Latest / A Tithe of Time Podcast / Recaps Through the Bible | The Nations and the Tower of Babel — Genesis 10:1–11:9 | Bible Commentary

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Recaps Through the Bible | The Nations and the Tower of Babel — Genesis 10:1–11:9 | Bible Commentary · A Tithe of Time Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to A Tithe of Time, recaps through the Bible.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: The Nations and the Tower of Babel.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Genesis 10, 1 to 11:9.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: After the flood, Genesis begins tracing the descendants of Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Genesis 10 is mostly a genealogy, but it is doing something important.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Again and again, the chapter speaks about clans, languages, lands, and nations.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Noah's family is multiplying and spreading across the earth.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Japheth's descendants spread into coastlands.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Ham's line includes Cush, Egypt, Canaan, and Nimrod.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Genesis gives Nimrod unusual attention, calling him a mighty man and a mighty hunter before the Lord.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Then comes a detail that prepares us for the next chapter.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, in the land of Shinar.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Canaan is also introduced again, and Genesis begins naming peoples and territories that will matter later in the story.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Then the chapter turns to Shem's descendants.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Among them is Eber, and from Eber comes Peleg.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Genesis says that in his days the earth was divided, but it does not explain exactly what that division means in this verse.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: By the end of Genesis 10, the picture is clear.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Noah's descendants have become many peoples, languages, lands, and nations.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Then Genesis 11 steps back and shows us how the scattering happened.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: At first, the whole earth had one language and the same words.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: The people settle together in Shinar and begin building with bricks and bitumen.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: But their own words reveal the deeper purpose of the project.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: They want a name for themselves, and they want to avoid being scattered.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: That matters because God had already told humanity to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Then Genesis says, The Lord came down to see the city and the tower.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: There is a quiet irony in that line.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: The people are building something meant to reach into the heavens, yet from the story's point of view, God still comes down to see it.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: God says they are one people with one language, and that their shared language is giving them enormous ability to act together.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So God says, Come, let us go down and there confuse their language.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: The passage uses the plural us, just as Genesis has done before.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: But once again, the text does not stop to explain exactly who God is addressing, so we should notice the wording without pretending the passage gives us more than it does.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: God confuses their speech, and the result is exactly what the people were trying to prevent.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: The city is left unfinished, and the place becomes known as Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the earth.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the picture Genesis 10, 1 to 11.9 leaves us with.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Noah's family becomes many nations, and humanity once again shows its tendency to pursue its own name and its own security.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: The people unite to resist being scattered, but God confuses their language and disperses them across the earth.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: The nations have now spread out, and the story is about to narrow again, this time to one family line that will eventually lead us to Abram.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: This concludes the nations and the Tower of Babel, Genesis 10 1 11 9.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Next, we'll continue with the generations from Shem to Abram.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, tithe your time.