Introduction:

     1. Approximately 100 yrs after the time of the flood came the notorious incident known as the tower of Babel or the confusion of   tongues

     2. It was so serious that God Himself intervened to make a change in the situation of mankind in order to curb the growth of iniquity.

     3. This event says that what man thought would be a great achievement at Babel turned out instead to be a great folly.

     4. When anyone goes against God and His Word, as they did here, folly will characterize those actions.

     5.  Last week we heard about Nimrod

         a. He was a grandson of Noah

         b. His name means “let us rebel”

         c. He began to be mighty on the earth and was a great hunter

         d. He wanted to build a self-sufficient society that would not need God

     6. To succeed, Nimrod would need…

         a. Cultural unity – people speaking the same language

         b. Political unity – people under the same leader

         c. Religious unity – people worshipping the same gods

     7. Here is the 1^st attempt to build a society that would exclude God

     8. God refuses to be ruled out of human affairs - He came down in judgmen

     9. Just as the flood was worldwide in importance, so the confusion of languages also had worldwide impact

I.    The Circumstances for Their Folly – vs 1-2

·   2 major circumstances are given in the setting for the folly at Babel.

·   They involve language and location

·   They are the 2 circumstances that will be especially affected by the judgment of the diversity of languages for the folly of Babel.

A.  The Language of the People

        1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

1.     Unlike today, all the inhabitants of the earth then spoke one language

2.     This helped to maintain an artificial unity among the people.

3.     They thought alike, expressed themselves in identical terms

4.     Evolutionists have not been able to explain the unbridgeable gap between the chatterings of animals and human language

5.     Man was created with the ability to speak and hear so that God could communicate with man

B.  The Location of the People

        2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

·         Two things are said about this location.

1.     Direction of the Location - "Journeyed from the east."

a)    This from the east" means going east not coming from the east.

b)    They migrated east from Mount Ararat where the ark had landed

2.     Dwelling in the Location -  "They found a plain in the land of Shinar"

a)    The "Shinar" plain was located in present day Iraq near old Babylon with the Euphrates River as the eastern boundary.

b)    This plain was very fertile ground, and being level ("plain"), it would be a most conducive place for people to settle down

c)    (Leupold says, the word translated "dwelt" means to "sit down").

II.  The Construction in Their Folly – vs 3-4

·         When the multitude of the people had migrated to Shinar, they planned a great construction project.

A.  The Counsel for the Construction

        3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them

        throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. 4 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.

1.     The people counseled among themselves as to what to build

2.     They did not seek God's counsel or they would never have built

3.     When you build your life upon the counsel of man and not upon God's counsel, you are heading for a personal Babel.

4.     How much better to practice Proverbs 3:5,6.

5.     It leads people away from God's Word into a myriad unholy actions

B.  The Components in Their Construction

        4 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.

1.     A town and a tower were the two components of this building project

a)    Town showed political unity

b)    Tower would show religious unity

c)    Same language would show cultural unity

2.     Mostly we think of the tower but the town was also involved

3.     The tower was the focal point which is why when we think of Babel we think of the "tower" of Babel more than the town.

C.  The Composition of the Construction – vs 3 ß

1.     Plain of Shinar did not have stone/mortar (which comes from stone).

2.     So they made brick (kiln /not sun dried as a substitute for the stones

3.     They used slime (asphalt /tar) instead of mortar

4.     There is nothing evil here about the material

5.     God builds with stone – 1Pet 2:4-8 --  man builds with stone

6.     Nothing lasting can be built from slime and brick

D.  The Cause for the Construction – vs 4

·         The motive for this great building project in Shinar was twofold.

1.     Reputation - "Let us make us a name."

a)    The people wanted fame; they wanted to be exalted.

b)    It is the flesh that is filled with pride and wants exaltation.

c)    People who are interested in exalting themselves are not interested in exalting God

d)    The purpose of building this high tower was not to reach into heaven so they could dethrone God.

e)    If they wanted to do that, they would have started on a high mountain instead of on a flat plain.

f)      The height of the tower was simply to be a mark of achievement in order to help gain fame for the people.

g)    People are still doing that today as is witnessed by the Sear's Tower in Chicago and tall buildings in other countries all trying to be the tallest building in the world and gain fame thereby.

h)    Here is the beginning of false religion, polytheism

2.     Rebellion

a)    "Lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."

b)    God commanded man after the flood to "replenish the earth" 9:1

c)    "This, of necessity, involved spreading abroad" (Leupold).

d)    The builders in the Shinar valley did not want to spread abroad

e)    The construction project was in rebellion to God's orders.

3.     “Top may reach unto heaven”

a)    They were not trying to build a tower so tall it would reach heave

b)    They wanted to build a tower and top it with astrological figures to aid in worshipping the heavens

c)    They wanted a tower “unto heaven” – dedicated to heaven

d)    The zodiac that astrology follows began in Babylon

e)    From Babylon, astrology passed to Egypt. The Sphinx is the head of a woman on the body of a lion. The woman is virgo, the first sign, and the lion is leo the last sign of the zodiac. The Sphinx (Greek for joining) is the meeting point of the zodiac.

f)      The Bible sternly denounces astrology and horoscopes and identifies them with Satanism and demonism.

III. The Cognizance of Their Folly – vs 5-6

·         God is omniscient and was cognizant of all that goes on in the eart

A.  The Certainty of the Cognizance

        5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

a)    You can hide nothing from God. He sees it all.

b)    "Thou God seest me" (Gen 16:13) was Hagar's discovery

c)    Many other folk have discovered this truth but not to their comfort, but to their condemnation, as was the case at Babel.

d)    God saw all along what was going on in Babel.

e)    He also saw the heart motivations for the project 

f)      "The Lord came down" involves more than just seeing, but is "the anthropomorphic expression... of stating that God interposed" (L)

g)    God did not like what He saw going on in the Shinar plain, and so He came to do something about it.

B.  The Concern in the Cognizance

        6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

·         God's concern about the actions in Babel were twofold.

1.     Concern about the perverting of unity

a)    In the context, unity is a bad thing.

b)    It was a unity that rebelled against God.

c)    Thus they were perverting the blessing of having one language

d)    So many advantages are perverted into evil instead of into good.

e)    God blesses us and we do evil with the blessings instead of good.

f)      So many things that stress unity today are only to do evil, such as the ecumenical movement / United Nations / European Union.

2.     Concern about the potential of iniquity

        6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

a)    The people had started on a downward path; and if not restrained, they would become much worse.

b)    The potential for more iniquity was increasing with the building of the town and tower.

c)    God exposed this grandiose building project as that which would promote and encourage evil.

d)    So many great building projects in our day, that are hailed as great achievements, are nothing but promoters of evil.

IV. The Confounding for Their Folly – vs 7-9

·    God brought judgment upon the people in a unique way.

·    He confounded their language.

·   This is where the diversity of languages in the world began.

·   The world has some strange explanations for the multiplicity of lan

·   They do not like the Bible's explanation, for it condemns man's sin.

·   But if you want to know the truth about origins stick with the Bible's explanation of them.

A.  The Character of the Confounding – vs 7 ß

1.     We learn from this report that the diversity of language is not a result of man's intelligence but a result of man's iniquity.

2.     Language multiplicity is a monument to the iniquity of man not the ingenuity of man.

3.     Furthermore, the multiplicity of languages is not a result of evolution but of evil.

4.     They ruled God out of their society and thought that they were through with him

B.  The Consequences of the Confounding

·         The judgment of the confounding of the languages was threefold.

1.     Stopping – vs 8

                   8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

a)    The work was stopped.

b)     The construction people could not understand each other.

c)    Imagine the surprise when foremen could not communicate with their workers

d)    Nimrod gave orders and his engineers did not understand him

2.     Scattering

a)    The people did not want to spread out but the language differences encouraged them to scatter.

b)    People with the same language gathered together

3.     Shaming – vs 9  ß

a)    The word "Babel" means "confusion"—hardly a compliment that would give an honorable reputation.

b)    The people wanted to build to be exalted and establish a great reputation.

c)    Building contrary to God's Word they got a reputation all right, but it was shame.

d)    Instead of "great" or "beautiful" it was "Babel." Sin always brings shame.

Conclusion:

        1. Nimrod rebelled against God and the Antichrist will be “the lawless one” who rebels against God – 2Thess 2:8

        2. Nimrod led a great confederacy in open revolt against God and the Antichrist will lead a great confederacy in open revolt against God

        3. Four times Nimrod is called “mighty” and the Antichrist will be mighty

        4. Nimrod’s headquarters was in Babylon and the Antichrist will be the “king of Babylon – Isa 14:4

        5. Nimrod wanted to make a name for himself and the Antichrist will have the same pride and will exalt himself above all that is called God

        6. The religion of Nimrod

                a. became so complicated that a group of men and women developed to explain and interpret the system to the people.

                b. These became priests and priestesses

                c. They became powerful since the people could not know salvation without the priests

                d. They worshipped a goddess mother and her son – Tammuz

                e. They made a T when they entered the temple

Pr 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

1Pe 2:4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, 5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. 7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, 8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.

        3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

        4 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.

        7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

                        9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.