The Scattering At Babel

by T.M. Hyland, Birkenhead | Category: Studies In Genesis | May 1973

In previous articles in this series we have traced the early history of man from his creation and fall to the Flood. It is a sad and shameful story. So rapidly and completely did the human family become corrupted by sin that there was no alternative but devastating judgement. Thus ended the first great epoch in human history:

"God ... spared not the ancient world, but ... brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly" (2 Pet. 2:4,5).

But God was bound by promise to send 8 Deliverer who would crush Adam's conqueror (Gen. 3:15), so He "preserved Noah with seven others" and moved forward to the next stage in His great plan of redemption. Each stage of that plan was a divine initiative and was fiercely contested by His great adversary, Satan. God, however, was always a move ahead. The Eden promise was the pledge of the triune Jehovah, resting for its execution in His unerring wisdom, power and love. The details of the plan would unfold gradually through the millenniums of human history.

After the waters of the Flood had subsided God made a covenant with Noah and his sons. A new age had begun. The special features of the Noachian covenant were:

(1)An assurance that the present earth would be preserved for the fulfilment of God's saving purpose: "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" (Gen. 8:22).

(2)Man's authority over nature was re-affirmed but not in its original majesty as enjoyed by Adam in his unfallen state. Fear, not deference, would be the basis of man's lordship aver the animal world.

(3)Governmental powers for mankind were authorized. Violence was to be restrained by the introduction of capital punishment for the murderer.

(4)The rainbow was set in the clouds as the sign of divine faithfulness.

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. There were to be three main divisions of the human family, descending from each of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth. The plan for this dispersal is laid down in Genesis chapter 10. Students of ancient history have given close study to this remarkable chapter which, according to Canon G. Rawlinson, M.A., is "the earliest ethnographical essay" extant. We do not attempt to examine in detail the divine plan for the dispersal of mankind. Our principal concern in this article is to view the scattering at Babel in the wider concept of God's dealings with men. (Those desirous of studying the ethnic aspect of this subject are referred to Canon Rawlinson's careful treatise in his Origin of Nations (1877); and to four helpful articles in Volume 1 of Needed Truth, "Sketches of Ancient History" by W.H. Hunter. See also article "Table of Nations" in IVF New Bible Dictionary.)

The attempt by mankind to frustrate God's plan that they should spread abroad in the earth (Gen. 11:1-9) is the outstanding event in this period of man's history. It reveals that when entrusted with governmental authority men proceeded to unite in rebellion against their Creator. The plain in the land of Shinar was the site of this daring act of defiance. There the first post-deluvian city was founded and the great tower, the symbol of mankind's political aspirations, was devised. The intention is clearly indicated:

"And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (Gen. 11:4).

Sad indeed! The corruption of man's nature through sin, demonstrated in the moral collapse which incurred the judgement of the Flood, now manifested itself in organized rebellion against God. Man aspired to develop a society of his own devising, with God outside. What madness I Yet the delusion of which Babel was the germ has been fostered throughout the ages of human history. It has brought great civilizations to ruin; it is one of the most convincing external proofs of the exceeding sinfulness of sin.

But in spite of man's affront God was still at work for his eventual blessing. He had already chosen the location where He would work out His redeeming purpose - a coastal strip of land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. God's plan for the post-deluvian epoch was to divide mankind into nations and spread them out around this centre. The significance of this divine preparatory operation is expressed by Moses in his inspired song:

"When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,

When He separated the children of men,

He set the bounds of the peoples

According to the number of the children of Israel"

(Deut. 32:8).

This divine commentary on the events recorded in Genesis 10 and 11 reveals, (1) that the land allocated to each of the nations was an inheritance from the Most High, and (2) that there was divine control; the bounds of the peoples being set in relation to the number of the children of Israel - a nation as yet unborn. God's chosen people would eventually occupy a land which, geographically and politically, would be the hub of His purposes for this earth. (Note Ezek. 38:12, where the land of Israel is described as "the middle of the earth".) To that land and from that people, in the fulness of time, the Redeemer would come to fulfil the Eden promise.

The attempt to frustrate God's plan for the dispersal of mankind in the earth was Satan-inspired; an early counter-move by His adversary. It was futile. God thwarted it, not by an overt act of judgement but by the simple means of the confusion of tongues. This proved a most effective method of bringing their project to an ignoble end:

"So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth"

(Gen. 11:8,9).

From a cursory reading of Genesis chapter 11 it might be construed that the scattering at Babel was indiscriminate and that mankind drifted whither they would. This is clearly not the case. There was divine overruling. The movement of mankind followed the plan laid down by God in Genesis chapter 10 (see Table Of The Nations, page 70).

As we have already observed, the 'Babel' idea has persisted throughout human history, and ungodly men down the ages have been enamoured with it. The Hebrew word for 'Babel' (elsewhere translated, Babylon) stands in Scripture as the symbol of human federation in opposition to God. The first great ungodly leader to found a kingdom by conquest with this in view was Nimrod:

"Nimrod ... began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD.... And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel" (Gen. 10:8-10).

This, of course, was not the unfinished city of Genesis 11: "As the Babel builders, when their speech was confounded, were scattered abroad, and therefore deserted both the city and the tower which they commenced to build, Babylon as a city could not properly be said to exist till Nimrod, by establishing his power there, made it the foundation and the starting point of his greatness" (Hislop). The last great rebellion against God and His Christ will take place in the same area (Rev. 16:12-21). The movement which began so long ago in the plain of Shinar will reach its zenith in the great political-commercial-religious combine at the end-time. The apostle John saw its final destruction in vision: "Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath" (Rev. 16:19).

We have now covered in this series of articles the first eleven chapters of Genesis. In this small space we are given a condensed record of man's early history, and the first steps God took to retrieve the tragedy of the Fall. The record is unmistakably endorsed by the testimony of our Lord in the days of His flesh. The divine purpose in giving us this history at the beginning of His word is clear. He has been at work for man's redemption ever since "the reign of sin began". Nothing will deflect Him from it. Man is in bondage to sin. He is not only incapable of self-redemption but has no desire to be freed from his bondage. Further, as this early record shows, he has allowed himself to be led by Satan to oppose God's saving purpose. All this exposes the fearfulness of his fall, and shows that he can only be saved from its consequences by divine grace.

As we view the history of salvation from its early beginnings to its glorious consummation we can but reiterate Paul's fervent doxology:

"0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgements, and His ways past tracing out I ... For of Him, and through Him, and unto Him, are all things. To Him be the glory for ever. Amen" (Rom. 11:33,36).

T.M. Hyland, Birkenhead | May 1973
Studies In Genesis