to you was Noah still [Music] alive well for those of you who are visiting for the first time let me kind of explain how we do things on Wednesday nights and what we're doing Wednesday nights are more of a Bible study than they are a church service on Wednesday nights we go more in depth and we spend more time on the subject that we're studying than we do on a Sunday morning in fact most of the time we go through a book of the Bible verse by verse in the last 22 years we've been through the book of Ephesians verse by verse the Book of James the book of Jude the Book of Revelation and the Book of Ecclesiastes and currently we are studying the Book of Genesis but we're not going through it verse by verse because it would take way too long in fact if I were to guess I would say it would take about 5 to six years to go through the Book of Genesis uh verse by verse in fact I had been saying 10 and I thought you know I just shouldn't be speaking evangelically I should be able to say that so I thought about that and I kind of estimated it would take about four weeks to go through each chapter of course there's 50 chapters in The Book of Genesis so we're talking about 200 weeks so if you take out for vacations and holidays and just times you would take a break break it would probably take 5 to six years to get through the Book of Genesis and it would be worth it but there's so many other things to teach that I thought you know let's not do it verse by verse originally I thought we could do it in 12 weeks we found out that wasn't the case so what we're doing is we are studying the four major events in Genesis and the four main characters the four major events are Creation The Fall the flood and the Tower of Babel the four major characters are of course Abraham Isaac Jacob and Joseph now we finished the first three major events in the Book of Genesis which of course again the creation the fall the flood and now we're ready to study the fourth major event which is the Tower of Babel so if you would turn with me to the Book of Genesis chapter 11 we're going to read verses 1-9 and even though it looks like we're skipping chapter 10 you're going to find out tonight we're not sorry the teacher and me just can't do it so let's read Genesis 11: 1-9 now the whole world had one language in a common speech as men moved Eastward they found a plane in Shar and settled there they said to each other come let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly they used brick instead of stone and tar for Mortar then they said come let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole Earth but the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building the Lord said if as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them come let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other so the Lord scattered them from there over all the Earth and they stopped building the city that is why it was called Babel because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth now look back at verse number one and let's read that again now the whole world had one language and a common speech in other words a common dialect does everyone know what I mean by dialect dialect is a regional or social variation of language distinguished by pronunciation grammar or vocabulary I'm telling you those in in Louisiana speak a whole different dialect it's supposed to be English down there but how many of you know it's not English it's a different dialect in fact it's kind of interesting but I had a class with a person who was from Louisiana when I was going to college and I kept looking back trying to find out because I sat close to the front this is after I got serious about school work got saved and then got serious you know how that is so I was sitting in the front and there was a person in the back that was speaking and I thought my gosh does that guy have cotton in his mouth and the and the figures of speech that he used and the way he pronounced words I couldn't believe it so I would look back there and I never could find it everyone looked normal and then one day you know me I'm just not shy he was speaking I just turned around and had to see who it was and the guy was from Louisiana I had never heard someone speak that way even Alan Le did not speak that way now it's kind of interesting if Su samsel goes back to New Jersey and she comes back after spending two or three weeks there she sounds like she's from a foreign country it is a different dialect I mean they pronounce it different the grammar is different it's all different but I want you to notice what it's saying here in Genesis chapter 1 verse number one says now the whole world had one language and one common speech in other words a common dialect they all pronounced the words the same they all used the same grammar they had the same vocabulary now this is one of those verses that liberals like to point to and state that the Bible contradicts itself and the reason they say that is because in Genesis chap 10 we're told not once but three times that mankind already possessed multiple languages look with me if you would in the Book of Genesis chap 10 let's look at verse number five it says from these the maritime people spread out into their territories by their Clans within their natur Nations each with its own language now look at verse 20 these are the sons of ham by their Clans and languages in their territories and Nations now notice they're separating them by their Clans and they're separating them by their languages in their territories and Nations and finally look at verse 31 these are the sons of Shem by their Clans and languages in their territories and Nations so liberals love to point to Genesis 11 verse number one and say that the Bible contradicts itself and not just from book to book but from chapter to chapter in the same book because in Genesis chapter 10 it tells us that there were multiple languages and then we move on to Genesis 11 verse number one and it says the whole world had the very same language and the Very same dialect but people that couldn't be further from the truth the problem is the Liberals are ignorant of ancient Middle Eastern culture and let me explain why I say that I'm going to take a little bit of time here in Genesis chapter 9 vers 18 and 19 we're told that every human being on the Earth today is a direct descendant of Noah look with me if you would in Genesis chapter 9 let's read verses 18 and 19 hopefully you brought your Bibles and you can start marking it up and taking notes in the margin says the sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were sham ham and japheth ham is the father of Canaan from these three sons of Noah came all the people who now populate the earth now did you get that from these three sons of Noah came all the people who now populate the Earth Earth so the obvious question is where did all the different nations and different languages come from if we all came from Noah and his three sons shouldn't we all be speaking the same language maybe a different dialect but the same language wouldn't you think that and shouldn't our cultures be more similar than what they are well of course they should be now let me blow your mind because I know the majority of you do not like genealogies I am funny funny weird not funny haha I am funny weird because I like genealogies in fact let me go further I love genealogies but the reason I love genealogies is because there is so much information that if you don't study the genealogies you don't understand the Bible plain and simple I'll go a little bit further I believe that if a pastor does not understand the genealogies in the Old Testament they probably shouldn't be a Pastor that's how much information is in the genealogies so let me blow your mind did you know that Noah and his three sons were still living when all of these different languages in different nations came into existence did you know that it's true and I'm going to prove it to you how long did Noah live after the flood anyone how long did he live after the flood take a guess I can't hear you 8 800 years no 400 years getting closer 350 years look at Genesis chter 9: 28 and 29 and Noah lived After the flood 350 years there's a direct answer we don't even have to calculate it it tells us it states it very plainly Noah lived After the flood 350 years years and all the days of Noah were 950 years and he died so he lived for 950 years 350 Years After the flood and if you remember he was 600 years old when the flood began so we know all of that information now let's take a quick look at the genealogy of sham one of Noah's three sons who were the three sons of Noah again japheth ham sham so what I want to do is I want to look at the genealogy of Shem it's going to go into more depth in fact it's going to use the very same pattern as the genealogy of Noah in Genesis chapter 5 and the reason it's going to use the very same pattern is because it's going to trace the genealogy from sham to Abraham now remember we don't really care about the other parts or branches of the family tree we're only concerned when we were going from Adam to Noah now we're going to to be concerned from Noah to Abraham now there is a place because we want to know the history of the Nations and actually Genesis chapter 10 is called the table of the Nations we know where all of the nations came from and the reason we know that is because of the Bible here's what's interesting and even those who do not believe in the Bible are blown away when they study Genesis chap 10 and they study all of the different nations of the world because you can go back then and this is considered to be quote prehistory before things were actually written down we know where the nations came from and when they take a look at that they go oh my gosh that is so accurate now I'm getting off but let's take a quick look at the genealogy of sham who is one of Noah's three sons and as we read his genealogy I want you to follow along with the chart that's going to be on the back wall how many of you remember this chart it is a great great chart and what we're going to do is we're going to skip let me turn this around Adam to Noah because we've already gone through that here's where Adam died now remember when the flood occurred the flood occurred in the year what 1,656 when Noah was 600 years old here is Noah he was born 1,56 right before Adam died or right after Adam died and here he is and then we know Noah was 600 years old when the flood began actually the flood occurred 1,656 years after Adam was created we know that specifically because Genesis chapter 5 tells us in the genealogies so let's start reading in Genesis chapter 11 we're going to re we're going to read verses 10 through 11 now this is not the genealogy of Abraham that I talked about Sunday we'll study that when we get to Abraham very interesting I just want to show you where the different nations came from and the different languages and why the story of the Tower of Babel is so important all right so let's read verses 10 through 11 this is the account of Shem two years after the flood when sham was a hundred years old now you got to remember they're not going to count the flood they're going to count it when the flood began so Shem was 98 years old when he entered the bark 2 years after the flood he has arax sad so when sham was 100 years old he became the father of arax sad now if you notice on this it says something a little bit different it says our Pac shat but the reason it does is because it's going after the King James version this is probably a more literal translation that I'm using so when I say our facts sad we're talking about the same person but I want you to notice sham was 100 years old see this right here 100 he was a hundred years old when he had sham so sham was born in the year 1,658 two years after the flood occurred and after he became the father of our faad sham lived get this 500 years and he had other Sons and Daughters lots of sons and daughters but we're not interested in those branches of the family tree because we're only interested in tracing it to Abraham right we found out when we were tracing from Adam and he had Seth Adam had a lot more children a lot more Sons than just Seth why were we only interested in Seth because we were only interested in tracing it to Noah to the flood the person who's going to be saved we're going to only be interested in now tra from Noah to Abraham because through Abraham all of the Nations on the Earth are going to be blessed through Abraham the Messiah is going to come everyone with me but we know about when the Tower of Babel occurred how many of you didn't know that wow so let's keep going now look at verses 12 and 13 up on the screens when arax had lived 35 years he became the father of Shea so let's trace this down we've got sham when sham was hundred years old he had arax at when ARA fact s can you see that back there you guys can't I'm sorry but when he was 35 years old he had Sheila and after he became the father of Sheila ourfa had lived 403 years and he had other Sons and Daughters how many sons and daughters lots of sons and daughters but we're not interested in their family tree or that branch of the family tree because we're only interested in tracing it to Abraham now look at verses 14 and 15 when Sheila had lived 30 years so we're able to calculate all of these years in what year it was from the time Adam was created I mean he's telling us how old he was when he had this son how long he lived and when he died and when this son was born he lived this long before he had this son and this long afterwards and when he died so we're getting all of this information now let's read verses 16- 17 when Eber had lived 34 years he became the father of pelic Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters so now we come down all the way this is Eber Eber was was 34 years old when he had Pelle when was peleg born in the year 1,757 after Adam was created 1,757 years after Adam was created that's how specific the Bible is that's pretty specific isn't it now I'm going to stop at pelic why am I going to stop at pelig does anyone know we're going to stop at pelig because most scholars believe that the story of the Tower of Babel occurred right before he was born next week we'll we'll find out what the atmology of the word Pelle is and we're going to find out that he was named Pelle because of the Tower of Babel and the events that occurred at that time so we know that somewhere around the time that pelig was born the Tower of Babel occurred but I want you to notice when he was born he was born in the year 1,757 after Adam was created now the flood occurred in what year I've already told you 1,656 write that down the flood occurred in the year 1,656 after Adam was created now later on as we're studying and we're getting to Joseph we're going to turn around because the Bible is Reckoning time from the day that Adam was created but we don't do that today we reckon time from the time of Christ and we go backwards so they go from Adam forwards and we go backwards but what we're going to be able to do is we're going to be able to come to a common event see what the date is and we can go all the way out and find out when Adam was created wow did you know that we can do that because the Bible is that specific and now we're finding out through archaeology everything that the Bible says can be verified very interesting but the FL flood occurred in 1,656 peleg was born in 1,757 subtract 1,656 from 1,757 and what did you get oh come on 101 did everyone get 101 you're a math professor John what'd you get 101 so approximately a hundred years after the flood the Tower of Babel occurred so a hundred years after the flood we've got these people wanting to build this Tower in Genesis chap 11 so the question I have to you was Noah still alive was he there to see the Tower of Babel being built yes how do we know that because Noah lived 350 Years After the flood and the Tower of Babel occurred approximately 100 Years After the flood so he lived until the year 2006 so was sham arfad Sheila and EBA Eber how's that actually Hebrew comes from the word Eber but that's another story and Eber were they still alive yes yes yes and yes they were all alive wow now we don't know if japheth and ham who were the other two sons of Noah were still alive because we're not told how long they live why were we not told how long they live because in Genesis chapter 10 we're getting a list of the Nations a table of the Nations and where they went and settled but we're not given the times why because we're not interested in that Branch or those branches of the family tree they don't go to Abraham but we are interested in the Nations they create so we don't know if japheth and ham were still alive because we're not told how long they lived but we assume that they live just as long as shim did as well as their children their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren Etc but here's my point by the third generation after Noah we are told that there are different nations in different languages in other words by the time that japheth had grandsons there were multiple languages on the Earth but were also told that Noah and his three sons are still alive at that time so how could you have different nations in different languages just 100 years after the earth I I mean just after the flood how could you do that how could you have different nations and different languages after just 100 years from the flood well that's why the story of the Tower of Babel is inserted it's inserted to explain why there were different nations and different languages in such a short time and how they came into existence if we can trace everyone back to Noah and we see these three sons and we see all of us as being descendants of these three sons and we think well why do we have all of these different languages and why are our cultures so different well that's a good question but I have a better question if the Tower of Babel occurred just a 100 Years After the flood somewhere in there why do we have different nations and different languages the Bible tells us so it inserts the story of the Tower of Babel now in our Western culture we don't recognize why the Tower of Babel or the story of the Tower of Babel was inserted because there was no transitional statement and without a transitional statement we have a hard time following the storyline why because it's a cultural thing you see in our Western Civilization we use transitional statements to help people follow the train of thought in other words we use Segways does everyone understand what I mean by Segways a segue in communication is a transitional statement to help you make a smooth transition from one subject to another so you can follow a person's train of thought man we have a hard time with the conversations that women have because they don't use sigs they'll be talking about one thing and immediately go to to something else a totally different subject and every woman in the room understands that and men are lost I thought we were talking about this keep up with us see women are a lot like the Middle Eastern culture they don't use Segways but let me tell you as a pastor one of the hardest things that I have to do in my sermons has come up with Segways to be able to transition from one point to the next point so you don't lose my train of thought or or so that you can follow my train of thought so that we can get to the point and everyone goes oh I understand so sometimes I'll come in and I'll tell Lisa Lisa this is the point I'm making and this is the point I'm making I'm having a hard time with a segue here with a transitional statement how can I segue from this to this and so she'll give me an example and she'll say you could say this and rarely do I take it for some reason but it Spurs my mind to thinking is that not true and she'll and I'll do the same thing but I understand that if I don't segue from one subject or one point to the next Point most of you are not going to fall follow my train of thought so by the time I get to the end you don't understand what I'm talking about and a good speaker has the ability to do that and we do that in our Western culture but in the ancient Middle East culture tra transitional statements were rarely used they didn't use Segways now here's what's sad they just expected you to be smart enough to follow along they expected you to be able to connect the dots and to follow the natural train of thought they expected you to be smart enough to ask the obvious question which in this case is what what is the natural question if you study the genealogies which obviously none of you do because I'm weird right I'm funny weird not funny haha because I like genealogies but because you don't study the genealogies you had no idea when the flood occurred you had no idea when the Tower of Babel occurred and as a result of that you didn't know what question to ask but in the Middle East because they're all concerned about genealogies they would have followed that and they would have calculated everything out and they would have realized oh my gosh when I come to the table of nations in Genesis chapter 10 and I see 70 different nations and they all had their own language and I'm going wait a minute this just occurred a hundred years after the flood the obvious question is what it's this why and how did different nations and different languages come into existence in such a short amount of time and then they expected you to recognize that a story is being inserted to answer that question now how many of you would have never done that you wouldn't have even known to ask that question would you have you thought that thousands of years had passed from the flood to the Tower of Bab and it just kind of naturally evolved into different nations until you start looking one day and you go wait a minute Jews think that Adam was created around 404 BC and roughly Abraham's time was about 2,000 and they're saying the flood's about 1,656 in the T oh my gosh where did all these nations come from and all these different languages but the reason we never think of that is because of our culture we don't study genealogies it's not important to us and we use transitional statements if it's important enough to make a point it's important enough to put a segue from one point to the next so everyone can follow the train of thought that's how we are in our Western Civilization isn't it but they're not like that so when you're reading the Bible it's kind of like man they just through the story in there in Genesis 11 but they didn't now people this is why liberal theologians really frustrate me because I go to Genesis 11 verse number one and this says the world all had one language and one common speech one common dialect and then they go look the Bible contradicts itself in Genesis chap 10 it says three times not once but three times that there were multiple languages and then it comes back here I see it really frustrates me because they're ignorant of ancient Middle East culture they understand when they give the table of Nations and say all this the first obvious questions is is going to be where do these nations come from and why do you have all these different languages therefore you need to understand so let's insert the story so you'll understand but they're ignorant of ancient Middle East culture and I'll be honest with you I have a hard time with ignorance not ignorance in general people I'm ignorant when it comes to music there's a lot of things I'm ignorant about I am really ignorant when it comes to music right honey but what if I didn't think I was ignorant when it comes to music and I wrote a book now would that really frustrate you musicians that someone as ignorant as me concerning music is writing a book on music well that's why I'm so frustrated with liberal theologians and some of the worst ones are the ones that come from Harvard if they got a degree in theology from Harvard don't read their books they're idiots because they learned about philosophy and comparative religion and the historical Jesus which is not what you think it means and they never really study the Bible they don't know what the Bible says and as a result of that they come in and it's a bunch of gobbledygook and they don't understand the Bible never have even studied the Bible so someone like me who studies the Bible reads their books and goes oh my gosh that's so frustrating you don't even know anything about the Bible and here you're spouting off just like you if you're in your field and you understand your field and someone is not an expert in your field but they think they are and they write a book it frustrates you well it frustrates me to see these liberal theologians do this because your kids go to college and these liberal theologians who have a degree in theology from a liberal School are teaching classes like comparative religion philosophy and get this Humanities so every one of your kids has to take a Humanities class and when they take this Humanity class CL this liberal professor gets up and he starts spouting off about how the Bible contradicts itself and it shows something like this and usually this is one of the ones they use Genesis 11 verse number one and then they go let me just show you even from one chapter to the next they contradict each other and the kids don't understand this because of course we're brought up in western civilization we don't understand that they didn't use Segways they just expected you to know that if we State this that there's different languages the obvious question is well how did the different languages come into being okay let's tell you the story here's the story so the kids go and they go you know what the Bible it does contradict itself and they get out of church they have a crisis of Faith all because you have idiots making stupid statements about the Bible and they have a masters or doctorate behind their name that does not mean they understand the Bible people let me hear an amen so the whole reason the story of the Tower of baby is in the Bible is to explain why there are different nations in different languages so soon after the flood that's the first thing you need to know before you ever study the Tower of Babel the second thing you need to know is who instigated the building of the Tower of Babel and why you see to understand the story of the Tower of Babel you have to understand the person behind the story if you don't understand the person behind the story the Tower of Babel makes no sense not only that as we begin to go through the New Testament it'll keep referring ref to the same person and we don't understand why you see if you don't understand the Old Testament you're going to miss out a lot of things in the New Testament so to understand the story of the Tower of Babel you have to understand the person behind it and who's the person behind the Tower of Babel most of you know starts with an N his name is Nimrod yes the the grandson of ham so let's talk about Nimrod as I said nimrod was the grandson of ham we'll find out why that's important next week but that is very important you didn't think genealogies were important they're very important we'll explain why and how it affected him so greatly turn to Genesis chapter 10 verse number six we're going to jump down to verses 8 through 10 after we read verse 6 says the sons of ham Kush MRA put in Canaan now jump down to verses 8-10 Kush was the father of nimrod now Nimrod is the only person in this table of Nations that they're really going to elaborate on that means he's very important Kush was the father of nimrod who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth he was a mighty Hunter before the Lord that is why it is said like Nimrod a mighty Hunter before the Lord the first Sinners of his kingdom very important were Babylon Eric aad and Kaa in shinar now let me explain the atmology of the name Nimrod Nimrod is translated or should I say and I should say transliterated from the Hebrew word Nimrod and it literally means Rebellion or to Rebel now I want you to notice that Nimrod is referred to as mighty three times he was a mighty warrior and twice he's referred to as a mighty Hunter now the word mighty is translated from the Hebrew word Gabor Gabor means one who rules with violence or a tyrant who kills without mercy so verse number eight is saying that Nimrod was a warrior who ruled with violence he was a hunter who killed without Mercy now the word Hunter does not mean that he was hunting wild game now if he wasn't hunting wild game what was he hunting men Nimrod was a hunter of men you see verse number n is elaborating on verse 8 and you don't really understand that unless you're reading it through the Hebrew Nimrod was a mighty warrior he hunted men that's why those two verses are put together that's what those two verses are telling you and that's how he became a king over a kingdom he conquered people how many of you saw the movie Conan with Arnold Schwarzenegger do you remember the beginning of it man they came into this city and they just plundered when that was literally the way Nimrod was now notice in verse eight that it says he was a mighty Hunter before the Lord now most of us read that and we go oh he was a good man no he wasn't underline the word before the word before is translated from the Hebrew word paim and it implies hostility so what this is saying is that Nimrod was a violent man he was a man who hunted other men and he killed without mercy and he was in Rebellion to God openly hostile towards God and His laws now remember the noahide laws the noahide one of the noahide laws in fact it's the seventh one says if any man takes another person's life his life is to be taken but Nimrod rebelled against that and he hunted men and because he was such a mighty warrior they were afraid of him they submitted to him people didn't rise up against him and he was very proud that he hunted men and he was able because of his his force and his power to conquer these cities and bring them underneath his rule just a hundred years after the flood now I want you to notice where his kingdom was look in verse number 10 we're still in Genesis chapter 10 remember we're looking at the table of the Nations the first siners of his kingdom were Babylon now what does it mean first cers because this was the first Kingdom that he actually set up he took these cities he put them together in their mind and he continued to go out and Conquer he had this vision of having a first world Empire does that Mak sense but the first centers of his kingdom were Babylon Eric a aad andca in shinar now I want you to notice where his kingdom was it was in the land of Shar which was where the Tower of Babylon was built turn to Genesis 11 let's read verses 1 and two these are the first two verses of the story of the Tower of Babel and the whole earth was of one language and of one speech one dialect and it came to pass as they journeyed from the East that they found a plane in the land of Shar and they dwelt there these two verses I told you were the beginning of the story the Tower of Babel so the land of Sho was where the Tower of Babel was being built and the King over that kingdom was Nimrod so he's the one who's behind the Tower of Babylon is everyone with me good now we don't have time to study the story of the Tower of Babel tonight so I'm not going to get into that we'll do that next week I only got five minutes so what I want to do in the next five minutes is I want to wrap this up and I want to explain a few more things and then we'll finish two minutes early Scholars refer to Genesis chapter 10 as the table of Nations and the reason they do that is because it gives a broad history of the different nations and where they migrated to and how they are related to each other so let's take a look at the map on the back wall and let me just kind of explain this can we put the map there it is this is the Mediterranean Sea notice it says that this is the Red Sea this is the Gulf of okaba in fact that's a beautiful place in fact that's the Sinai Peninsula this is the Red Sea this is the sea that the children of Israel this is Egypt right here they crossed over the Red Sea they went to Mount Si and that's about right down in here and then if you ever go to Egypt with me we'll go to Mount Si then we'll sail up the Gulf of Alaba the most clear waters you've ever seen in fact I'd like to take a day off and just scuba dive there it's one of the best places the Gulf of Vall in the Red Sea one of the best placees have you scuba dived there it's just gorgeous you've been there it it it is just absolutely stunning I've been to the Caribbean I've scuba dived in the Caribbean uh supposed to be great there let me tell you it's nothing like the Red Sea it's nothing like the Gulf of it's just unbelievable that's the only way I can explain it and they're just such a people that they literate but anyways sorry I shouldn't have said that should I but anyways here's what I want to show you chapter 10 tells us that Noah had three sons and then it begins to list all of the sons that came from them and these created 70 Nations so what you actually had was see ham the sons of ham migrated to Africa so those from Africa can take themselves directly back to Noah through ham japheth came in and this is japheth right here he literally from up to Russia all the way over to Europe so the majority of us can trace Our Roots all the way back to japheth and then to Noah does that make sense because most of us came from that European ancestry and then you had sham sham is the is the son that's going to trace his genealogy down to Abraham sham is over here the Arabic people so what's going to take place is from sham and the reason we call this the Orient is because sham came down and settled in this this uh Place through here that we consider to be the Orient and over towards China so there's a common descent there they can trace their Roots all the way back to Shem and so when you go over to Israel in the Middle East it's considered to be part of the Orient and what's interesting is those who study anthropology those who study that will go back and they go that is remarkably close and they can see how all of these people took their uh characteristics all of these traits that we have and you can trace it all the way back and you go wait a minute it comes back to looks like three different people to one and we're getting this so in chapter 11 the first nine verses we have the Tower of Babel to explain the whole purpose of the story is to explain how the different nations and different languages came into existence in such a short time after that story and the only way it could happen is a miraculous work and after that story beginning in verse 10 of chapter 11 we then have the genealogy of sham which takes us to Abraham so we will know exactly when Abraham was born in relationship to when Adam was created the Bible is very specific so in the first 11 chapters of Genesis we're going to cover a period of about 2,000 years Adam to Abraham wow now to cover the next 2,000 years from Abraham to Jesus it's going to take the rest of the Book of Genesis plus 38 more books and the Old Testament only has 39 books so in the first 11 chapters we covered a period of 2,000 years we looked at all of the major events and the whole purpose of going through these major events is to get us to one person Abraham because through Abraham we're going to see the seat of the woman that was promised at the fall fulfilled and we're going to see all of the Nations on the earth very important we're going to trace it back all the way to Genesis chapter 10 and say all of the nations of the Earth are going to be blessed through this one man because he obeyed God in a time that was very very Unholy in a time that had been affected by Nimrod in a time where God literally had to come in and confuse the languages and because he confused the languages it scattered the people and here's what's interesting and I might Del into this if I have time that's why archaeologists go back and they go we don't understand this there's the stone age now we want to say the Stone Age was millions of years ago but when we start going under the layers we get back from these layers Tails if if you're into archaeology you'll see these places taals and they go from one layer to the next and they get to this place and they say it's a stone age and they go well it doesn't look that far back but the reason it doesn't is because when he scatters them they can't speak all of a sudden all of the other people who had these skills they're without them so the first thing they have to do when they scatter among each other because they can't communicate and it becomes very um everyone's very fearful so they stay in their own Clans and they begin to migrate and go and then they have to actually learn these things on their own so it's almost like starting over and here they are stone age and now Archaeology is going back and they're beginning to see this in the different levels and they're going it wasn't as far back as they want to tell you it was and you know what they're doing now a lot of the archaeologists have turned into the Bible and they're using it as one of their maps to be able to find out what what's happening in fact if you go back to Israel we'll go to a place called Dan we can take a coin that goes all the way back to Abraham and it literally has on there certain inscriptions from the period of the time that the Bible talks of these kings that were around it oh my gosh people exactly what the Bible said and just 50 years ago they were saying the Bible was you have to discredit it doesn't mean anything and now they're coming going uhuh it's right on so anyways next week we're going to actually study the story of the Tower of Babel but now you know why the story is in there and you know who's behind it well hopefully everyone that's here tonight was also here when U we cover Genesis chapter 6 because these two things are tied together so many of the things that we teach are tied together and that's why it's so important for people to come on a regular basis but anyways before we jump right in and begin studying the Tower of Babel let me give you some background information that I believe that you need to know before we start first of all you need to know when the Tower of Babel was being built and most scholars believe at least the credible Scholars that the Tower of Babel occurred shortly before or shortly after Pelle was born and pelig was born in the year 1757 AAC now remember what AAC stands for after Adam was created so we're going to go from the time that Adam was created and they're going to date things from that day so when we talk about years we're talking about years from when Adam was created look in the chart look at the chart if you would on the back wall as I quickly go through the genealogy of Shem in Genesis 11 this is found in Verses 10 through6 this is the account of sham two years after the flood when sham was a hundred years old he became the father of arfaat and so if you remember how to read this what we're doing is we're coming down and we're looking at this age this is when Adam was created that's year number zero he was 130 years old when he had Seth Seth was 105 years old when he had enish so we start going down and looking at the years so we can go all the way and begin to see when each person was born we're also given how long they lived is everyone with me so sham was 100 years old when he became the father of our faat and after he became the father of arf faad shim lived 500 years and he had other Sons and Daughters when ARF faad had lived 35 years he became the father of Sheila is everyone following with me can you take a look at that we're down here too and it says here our Pad but we're going to take the uh better translation our faad we come across here and at this age 1658 we found out that's when he was born he was 35 years old when he had Sheila so hopefully you can follow along with me and after he had become the father of Sheila arax had lived 403 years and had other Sons and Daughters when Sheila had lived 30 years he became the father of Eber and after he became the father of Eber Sheila lived 403 years and he had other Sons and Daughters when Eber had lived 34 years he became the father of pel or pelic now some of you can't see the very bottom but if you could it's pelic and it goes in and it says exactly when he was born he was born in the year 1757 AAC in other words after Adam was created 1,757 years that's 101 Years After the flood now how do we know that it's a 101 Years After the flood because we worked through this genealogy God gave us enough specifics for us to know exactly when the flood occurred and the flood occurred in the year 1,656 how many of you took notes and wrote that in your Bible hopefully you did at the story of the flood you wrote The Flood occurred in the year 1,656 now if we take that year and we subtracted from the year that pelig was born 1, 757 we get 101 years which means that the Tower of Babel occurred about a hundred years after the flood give or take a year or two now let me explain why scholars believe that the Tower of Babel occurred shortly before shortly after the the day or or or the birth of pelic turn with me if you would to Genesis 10 verse number 25 says unto Eber were born two sons the name of one was pelig for in his days was the earth divided the the name pelig or the word pelig means division and or divided and I want you to notice why Eber Eber actually named his son pelik it's because the Earth was divided in his days is everyone with me in other words the Earth and let me see if I can turn this divided shortly before or after pel was born because you didn't name a person when they were 10 years old or 20 years old you name a person when they're born now some of you might go might come up to me and say well God changed Abraham's name to Abraham yes he did but he changed his name because of some significant promise we see that happen quite frequently Saul's name was changed to Paul if you remember the word Saul means asked for the first king of Israel was King Saul he was the king that was asked for well Saul was given that great name but if you remember when he had his conversion experience his name was changed to Paul the reason it was changed was because of that experience but when we have a child we don't wait 10 years to name them we don't wait 20 years to name them we might give them a nickname because of something that occurred but we don't name them years after they're born so we need to understand that the Earth was divided shortly before or shortly after Pelle was born but what does that mean that the Earth was divided I mean we're reading along and we see that he named his son Pelle because in his days the Earth was divided what does that mean well it can mean one of two things it can mean that the Earth was divided among the Nations and other words each nation was given its own territory and does anyone know when the people scattered to form their own Nations they scattered when God confused their language turn with me if you would to the Book of Genesis 11: 7-8 this is part of the story of the Tower of Babel says come let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other so the Lord scattered them from from there over all the Earth and they stopped building the city so they scattered into different nations when God confused their language so if that means that the Earth was divided into Nations it's telling us that the Tower of Babel occurred shortly before or shortly after Pelle was born because that's the reason he was given that name all right but it could also mean something else I told you it could mean one of two things it could also refer to the continental drift how many of you were science majors and you remember the continental drift or maybe you weren't science Majors you probably saw this maybe in e8th grade you see some scientists believe that the continents once formed a single land mass and this single land mass broke apart and drifted to their present locations in fact here's a very short video of what some scientists believe happened let's go ahead and run that if you don't mind notice how they're together and now the continents or the land mass is breaking apart and they are drifting to their present location so there are those who believe that after the flood if you remember the flood came from this water canopy that surrounded the Earth but it also says that the water also came from The Fountains deep below and this would have created some scientists believe a lot of instability of the placeat and as a result of the flood occurring you would have had shifting that would have Cur occurred after the flood so it's very possible that the continents were all one single land mass but as a result of this time period this this Tower of Babel time period this was the time when the continents literally divided so instead of the people that were here in North America and South America before the white man came they were not the result of migration but they were actually the result of the continental drift in other words these continent the I shouldn't say plural continents this one land mass dividing and drifting to form the different continents now if this occurred it would have had to have occurred after the Tower of Babel took place because you have people with different languages in North America and South America and they're not just different dialects that evolved over time but they're very similar and they came from one no linguists have studied them and they realize they are totally and completely different you had this one tribe of Indians and it's totally different from this other tribe of Indians there are no similarities so the theologians who believe that pel's name refers to the continental drift drift believe it occurred right before or right after and I shouldn't say right before right after the Tower of Babel does that make sense before I move on is everyone with me because if you're not I'll try and explain it again all right everyone's with me but either way whether you believe that his name is referring to the Nations or the Earth being divided into the different nations or you believe that his name is referring to this continental drift either way the Tower of Babel must have occurred short shortly before or shortly after pel's birth because his name marks the occasion either way you interpret it there's no doubt about that every scholar conservative scholar who believes in the Bible believes that so when was pelic born I've already given you the answer to that 1757 AAC approximately 100 Years After the flood which means that the Tower of Babel occurred about a hundred years after After the flood now that's very important because we're going to leak this to Genesis chapter 6 and we need to understand that Noah is still alive and so are his three sons and in all probability their wives so they remember how it was before the flood remember when we're tracing that genealogy of shim he was 98 Before the Flood occurred so he he saw the way it was before the flood and he's going to be able to pass that information on and we're going to see that's going to have a negative impact upon some of the more evil ones and that's why they're going to build this Tower of Babel but you need to understand that pel was born in the year 1,757 approximately 100 Years After the flood which means that the Tower of Babel occurred about 100 Years After the flood is everyone still with me good the second thing you need to know is that Nimrod was the man behind the building of the Tower of Babel turn to Genesis CH 10 let's read verses 8-9 Kush was the father of nimrod he grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth now we're not going to go into this let me just stop here and just add a little bit ham was cursed he was cursed because there was some type of homosexual act that occurred it wasn't just that he saw his father Noah naked but there was some some type of homosexuality involved in that and as a result he's cursed and we're going to see that because of this curse certain things are going to take place but Nimrod comes from Kush who as we know is a descendant of ham and this is going to create a little bit of an irritation because guess what part of the curse is you're going to serve the others and so nimrod's got this chip on his shoulder because he's not going to serve anyone if anything's going to happen they're going to serve him and he's automatically rebellious towards God because of what's happened and we see this happen every day we see people who get upset with God because of things that happen in their life or maybe something that's happened in their family's life and it has a direct result on them well Nimrod was the same way so we're talking about Nimrod here Kush was the father of nimrod who grew to to be a mighty warrior on the earth he was a mighty Hunter before the Lord that is why it is said like Nimrod a mighty Hunter before the Lord now the word Nimrod means Rebel Rebel and we probably should ascertain from this that this was more of a nickname because again how do you know that when the child is born that he's going to be a rebel or he's rebellious but probably he's like King Saul how many of you know that King Saul's name probably was not Saul when he was born remember Saul means asked for so when the children of Israel asked for a king they were given Saul that probably was the name given to him as a result of being asked for well the same with Nimrod they probably started referring to him as Nimrod or he referred to himself as Nimrod as a rebel we're told that he was a mighty warrior and a mighty Hunter the word mighty is translated from the Hebrew word word gibor which means one who rules with violence or who kills without Mercy now contrary to popular belief the word Hunter doesn't refer to the hunting of wild game it refers to hunting men you see verse number nine is actually elaborating on verse number eight Nimrod was a mighty warrior how Mighty was he he hunted men and that's how he became a king over a kingdom he used military might we're also told that he was very hostile towards God notice in verse number eight it says that he was a mighty Hunter before the Lord now for those who don't know Hebrew and let me say this my knowledge of Hebrew is very very limited I never took a class on Hebrew I basically was able to glean some things from my professors my degree is in New Testament Greek I have over 30s something hours in Greek and learn to translate the Bible of course it's been so long I'm not very good at that anymore I've kind of learned to cheat because of all the nice helps that we have but my degree is in Greek and I just want to say that because I do not have a degree in Hebrew but those who do realize that when it says that he was a a mighty Hunter before the Lord it didn't mean it in a good way because the word before is actually translated from the Hebrew word Pim and it implies hostility so notice what these two verses are saying about Nimrod Nimrod was rebellious he was a violent man a man who hunted other men who killed without Mercy and he was openly hostile towards God we're also told that his kingdom was in the land of Shar where the Tower of Babel was being built so when we put all of the pieces together we know that Nimrod was the man that was behind building the Tower of Babel now we're finally ready to study the Tower of Babel so turn with me to Genesis CH 11 and let's begin in verse number one and the whole earth was of one language and of one on speech now underline the word speech because he's not just repeating himself for emphasis no he's giving us details the word speech is actually translated from the Hebrew word daba and in this context it means dialect so before the Tower of Babel everyone spoke the same language and they all had the same dialect now does everyone know what I mean by dialect a dialect is a regional variation of a language distinguished by pronunciation grammar and vocabulary as an example and this is probably not a good example because I'm not really sure this would qualify as a dialect but I'm going to give the example anyway in America we all speak English not all of us but majority of us speak English we used to all speak English but there are different dialects depending upon where you live in America if you live in the North you pronounce words funny yeah and you know your grammar is different than our grammar you have a hard time understanding us because you don't speak the way we speak in fact sometimes I will say this let me just say it the way we say in Cherokee County and I just throw it out there and we have a different vocabulary than Northerners and sometimes even in the South it's different you know my daughters both went to Arkansas and I thought you know we're all from the South but now those from the from the east of Little Rock on when they come to Arkansas boy they talk different they laugh because we might call it a soda pop it's a Coke everything's a Coke it doesn't matter whether it's Dr Pepper it doesn't matter whether it's seven up they want a Coke and then if you bring them a Coke they said no no no no I just tell you I want a Coke you didn't tell me what type you had now now see you're you're nodding your head right Sue do you call everything a Coke a soda it's a soda it's not a soda pop is it it's a soda you see we have different dialects we have different vocabulary for things we use different grammar we pronounce things differently it's not pean pie or pan pie is it it's pean pie we say peans here they pronounce it differently there's different dialects but before the the Tower of Babel everyone spoke the same language and there wasn't different dialects now why is that well we've already seen the Tower of Babel is going to occur approximately 100 Years After the flood and Noah is still alive so is his three sons and their wives so now we're realizing this is one big family and even though it's getting huge they all speak the same language it hasn't even broken up into different dialects yet all right so again this makes sense because they're all still alive turn to Genesis chter 9: 28 and 29 and Noah lived After the flood 350 years now people pel was born a hundred years after and we believe that the Tower of Babel was being built and this this event occurred either shortly before shortly after his birth so Noah is going to live another 200 50 years after the Tower of Babel and all the days of Noah were 950 years and he died remember he was 600 years old when the flood occurred he lived 350 more years the Tower of Babel happens 100 Years After the flood he's going to live 250 more after that wow so Noah was still alive at the time that the tower bab was being built and everyone on the Earth was a direct descendant of his so it only makes sense that the whole earth spoke the same language and they had the same dialect the same pronunciation the same grammar the same vocabulary verse two and it came to pass as they journeyed from the East that they found a plane in the land of Shar and they dwelt there now I'll be honest with you I've grown up on the King James version I memorized everything according to the King James version I like reading the King James version it makes more sense to me did you know that yeah it does in fact it makes more sense actually when you take Greek because the these and thou you understand why they use thee and thou rather than you one's singular and one's plural you didn't know that did you so it really makes sense to me but I have to be honest with you there are times when the King James version just misses it and this is one of the times that the King James version misses it and let me explain why I say that the phrase from the East is translated from the Hebrew word kadma and it means EAS or Eastward so it actually means that they were traveling Eastward in other words towards the east not from the East does that make sense because the ark settled around Mount arat and then they started moving Eastward down to the South and towards the east and they came to the plane of Shar now notice how the ni IV the new American stand the NLT translates this here's the NIV as men moved Eastward they found a plane in shinar and settled there Genesis 11:2 with New American Standard and it came about as they journeyed East now look at the NLT as the people migrated to the east they found a plane in the land of Babylonia and settled there so as they migrated Eastward they eventually settled in the land known as shinar the NLT refers to the land of Shar as Babylonia did you notice that and they're right it just wasn't called Babylonia back then or at that time now for those of you who aren't familiar with the Middle East the land of Shar was located in modern day Iraq in fact let me show you a map of it go ahead and put a map up there if you would this let me just go up here see where it says Shar right there okay right here here is the Sinai Peninsula this is Egypt right little bitt there is Israel and then of course Saudi Arabia and right here would be Iraq so Shar is in southern Iraq everyone with me let me show you a different map that I think will make this a little more clear let's put that other one up there this whole green part right here this is uh actually it needs to go further up there this would be called the Fertile Crescent but there's sume there's CA Babylon is right there but this is all right here the plane of shinar so they were up here see these two things right up in here was Mount erat and so they came South and then they traveled Eastward till they came to the plain of Shar let's go to verses three and four they said to each other come let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly why did they make bricks because this is a valley there's no Stones there's no rocks so as a result of that if you want to build something they have plenty of clay there remember you're shortly after the flood this is a hundred years after the flood and all of that silt all of that runoff from that is down in that Valley this is wonderful fertile ground but there's also a lot of clay so we can make brick so they said come let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly we're not just going to make mud break bricks we're going to put them in a kin and we're going to make them very hard so they're as hard as Stone they used brick instead of stone and tar for Mortar then they said come let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth now let me just tell you right up front that there was nothing wrong with wanting to build a city if some of you have commentaries on the Book of Genesis a lot of Scholars will say well the reason God was upset with them is because he told them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth if you have the King James version it says replenish the Earth and they look at that word replenish and they said it actually means to fill the Earth so what God wanted them to do is to be fruitful multiply and Scatter across and fill the Earth but that's not what that means in that context people basically he was blessing them and he was telling them to be fruitful and reproduce have children lots of children fill the Earth up but he wasn't telling them to scatter that was up to them so there was nothing wrong with wanting to build a city the problem was that they wanted to build a tower that reached to the heavens did you see that in verse four come let us build ourselves the city with a tower that reaches to the heavens that was the problem they wanted to build a tower that reached to the heavens they wanted to build what is known as a zigurat how many of you ever heard of that funny word a ziggurat anyone let me explain what a ziggurat is a zigurat was a tower that allowed the gods to travel from the Heavens to the Earth at least that's what it was supposed to do at the top of the ziggurat was the Gate of the Gods the entrance from the Earth to heaven and from Heaven to Earth and at the bottom of the ziggurat was a temple where hopefully the gods would descend to receive the gifts and the worship of their people now the whole purpose of AZ ziggurat was to make it convenient for the gods to come down to the temple to receive worship and to bless the people now you need to realize that the tower was not built so that the people could Ascend to Heaven they weren't trying to do that some of you have been taught that they were building this Tower so they could go to the top and they could studi the stars and then they could worship the how many of you taught all that no no no that's not what it was for the purpose of the ziggurat was not for them to be able to ascend to heaven the purpose of the ziggurat was so that the gods could descend to Earth all right think of it kind of like a portal from Heaven to Earth and vice versa so the gods could come down from Heaven to Earth and they could go back from Earth to Heaven it was like a portal is everyone with me now let me show you a picture of a zigurat and then I'll explain a little bit about their construction this is a black and white of what the Tower of Babel would have looked like that is a ziggurat let me show you one in color that's black and white here's a color one this is probably what it would have looked like with color they fired the bricks they've put them together and this is a zigurat now here's what's kind of interesting they have found over 30 ziggurats in Mesopotamia today did you know that let me show you one that that's found can we go to the third one there it is take a look at this this is still a ziggurat can you see the ramp actually they were stairs at one time and this would have been stair stepped up now that's just one of them in fact there's one in Babylon or Babylon Iraq that they've actually gone in before the war and they rebuilt it so you could see exactly what it looked like but they did it on an original one but anyways let me explain a little bit about its its uh construction there were no rooms on the inside of the zigarette basically you built the outer walls and then you filled the inside with dirt it wasn't meant to be used as a shelter of any time and what you did is you built these alter walls you put the dirt inside and then you continued to build one level on top of another and the goal was to get as high as you could to make it as convenient as possible for the gods to ascend from the Heavens to the earth now I want you to notice if we go back to one of those that there is a Stairway on the outside of the ziggurat taking you all the way to the top do you see this here is a Stairway now you're not seeing it here but actually you go around there'll be another Stairway to that one and then you go up to the next level and the next level and the next level with a Stairway all the way to the top nothing is on the inside of the structure it's only meant to be a Stairway to the very top if you notice there is a little room at the very top that was known as the Gate of the Gods now inside this little room was a bed so that when the gods came down I guess it must have been quite tiresome to go from the Heavens to the Earth they could lie down and and rest and the priest would carry up food so you had these amenities there to refresh the gods as they came down and then they left and went back up so basically the Tower of Babel was the introduction of pantheism and idolatry it was the beginning of the downward spiral of worshiping creation rather than the god of creation that's mentioned in in Romans chapter 1 turn with me to Romans chapter 1 verses 22-32 claiming to be wise they instead became utter fools and instead of worshipping the Glorious everliving God they worshiped Idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and rep Iles so God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired as a result they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies they traded the truth about God for a lie so they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself who is worthy of Eternal praise amen that is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires even the women turned against the natural way to have sex instead indulged in sex with each other and the men instead of having normal sexual relationships with women burned with lust for each other men did shameful things with other men and as a result of this sin they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved since they thought it was foolish to acknowledge God he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do the things they never should have done their lives became full of every kind of wickedness sin greed hate Envy murder quarreling deception malicious behavior and gossip they are backstabbers haters of God insolent proud and boastful they invent new ways of sinning and they disobey their parents boy you wouldn't think that would be thrown in there would you they refuse to understand break their promises are heartless and have no mercy they know God's justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die yet they do them anyway worse yet they encourage others to do them too so basically the Tower of Babel is the beginning of this downward spiral of man that's mentioned here in Romans chapter 1 now here's where I want you to pay careful attention some scholars believe and I agree with them that the power of Babel was built out of a desire for things to return to the way they were before the flood back to the time when the sons of God had sex with the daughters of men and they created a super race of people known as the Nephilim and that's why they built the Gate of the gods they wanted the sons of God to leave their habitation in heaven once more and come to the Earth turn to Genesis 6 verse number 4 four cuz this is all tied in together as a cohesive unit notice what it says the Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them they were the heroes of old men of renown now we spent some time on this what did the sons of God refer to the Fallen Angels these Fallen Angels according to the book of Jude it's quoted out of the Book of Enoch left their natural habitation and they had sex with the daughters of men in other words women human beings and they created a super race of people known as the Nephilim because they were halfen Angel and they were also half human being they were very evil creatures but they were also super creatures they were quicker faster smarter stronger tougher you name it they were and they became Heroes of O now you need to understand that when Noah and his three sons survived along with their wives they're still living and naturally people are going to want to know Papa what was it like before the flood before God did this great thing and let's be honest as we would tell the story I don't know why but it's kind of human nature to not just embellish but to really come in and major on some of the evil things have you ever noticed that so I can imagine them saying Oh it was bad that's why God had to bring the Judgment God had to actually wipe out this tainted seed so that the promise of the seed of the woman could remain pure but it was bad and they started talking about the sons of God these Fallen Angels who came down and had sex with with these human women and they had this create they had this super race of people that they created known as the Nephilim and they started explaining some of the great things that they did and all of these kids are listening and they're growing up and we remember the mythology we talked about that where it comes from so now they're listening to all of this and Along Comes Nimrod and Nimrod is from the descendant of ham who's cursed and part of the cursing is that they will be subservient to japheth you remember that and Sham you will serve in their tents and he's already rebellious towards God and they've heard these things and remember they refer to these fallen angels as sons of God so what does he decide to do he decides that we're going to build this zigurat and what's interesting is and and we have this from archaeology in fact we've dug these up and there's actually writings from these times and they explain exactly what these ziggurats were for ziggurats these ziggurats were portals from the Heavens to the Earth the whole purpose and many times they're actually given certain names that refer to these Gods wanting to come down from the Heavens to the Earth so what happened is they desired for these sons of God what had happened before the flood to begin to occur so they decided they were going to make it easy for them and they build a zigarette and because of the belief that these Gods lived in the heavens they began the practice of studying astrology and I don't have time to get into all of that but suffice to say you have astrology also coming into the picture but for whatever reason they built the Tower of B as a gate to the gods and they began worshiping different deities and practicing idolatry so by the time Abraham comes along we're going to find out he's not too far down the road now everyone is is worshiping all of these other gods in their end idolatry and it's all because of this and according to the Book of Revelation Babylon which is the later name for the land of Shar was the mother of all spiritual har harlotry and all types of abomination look at uh Revelations chapter 17 verse number five we talked about Babylon notice what it says and upon her forehead was a name written mystery Babylon the great the mother now what does it mean the mother of harlots and Abominations of the earth it's the one that birthed all this so we trace this all the way back to this land of Shar also now known as Babylonia Babylon this is where it comes from so people it all began in Babylon the land of Shar verse 5 and the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men built now this verse is meant to be ironic and it's also meant to be a sarcastic anthropomorphism is that a new word for some of you well we'll get to it first of all let's talk about it being ironic it's ironic in that the Tower of Babylon was built as a gate to the gods a portal linking Heaven to Earth and instead of the God's coming down who comes down the god the god who's the creator of all things everything that's living in every inanimate object if it's here the God created it and instead of the God's coming down the god came down now can you see the irony in that yeah nimron didn't want to serve the the God he wanted to be rebellious and go towards the sons of God and let it go back to the way it was before the fall but instead of the Gods coming down the god comes down it's also a sarcastic anthropomorphism and let me explain what I mean by that an anthropomorphism means uh that you're attributing human characteristics to God in order to make a point now it doesn't have to be to God it can be to anything whenever we attribute human characteristics to any inanimate object that's an anthropomorphism so how many of you saw um what was the ring thing there were three of them the movies The Lord of the Rings and I think it was in the second one do you remember the trees coming alive that's an anthropomorphism we were we were attributing human characteristics SS to an inanimate object you know a tree now normally when we talk about anthropomorphisms in the Bible we're talking about attributing human character characteristics to God but we're doing that in order to make a point so verse number five is meant to be a sarcastic anthropomorphism in that it pictures God as having to stoop down to see this itty litty little bitty Tower you see God is on the present and he's omniscient which means he's everywhere and he's all knowing so God wouldn't have to come down to look at the Tower of Babel so why do we put that in there or why did they put that in there well it stated that way people to be sarcastic you see in the people's mind they were making this great tower that reached to the heavens and it was going to be a portal from Heaven to Earth so that the sons of God could come down to earth and so what happens is it says that God comes down he looks at this now it's not that he had to come down but from God's perspective this Tower is so small and minute that he has to come down just to see it do you guys see the sarcasm here so verse number five is actually ironic and it's sarcastic and it's meant to be that way and you need to read it that way some people who go well I thought God was omniscient I thought God was omnipresent but the Bible says he had to come down it's like get a brain people it's meant to be sarcastic it's meant to be ironic it's meant to put this down all right verses 6 and 7 and the Lord said behold the people are one and they have all one language and this they begin to do and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do do you notice I've got that boldfaced and highlighted what does that tell you tells you this is important pay attention go to let us go down and there confound their language that they may not understand one another's speech now notice what I highlighted or I should say what I boldfaced and I underlined it's the last part of verse six it says says now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do so what did they imagine to do they imagined creating a portal between the heavens and the Earth for the gods now we know that there is only one God and that one God is who Jehovah but they were wanting Gods to appear more specifically the sons of God which was opening a door to Demons if you need to go back and listen to my teaching on demons demons are the spirits of the Dead Nephilim and I showed you why they're that and what they were doing was they were opening the door to demonic activity and I personally believe that that's what Nimrod wanted to do now because everyone was in one location everyone is going to be affected by this so what did God do he decided to scatter the people and what was the best way to do it we're not going to we're not going to cause a flood anymore and kill everyone we've already made a a covenant not to do that what are we going to do then he's going to confuse their language so they can't understand each other and that's what happened because now they can't work together because now you're saying something to me that I can't understand and you're getting irritated because I can't understand you and I'm getting irritated that you're getting irritated and pretty soon I just don't want to have anything to do with you so I go back to my family and our family speak the same language but we don't don't speak the same language as you and now all of a sudden there's suspicion and everything and so now the people are going to scatter because they don't speak the same language and that's what happened and that's how the different nations and different languages came into existence it happened supernaturally so once again we see the devil trying to derail God's plan but it doesn't happen it doesn't work God keeps his plan right on track the seed of the woman is still in line to crush the head of the Serpent and this prophecy is going to be fulfilled and what we're going to see is that after the flood we see this paganism this idolatry coming in this desire for evil we see the mother of all harlotry and Abominations begin but God says okay we're going to stop all this he confuses the language the people scatter but now he's going to select one person who is in a Land of idolatry a land of pantheism and he's going to call that one man out and he says through this man I'm going to create a nation who's going to be a kingdom of priest and their job is going to be to entrust the Oracles of God his word and through them is going to come the seed of the woman and that's how we're going to get salvation but we would know all of this unless we read the book of Genesis who tell us which tells us how all of this began