Towards Division At Babel

by D.J. Webster, Liverpool, England | Category: Across The Bible Centuries | Mar 1988

"But God Remembered Noah1"

The God who, because of His holiness, must declare "I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins"2 is also the God about whom, because of His mercy, the prophet was able to declare "You do not stay angry for ever but delight to show mercy"3. Such was Noah's God.

Noah, the preacher of righteousness4, having known the reality of God's judgment upon all unrighteousness and having experienced God's salvation, stepped into an empty world accompanied by the promises of a merciful God:

Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.

As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never ceases.

The covenant with Noah is not based on the assumption that from now on all will be well; on the contrary it is made unconditionally in spite of God being fully aware of the sinful nature of man. We are reminded at the outset of this period of God's love, grace and faithfulness6.

Although there are echoes of God's words to Adam in this covenant, the entry of sin into the world brought permanent changes for man in his relationship to the creation. His authority is reaffirmed, but now fear of man rather than man's dominion over them will keep wild beasts at bay. Permission is granted for him to eat meat and the prospect of unrestrained violence is tempered by the provision:

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.7

This may be viewed as divine authority for capital punishment for murder, and the wider recognition of the inevitable consequences of a disrespect for human life, which is in the image of God. In forbidding retaliation during His arrest the Lord Jesus declared, "For all who draw the sword will die by the sword".5

"According to the number of the sons of Israel"9

While the origin of the human race was with one man and one woman, the genealogical tables in Genesis 10 confirm that this new beginning was from the three sons of Noah and their wives and "from these the nations spread out over the earth after the Flood".10 The human race, for all the diversity of colour, race and language, is therefore one, an important consideration in understanding the doctrine of the gospel in the New Testament.

The Word of God also reveals that God was at work overruling this natural development: "It was clearly the divine intention that as mankind multiplied after the flood they should disperse and occupy various territories in the earth according to their ethnic affinities".11 This is true in two distinct ways: firstly in the scattering of the nations, some into biblical obscurity, others into the positions they were to occupy as the central theme of the Bible developed with a selected individual, a selected family and a selected people; secondly in the selection of that branch of the Semitic peoples traced through Arphaxad from whom Abraham was to be born. It was said to Abraham that "all peoples on earth shall be blessed through you". As the Japhethites and Hamites are considered first to make way for a fuller treatment of the descendants of Shem, we realize that the nations of the world owe their importance and their geographical situation only to the' way they relate to Israel. This is expressed in the Song of Moses:

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, When He divided all mankind, He set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.9

Our God displays His power in setting the scene early in history for the redemption of mankind. He prepares the way for the nation of Israel to enter the land of promise and for the Gentile nations to take up their positions in relation to Israel. Thus He leads to the climax of His purposes of which Paul wrote:

"When the time had fully come, God sent His Son". 12

Disciples of the Lord Jesus are "not of the world". They are commanded to say, "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to renounce friendship with the world which promotes so much that is wrong, and neither knows nor desires to know the will of God.

The true nature of sin revealed

A popular view of sin (accompanied by an equally popular refusal to call it sin) is that it is entirely a product of environment and background. The record of developing spiritual decline outlined in Genesis 9 to 11 shows that this is not so, though such factors do undoubtedly exert an influence, and confirms the biblical revelation that sin is a chronic internal disorder of mankind. A fresh beginning in a clean environment unpolluted by sinful ideas and unpopulated by sinful men and women, with the exception of the eight survivors of the Hood, provides a unique opportunity to observe this. The resulting degeneration displays the truth that all have sinned; as Scroggie puts it, "They took sin into the ark, and they brought it out in themselves" 13

Before very long the picture emerges of sin at work in the human mind and body. First of all, in the sorry spectacle of the great man Noah lying in a drunken stupor and in the disrespectful and dishonouring acts of his son Ham, we see how sin affects individuals. How much there is to guard against even in the lives of those professing godliness and who have known the salvation of God in a dramatic way in their lives. The lesson is clear: "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fail!"14

Thereafter there is Nimrod, a mighty warrior and a mighty hunter "before the LORD". As Kidner points out he is "remembered for two things

the world admires, personal prowess and political power".15 We are left to draw our own conclusions about this great imperialist whose undoubted skill and ingenuity were used not in the pursuit of righteousness and peace but of fame and conquest. That he is credited with founding Babylon suggests that He is to be viewed in the same way as that infamous city which in Scripture symbolizes all that is wicked and stands in opposition to the will of God. Such is the way of the world comprising, according to John, "the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes arid the boasting of what he has and does".16 None of these things comes from the Father and we are assured that they are passing away. Disciples of the Lord Jesus are "not of the world".17 They are commanded to say, "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to renounce friendship with the world which promotes so much that is wrong, and neither knows nor desires to know the will of God.18

An attempt to frustrate the Almighty

When we come to the "city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens" project it is not an individual whose arrogance is in focus, but collective rebellion against God. The aim seems to be the establishment of a centre for the exaltation of mankind, with God left out. Such folly is fundamentally misdirected, for "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails".19 Throughout the ages the energies of man have again and again been directed towards prestigious projects with the same ends in view; firstly to make a name for themselves and secondly to be masters of their own destiny in opposition to the will of God. God had decreed that they should be scattered - they decided they would not be scattered!

The influencing factor was progress, but their perishable and unsatisfactory man-made materials speak of the nature of such progress, which is Out of step with the great mind of Almighty God. True progress comes from submission to the will of God, following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Humility is a key condition.20

God's reaction to this pride and arrogance is threefold: (1) He sees. Just as the Lord came down to enjoy fellowship with the man He had created,21 so now He came down to observe what man was doing. This not only shows that nothing can be hidden from God, but also emphasizes the smallness of their great project.

(2) He is one step ahead. Not being bound by the limitations of time, God will always be able to see the effect of any proposed course of action and so to overrule that what He purposes will come about. Nebuchadnezzar, centuries later, learned about God that "He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No-one can hold back His hand "22

(3) He pronounces judgement. Judgement belongs to God23 and though He delights to show mercy, man cannot challenge the authority of God and get away with it. God's judgement is shown to be effective, and the half-built city bears testimony to the futility of opposition to God.

This period, which began with the Lord taking the initiative, making promises, granting rights and privileges and issuing commands, concludes with the Lord still in control of His purposes. We can rejoice that nothing is able to deflect that which God is doing, which is central to the history of this world, the preservation of the "seed of the woman" in the redemptive purposes of God.

D.J. Webster, Liverpool, England | Mar 1988
Across The Bible Centuries