1 Now the whole earth
had one language and one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they
found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.
3 Then they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and
bake them thoroughly."
They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
4 And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a
tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for
ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole
earth."
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the
sons of men had built.
6 And the LORD said, "Indeed the people are one and they all have
one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that
they propose to do will be witheld from them.
7 "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that
they may not understand one another's speech."
8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of
the whole earth, and they ceased building the city.
9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD
confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD
scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
(Genesis 11: 1-9 - NKJV)
This Scripture has puzzled
countless readers of the Book of Genesis for a long time!
Explanations are sometimes received, but so often those
explanations don't seem to fully explain all the circumstances
which were involved at Babel!
So let us take a really close look at this Scripture.
I think this Scripture is especially fascinating because it
allows us a rare glimpse into some of the strategies which God
uses to fulfil His master plan for the Human Race.
Prior to Babel (which means 'confusion') all the human race spoke
in one language. Today's world of a multiplicity of languages
began at Babel. But why did God confuse the world's
language there?
Lets start off by looking at the family line involved here.
Genesis 10 reveals the names of the sons born to Shem, Ham and
Japheth after the Great Flood. Ham, probably best known in
Genesis for his act of incest with his own mother, had four sons.
They were Phut, Cush, Egypt and Canaan (the last born as a result
of his illicit act of sex with his mother). Cush became the
father of Nimrod, "a mighty hunter before the Lord" (Gen 10:9).
He built a kingdom in order to further his claim for greatness;
that kingdom was Babel (later to be called Babylon), it more or
less occupied modern day Iraq. It appears as though he extended
his kingdom into Assyria (the phrase, 'land of Nimrod' is usually
taken to refer to Assyria - Mi 5:6). So this mighty leader and
hunter also possibly built Nineveh!
In both rabbinic writings and Islamic tradition, the name of
Nimrod is associated with great evil in which Nimrod insists on
being worshiped as a god and encourages all kinds of
abominations.
Israel and the descendants of Ham (Nimrod was Ham's grandson),
would become permanently at loggerheads with each other; for
example, the Egyptians, Philistines and Canaanites were all
descended from Ham!
Now during the period of the Old Testament, God tended to work
through family lines rather than individuals called out of
all families, which was to become the New Covenant
practise. Moreover, God especially used the line of the children
of Shem. Abraham, the Israelites and Jesus were all of the line
of Shem.
It is not entirely surprising that the Shemites who God would
abundantly use to fulfil His plan for the Human Race, should have
had considerable problems from the Hamites, since the Hamites
were placed under a curse after Ham's act of incest (Genesis
9:22-27).
The jealousy of the Hamites towards the Shemites is revealed in
Genesis 11:4, since,'let us make us a name' is an
intriguing statement since the Hebrew for 'name' here is actually
'Shem' - by this time the descendants of Shem were already
proving themselves to an able and talented people, and Nimrod
also wanted his people to become great and famous! So this
city and tower were constructed in opposition to the family line
which God was using! Perhaps the reasoning was something like,
'We too can know God if we build a tower to reach into the very
heavens!' God was about to go to work by calling the Shemite
Abram (later to be called 'Abraham') for a very great purpose. It
was around the same time that Satan may very well have been
"calling" Nimrod for purposes which - if left unchecked - would
have destroyed Abraham's mission!
But there is even more to this! Why was God so concerned at this
apparent early attempt at world government?
Because God is the Master Planner and has His own agenda for the
alloted timescale of the human race. The expression, 'Nothing
that they propose to do will be witheld from them' is very
interesting. The inference appears to be that if God had not
intervened at that time, the great evil which Satan plans to
unleash just before the return of Jesus Christ, would have come
too early!
It is also interesting that, whereas God confused the
languages of the world in order to thwart and discourage evil
planning in Nimrod's day, He granted the Gift of Tongues to the
first century Apostles in order to encourage and assist
the broadcasting of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! So God reduced
the affect of language confusion at the time of the Apostles and
'Tongues' were a sign that the Gospel could now go to people of
all races, nations and languages. From now on, God would
no longer primarily work with the children of Shem, but
would seek believers from all nations.
Museltof
2003