Genesis 11
Bible Passage: Genesis 11
It’s about the beginning of racial, language, ethnic and cultural diversity. And the beginning of the Jewish nation (the Jewish nation came from Shem).
I recently saw this when I was surfing a church’s website:
“Addressing the capacity crowd of 1,500 people, Senior Pastor *bleep* encouraged the believers to answer the calling of God to be light of the world and salt of the earth by actively engaging pop culture.”
If you can’t beat them, join them!?
When like-minded people come together, a herd instinct plays out in their speech and actions. All you need is an influential leader and the rest will be willing followers. It is hence foreboding to have fellow groupies with selfish or misguided motivation because they will only heighten and enhance each other’s ill intentions or poor judgement. That is why God tells us to constantly renew ourselves (Rom 12:2; Eph 4:23; Col 3:10) and to discern.
We would have thought the people who lived in the post-flood generations would be more careful with how they lived, more prudent, seeking and learning more about God. They would have heard from their grand-dads or great great great grand parents (the average life expectancy then was around 600 years old) accounts of how God destroyed the earth by the great flood because of man’s sins.
Through the great flood, God gave man the opportunity of a new beginning. Man not only did not take it further and improved, he went back to his old ways.
When it came to the time of Nimrod, it was believed that it was his descendants who formed the city and started this ambitious project to create a tower that reached to the skies.
Why was God so upset by this project? Was His intervention necessary? Read Gen11:4. It is mentioned in Nelson’s Study Bible that the people wanted to become famous as the Nephilim (giants) were before the flood. Motivated by arrogance, they wanted to make a name for themselves and embarked on an absurd and dangerous project. God saw their pride and ignorance and did them a favour by confusing their language and hence forcing them to disperse.
Strange how we never learn from our past mistakes. Even when we were punished for them. The lusts, temptations and pride in this life all work to desensitize us and draw us slowly away from God’s beautiful plan for us. It must be difficult to overcome these 3 evils drawing simply from the fact that it is so easy to fall right into them. It takes more than a hurried prayer to pull ourselves out of the rut and start anew.
But we must try – harder. For when we are baptised, it is the dawn of a new beginning. When we resolve to repent of our sins, it is a new beginning. When we choose to rid of our various poor habits, it is a brand new start!
A Chinese saying goes “A good beginning means you are well on your way to success”. When we think of beginnings e.g. first day in a new school, new job, new posting, our hopes run high, expectations are high, we set very high standards for ourselves, we start on a clean slate, placing only the choicest selections on that shiny new slate. This is a good mindset to adopt in each of our undertakings, and in facing each new day. Even God’s mercy and compassion are new every morning!
I’d like to leave you with these verses:
Is 40:31
“But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
Lam 3:22-24
“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning,
Great is Your faithfulness.
‘The Lord is my portion’, says my soul,
Therefore I hope in Him!”
2 Comments
lee
This has something to do with the ages of the decendents of Shem. Surprisingly, Shem outlived 9 of the 10 decendents stated here, including Abraham himself. Only 11:16-17 (Eber) outlived Shem. Jacob himself was born during the lifetime of Shem if the Math was not done wrong. Most of the people then would have heard about the Flood, as the people who had been on the flood were still around. However, at this time, the tower of Babel was built. This showed a sign of unrepentence. We today are the same. We have to be wary of such, even though we have much of God’s power and seen the works of the Holy Spirit, however this is a warning that we might be having defience to God’s word. This can be in work, school or even in church, where we do not do the right thing that God wants us to.
PS
Noah was still alive when Abraham was born.
Noah died when Abraham was about sixty years old.
i always wonder how did Abraham cultivate his faith in God, the Creator.
Just share my childish imagination:
And the word of God was rare in those days; there were no widespread revelation. And it came to pass at that time, while Noah (>890 years old) was lying down in his place, and when his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he could not see, and Abram was lying down, the God called Abram. And he answered,”Here I am!” So he ran to Noah and said,”Here I am, for you called me.” And Noah said,”I did not call; lie down again.” And Abram went and lay down.
(Now Abram did not yet know God nor was the word of God yet revealed to him.) Then God called to Abram the third tme. So he arose and went to Noah. Then Noah perceived that God has called to the boy.
After this incident, Noah decided to tell Abram the story of creation, the great flood and all the great things which God has done for man before he breathed his last.
May be this was how Noah passed his faith in God to Abraham.
Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.(Gen 6:9)
Before Noah died, by the mercy of God, he passed on his faith to his great-great-great..-grandson.