Old Testament – Gen 10 & 11

Chapter 10

This chapter is not technically a genealogy (so and so, begat so and so).4 It has been called a table of nations because it traces the connected origins of various nations.5

The Japhethites split into two groups: one group settled in India and the other group in Europe. Together they form what is known as the “Indo-European” family of nations. They became the coastline peoples, the peoples of the Gentiles (10:5). It was primarily into this area of the world that the New Testament church spread, under the apostle Paul. Verse 5 also teaches that the occupation of the lands followed the confusion of tongues at Babel.

The nations connected to Ham inhabited northwestern Africa, the western coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and the Fertile Crescent from Egypt to Mesopotamia.9 Some of these nations figured prominently in the biblical story as enemies of Israel, particularly “Babel” (Babylon, 10:10),10 “Mizraim” (Egypt, 10:13), and “Canaan” (10:15).

The descendants of Shem (lit. “name”) are the Semitic peoples who inhabited the eastern lands: modern-day Iraq, Iran, and eastern Saudi Arabia. The genealogy of Shem split at the sons of “Eber” (10:25).12 From Eber we get the word “Hebrew.” The descendants of Eber’s son “Joktan” are given in 10:26-32, while the descendants of his other son, “Peleg” (whose name means division, because there was division on the earth at the time of his birth) are found in Genesis 11. It was Peleg’s line which led to Abraham and eventually to the Israelites (11:18-26).13 This is the family that God will be dealing with throughout the entire Old Testament. These are the Hebrews, the nation Israel.

Chapter 11 – The Tower of Babel

Why did man want to make the tower?

  • To ascend into the heavens where God was and basically be God. To make a name for themselves, not to glorify God’s name.  However, as history has proven, not a single name is remembered from that group of people who sought to glorify themselves and gain fame.
  • God’s purpose was, that mankind should form many nations, and people all lands. In contempt of the Divine will, and against the counsel of Noah, the bulk of mankind united to build a city and a tower to prevent their separating. They wanted to be one single, great and glorious empire, to reign over themselves.

“Babel” means “confusion” in Hebrew, and “the gate of gods” in Babylonian. This was the original Babylon that forever after was the city most consistently rebellious against God’s government in human history. It stands as a symbol of organized rebellion against God elsewhere in Scripture (e.g., Rev 17-18). Babylon has always been a city set in opposition to the true God.   Babel means confusion and the final result of the language being confused was that people were scattered over all the earth. These people forfeited the blessing of God because they decided they could make a better future for themselves than God could make for them.

Their sin was very purposeful. The countryside had no rocks for building, so they went around God’s provision and made bricks for themselves. Sometimes, we want something so bad, even though God has either said no, or said not yet, that we decide to move forward without him, solely in our own strength, using tools of our own creation. We refuse to accept God’s will and demand that our own will be accomplished.

But after God thwarts man’s rebellion against Him out of their sinful decision to be God instead of trust, listen to and obey God, the story begins of God’s chosen people who would be the lineage of the Christ, the Savior, that would allow mankind to be re-united to God.

Babel occured during the lifetime of Terah.  Terah was 70 when he had Abram.

Abram was 43 years old at the time of Babel, for in the destruction of Sodom he was 99 and it was destroyed 52 years after the confusion of tongues. Terah would have been 113 when God changed their languages. Imagine starting out with one language, being able to talk to everyone, and in mid-life, only being able to talk with your family. The only way I can conceptualize this is if all of a sudden, you could only talk to your family, either in person, on cell phones or the internet. You couldn’t understand anyone else.

Gen 10:31 says that Terah took his son Abram, Lot and Sarai and set out from Ur to go to Canaan, but never made it. They decided instead to stop in Harran.  It makes sense that this would probably happen at the time of the confusion of languages, because men were scattered at that point.

Another interesting thing to me is that their goal was to go to Canaan, what would later be called “The Promised Land” to the Israelites, but for some reason, they decided that Harran was good enough, and didn’t finish the journey to their original destination.  How many times do we start on a journey to follow God’s plan for our lives, but at some point, we decided that we knew better, or were detoured by something that pleased our flesh, and we stopped moving toward God’s destination for us?

After Terah died, who was the head of the household, God told Abram to finish the journey that God had called his father to complete. God needed His people to get to Canaan, and if Terah wasn’t willing to obey Him and fulfill God’s plan, God would raise up and use someone else to accomplish it.