GENESIS 10 AND 11
GENESIS 10 AND 11
It is evident that chapter 11 comes chronologically before chapter 10. Chapter 10 gives the general facts connected with the different families which sprang from Noah’s sons; but the facts recorded in it took place after the dispersal of the nations as described in chapter 11. The distribution of the isles of the Gentiles was for “everyone after his tongue”. That shows it was after the dividing of tongues that the different families were dispersed.
The moral principle that underlies chapter 10 is very important; it is that we should be able to trace things to their origin. Israel was in God’s mind, and it was important that Israel should understand the source from which all nations sprang with whom they had to do. To know the source of things gives insight into their character. People say sometimes, Why go back so many years? Why not take things as they are now? But it is a divine principle that we should know the beginning of things. A river will never rise above the level of its source. If a thing begins wrong it can never become right by lapse of time. Hence if we are to see our way clearly we must know the source of movements that affect the people and testimony of God. God exposes to His people the moral source of things. Many of the nations who were afterwards great adversaries of Israel sprang from Ham who was under the curse. We find Babylon, Nineveh, Egypt, the Canaanites, and the Philistines in chapter 10: all these nations were adversaries to Israel, and the Canaanites were to be destroyed before Israel. Their source is exposed here; they all belong to the family under the curse. It is a principle in divine things that you never understand the moral character of a thing unless you know its source. God would have us investigate the origin of things: He is showing in chapter 10 the origin of all the different nations that came into connection with His people.
[p. 86] Earthly power is first found with the family under the curse; it begins with Nimrod; it is always the case that things develop more quickly on the evil side than on the good. Nimrod was a mighty rebel — his name means ‘Rebel’ — and his character before God was that of a hunter. Jehovah took account of his character; it was exactly the opposite to a shepherd. A hunter gratifies himself at the expense of his victim, but a shepherd expends himself for the good of the subjects of his care. God’s ideal of a king is a shepherd. David was taken from the sheep-fold; that was the place where he learnt to be a king. Moses, too, was a shepherd, and he became a king in Jeshurun. The Lord loves a shepherd: a shepherd gathers, protects, and feeds his flock — the opposite of a hunter. Nimrod was a rebel towards God and a hunter towards men; all that will come to a head in the last great Gentile power. We see the beginning here; it is the character in which earthly imperial power appears on the scene in Scripture. Corruption and violence are the two principles in Babylon and Nineveh. Babylon is marked by corruption and Nineveh by violence. There is vain glory that corrupts in Babylon; it was the scene of man’s glory — the most corrupting influence you could think of: and Assyria was the violent enemy of God’s people. These things are deeply interesting and important: great principles are set before us in a few simple words; Scripture can say so much in a word or two; these words contain the moral history of the world and of man’s actings.
Assyria was always antagonistic to God’s people, and always will be until God says, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands”, Isaiah 19: 25. God will take up Assyria and make him a [p. 87] vessel of blessing. Both Egypt and Assyria descended from Ham, but even the cursed family comes into blessing through Christ: it is a great triumph of grace. When Assyria and Egypt are blessed it will be in connection with God taking up His inheritance in Israel.
In verse 21 we get the contrast in Shem, “And to Shem — to him also were sons born; he is the father of all the sons of Eber”. It is striking that Eber should be singled out; Eber means ‘passage’: it suggests the pilgrim race, a people passing through. In Ham’s race we see a people building cities and founding empires; we see rebellion towards God and violence towards man. But the pilgrim race are not building cities, they are passing through. All saints are called to be ‘sons of Eber’. We might read chapter 10 and think it a dry list of names! But there is the whole moral history of the world there; in Nimrod the character and glory of man’s world, and in the sons of Eber the fruit of divine grace in a pilgrim race who are passing through. It is a fine thing to be a son of Eber! It is much better than being a Nimrod, a man who would like to have all the glory of the world at his feet; and who would exercise the violence of a hunter to get it. All this will be headed up in the great Nimrod of the last days, the great rebellious head of imperial Gentile power, who will be marked by rebellion God-ward, and by violence man-ward. But we find ‘the sons of Eber’ right on to the end in the Revelation; a people passing through, who are not earth-dwellers. In Genesis 11 there are earth-dwellers who find a plain and settle there; but the sons of Eber do not want to build a Babel. It should be a question with every one of us, whether our [p. 88] affections are connected with the Babel world, or with a tent and altar? The people of God always were a pilgrim people, and always will be: they never settle down here from Abraham’s day right on until now.
We have the Shepherd-king in Micah 5; it is worth looking at. We get the introduction of the Shepherd-king, and the destiny of Nimrod. The mighty Shepherd comes in; “Out of thee shall he come forth unto me who is to be Ruler in Israel”. Then in verse 4, “He shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah his God”. The shepherd character and the majesty of the name of Jehovah his God go together! How wonderful! Then in verse 5, “And this man shall be Peace”; the verse goes on about the Assyrian; and then verse 6, “They shall waste the land of Asshur with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof; and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian”. This speaks of the complete overthrow of Nimrod, the shutting out in judgment of the hunter-king: he has to go out, and the Man with the David character — Christ — has to come in.
Chapter 11 gives the sad history of the building of Babel; I think it comes in as a climax of evil. And there is a suggestion in this whole history of the way in which failure works, and what it develops into; for the history of failure is much the same in all ages; it always works along the same lines in principle. Noah began well; he claimed the earth for God and put it on the ground of the burnt offering; but before long, instead of holding the earth for God, he held it for self-gratification, and in result he exposed himself to [p. 89] dishonour. It is just like the church’s failure: instead of keeping in the pilgrim place and holding things for God, she began to use things here for self-gratification. The Nazarite spirit went out of the church, and that exposed the testimony to dishonour and reproach. Giving up the Nazarite spirit opens the door for every kind of failure to come in.
Ham represents people who are in the place of divine light without being rightly affected by it; his skin had been darkened by the sun. If people are not transformed by divine light they are darkened by it. “If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness”. If people have divine light and are not transformed by it, they can take pleasure in seeing the failure of the people of God: that was Ham’s state. We ought to beware of the Ham spirit: it comes from giving up the Nazarite spirit: “All seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ”. If we use things here for self-gratification, the next step downward is to find pleasure in noting the failure of the people of God.
Then Ham is the father of Canaan, which means ‘Trader’. Men darkened in the light use Christianity for their own ends and advantage; they make a trade of it. Christendom is full of Hams and Canaans; those who take pleasure in seeing the failure of the people of God, and who make a trade of Christianity. If we get on the line of planting a vineyard, we do not know how it may end; it becomes an opportunity for self-gratification. Then if a Christian fails, worldly people put their heads together and take pleasure in seeing it; that is the spirit of the flesh, and it comes under the curse: in the end such people only use Christianity for their own advantage.
[p. 90] It is defiling to be occupied with evil; if we have to take it up even in the way of its necessary judgment, we have to wash our flesh in water, and be unclean until the evening. If a brother has sinned, and I have to take it up, I have to wash my flesh in water. There is a certain gratification for the flesh in dwelling on evil; it is the Ham spirit: we ought to get a moral lesson out of these things; they are very solemn. These things may be viewed in connection with chapter 11; they seem to show the way things work until in the end people turn their backs on everything that is of God.
In the beginning of chapter 11 we read, “The whole earth had one language ... and it came to pass as they journeyed from the east”. The east is where the sun rises; it represents what God is going to bring in at the dayspring, when the Sun of righteousness arises. These people turned their backs on that; it is a figure of what has happened in Christendom; and it results in the building of Babel. It is a striking fact in the history of the world that the stream of human progress and civilisation flows from east to west. Each of the four great empires moved west-wards; and now people go to America, and when there go to the western States. The tide of human life goes that way: it is suggestive of the fact that man always pursues what is going down. But the people of God turn to the east, to what is rising: Israel pitched after the brazen serpent “toward the sun-rising”. The Sun of righteousness is about to arise with healing in His wings, and the sons of Eber — the pilgrim race — look towards the east; they love His appearing. All that is of God is below the horizon now, but it is coming up when the sun rises. Those who go west will only see the sun set; they [p. 91] are following the light of this world; and it is going to sink out of sight forever. But the Christian has his eye on the sun-rising, on all that is coming in resplendent with glory and divine beauty.
We read in verse 2, “They found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt there”. I think we see at Pentecost the church on holy ground; but she was on the mount. It is blessed to see saints on holy ground, but sad to see people turn their backs to the sun-rising, and come down to the level of the plain to be earth-dwellers. When they get there they say, Now we must make bricks, and build ourselves a city and a tower, and make ourselves a name. That is the way Babylon began to be built in Christendom. The sun-rising was behind people’s backs — the coming of Christ forgotten — and the professors of Christianity became earth-dwellers. Babylon is not built of stone or rock; there is not a bit of Christ in it; it is all brick — the product of man’s handiwork. The builders have rejected the Stone, and take no account of ‘living stones’, but they are very busy making bricks. Bricks are a kind of imitation of stone made of earthy material, figurative of the natural man being put through a process of formation so that he may become part of a great structure which will secure man a name — that will give renown to man. Thank God, His building is going on too, but we are surrounded by Babylon, a structure which is the result of man’s brick making; it is earthy material, shaped and hardened to serve the purpose of stone; but no amount of shaping will ever make the natural man suitable for God’s building. The natural man may be shaped to make him suitable for Babel, but there is nothing there for God: there is no divine material [p. 92] in her. I trust we can see how necessary it is for us to keep clear of Babel. God’s building is composed of living stones, morally kindred with Christ, who is the Rock. But Babel is a great religious structure without a single bit of Christ in it. We ought to consider the beginning of it, and all its characteristics; we should weigh every detail; God has looked at it and marked it for judgment: He has written confusion on it.
When Israel failed and God gave the government to the Gentiles, He tried Babylon once more. He gave absolute imperial power to Nebuchadnezzar, but it resulted in Nebuchadnezzar taking all the praise and glory to himself, “Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?” The result of God giving the kingdom to Nebuchadnezzar was that he took all the glory to himself. That is man in his best estate, the head of gold. In the Revelation we see Babylon in its worst and most corrupt form, glorified by the light of Christianity, and it is said, “How much has she glorified herself”. She uses the light of Christianity for her own glory. It is like Belshazzar using the gold and silver vessels in his idolatrous feast. Man takes the highest and holiest things and makes them contributory to his own glory. How simple minded infidels must be, to talk of Scripture not being inspired! The history of Babylon alone, as presented in Scripture, is sufficient to prove divine inspiration. Who but God could have given us such a history of the world of man’s glory, from its conception in Genesis 11 right through 4000 years to its final and permanent overthrow in Revelation 18? God means it should be a fallen system with each one of His own now.
[p. 93] The inspiration of Genesis has been much questioned, yet no book has greater evidence of the divine Hand. The things which people think are only details are pregnant with moral instruction. Doubts and difficulties are sown in the minds of the young at school, but much that infidels say is simply ignorance. Indeed, there is no ignorance so profound as that of the modern intelligent world when it assumes to judge Scripture, for it leaves God out, and there is utter blindness to everything that is morally important. Nothing has a place in Scripture that is not for moral instruction.
“Lest we be scattered”. We see here the first development of the principle of confederacy. Man realises his weakness as a unit, but instead of looking to God he looks to find strength in combination with his fellow men. It will all head up in the great confederacy of the last days.
Babel would have been a wonderful place if God had allowed the plan to succeed; the thought of a city and a name was a great ideal; they meant to secure a centre which would be a glory and a name for themselves. That ideal will come as nearly as possible to fruition in a coming day, but it will never be suffered to become what man desires. God will stain the pride of all human glory. If all men had kept together in one mind, with one object in view, and if God had not taken means to weaken man, there is no telling what he might have achieved. God says, “Now will they be hindered in nothing that they meditate doing”, therefore He weakened men by confounding their language. It is what God has done all through the history of the world: the great combinations of men have always been weakened by their language being confounded in a moral sense:
[p. 94] they have failed to understand one another. So man has never realised the coveted objects of his ambition; all great combinations of men from Babel until now have sooner or later been broken up by people speaking different languages morally.
The Babel of the last days is the corrupter of Christianity; what a terrible power Babylon would have been in modern times if God had not allowed it to be weakened by dissension and the rising up of sects. But God allowed the Greek schism, and afterwards the countless sects of Protestantism, to spring up and weaken things. We see at the present moment that in spite of the League of Nations hardly two nations agree about anything. It is the way God takes providentially to weaken the great confederacies of men; they would be overwhelming if He did not weaken them by confounding their language; that is, they do not agree among themselves, so that unity is broken up. God is always working providentially to hinder man from achieving the glory which his heart and mind are set on, and this is largely brought about by internal dissensions. Everything in man’s world will result in exactly the opposite to what it was intended to bring about; that is, in the ultimate working out of things. So what was intended to have been a masterpiece of organization and centralisation simply becomes Babel — confusion. It may seem that the will and power of a Nimrod may set up something like order there, but it remains Babel, and will to the end.
I think the ideal man proposed at Babel will come as near to fruition as possible in a coming day, but it will not really come to pass because of the elements of dissension. We read in Revelation 17 that the ten [p. 95] kings hate the woman and eat her flesh and burn her with fire. God allows these dissensions so as to weaken man’s power. There is no need to be unduly alarmed by great combinations of men; I believe that, especially while the assembly is here, God will hold them in check. There may be persecution; I daresay there will be; but God will weaken the combinations of men by internal dissension. And this will turn out to the advantage and protection of the true ‘sons of Eber’.
God not only breaks up man’s unity, but He has introduced a wondrous unity of His own into this world. It has often been pointed out how Pentecost reverses Babel. God in grace speaks to every man in his own language that all may come into divine unity in the Spirit. What a contrast there is to Babel at the beginning of the Acts — a people who understand each other perfectly. “The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common”. That was God’s answer to Babel. It was so wonderful that people were afraid to join them. It was a unity with a wall of fire round about it.
We find, too, from Joshua 24: 2, that another element came in at the time of Babel which had not been known before; that is, idolatry. I think idolatry is an essential feature of Babylon. If man seeks his own glory he opens the door for Satan to put himself in God’s place. How terrible that man should reverence and look up to that which is really Satanic. That is the character of the world, man assuming imperial power — really usurping what belongs to [p. 96] Christ — and idolatry. Such being the case, the blessing and testimony of God are found with a called-out people. The assembly is a called-out company. In the next chapter Abram comes before us as called out by Jehovah.