Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19990822.htm

GENESIS: THE SOURCES OF GOOD AND CALAMITY IN OUR ORIGINS
Part II - The Source Of Calamity In Our Origins
I. Adjusting To God's Restraint On World Apostasy In Splitting Up The World's Nations
(Genesis 10:1-11:9)
  1. Introduction
    1. Many times in history there has been talk or efforts toward creating a single world government.
    2. However, various events and circumstances have restrained this unification from coming to fruition.
    3. Scripture explains just why there has been a restraint on such an effort, and how we should respond to it:
  2. Adjusting To God's Restraint On World Apostasy In Splitting Up The World's Nations.
    1. After the Noahic Flood, the descendants of Noah's three sons spread out upon the earth as follows:
      1. First, the sons of Japheth fathered mainly the Causasian race and spread out northwards from Israel, Gen. 10:1-5; Bib. Know. Com., O.T., p. 42. They included the Scythians, the Medes east of Assyria, the Hellenic peoples, the far northern Russian and Germanic peoples, and the Greeks, I bid.
      2. Second, the sons of Ham fathered the peoples who descended south into Africa, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to Gen. 10:6-20. These also included the Egyptians and Canaanites.
      3. Third, the sons of Shem fathered mainly the Semitic peoples of Mesopotamian regions and the area north of the Persian Gulf, Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Gen. 10:21-32.
    2. Just after the Flood, the world's peoples spoke one language and were in close contact, Gen. 11:1.
    3. At this point, apparently Nimrod, one of Ham's sons, proudly sought to unite the world under his lead in kind of a repetition of his ancestor, Ham's Genesis 9:22 effort (see last lesson):
      1. The event recorded in Genesis 11:2-9 occurred at a place called Babel according to Genesis 11:8-9, and that city was begun under Nimrod, one of the prominent sons of Ham according to Genesis 10:6, 8-10a.
      2. Excavations of Babylon confirm that the city was the ancient Babel of Genesis 11 as follows:
        1. Ancient records say Babylon was built by the process listed in Gen. 11:3, Ibid., B.K.C., O.T., p. 44.
        2. The Babylonian step-like tower ziggurat believed to have been first erected in Babylon, was said to have its top in the heavens similar to the desired claim of the tower made in Genesis 11:4, Ibid.
        3. This tower became a center for worship as it had a miniature temple at its top, Ibid.
        4. The Babylonians proudly claimed their city was built in heaven by the gods as a celestial city, Ibid. in citing Enuma Elish VI, lines 55-64, Ibid.. This pride is like the Gen. 11:3-4 account of man's claim to build the city and tower to keep man united and resisting God's call to fill the earth, cf. Gen. 9:1!
      3. Well, under Nimrod, there was a push to unite the world, Gen. 11:2-4; since Nimrod founded Babel (Gen. 10 :6-10a), he was going to use this unity to lead the world in opposition to God!
    4. God reacted to counter Nimrod's apostasy, splitting man up linguistically and geographically as follows:
      1. God surveyed this Genesis 11 effort, concluding it would lead to a fast-track to world apostasy, 11:6.
      2. Accordingly, God first confounded the unity by creating many languages, leading the people groups to be more inclined to spread out from one another to fill the earth, Gen. 11:7. This effort stopped the united effort to build the city as the people scattered from one another upon the landscape, Gen. 11:8.
      3. Then it appears God split up what had been a single continent, making sure that the people groups would remain separate on the earth in a further restraint of this Nimrodian apostasy, Gen. 10:25:
        1. Peleg, the fifth generation after the Flood from Shem, was named for the dividing of the earth, 10:25; elsewhere in Scripture, the verb, "palag" is used to speak of the division of languages, Ibid.
        2. However, the segholate noun, "Peleg" in Hebrew which exactly mimics Peleg's name means a ditch of water that divides land, cf. Brown, Driver, Briggs, Hebrew-English Lexicon, p. 811.
        3. Thus, I believe God split the land mass up into continents and began drifting them apart at such a rate of speed that within Peleg's lifetime, one could not see one land mass from another, Gen. 10:25. That would preserve the separation of people groups and further restrain apostasy's advance.
Lesson: GOD forcibly led to man's distancing himself geographically and linguistically upon the earth in order to RESTRAIN man's development of rebellion against him. Thus, WE should not try to unite man EXTERNALLY by political or ecumenical means as Nimrod tried, but only by GOD'S proper means, through personal salvation by faith in CHRIST, John 17:16, 20-21 in light of Matt. 28:19-20.