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Survey of Bible History
A Chronological Bible Curriculum
Cain and Abel through
The Tower of Babel
Written by Dr. Lester Hutson

Lesson 25

Lesson Aim: to better understand the story of the tower of babel and its ramifications.

Preparatory Daily Bible Readings:

Monday: Genesis 11:1-9, Genesis 4:20-22
Tuesday: I Samuel 2:3, Psalm 69:5, Daniel 2:22, I Corinthians 3:20, Hebrews 4:13
Wednesday: Psalm 139:1-12
Thursday: Ecclesiastes 12:14, Romans 14:11-12
Friday: Isaiah 40:22-28, Joel 1:1-12, Haggai 1:6,9,11
Saturday: Matthew 28:18, Job 9:6
Sunday: Matthew 24:37-39, II Peter 3:6-7, Revelation 19:11-20:15.

LESSON OUTLINE

I. A CENTER OF WORSHIP IN A CAREFULLY PLANNED URBAN CENTER. (Genesis 11:4)

A. The Tower of Babel was far more than one juggernaut building sitting alone on a fertile plain. It was one part of a carefully planned and controlled city.

1. Centralized government controls, and it does so through ordinances, laws, zoning, taxation and a multitude of other ways. Genesis 11:4 states that the intent of Nimrod and his subjects was not only to build a tower but also a "city."

2. There is neither building-stone nor lime on all the alluvial plain of Shinar. Thus, bricks were used in place of stone and a type of mortar made from the bitumen or asphalt-like substance which is abundant in that area.¹ The clay soil of the area would produce high-quality, kiln-fired bricks. This was the beginning of the brick-making industry and a further testimonial to the intelligence of these people. They were not half-witted cave men, who were barely able to avoid total nudity.

B. The city and tower were built. They were not a surprise to God.

1. God knew exactly the true purpose of Nimrod and his followers and where it would lead. (Genesis 11:5)

2. It is common for men to suspect that somehow God is unaware of, or disinterested in what they are doing, particularly of their true motives. Such is not the case. Nothing escapes the searching eye of God. (I Samuel 2:3, Psalm 69:5, Daniel 2:22, I Corinthians 3:20, Hebrews 4:13, Psalm 139:1-12)

3. Ultimately everything shall be brought into account before God. (Ecclesiastes 12:14, Romans 14:11-12)

II. GOD'S TERMINATION OF MAN'S EFFORT TO CREATE A ONE-WORLD SYSTEM.

A. God knew that with total unity man would be virtually unlimited in his potential for evil, thus He confounded man's language. (Genesis 11:7)

1. God knows how to frustrate the best of man's plans and efforts.(Isaiah 40:22-28, Joel 1:1-12, Haggai 1:6, 9, 11) It is futile to contend with Him, who has "all power." (Matthew 28:18, Job 9:4)

2. To frustrate the evil progress of man, God did a simple, yet profound thing. Whereas there had always been only one language, God caused many. Suddenly the builders could not communicate. Except within small pockets of people, presumably within families who could understand the language to which they had been relegated, people within Nimrod's kingdom could not understand one another. Frustration set in and full-fledged chaos eventually reigned. The centralized effort could no longer continue. Each family was forced to work within itself. Families and tribes began to move away to areas where they could understand each other and work on common survival efforts without interference from other groups. As God had planned, the world-wide migration to overspread the earth had finally begun in earnest.²

B. The confusion of the language was an enormous setback to man's efforts to completely dethrone God and become totally self-sufficient.

1. Though he has spent hundreds of years trying, man has never fully recovered from the retarding effects of the confounding of the language. The confusion of languages which began at Babel has prevented the complete fermentation of the world with evil to date. Yet, much progress in communications has been made, especially in recent years; and hand in hand with this progress has been a return to a centralized approach to society.

2. At some future point which does not appear to be very distant, man will again, under Antichrist, succeed in bringing to reality a world system almost totally void of God. Since shortly following the confusion of the language, the effort to recover and create a centralized, one-world system has been in progress. Evil conditions quite similar to those just prior to the Flood will prevail world-wide. (Matthew 24:37-39) When they do, God will again judge the world; not with water, but with fire. (II Peter 3:6-7) As the effort at Babel failed,the effort at the end of time will likewise fail. (Revelation 19:11, 20:15)

III. THE MIGRATION FOLLOWING THE CONFOUNDING OF THE LANGUAGE.

A. After their language was confounded men began to migrate forth to all areas of the earth.

1. Longevity of life was still very high, enabling families to have many children in a short period of time.

2. Weaker families were inevitably pushed further and further away from the urban centers of civilization to colonize new regions altogether. The entire world was inhabited within a few generations at most. Archaeology continuously confirms that civilization appeared more or less contemporaneously in all parts of the world only a few millennia ago.

3. The pattern of migration and cultural development was quite similar wherever people went. A tribe would find a suitable location, usually on a high area near water with fertile plains nearby. At first, until veins of metal could be discovered, clays for pottery found, animals bred and crops planted, they would hunt and fish for a living. Meager homes had to suffice, even caves, until more permanency could be developed. As soon as materials for ceramics and metals could be found, the "stone age" at the site was succeeded by a "bronze age" or "iron age." Often a stronger tribe would invade and take over an area, driving the weaker one still farther away or destroying it completely.³

4. As families migrated away from Babel, not only did they develop distinctive cultures, each also developed distinctive physical and biological characteristics. For several generations close family intermarrying was inescapable. Under such circumstances variations occur very rapidly. Within a few years of such inbreeding, distinctive characteristics such as skin color, height, hair texture, facial features, temperament and environmental adjustment would come to be associated with each tribe and nation.⁴

B. The people, immediately following the Flood and at Babel, were highly intelligent and no artificial archaeological interpretations are needed to explain cultural developments following the Tower of Babel.

1. Their expertise in many fields is recorded in scripture. Even prior to the Flood, they had become proficient in animal husbandry and tent making. They had become proficient in music, even to the invention of musical instruments. They had even developed a brass and iron industry. (Genesis 4:20-22) These things happened only three or four generations from Adam, even as Adam still lived. The Ark is a great testimonial to man's early engineering, carpentry and other construction skills. By the time of Babel, men were building great towers and well-organized cities. At Babel, sophisticated government was in place and a kingdom existed. Architecture and art were common. Language was not a series of guttural grunts; it was fully developed.

2. The emergence of nations is not difficult to see in light of the account of the Tower of Babel and the following migration. No artificial explanation such as that of evolution, which assumes an unintelligent and backward early populace and a gradual growth in intelligence over vast periods of time, is necessary to understand the development of man over the years. An interpretation of archaeological evidence in harmony with the Biblical explanation of men and events following the Flood is much more compatible to the facts and much more reasonable than all explanations which dispute the Biblical account. True, objective archaeology supports and confirms the Bible's claims; it never contradicts them. Both the Bible and true archaeology point to a much younger age for the earth and a much shorter existence of man on earth than that propagated by the evolutionary community.

FOOTNOTES

1. Davis, J.D., Illustrated Davis Dictionary of the Bible, Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers, Inc., 1973, page 70.

2. Morris, Henry, The Genesis Record, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1976, page 274.

3. Morris, page 275.

4. Ibid., page 276.

SUMMARY

Nimrod and his followers built the Tower of Babel. The tower was a religious shrine around which the carefully planned city of Babel was built. This tower and this city represented centrally controlled government.

The people at Babel were not slow-witted cave men, who were still more ape than man. In all of history there never have been such creatures. Apes are apes and men are men. In spite of evolution's irresponsible and illogical suppositions, there never has been a "mape." Adam was a most intelligent and sophisticated man. His offsprings have never been primitive brutes. During the migration which followed the confounding of the language at Babel, some families and tribes lived in caves and primitive shelters for brief periods of time until more permanent arrangements could be provided. Occasionally, as in the case of the cliff-dwelling Indians of southwestern Colorado, tribes might live in caves for safety. Cave dwellers were not there because they were too dumb to do better. They were there by choice, because particular circumstances demanded it, usually on a very temporary basis. Sadly, many evolutionary thinkers have seized upon such willful and temporary arrangements as supposed proof that men slowly evolved from apes. They misinterpret the facts and claim that in their early stages of man's evolution, men lived in caves because they were too primitive to do better. They contend that it took thousands of years for man to evolve upward past cave-man status.

The valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is one of the earth's richest agricultural areas, yet it has no building stones. Endurance was an important aspect of the structures which the people of Babel proposed to build. Their intelligence in the face of need soon brought them to the manufacture of bricks. The clay soils of the area were suitable for brick-making, and their heat treating process produced very high quality bricks. Many of them have endured to the present and have been discovered by archaeological excavations. This account appears to have marked the origin of the brick-making industry.

Babel, with its central tower, was built. God was not unaware of what was happening nor of the motives behind it. He knew Nimrod's real purpose. It is most common for men to forget that God is always watching and fully acquainted with every detail of every undertaking, including motives. God knew that Nimrod and his followers were bent on evil. He knew their hearts were in rebellion against Him, and that little by little, they would totally remove Him and His ways from all human affairs. God knew that with one language, a truly unified effort was possible. Already Nimrod had most of the populace united politically and religiously. He had a blossoming one-world system. The intent of Nimrod and his followers was the ultimate overthrow of God and His ways.

How foolish men are to think they can achieve long-term success in their endeavors against God! The patience and forbearance of God sometimes makes it appear that evil is succeeding. Ultimately, it never does. As the Tower of Babel so graphically illustrates, God will surely bring every evil purpose to naught. It is just a matter of time.

To stop the world's population from so quickly returning to the evil conditions which prevailed just prior to the Flood, God confounded man's language. That's all it took. Truly, God knows how to frustrate the best-laid plans and greatest might of men. He doesn't need a mighty invading army or military weapons. One mighty plague, a drought, a flood, an invasion of locusts or a confusion of man's language can completely defeat man's best effort; and God can send any of those and much more at any time. Every person would do well to consider the vanity of pride and self-sufficiency. Isaiah the prophet said that before God, even the nations are as nothing.

The confounding of the language stopped the Babel project. Suddenly there were many languages whereas there had been only one. Presumably one tribe or large family unit was relegated to one language while other tribes or families were given different languages. These could understand each other, but they could not understand the others. Communication immediately broke down; confusion replaced co-operation. Division sprang up where unity had ruled. Workers on the tower and city could not communicate. The work ceased. Those who understood each other gravitated together and began to move away from Babel and set up colonies of their own.

The confounding of the language was an enormous set-back to man's efforts toward a co-operative, one-world system. To the present, man has never fully recovered from the effects of the confusion of the language which occurred at the Tower of Babel. Had the confusion of the language not happened, it appears that society would have soon been in the degenerate condition which prevailed just prior to the Flood. The confusion of the language is the event which has prevented pre-Flood conditions to date. Yet, it is true that man has never given up his ambition to have a self-sufficient, one-world system void of God. Since the dispersion at Babel, he has been trying ceaselessly to recover. Particularly since the recent revolution in technology, which has dramatically enhanced world-wide communications, the unity of the world and the prospect of a one-world system seems to be far more a probability than a possibility. The Bible predicts that it is a certainty. Antichrist will rule over a one-world system. Full communications, lost at Babel, will be regained. Pre-Flood conditions will return. God will judge the world by fire. No one knows just when that day will come, but most observant people see that the world is moving rapidly in that direction.

Without the ability to communicate with each other, the people at Babel began to separate from each other. They migrated away to all parts of the world. Due to the long life-spans which prevailed for many years beyond the Flood, families enlarged rapidly. As they moved away, they looked for suitable areas in which to settle. Usually they stayed close to streams and drainage areas. Settlements often sprang up on high ridges overlooking an area fertile and suitable for cultivation. Water was usually nearby. Such areas included the components necessary for survival and protection. Until crops could be planted, animals bred and shelters erected, and suitable soils were found for making earthen and metallic vessels and tools, these people sometimes lived in caves or other primitive shelters and they hunted and fished for a livelihood. Though these were apparently short periods of time, many modern archaeologists, eager to support their evolutionary concepts, have interpreted these conditions as proof of cave men and a newly evolving specie.

Competition for desirable locations was fierce. Weaker tribes were forced to relocate. Some tribes built on locations where others had been.

It is clear that for many years, families married within families. In-breeding was common. Within a few generations, tribes began to take on distinctive characteristics. Nations emerged with their distinctions in culture and appearance. In harmony with modern archaeology's recent findings that human communities sprang up all over the world almost contemporaneously, the account of human population developments given in Genesis indicates that within a few hundred years, man had populated almost every region of the earth.

QUESTIONS

1. Why did the people at Babel use bricks for their main construction material?

2. Discuss the quality of bricks produced by Nimrod and his followers.

3. What does the brick-making industry at Babel say about the intelligence of the people of that era?

4. What does God's intervention at the Tower of Babel say about God's interest in the affairs of men?

5. How did God frustrate the Tower of Babel effort?

6. What does the confounding of man's language say about the ability of God to frustrate the best-laid plans and strongest efforts of men?

7. Discuss the immediate practical implications of the confusion of their language upon the residents of Babel.

8. What appears to have been God's way of enabling members within individual family and tribal units to communicate with each other?

9. Discuss the enormous retarding effect of the confusion of the language upon the development of a world-wide, unified rebellion against God.

10. What has kept mankind from returning to conditions duplicating those just prior to the Flood?

11. Discuss the prophetic scenario that the world will ultimately recover from the impact of the confusion of the language and return to the conditions which prevailed just prior to the Flood.

12. In what stage of recovery from the effects of the confusion of the language do you view the world today?

13. What great prophetic event will occur when man fully returns to the conditions which existed just prior to the Flood?

14. What main factor enabled earth's human population to rise in number so dramatically immediately following the Flood?

15. As people migrated away from Babel, what kind of location did they usually choose for a settlement?

16. Why did many families and tribes sometimes suddenly move from their locations to altogether new areas?

17. Explain the temporary conditions which usually prevailed when a family or tribe moved into a new area.

18. How have evolutionists woefully misinterpreted these temporary conditions?

19. Explain the origin of the distinct characteristics of individual peoples from different parts of the earth.

20. Discuss how evolutionary interpretations with their long ages of time are so artificial and unnecessary in understanding the cultural development of man.

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"