In this final lesson of The Consequences of Sin series, Pastor Dave Capoccia examines Genesis 11:1-9, the account of humanity’s language confusion at and people group dispersion from ancient Babel. After reading and making basic observations of the text, Pastor Dave seeks to answer the following interpretation questions: What was the great sin/what were the great sins of Babel? How and why did humanity scatter from Babel? When did this scattering take place? And what extra-biblical evidence exists affirming that this historical event related in the Bible genuinely happened?
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let us make man in our image but even more locally God says come let us go down if you look back at verses 3 and verse four man was using that same phrase come let us make bricks come let us build ourselves a city so you have man doing this on the one side but God doing it on the other side there is an implicit reference to the Trinity here though obviously that’s not explicit you couldn’t build the doctrine of the Trinity on this verse but it fits with what the rest of the scriptures reveal and we see that God’s United purpose in the godhead it proves stronger than man’s United purpose and what are the results of God’s confusing man’s language according to the passage notice we have three the people scatter they stop building the city and the place receives a name Babel now why is it called Babel the text says because there God confused the languages and like we see many times in the Old Testament if a name is given along with an explanation for the name you can bet that name has a meaning that does have something to do with that explanation and indeed the name Babel is associated with the Primitive Hebrew verb balal which means to mix to confound or to overflow thus the name Babel sounds like the Hebrew word for confusion and the our author Moses notes the appropriateness of the name Babel but that may not be why the people who are building the city they may have actually named that given that name for a different reason every time the name oh I should say this first every time the name Babylon appears in your Bibles by the way Old Testament Hebrew whenever baby appears in the Old Testament it’s actually the same word so though your English translation will probably use Babylon instead of Babel when you get to passages in Jeremiah and elsewhere it’s actually the same word that we see here in Genesis 11 so that means that the Hebrews would have connected that ancient city and Tower with a later City and kingdoms of the same name and this probably has something to do why in the Old Testament and the New Testament human Le Rebellion is often epitomized summarized under the term Babylon now to get back to what I was going to say before is interesting to note that in Acadian which is an ancient Babylonian language Babalu means gate of God we actually get the name Babylon in English from the Greeks who probably transliterated the plural of the Acadian term Babylon gate of the Gods as the name for the city so what we might be seeing here is that the Builders of the city called it Babel because they thought this would be the Gate of God but but what God did at Babel made another term Associated term more appropriate for understanding what this city is about it’s not really the Gate of God it’s confusion that’s what Babel is all about all right now that we’ve taken some time to observe let’s ask some interpretation questions next slide please and you can hit the first one what is the root sin on display In this passage obviously it must be Pride it’s almost childish what we see man Express here let’s make for ourselves a name let’s show how great we are let’s build a monument to us let’s cause all people who are to come and even God and the angels in heaven to Behold our Glory based on what we build we maybe Weak by ourselves or weak in small groups but look how Mighty we are when we all work together each of us excelling in different areas but all United in one purpose let us make our mark on the universe let all creation see our great City with its great tower and thus give us Glory this is very unlike other great building projects in the scriptures right at least in Israel we see David and Solomon going about the building of the temple they’re not saying this is going to glorify me everybody’s going to see how great of a builder or how great of a king I am rather they are looking for the Lord’s honor that was the whole impetus of David even wanting to build a temple he says how can I dwell in what seems like a great house and God’s dwelling is still a tent and these also they recognize that whatever skill power or Glory they had was not innate to them it was given to them from God as a gift what a difference in these ancient Builders at Babylon and these were let’s face it our forefathers the very descendants of shamam and japheth they did not seek to give God his due but they sought really to steal his glory and how silly because God so easily unravels it all in a sense it’s like God says Where where’s your great power oh man where’s your wisdom where’s your glory all he had to do was make one declaration and you cannot even understand each other anymore this is because God will not give his rightly deserved glory to another yet pride is the continual sin of man is it not and it is a sin that even we are tempted to very often our sinful Hearts the sinful flesh that is still with with us even though God has made us into New Creations the sinful flesh craves for our intrinsic value to be in affirmed that which is innate to us that which we have made for ourselves we want other people to see how much we deserve love respect wealth power and we get depressed or we get angry when we are not affirmed in that way we can even get angry God for giving us or rather for not giving us what we think we deserve we can fall into self-pity woe is me I’m so great but I’m not being treated very greatly it’s disturbing to note from the scriptures that we can even use spirituality as a way to further our own Pride as a way to slake our lust for self-exaltation isn’t this what was happening in the Corinthian Church even with the spiritual gift that God had given the church for the church’s whole edification people were doing it using them to exalt themselves everyone look at me look at my gifts this was the same problem in Judaism as it had formed in Jesus day the Pharisees they would literally take trumpets and announce their giving they’d go on the street corners to pray so that everybody could see how holy they were how good they were this is very different from a true Christian’s attitude which is not to get everyone to look at us but everyone to look at God even through our good works we say this is what God has accomplished in me he gets all the glory please don’t look at me look at God even God’s gospel can be twisted we see this today don’t we God’s gospel can be twisted mutated in a way that Strokes man’s Pride you are so great oh person God he’s so enamored with you he wants to save you he wants to bless you he wants to know you it’s cuz you’re so great but of course the biblical reality is not focused that way but the opposite way God is so great here’s the good news God is so great look at what he’s done you ought to be enamored with him you ought to seek Him in faith and obedience and with full gratitude the gospel is not that God is so enamored with you and God just wants to fulfill all your dreams rather that God says you you can have a relationship with me and I’ll give you what’s truly fulfilling so it’s not like we can look at this passage and be like wow these people were so proud what was wrong with them no that same temptation to Pride is with us today and across the world bondage to Pride is evident everywhere takes many different forms but the rebellion of Babel is still going on in different ways so clearly Pride was one of the great sins of Babel but was there another sin taking place here is there Disobedience to God by refusing to scatter across all the Earth after all that is part of the reasoning that the builders at Babel Express as to why they should complete their project lest we be scattered across the Earth is this another sin that’s happening here how many say yes and they point back to the commands given to Noah in Genesis chter 9 Genesis 9:1 and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth Genesis 9:7 as for you be fruitful and multiply populate the Earth abundantly and multiply in it many have come to this conclusion however I hesitate to agree with this line of reasoning for a few reasons first in the commands to Noah you may notice that the filling of the earth is always attached to doing what children that’s right having children multiplying actually in these verses Genesis 91 97 God never specifically commands for people to spread out rather it is assumed that as they have more children they will spread out because they’re going to need more room they’re going to want more room they’re going to be like Abram and lot who said to one another this land can’t sustain his both let’s separate second if God was commanding them to artificially spread out how would the people know when there were too many people in one area it’s not as God has established a certain quota system at least not that we’re aware of in which he says Whoa a thousand people’s way too much for this area some of you need to move along how would the people know how much is too much third one could argue that the commands given to Noah regarding multiplication and filling they are like the commands given to Adam and are actually blessings rather than commands I use this analogy before but it’s like when we say have a happy birthday we’re not commanding people in such a phrase to have a happy birthday or else we’re expressing well- wishes and even a blessing on that other person it’s not insignificant that Genesis 9:1 begins with and God blessed Noah and said be fruitful and multiply and this is the same thing we see by the way in Genesis 1 Genesis 1:22 and Genesis 128 where God is commanding animals and man to multiply it says God blessed them and said this so I hesitate a little bit to say oh they didn’t spread out so that’s why this judgment Came Upon them on the other hand I am sympathetic to the notion that God from the beginning is intent on establishing his rule over all the universe over all the Earth and part of this involves setting up his image everywhere and who is made in God’s image who exists as God image God’s IM image mankind man was made in the image of God we are on a sense like little statues of the great king being put everywhere saying oh this is under that King’s Dominion as well even though man’s as God’s image was marred by the Fall this was God’s original foundational intent and you could say that even if the statements to Noah and Adam are blessings they are also commands similar to commands like rejoice in the wife of your youth Proverbs 5 that’s a blessed command to be sure but it’s still a command more significant to my thinking is that every respectable commentator that I’ve consulted on this passage concludes oh and this is people commentators from the past as well as modern commentators they all conclude that man was disobeying God’s command to fill the Earth that yes there is a sin of Pride but man was also disband God’s command to fill the earth now the majority of you is not necessarily automatically right but if you’re opposing the majority of you especially from people that are otherwise faithful and worthy of respect that should give you pause so I’m not going to press my my hesitation on this it may indeed be that refusing to fill the Earth was also a sin for which the people of Babel were judged but if that is the case I don’t believe that is the main sin here the main sin is pride perhaps also the refusal to spread out and really it is pride that ultimately causes the people to not want to spread out to even fear spreading out because scattering would diminish the power and self-sufficiency and consequently the glory of the people these men and women were all about exalting themselves and what they can do but if people split from one another if they spread out if they’re not all in the same area well maybe don’t have all the skills Maybe you don’t have that skilled metal worker who can make statues for the city or for the Tower or you don’t have that excellent scribe who can write all the city’s laws or commemorate what the city has accomplished sticking together building a city even building a high tower these are not sinful acts in themselves it was the reason for which man was seeking to do these things that is the main issue man was doing this all to glorify himself and not God and God chose not to leave man unchecked in this effort as a judgment you may note the irony here God gave sinful man the very thing that man feared let’s build our say ourselves a city and a tower make ourselves a great name lest we be scattered well God made it so they didn’t have a great name he humbled them he humiliated them and he scattered them and how did he do this he took away the source of Man’s power took away man’s unity and he spread one he spread people out from one another now how exactly did that work why would everybody suddenly move away from one another based on what God did okay they couldn’t speak the same language and when a group of people don’t speak the same language as other groups of people what do they tend to do well there’s confusion what else they gravitate toward those they understand that’s right they they tend to separate and we see this in a small way in our in our own country right people who speak a certain language they they want to gravitate together and so they form little communities where they all speak that language and this is why you have like Little Italy or um yeah chat town in various cities or towns people who speak the same language want to stick together and they they don’t stay with the people who don’t speak that language especially if they can’t understand it at all not only can it be frustrating and awkward to try and communicate with someone who doesn’t know your language it can also be let’s face it dangerous imagine if a bunch of people with weapons began to shout at you in another language you have no idea what they said they leave do you want to stay near them no you be like I’m going to put some space between me and them I don’t know what they’re about but they’ve got weapons and I think they just threatened me so people therefore who spoke the same language after Babel and that may have been a group as small as a single family they separated from those who didn’t speak that language and they moved into another area and as these families who all spoke the same language or family as they moved into a new area and had descendants well those descendants eventually spread out as well and as the Generations past people moved further and further apart and consequently their languages changed some languages mixed with other languages other languages simplified or acquired new characteristics therefore as this spreading out process continued new people groups were continually forming with new languages and with those things especially over time new and separate ways of thinking separate Customs even separate stories and legends what emerges from these splitting families and splitting people groups is ultimately whole separate cultures and civilizations you can hit the next bullet point I think and the next one too consider the implications of this biblical truth the confusion of Babel means that all of the world civilizations even the most ancient ones that we can think of they do not go back further than Babel and based on the timeline that we’re going to see in a little bit that means they do not go back further than BC nothing from pre flood man appears to have survived and based on what we would think about the event being volcanic and tectonic it couldn’t have survived the only evidence therefore we see of civilization would be after man’s languages were separated and cultures different cultures emerged from babyl now to this assertion someone especially a secular historian might say something like and you can hit the next slide but we know that the pyramids in Egypt were built in 2600 BC that would be more than 150 years before Babel and that’s only when the pyramids were built the Egyptian civilization was founded for many centuries before that we we know this so what you’re saying about baby cannot be true well how do we react to such a statement do we say oh I guess you’re right uh let me see if I can reinterpret the timeline given in Genesis so it can conform to what you found is that what we say many Christians do many Christian leaders do take that position but I would argue as you’ve been seeing throughout this course that we do not simply acque yes in this way but rather we fall back on a Biblical worldview start with the scriptures stay with the bible let what the scripture says help you assess the assertions made by historians and scientists especially the things that are plain in the Bible you can hit the next bullet remember none of us were there in the past and we do not have access to all the past data we must interpret the past using assumptions and as we’ have seen when you don’t start with the Bible in your interpretation of the past you’re going to use the wrong assumptions Therefore your interpretation is going to be skewed we must stand on what is plain in the Bible and when we do it’s actually not that hard to explain what otherwise appear to be historical discre discrepancies in the case of Egypt and the dating of the pyramids or the dating of that Civilization today’s historians largely rely or partly rely on ancient Egyptian historians who wrote about their own civilization to establish the timeline of Egypt’s history but those ancient Egyptian historians they probably exaggerated the ancientness of their civilization and the length of its various dynasties let me before I tell you why why do you think that would bear okay Steve says no different than today to change the narrative somebody else was saying something to make themselves seem super great yeah to make themselves look better I mean if you say oh uh our country was established last year consider that versus our country has existed for 2,000 years which seems more iive the second one right or okay this guy usurped the throne and he’s only Reed for a year versus this guy has reigned for 200 years which one’s going to sound more impressive the one that has the longer years the one that seems like it’s established for longer actually that makes me think you know one of the reasons why the Romans respected the Jews much more than the Christians is because the Jews had a much what seemed to them a much more ancient religion oh this they’ve been practicing this for hundreds of years I mean they’re totally wacko but at least it’s old these Christians this is new whatever they’re about that can’t be good so this was very much a feeling of ancient times that if you have something that’s very old that makes you more impressive that makes you more legitimate so there’ be a very simple reason why an Egyptian historian Egyptian chronicler might exaggerate how old the Empire was or how long a certain ruler of that Empire was it was quite common for people in ancient days to claim that their civilization had been around for tens of thousands of years and that their first kings were actually demigods who ruled for more than a thousand years each now we don’t simply accept those claims do we now to be sure and we got to be sympathetic to even secular historians it’s difficult to navigate through the biases of different historians and and chroniclers of the past is this guy being accurate or is he being exaggerating how much can I trust him that’s not always easy to figure out but we have something that should greatly help us the Bible unlike the histories written by Mere Men the Bible is always trustworthy and as Jesus says it cannot be broken so when some secular archaeologist scientist or historian wants to say oh oh whoa we know that the Bible’s historical details are not true based on these other things remember that they are interpreting history according to anti-biblical assumptions which are ultimately faulty assumptions they will be inclined to disbelieve the Bible and believe versions of history that fit in their own worldview especially today an evolutionary modernist worldview which is that man advances socially politically economically theologically gradually slowly over time and so saying that these other civiliz they they emerged at these different times that the Babel didn’t really happen the flood really didn’t really happen that fits with what man wants to believe today even though the Bible’s historical claims have been Vindicated Time and Time Again by different archaeological discoveries that’s generally not the way that most historians and archaeologists will view the record of the scriptures to sum up what I’m saying here don’t miss this main point the process actually no to get back to my original Point that’s what I wanted to say so don’t miss what I’m saying about a Biblical worldview here this is something we’ve talked about before but next slide to get back to my original point the process we see starting at Babel and playing out in the rest of History it is the it is the continual mixture and separation of cultures languages and people groups you can hit the next bullet what we see beginning at Babel is something that would continue to play out in history and really is still playing out today and there’s an interesting effect of this separation of peoples one of the effects is that over time these people groups would begin to look different from one another each people group would begin to acquire distinct physical characteristics like hair color skin tone and facial structure how can that be well maybe you already know there actually was in the original series that we did with Answers in Genesis there’s a little paired lesson that goes with this which I’ll give you the information about the link to we don’t have time to go through it before the summer starts you can hit the next slide if you want more information as to how precisely the people groups came to look different from one another and how the Bible affirms repeatedly that despite the way that we do look different from one another even today the Bible affirms repeatedly that we are all One race there’s only one race the human race and please look up this lesson that I did back in 2019 this was kind of like a a paired lesson with our examination on Babel One race the human race and you can find that at the media section of our church website calvary.org I think it’s very interesting I think you’ll find it edifying so please check that out One race the human race but we’re going to have to move on from that for now next slide please now can we get a good idea of when this separation at Babel took place actually yes because of the details that Moses gives us in the Book of Genesis please take your Bibles and turn back to Genesis 10 for a second I want to show you something Genesis 10: 21-2 this is a section that describes some of shem’s descendants remember Noah has three sons shemam and japheth we hear a little bit about their descendants here and we’re focusing in on what’s said about shem’s descendants in verses 21 to 25 also to Shem the father of all the children of Eber and the older brother of japheth children were born the sons of Shem were Elum and Asher and our pakad and lud and Aram the sons of Aram were o and hul and Geth and mash AR pakad became the father of Sheila and Sheila became the father of Eber two sons were born to Eber the name of the one was PG for in his days the Earth was divided and his brother’s name was Joan now one of the Delights about reading a genealogy in the Bible is that you think it’s totally boring and there’s nothing to be gleaned or interesting about it and then there’s a a little detail that just thrown in there and you’re like what wh what was that all about and we see one of those here in this little section of genealogy when he mentions PG whose name means division you can hit the next bullet he says for in his days the Earth was divided in his days the Earth was divided what does this mean now some think oh this is a reference to how the continents were divided in ancient times in his days the continents were divided there’s good reason to think that originally it was all one continent however this is probably not the interpretation we should take because based on what we understand about science today major tectonic movements like the moving of consonant it probably would have flooded the world therefore the separation of continents makes much more sense that’s happening during Noah’s flood rather than some time afterwards of course the secular view is that the continents moved very very very very slowly over time over millions of years but it could be accomplished and makes more sense if it happened quickly in a catastrophic event so probably not referring to the division of continents with this phrase with pel so what could it be referring to what other division might have taken place in the days of pel well the only other major Division and happens to be the one described in the very next chapter is the division of the peoples at Babel as a result of having their languages confused this most likely is what this phrase in Genesis 10 is referring to in his days in the days of pel the Earth was divided because the languages were changed and people spread out from one another now that’s significant because that tells us about the flood I mean the Babel’s timing according to these verses how many generations after Shem Noah’s son is pel when we count them up actually more than two 14 oh no no not 14 it’s actually just four five if you count Shem but what we’re trying to say after Shem so you have AR pakad Sheila Eber and pel let me just double check that then I’m not giving you crazy things here so Shem had Elum he gave various Sons but our P shad is one of them and then we hear about arad’s lineage so just four generations after Shem AR pakad Sheila Eber and Pelle this means that battle must have happened within four generations of Shem at the end of the flood by the way linguistic side note from Shem we get the terms Semitic and Semite and from Eber we get what term Hebrew both of these become eventually designators for the people of Israel as they even are somewhat today okay so Genesis 10 establishes that Babel takes place in pel’s days four generations from Shem but we can actually get even a clearer date as to how long that was when we if you’ll turn back to Genesis 11 for a second after the account of Babel Moses goes more in depth into shem’s line and if you look in the latter part of Genesis 11 verses 10- 16 we see the five generations of Shem to pel once again and for the sake of time we won’t read this but just glancing at it verses 10 to 16 how could you use the information here to determine how many years after the flood went by before battle took place exact so Magna points out we get in this genealogy a record of how many years each descendant was alive before he had that next particular descendant and so if you want to know how long it was until the days of pel and the event at Babel will just add up the years of those intervening descendants so it was 2 years after the flood that Shem had his particular son and then it was 35 years and then 30 years and then 34 years add them all up you get about 110 years so there’s a little bit of a question of how do you how do you calculate 2 years after the flood is that counting the days of the flood or is that is that after the flood finished so I’m going to say about 110 years so amazingly we can say Babel took place around 110 years after the flood according to the record this chronog genealogy in Genesis 11 but was it exactly 110 years because it says in his days the Earth was divided that means it only happened sometime during his life not necessarily right when he was born or right before he was born but then again his name is division so presumably the division happened somewhat early in his life because otherwise why would ebra have named him division it’s not like the sun is 30 years old the Earth is dividing he’s like I’m going to change your name that wouldn’t really seem to make much sense so it would appear to be in the early days of pel maybe right when he was born right before he was born or right after he was born the Earth was divided and thus his name became appropriate division for describing that event so all this to say we see that Moses we see once again really that Moses and God through him saw fit to give us and Israel specific time details regarding these important ancient events so that they the Israelites and we today can know yes even know with confidence when these key events took place in the history of Earth and how our history connects with it this isn’t by God’s spirit when you when you go through the Torah it’s not like oh yeah this happened sometime in the past and these were the the divisions between those dates no you can take what’s given here connect it with what the Bible says elsewhere about the timeline of history and then you connect it with some of the things we know outside the Bible and we can say this is when it took place or it was around this time this is not some disconnected past it fits right in with where we are today so if this took place around 2240 BC then it’s been about 4,200 years since Babel and we see the outworking of what took place there now even in our modern world indeed even though this event was Ancient Memories of Babel are evident still all over the world first of all there’s the tower next slide if the Tower of Babel was indeed a zigurat or a step pyramid structure it’s intriguing to note that we see similar structures all over the world from ancient cultures these are from South America southeast Asia Egypt and Mesopotamia it’s also interesting to note that many of these if not all of these we’re not entirely sure many of these were used in the same way as the ziggurats of Babylon were used these were constructed as religious structures even ones that it was thought you could meet with the gods or God at the top of it why this consistency with the record of Babel now you could say well maybe this structure was just easier to build and that’s why everybody ended up using it they’re like where are we going to meet with god well out a high place well where are we going to get a high place let’s build it and let’s build it this way okay that’s possible it is true that sometimes people in different places all come up with the same solution because it’s the only one that makes sense has a limited number of options for deciding certain things so maybe that’s what we’re seeing here or maybe because the first people groups on Earth would have carried with them memories of the event at Babel maybe there is remembrance of that ancient construction what they had tried to accomplish and then when people spread out they did a smaller version of it and that’s why we see some of these similar structures certainly it’s not surprising that we see these things in other places based on what we read in the scriptures furthermore like with the great flood we also find Legends around the world involving the splitting of one original language in a way that’s similar to what the Bible describes I’ll give you a few of these so the kich of Guatemala they told of a time when the tribes multiplied and people left their old home for a place called tulon here they say the language changed and the people sought new homes in various parts of the world as a result of not being able to understand one another the mik tribe in northeastern India it tells of the descendants of ram who were strong men and were growing dissatisfied with Earth and aspired to conquer Heaven they began to build a tower according to One account the translation it says higher and higher Rose the building till at last the gods and demons feared lest these Giants should become Masters Of Heaven as they already were of Earth so they confounded their speech and Scattered them to the four corners of the world hence arose all the various tongues of mankind that sounds oddly familiar one more the Polynesians on the island of how said that rata and his three sons survived a great flood then here again from the translation they made an attempt to erect a building by which they could reach the sky and see the Creator God vatea but the god in Anger chased the builders away broke down the building and changed their language so that they spoke diverse tongues why do these things exist in these far-flung cultures why do these legends that sound just like the biblical account exist again a skeptic will hear these and say well this is just evidence the Bible story is a myth and it borrowed from other cultures and these other stories existed the Bible borrowed it too it’s just like these other cultures believed crazy things that we don’t believe anymore today that’s a conclusion you can make if you start with anti-biblical assumptions if you assume there’s no such thing as the Supernatural and that the Bible is not true or trustworthy but because we know by God’s grace by the revealing of God’s spirit to our hearts that the Bible is true and therefore Babel actually happened we are not surprised by this at all we would expect the memory of Babel to be taken in various cultures around the world perhaps resulting in the construction of towers similar to what the original Babel Tower would have looked like but also with the commemoration of the event that took place to change the world’s languages which is precisely what we see by the way if you’d like to hear more of these Legends connected with the Bible’s Babel account or you want to find details about the sources that I just gave to you you you can check out the article from answersingenesis.org tongue twisting Tales article is tongue twisting Tales answers genesis. org if you want to know more about that all right then so we’ve seen today that what happened 4200 years ago has affected us all pretty profoundly because of man’s prideful Rebellion we have the many different languages and people groups that we do today have you ever been frustrated that you can’t understand somebody else’s language or even if it’s somebody else in America or Britain and you say they’re using words I don’t understand or they’re using an accent that I just can’t figure out well it goes back to this ancient Rebellion we’re seeing the consequences of sin lived out in this very practical way and if we miss the Bible’s account we’re not going to understand where this came from at all let’s ask a few more questions though before we end today and we only have a little bit of time so we’ll go through this quickly next slide please and hit the first bullet point what attributes of God does this judgment of the People by confusing their language demonstrate what would you say yeah Leela As a caretaker he sees that doing something that is destructive to ourselves again protecting us from our sin yeah so you said something really interesting with the term caretaker because it seems to accompass what we think of maybe as different attributes of God on the one sense it’s his sovereignty he and and his active involvement in the world he’s not a God who spun up the clock and then disappeared no he’s like I’m paying attention what’s going on this is not good I want to do something about it and he intervened in a very obvious way and yet his intervention while in one sense it is a judgment I mean wouldn’t it be nice if we all could understand one another today and otherwis it was a mercy because he knew just as you said Lea this is not good this is not good for mankind for them to be United in prideful Rebellion against me I’m actually going to make it harder for them to unite so that it’s harder for them to come together in opposition to me it’s quite poignant and I’m sure we’re going to see this as Pastor Bobby moves along in his Revelation series that we will one day see the world United again actually two times we’re going to see the world United again but first how is the world going to become United all right when Christ comes back that’s the second one that I want to refer to there’s going to be a kind of unity there but before that Danny that’s right the Antichrist from what’s revealed in the scriptures seems to establish a one world rule or at least a Unity underneath his Rule and what does that Unity lead to it leads to apostasy it leads to Rebellion against God it leads to everyone choosing to work under Antichrist to oppose the true Christ in some ways it’s what Babel was trying to thwart what God was trying to thwart at Babel realized yet as to go back to what Glenda said it’s not as if God is against the unity of people no actually God loves unity and we as his people are commanded to be United but not in opposition to Christ but around Christ so it was a mercy that God actually thwarted man’s Unity took away the great source of Man’s power because God knew man’s sinful rebellious heart would use this against God to man’s own destruction but God we’ll talk about more in just a second God has a different purpose for his church what other attributes do we see here though we see his sovereignty we see his Mercy we see his judgment his Holiness and judgment what else imil immutability Jody right have that he is merciful he is gracious but he he will be glorified first yeah and then us saved and these are theit of it but that is old he is I don’t know ese that just above us and gives us the motivation to want to live for him because we can’t get anything right yeah so jod was explaining about God showing his character to be consistent immutable he’s what he’s already begun to reveal in the first events of Genesis he continues in that exact same character and it would go through to the end of Genesis the end of Torah throughout the Old Testament he’s the Glorious Sovereign God he’s a holy God he’s also faithful to his promises despite man’s Rebellion what had God promised I will not flood the Earth again to destroy mankind man has rebelled once again you could say well bring another flood God said I already swore I wouldn’t do that so I’m going to do something different and it was it was a merciful even though it was judgment it was also merciful because God had other promises to see realize the seed of the woman in opposition to the seed of The Serpent and one from the seed of the woman who would come and defeat the serpent so all those things are still being preserved despite this terrible Rebellion at Babel this Glory this attempt at glory snatching from God but God proves himself faithful he proves his character to be consistent obviously he shows his power by command he turns the the whole earth into chaos he reprograms each person’s brain to speak and understand a new language only God has that kind of power and we see his faithfulness we see his patience and compassion I’m sure other things too we only have about one minute so I’m sorry I have to just briefly mention two other things uh next next two bullets please as we began to lud to there is something interesting about how life in Christ interacts with the curse of Babel and that is that we return to Unity in Christ and we return to power power that’s not simply based on people who Excel and various things all coming together to work for a a common purpose but power that comes from the spirit of God himself it’s so interesting that what man was attempting to be in his own Twisted way God actually wants the church to be in a holy and beautiful way we are to be as United rather even more united than the people of Babel were because we are united in Christ and this Unity does not depend notice and this is even more glorious right this Unity does not depend on having the same language or the same culture it is in having the same Lord having that same salvation and that same love for God for his people and for those who do not yet know God our power is not based off of human intelligence and creativity it is based on the wisdom of God and his life-giving Spirit if we’ve received this how are we responding to that gift are we truly United with our Brothers and Sisters in Christ are we about the one purpose that God has left us with to work out the gospel in our own Holiness in the teaching of Jesus word in the declaration and the Commandment of other people in the world to repent are we all about that one purpose because if we are more than Babel we will exhibit the power of God this is the main reason that we are still on the earth is that we might be United about finishing the work that Jesus left us to do and this should be another motivation for our own Holiness because whatever is Unholy is going to hurt the unity and hurt the purpose that God has left us to do as I said God is not against man’s Unity he’s only against it when it is against Christ God demands Unity from us even each part working together for the advancement of all through the spirit through the teaching of Christ and through his love so our Race’s rebellious history is tragic but Christ is wondrous he indeed makes all things new he he does it in the church and we will see it realize an even Fuller way in the world to come as we hear in Revelation 79 to 12 in the future save persons from every tribe tongue and Nation will give glory to God not themselves give glory to God because he is worthy even specifically glory to Jesus Christ all right I know there were some other good comments maybe questions come share those with me afterwards or send me an email but that’s all for today and that’s all for this course thank you for your participation in our study of consequences of sin in Genesis 3:11 Sunday school is going to be taking a break for the summer we’ll be back in September with a new series it’ll get more details about that later in the summer let’s pray to end Lord God you are powerful You Are Holy you are good Lord we know what it is like to seek our own Glory we are not so different from those people of ancient Babel because we have done that through so much of our lives but God you’ve opened our eyes to the one who is truly glorious and you’ve shown us that we have no glory in ourselves we have only shame you are the Glorious one but you allow us amazingly God you exalt us to place of honor in Jesus Christ but Lord we want to be all about you and not ourselves forgive us where we are about ourselves help us to repent of that God help us to be United in seeking you and seeking your commission even here at Calvary I pray God that be a reality that grows more and more and more as we love you more and as we become more well equipped with the wisdom of your word to live out your purposes in Jesus name amen amen thank you everyone WRA yeah I was hoping so too f tell is is this