Angelic Conflict part 111: Human history – Gen 11:1-9; 12:1-3; Heb 11:8; Isa 42:1; 49:5-6; Amo 9:11-12.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 111: Human history - GEN 11:1-9; 12:1-3; HEB 11:8; ISA 42:1; 49:5-6; AMO 9:11-12.

 

 

The Tower of Babel - GEN 11:1-9.

 

It is amazing how quickly mankind can degenerate from a godly and righteous Noah to a peoples who actively pursue false gods, idols, and creature worship.

 

The only one of them that stands out is the rebel and divine opposer Nimrod, who organizes the people into labor for a false and evil system, represented by a city and a tower.

 

God has a plan, as always, and in this case the solution is nationalism, different peoples, different cultures, different languages, so that the gospel is always preserved. The UN is an evil organization as are all who long for international, one world rulership.

 

GEN 11:1 Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.

 

GEN 11:2 And it came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

 

GEN 11:3 And 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.

 

GEN 11:4 And they said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."

 

They also desired a name or a reputation. They feared being scattered so not only did the tower serve as an astrological, idol worshipping temple, but also as a beacon that could be seen from miles and miles around. The people could always see their city and the center of their demon worship and so they had a symbol that tied them together as well as their common ancestry and language.

 

This, again, is a direct violation of the Noahic Covenant.

 

GEN 11:5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men [Adam - humanity] had built.

 

This is a bit of tongue in cheek satire indicating mighty God and puny man who thinks he can do something without God and in opposition to God.

 

It also shows that God is not an absentee landlord and that He is interested in the affairs of men, but:

 

The satire is that God is so high and man is so puny that God had to come down to get a better look.

 

GEN 11:6 And the Lord said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.

 

There are two situations: they are one people or nationality and they all have a unified language that helps keep them together.

 

These conditions raise two problems. The first problem was that this was only their first project, “this is what they began to do.”

 

Problem 1: This is their first act of rebellion and left to themselves there will be many more to follow of which subsequent generations will get caught up in.

 

The second problem was: “nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.” This doesn’t mean that they will purpose building rocket ships or something complex, but rather the purpose of sin.

 

Problem 2: They will not only sin in this way, but they will dream up another hundred ways to sin against God and all as one people, under one nation, under one language, and without division.

 

While no one can thwart the purpose of God, nothing will be able to thwart the purpose of man unless this initial project, which is an act of rebellion against the divine rule, is stopped.

 

The rabbis have a very good interpretation here.

 

Rabbinical interpretation:

“With such unity, they will enthrone idolatry for all time so that no man will be able to turn to the worship of the true God.”

 

The Antichrist is going to attempt the same thing during the Tribulation and in and from the same place and it will only last 3.5 years and even during that time it will be wrought with conflict from unruly man.

 

Governments cannot constrain lawlessness. Only the discipline from God constrains the wickedness of man.

 

Yet government, under the promise of security and safety, try to control people while removing the inalienable rights of freedom. And in fact, those in power, under false influences of greed and power lust, just want quiet, suppressed people while they funnel money from the economy to various places that they hope will secure their power and riches.

 

The English tried this with the states of America using the Stamp Act for this very purpose. A number of freedom loving and also prosperity loving people fought against this. Starting with the Boston Tea Party and reaching a crescendo in the signing of the Declaration of Independence which we celebrate this week.

 

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

 

Then there is an exhaustive list of oppressions and then the conclusion:

 

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity [sharing common ancestors]. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

 

There was no one found amongst these new settlers of Babylonia, whose hearts were changed through faith in God’s covenants to begin a war of independence and freedom so as to create such an independence and so God had to do so from above.

 

And so, here it comes:

 

GEN 11:7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."

 

Once again we have the plural pronoun implying the plurality of the God-head.

 

And then we have another wonderful Hebrew play on words.

 

 “confound” - balal = to confuse, to confound.

 

And then there are three results.

 

GEN 11:8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.

 

GEN 11:9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

 

First, the dispersion of humanity - GEN 10:5, 20, 31.

 

Nimrod is a part of this dispersion, though he is not done opposing God and recruiting others for that purpose.

 

Second, they stopped building the city. The tower was finished but the city was not.

 

With the dispersion, the city didn’t have to be finished, it was roomy enough for those who may have remained.

 

Third, the city was named Babel - Hebrew for Babylon.

 

We have a wonderful play on words here.

 

They called it Babel - Gate of God

God brought balah - confusion

Babylonian word Babalu - to scatter

 

While the people built a city called the gate of God and wanted to make a name for themselves, God brought in balah, confusion and made a babble out of it as well as a scattering.

 

GEN 11:1-9 is also written in a chiastic state:

 

A. All the earth had one language, 1.

B. Settled there, 2.

C. Said one to another, 3a.

D. Come, let us make bricks, 3b.

E. Build for ourselves, 4a.

F. City and tower, 4b.

G. The Lord came down, 5a.

F. City and tower, 5b.

E. Man has built, 5c.

D. Come, let us confuse, 7a.

C. One to another, the language, 7b.

B. Scattered from there, 8.

A. Confuse language of whole earth, 9.

 

Abrahamic Covenant, GEN 12:1-3.

 

GEN 12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you;

 

GEN 12:2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;

 

GEN 12:3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

 

The structure of GEN 12:1-3 is that of two imperatives, followed by three promises from God. “You do one, and I’ll do three; then in turn, you do one more thing, and I will do three more things.”

 

GEN 12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you;

 

This is the first of seven times that Abraham receives a direct revelation from God.

 

God’s first command: Abraham is to separate from his country, fellow citizens, and family immediately.

 

This is a call to sanctification. Ur is a place of worship of the moon god sin and Abraham is called to separate from there.

 

God doesn’t tell him where he is to go, just that “I will show you.” Immediately Abraham has to operate in faith, HEB 11:8.

 

HEB 11:8

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

 

Following the first command we have three promises.

 

1. I will make you a great nation.

2. I will bless you (material and spiritual).

3. I will make your name great.

 

Notice who will … “I will.” Promises are always and completely based on the character and faithfulness of God.

 

Abram (exalted father) is going to be changed to Abraham (father of a multitude) and God will make him a brand new racial species. The policy of God is going to change from dealing with the world to dealing with one nation and using that nation to teach His will to the rest of the world.

 

What the builders of the tower of Babel wanted for themselves, a great name (11:4), is something that God now promised individually to Abram.

 

Second command: you shall be a blessing. He is to be a blessing to others (Lot, Melchizedek).\

 

Then we have the second three promises.

 

GEN 12:3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

 

1. I will  bless those who bless you.

2. He who curses you I will curse.

3. In you I will bless the entire world.

 

Who will?

 

The last one is the one promise that extends beyond Israel and it is reaffirmed more than once.

 

To Abraham: GEN 22:18  And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.

 

 To Isaac: GEN 26:4 And I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;

 

To Jacob: GEN 28:14 Your descendants shall also be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

 

This blessing is accomplished through the Messianic Seed of Abraham because, as the prophets pointed out, it will be through the Messiah that the Gentiles will receive their spiritual blessings.

 

ISA 42:1 Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.

 

ISA 42:6 I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people,

As a light to the nations,

 

ISA 49:5 And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,

To bring Jacob back to Him, in order that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the Lord, And My God is My strength),

 

ISA 49:6 He says, "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth."