10 Minute Bible Journey, The. Dale Mason

Чтение книги онлайн.

      —8—

      THE TOWER OF BABEL

      (c. 2242 B.C.)

      Sometimes, God has to move us out of our comfort zone.

More than one hundred years had passed since Noah left the Ark1 and much had happened!

The fossil record reveals that there were many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions as the movement of the continents slowed in the decades after the Flood.2 Even so, forests and abundant vegetation spread across the warm and well-watered areas near the equator. Immense ice sheets and glaciers began to form near the poles. Animals continued to spread across the earth. And four generations of Noah’s family may have totaled thousands of men, women, and children.3

Noah was now over 700 years old. His three sons were all about 200. Each had the opportunity — the spiritual responsibility as husbands and fathers — to ensure that their children and grandchildren knew and could pass down the truth about creation, how sin and death started, and the promised coming Redeemer who will crush Satan and be the once-and-for-all ultimate sacrifice.4

However, in the four generations since the Flood, something began to go drastically wrong. The people did not spread out and instead settled in a region called Shinar, probably in modern-day Iraq.5

      One can easily imagine how this rebellion against God’s command to fill the earth may have come about.

Beginning with Adam and Eve, everyone apparently spoke the same language. This made it easy for ancient people to build on the substantial knowledge and experiences of others, which helped them to achieve so much so quickly.6

Much of the pre-Flood knowledge — such as Cain’s experience as a city-builder, and Tubal-cain’s skill with brass and iron — was passed from Noah and his sons to their descendants.7 However, when those entrusted with great knowledge do not seek to honor the Creator and adjust their lives to live according to His plan, God is not pleased. This was the case just four generations after the Flood, when Noah and his sons were still living.

During the time of Noah’s great-great-great grandson Peleg,8 the people were constructing a city with a very distinctive tower.9 Genesis 11 says that they wanted to make a name for themselves10 by building a structure to help them reach to the heavens, perhaps under the guise of being a place to sacrifice to God. It was likely a towering pyramid-like ziggurat.11

Before Babel was finished,12 God confused the people with new languages. Scholars say that around 90 different root-languages originated in this middle-eastern region, and that the 7,500 languages and dialects of today all came from those.13 Since God normally works through families, such as Noah’s, it is likely that each immediate family spoke the same language. There may have been multiple families per language.

No longer able to communicate with those who suddenly spoke differently, and unable to finish the city, the different groups spread out and moved to other parts of the world. Now separated by language, the people expanded their domains and eventually established nations and empires. They took their knowledge of tower building with them, as evidenced by the many ziggurats, pyramids, and tower mounds in countries near and far.14

      It was at this time that the human gene pool was split apart and physical characteristics in the various groups became distinctive. A wide variety of facial bone structures, skin tones from very dark to very light, different textures and colors of hair, eye shape, and other features started to be dominant in various language groups and the regions where those groups settled.

Today we mistakenly call groups with distinctive features races. However, the Bible is clear that we are all of one blood, and only one race exists — the human race.15

      PRIMARY PASSAGES

      Gen. 11

      KEY VERSE

      “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.” Gen. 11:9

      WRAP UP

      “Lord, when I think of men on the Tower of Babel working and talking side by side, I think of how dependent they were on each other for safety. One moment they were talking and the next they were stunned because they were hearing gibberish! Fear would have grown quickly, and so would distrust. The people would have broken into groups based on who they could understand. That was a gentle way of forcing them to move out and begin filling the earth, as You commanded a century earlier! Thank You for your grace and patience then, and now, dear Lord.”

      1 “Renowned chronologist Archbishop James Ussher placed the time of Babel at 106 years after the Flood because an ancient historian (Manetho) placed it 5 years after Peleg was born (Peleg was born 101 years after the Flood). Although this may not be the exact date, it is in range because Peleg was in the fourth generation after the Flood.” www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab2/was-babel-dispersion-real-event, as accessed February 2017.

      2 “. . . it appears that volcanic eruptions and earthquakes were greatest during the Flood and then gradually weakened to today’s intensity. These early post-Flood catastrophes had the power to cause enormous geologic change, including massive erosion, altered landscapes, and deposits of sediment layers thousands of feet thick.” From Answers magazine, “Continuing Catastrophes,” by geologist Dr. John Whitmore, accessed February 2017, at https://answersingenesis.org/geology/catastrophism/continuing-catastrophes.

      3 Author’s draft calculation: The base generation (gen0) consisted of Noah and three sons and their four wives; gen0 = 8 adults. Then within only about 106 years from Flood to dispersion at Tower of Babel, four generations were born (Genesis 10:25). Following extrapolates 4 generations of population, using the known number of children born to Noah’s children as the basis. Gen.1 — Shem, Japheth, Ham — had 16 sons + presumably 16 daughters = 32 gen1 kids so an average of 10.75 children to each of Noah’s 3 sons. Then if the 16 gen1 couples each also had 10.75 children = 172.25 gen2 kids (86 couples), then 10.75 x 86 gen2 couples = 924 gen3 kids (462 couples), then 10.75 x 462 gen3 couples = 4966 gen4 kids (2,483 couples), which totals 5,890 people at time of dispersion (4966 + 924 = 5,890 total of gen4 + gen3). For generations 5–9 (up to the time of Abraham’s generation) the number of offspring is reduced here by 33% to allow for the assumption that the dispersed families would have fewer children during the harsh conditions of migration/moving and the stresses of the rapid Ice Age. During the rapid Ice Age; gen5 kids after dispersion could have been 7.203 x 2483 gen4 couples = 17,885 gen5 kids. NOTE: Draft calculation is continued to Gen.10 in endnotes associated with chapter 10, “God’s Covenant with Abram.”

      СКАЧАТЬ