Scattered
Read This Week: Genesis 10 & 11
These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these, the nations spread out over the earth after the flood. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves. But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. – Genesis 10:32 & 11:4-8 NIV
Although it is an easy and tempting thing to do, romanticizing the lives of biblical characters is a mistake. We tend to do this because of how epic and transcendent their stories are and how it makes them seem superhuman. But they were not. They were just people like us who were broken and imperfect but obedient and faithful to the Lord, His word, and what He asked of them. Their belief in a powerful, supernatural God made them unique in the metanarrative, not anything in and of themselves.
We must remember this when thinking about Noah and other figures moving forward in Genesis. What happened at the end of chapter 9 was just an example of Noah, whom God significantly used for an eternal purpose, being a flawed human being. He acted out of his sinful nature and allowed himself to get drunk and be exploited by his son. He messed up, and so did Ham. But even though one moment impacted their lives, it did not define Noah’s life. The most significant thing about his person and legacy was that he found favor in the eyes of the Lord to be worthy to build and captain the ark during the flood and was seen by God as righteous in his generation and admirable to be the seed to replenish the human race on earth.
With this context, chapter 10 lays out the genealogy of Noah’s offspring. Even though Canaan was cursed because his father sinned against Noah, it did not prevent him and Noah’s other children from multiplying greatly and spreading out in the known world to establish civilizations and anthropologies. Verse 32 says these are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these, the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.
As we move into chapter 11, we see the establishment of these people groups and nations and how they live and interact. Verses 1-2 tell us about their migration, language, and activities. In verses 1-2, it says that the world now had one language. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. But we also see that even though this is a new generation years removed from the evil, corruption, and immoral behavior that caused the Lord to destroy the earth, sin still prevails in the human heart. Their desire is the same as what happened in the garden; they want to be like God. Verse 4 says they declared: Let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves.
Because they were still sinful, the people of Shinar were similar to Adam and Eve and the people before the flood. They crossed forbidden lines to satisfy their personal and spiritual desires apart from God. They determined at this point that they were on the same plane as God and wanted to build a mezzanine or monument to themselves to worship themselves and their prowess. They wanted to make a name for themselves instead of worshipping the name of Yahweh and who He is. It is a tale as old as time – human beings desiring to be God and living that way. It never works or leads to success. It always leads to poor decisions, chaos, confusion, and being scattered and disconnected.
This disorder and havoc is what happened here at Babel. Verses 5-9 tell us that the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. Then He says, come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. This language and dialect confusion was effective as the people scattered them from there over the earth, and they stopped building the city. God confused them and bewildered their communication to disrupt their unity around sin and disobedience. The Lord essentially saved them from themselves.
This outcome is not unlike the ones we experience in modern life. We see it in secular culture and Christian culture alike. When we elevate ourselves above God and worship, revere, and glorify men and women more than Jesus, it often leads to destruction for the one desiring worship and disappointment for those who do the worshipping. We observe it in celebrity culture both in the world and in the church. It never ends well. God has to intervene in our lives, save us from ourselves, and turn us to pursuing Him and worshipping Christ, which leads to joy, peace, fulfillment, and eternal purpose.
We all worship something, and in order to find the purpose and meaning that we seek, we must mind what it is that we worship and honor. May we remain faithful to the one true God and the One worthy of worship so we don’t have to be saved from ourselves, scattered by our intentions, or experience the confusion, chaos, and letdown of self-worship.
Genesis 10/11 Verse 3-7
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
God said to me:
“As you’ve seen My son, there are no short-cuts in life. There certainly are paths that make your journey here easier, but your journey here is one that you need to complete.”
Trying to jump the gun on our journey will negate us from learning and growing from it. To build a tower to Heaven is to negate what is necessary from us to do here in order to get there. When we are with God he wants us there at the right time, with the right heart and the perfect amount of peace.
This is what I got from Genesis 11. There was a time when humanity spoke one language instead of the hundreds on the earth today. The descendants from the ark built a great city and tower, in rebellion against My command to spread out all over the earth. They built a waterproof tower which shows they did not believe My promise to never flood the earth again. I forced them to scatter abroad. This forced separation was more about My mercy than My judgement. There was a division of languages. I began to make men better. I started with a man who would do My will, even if he doesn’t do My will perfectly. The “genealogy of Shem” was special because it would eventually be part of the Messianic line. The book of Genesis spends a lot of time focused on the life of Abraham. Abraham was known by his faith. You can also be a person of great faith. You can all be My friends. I can build the faith you have. Terah took Abraham, Lot, and Sarah, to the line of Canaan. They dwelt in Haran, not to where I promised a land that I showed him. Half of obedience is a plain confession that you know My will, though you do not do it. When you knowingly disobey Me, you will delay the outworking of My plan in your life and you will experience barrenness.
What this said to me was God not only wants to be my father, but also my friend. I want to be known by My faith. God wants me to let Him build my faith. He does not want my half obedience. He wants my full obedience.
Genesis 11:7 Come, let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) go down and there confuse and mix up their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
Father God was saying to me
I have a purpose for your life. Because you faith in Me You love Me we are working together we are building together a family for a kingdom that will last forever.
You are chosen to good work with us!
When you build for us it always turns out goo!
I love you my daughter ❤️
What this means to means is when I work with Father God, Jesus and His Holy Spirit it’s good!
I always am thankful when I get to do work with Father God Jesus and the Holy Spirit when I do there is no confusion ❤️
Thank you Father for letting me be apart of doing work for the Family of God
This Week in the Life: Genesis 10 and 11
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Genesis 11 verse 5
God saying to me in this verse
The coming down is significant, God was already
Aware of the program but being the righteous Judge,
He wished to examine it closely, No matter how high
Their tower, He still comes down.
What that means to me!!
In the Scripture above, that God called them children
Of men, they were follower’s of the flesh and not the spirit. Whatever felt good they did, following there own desires not the desire of the Lord. That’s what God
Don’t want, He wants us to Have desire for Him have
Fire for Him and to obey His instructions, And to live His way not the world’s way!!
Genesis Chapter 11 Verse 9
Therefore, the name of it was called Babel– because there the the Lord confounded the language of all the earth; and from that place, the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
~Babbling~
God Is Saying To Me:
Have you ever met someone that speaks childishly such that the audience or listeners remain confused? Small children learn to speak some words by repeating syllables such as ba, ba,ba. Others just babble gibberish and unintelligible words or sentences. It’s no mistake that I named the tower that was built in Shinar, Babel. My people after the flood were disobedient and didn’t see sin as an issue. I entertained the idea of a large structure and city that they built post-flood only to name it Babel and spread my people throughout the world, speaking languages of difference because they set their sights on power and notoriety, not on the goodness and grace that was freely given from Me.
What This Means To Me:
Father, God is omnipresent. He knows us, our hearts and our thoughts. He also knows that we are born into sin. He doesn’t want his children to wonder through life babbling nonsense and committing sin. His grace and mercy is sufficient and with blatant disobedience comes correction and redirection. Got sometimes corrects and redirects us when we are led by greed, self-satisfaction and the desire to be seen or noticed. Man cannot follow God and the world at the same time. There is no tower tall enough or valley low enough to escape the eyes of God. So just pick up your cross and follow Him while the world babbles in confusion. Thank you Father, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit for coming down to us with correction and redirection when we get off track and are not obedient to Your word and wisdom. ❤️❤️❤️
…God not Got
This week God gave me a song in genesis chapter 11
Seeking our Lord
We praise you, we praise you we are praising you are Lord coming together, seeking you seeking you wanting to have a relationship building a foundation a foundation with you, our Lord, trusting, relying , believing in you the more we seek you the closer we become you are our father are counselor our healer. Our comforter loves us like no other. We are thankful thankful for you bringing us together uniting us helping us build foundation become stronger in our faith seeking you seeking you in everything we do we praise you praise you we are Praising you are Lord
Amen
Our Lord loves when we seek him for everything. He loves it because it makes us closer. so always remember his spirit lives within us and he’s always there for us. through everything Thank you, Jesus.