Genesis 11:1-4--The People Refuse to be Dispersed

Genesis 11:1-4
World English Bible

11 The whole earth was of one language and of one speech. 2 As they traveled east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there. 3 They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. 4 They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”

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I mentioned last time how the map would make a little more sense why there were little bits of the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth all in the same little region of the plains of Shinar.  It is because this is the region they all travelled to when they were as one people with one language after the Flood.  Though God had told them to be fruitful and multiply and spread out over the entire earth and have dominion over it and fill it, these people rebelled against the LORD's command and said that they instead wanted to build a city for themselves with a great tower reaching to the heavens (they wanted to get to heaven by their own strength and works) and they believed that if they could ascend to heaven, they might even be strong enough to overthrow God and take over control of heaven and earth from Him.  This sounds a lot like the plot of Satan to get a one-third of the angels of heaven together and try to usurp the throne of heaven from God.

This is not just an act of physical rebellion, but of spiritual rebellion too.  The people are back to saying that they will refuse to let the LORD tell them what to do because they want to be in control of their own lives and they imagine they can do as good or better of a job at it than God can.  They want to steal the glory and honor that are due only to Him and claim it for themselves, and God shares His glory with no one.  They believe that if they control all the leavers of power and if they can unite together as the whole world, they will be strong enough to put an end to the LORD's people and the LORD's plan.

This place and its name will be chosen by the Anitchrist and his kingdom to represent his philosophy and goals for his worldwide government and religious systems.  It will be a system of organized rebellion based off of the rebellion that started here in Genesis 11.  It will be this event that will lead to the peoples being divided and their tongues (languages) being divided, which will force them to spread out into different people groups across the face of the entire earth just like the LORD commanded.  We'll see that part of the story next time.

I forgot to mention last time that it is interesting to compare the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 with the list of nations assembled in Acts 2 for Pentecost.  The church is planted in all these regions in a single day as God redeems a people for himself from every tongue, tribe and nation listed in the Table of Nations.  Our world has become even more divided than since the days of Genesis 10 though with more languages and people groups --some of which don't even have a written language to this day.  There are missionaries from many different organizations working to take the gospel to every tribe, tongue, and nation, but two great organizations you can support that are doing the work of language training and Bible translation are Home - Wycliffe Bible Translators USA Homepage and JAARS (they work together on this mission).  I also highly recommend the work of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board - IMB (which you help support through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Cooperative Program if you are part of a part of a Southern Baptist church.  There is also much that is being done through our Home - North American Mission Board by supporting our seminaries, church plants, disaster relief, military chaplains and missionaries to reach the unreached people groups right around us here in North America (because many times the nations are coming to us for education and employment).  You can support the work of the NAMB through the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering.  You can find prayer guides on these pages to help you pray for various missionaries and you can give direct support to these efforts in addition to the portion of your regular gifts that go to these organizations through the SBC's Cooperative Program.