Genesis 11:10-32

2006.Dec.17 19:43

Trudging to Abram

Read Genesis 11:10-32 | Full Chapter

You know you’re about to have fun when you read a line like this:

Two years after the flood, when Shem was one hundred, he had a son named Arpachshad. He had more children and died at the age of six hundred. This is a list of his descendants…
(Genesis 11:10-11, CEV)

Yes, my friends, it’s Biblical fast-forward time. Here we jump through about ten generations, from Shem to Abram. A few interesting (to me) notes:

1. Shem’s son Arpachshad is born when Shem is 100. After that, fathers are in their late twenties or thirties when the son in this line is born (not clear to me whether it’s always the first son), until Terah, Abram’s father. Terah has children "[a]fter [he] was seventy years old" (Genesis 11:26, CEV) .

2. Shem lives to 600; after that, there is a general trend of decreasing lifespans to Nahor, who lives 148 years. Terah jumps back up to 205, but the general trend suggests that lifespans moved towards “modern” levels somewhat gradually, but in only a dozen or so generations, after the flood.

3. If I did my math right, Shem was about 556 when Terah died. Arpachshad, Shem’s son, was also still alive, at a sprite 425, with 13 years left. As was Shela, Shem’s grandson, now 390. Eber, Shem’s great-grandson, was also living. The next four generations, up to Terah, had died. That’s if I did the math right, but that strikes me as interesting, and segueys nicely, to:

Abram grew up with a lot of his ancestors still alive, including Shem, who had been on the boat. That’s a pretty cool thought to me, and I like to think that is part of the reason Abram grew into the Abraham mentioned in Hebrews:

Abraham had faith and obeyed God. He was told to go to the land that God had said would be his, and he left for a country he had never seen.
(Hebrews 11:8, CEV)

In any event, it is Terah, not Abram, who first makes toward Canaan. However, he settles in Haran, and never sees his destination.

Terah decided to move from Ur to the land of Canaan. He took along Abram and Sarai and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran. But when they came to the city of Haran, they decided to settle there instead.
(Genesis 11:31, CEV)

This decision to settle is left unexplained here. But, I read this chapter with a sense of inevitable movement towards God’s next covenant. God made a covenant with the flood’s survivors in Genesis 9, and the next recorded covenant is with Abraham. This chapter bridges those generations. Certainly many things took place between those begats, but one of the major themes of Genesis is the covenants God makes with humanity, and, typically, humanity botching their part.

The covenant with Abraham has an extra sense of promise to me, and perhaps that’s why I feel something of a narrative break at this point. Genesis can certainly be read as a prolouge to the history of Israel, which is the subject of the remainder of the Old Testament, and central to the New Testament. But for me, Genesis 11 is the end of the prologue, and I think it’s because starting with Abraham, I see the promise of Christ as the head of God’s people. But, that may just be me.

Genesis 11:2-9

2006.Dec.09 13:13

Long Division

Read Genesis 11:2-9 | Full Chapter

I’d like to start by quoting myself

[A]ny unity between humans tends to result first in greater sin against God, then in division with each other. It is that we humans, in our quest for godhood, will ally ourselves with those we deem less powerful (up to all other humans) in order to prove our godhood against Him who most certainly is greater.

Bearing that thought in mind:

[The settlers in Babylonia] said: Let’s build a city with a tower that reaches to the sky! We’ll use hard bricks and tar instead of stone and mortar. We’ll become famous, and we won’t be scattered all over the world.But when the LORD came down to look at the city and the tower, he said:These people are working together because they all speak the same language. This is just the beginning. Soon they will be able to do anything they want.
(Genesis 11:3-6, CEV)

God’s solution is to make the people speak different languages,

So the people had to stop building the city, because the LORD confused their language and scattered them all over the earth. That’s how the city of Babel got its name.
(Genesis 11:8-9, CEV)

The settlers are a group of Noah’s descendents who have stopped in Babylonia ("a plain in the land of Shinar" (Genesis 11:2, KJV) ). Having settled for a moment, they decide to build a large, brick tower. Their stated goals are two-fold:

1. To be known by other groups of people (to be famous).
2. To retain their group’s unity; perhaps under the assumption that this tower would be an easily identifiable gathering point.

My statement above discusses humanity unifying in sin against Jehovah, but it initially seems a leap from the building of this tower with the above purposes to some sort of attack against God. The first goal is not really noble, and certainly implies pride, but who hasn’t longed for a bit of fame? (Probably lots of people, but lets ignore them for the sake of cheesy rhetoric, ‘kay?) The second point can be seen as a pretty good thing.

The clarity of this group’s sin can be seen in omission. There is no record of this group at all acknowledging Jehovah. They are using new technologies and their “unity” to build something that is about themselves and for their own purposes; they rely on other humans instead of God (possibly each saying to him/herself that he/she is using the others).

God, in reviewing the construction, makes a fascinating statement: “Soon they will be able to do anything they want.” I have to assume that this is not an admission of potential omnipotence of humanity, but rather that God sees how humans will convince themselves of their omnipotence. In fame and power (e.g. via technology), this group would more easily ignore God in their own self-worship and perceived self-sufficiency.

To confront this, Jehovah confuses their language and scatters the group “all over the earth”. In this case God directly divides up the settlers, although this usually is an activity humans perform on our own. Without this “unity”, and in particular without the ability to effectively communicate, Jehovah causes humans to reveal to ourselves our own self-destructiveness and impotence; that is, to see our godhood for what it is: a lie built on pride. As I said in my last entry, God clearly desires intra-human unity, but it must be built on a relationship with Him to be true unity. History clearly demonstrates that what we normally call unity is really explotation. God, instead, desires a body which works together and acknowledges the need for each part to be working in harmony. And, then, a shared language will be a blessing, not a tool for the most proud and ambitious to exploit those slightly less-so.

Genesis 11:1

2006.Dec.02 14:36

At First

Read Genesis 11 | Full Chapter

At first everyone spoke the same language
(Genesis 11:1, CEV)

Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.
(Genesis 11:1, NASB)

AND THE whole earth was of one language and of one accent and mode of expression.
(Genesis 11:1, AMP)

Imagine this sort of world. Every human (once old enough to learn language) can communicate effectively with every other human on the planet. To put it in perspective, try a google search on english official language. Without entering into any debate on that subject, the number of organizations whose raison d’etre is the multitude of languages within a given society demonstrates that a humanity with a single, universal language is rather different from the world culture that we now know–or, at least, that many people have the perspective that is very different.

This unity of language is one of the last vestiges of the unity that Eve and Adam knew. It’s almost as though God is saying, “Yeah, you claim you wouldn’t have sinned if you’d had what they did…let’s see…” Humanity sins and destroys it’s unity. Watch how a couple of folks walking in pride split churches. Indeed, consider any human organization; the human organism is universally self-destructive. And to what end? Because we loathe unity? No, because we as individuals desire our own godhood, which leads us to sin against each other and against Jehovah.

The next consideration, which I’ll explore more next week, is that any unity between humans tends to result first in greater sin against God, then in division with each other. It is that we humans, in our quest for godhood, will ally ourselves with those we deem less powerful (up to all other humans) in order to prove our godhood against Him who most certainly is greater.

But then, the crux: is unity to be disdained? After all, it is so far not working out well. It should not be disdained at all, but rather desired, the Bible tells us:

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
(1 John 4:7-8, holman)

That implies to me that unity with other humans is to be desired, and that unity with others leads to unity with God. Assumedly, this happens because if we will be humble before our fellow humans, we will have learned to be humble before God. Jesus indeed speaks of a coming unity:

I have other sheep that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them together too, when they hear my voice. Then there will be one flock of sheep and one shepherd.
(John 10:16, CEV)

Jesus gets even more direct about wanting intra-humanity unity in a plea to Jehovah:

I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us.
(John 17:21a, CEV)

His follow-up to this can floor you if you’ll think about it long enough:

Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me.
(John 17:21b, CEV)

That’s right, it turns out that unity of believers in Christ is the prerequisite to sharing his gospel. One can be sceptical, saying that unity of believers is no replacement for purposeful missions. I am increasingly of the opinion that purposeful missions naturally flows from unity and indeed can only be effective as a spring from unity. One can be practical: unity between believers is essential, but other things must be given attention. After all, we don’t share one language anymore. Training is required more than unity, then…is such logic to be accepted?

Let us examine how some folks who walked daily with Jesus lived out this little issue:

The apostles often met together and prayed with a single purpose in mind. The women and Mary the mother of Jesus would meet with them, and so would his brothers.
(Acts 1:14, CEV)

Ah, unity. Let’s see what happens:

The Holy Spirit took control of everyone, and they began speaking whatever languages the Spirit let them speak. Many religious Jews from every country in the world were living in Jerusalem. And when they heard this noise, a crowd gathered. But they were surprised, because they were hearing everything in their own languages. They were excited and amazed, and said:
(Acts 2:1-7, CEV)

Don’t all these who are speaking come from Galilee? Then why do we hear them speaking our very own languages? Some of us are from Parthia, Media, and Elam. Others are from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya near Cyrene, Rome, Crete, and Arabia. Some of us were born Jews, and others of us have chosen to be Jews. Yet we all hear them using our own languages to tell the wonderful things God has done.
(Acts 2:8-11, CEV)

On that day about three thousand believed his message and were baptized. They spent their time learning from the apostles, and they were like family to each other. They also broke bread and prayed together.
(Acts 2:41-42, CEV)