From Babel to the Ends of the Earth

FROM BABEL TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

An Exposition of Genesis 10:1–11:9

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: July 3, 2022

Series: The Book of Genesis

Note: Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says:

10 ¹ These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.

² The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. ³ The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁴ The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. ⁵ From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations.

⁶ The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. ⁷ The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. ⁸ Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” ¹⁰ The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. ¹¹ From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and ¹² Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. ¹³ Egypt fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, ¹⁴ Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim.

¹⁵ Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, ¹⁶ and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, ¹⁷ the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, ¹⁸ the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites dispersed. ¹⁹ And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. ²⁰ These are the sons of Ham, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

²¹ To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born. ²² The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.²³ The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.²⁴ Arpachshad fathered Shelah; and Shelah fathered Eber.²⁵ To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother's name was Joktan. ²⁶ Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷ Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,²⁸ Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹ Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan. ³⁰ The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar to the hill country of the east. ³¹ These are the sons of Shem, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

³² These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.

11 ¹ Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. ² And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³ And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, 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.” ⁵ And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. ⁶ And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.⁷ Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.”⁸ So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. ⁹ Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. (Genesis 10:1–11:9)

INTRODUCTION

God cares about every people-group on the face of the earth.

In the middle of the first century, the apostle Paul had the opportunity to preach the gospel to intellectuals in the pagan city of Athens. He declared that

“[God] made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.” (Acts 17:26-27)

This sovereign Creator God has installed His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the King of all kings, the Lord of all lords, the one and only Savior of this sinful world. Every people-group on the planet – every human society on the face of the earth – owes allegiance to Jesus. Although many individuals refuse to bow the knee, every people-group and every language-group will have representatives who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. The song of redemption that reverberates in heaven’s throne room sounds forth praise to the Lamb:

“Worthy are you to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God

from every tribe and language and people and nation,

and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,

and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9-10)

But how did these tribes and languages and people-groups and nations come about? And why should you care? You should care because God has seen fit to tell you how these things came about. And if you would walk with God as Enoch and Noah did, then you would do well to understand what God is doing in the world.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENESIS 10:1-32 AND GENESIS 11:1-9

Before we start walking through Chapter 10, I want to briefly explain how Chapter 10 relates to Genesis 11:1-9. The genealogical history of Genesis 10 covers several generations. We learn about two generations of Japheth’s descendants, three generations of Ham’s descendants, and five generations of Shem’s descendants. From the more detailed genealogical information that is found in Genesis 11:10-26, which tells us the precise age of some of Shem’s descendants, we can say that the history in Genesis 10 covers up to about 340 years after the flood. And sometime in the midst of that 340 years – it could have been at the 100-year mark or at the 200-year mark – but sometime in the midst of that 340 years the events of Genesis 11:1-9 took place.

Ultimately, Genesis 11:1-9 explains how Genesis 10:1-32 came to fulfillment. The fact that Shem, Ham, and Japheth had offspring requires no explanation – this is what human beings do! The matter that requires explanation is how the descendants of Noah’s sons were dispersed over the face of the earth – and not merely dispersed, but dispersed according to specific language groups. Genesis 10 tells us that these descendants were eventually dispersed “by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations” (Genesis 10:20, 31; also see 10:5).

So, Genesis 10 tells us the fact that a dispersion or spreading abroad of humanity took place. First, the families of Noah’s sons grew into small clans, which all lived in close proximity to one another. Only after this clan-building took place over the course of 100-200 years did the clans actually disperse. As it says in the second half of Genesis 10:18, “Afterward the clans of the Canaanites dispersed.” First the clans developed, and only later were they dispersed. Genesis 11:1-9 explains the cause of the dispersion.

THE DESCENDANTS OF SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH (Genesis 10:1-32)

Let’s start with Chapter 10, which begins with a summary statement: “These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.” What follows is a summary of how the earth was repopulated through Noah’s three sons after the flood.

The information in Genesis 10 is not exhaustive. The information that is provided  focuses our attention on various people-groups that would eventually fan out over the Middle East, Asia Minor, Africa, and Europe about one hundred to two hundred years after the flood.

Fourteen descendants of Japheth are identified in verses 2-5. These fourteen descendants consist of seven sons and seven grandsons. After the judgment at Babel, Japheth’s descendants would eventually move mostly to the north and to the west, populating Europe and Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). They also had a presence in Media (in the northwest of modern-day Iran). Japheth’s descendants are referred to as “the coastland peoples” in verse 5. Whether in Europe or Asia Minor or Media, Japheth’s descendants stuck close to seas: the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Mediterranean Sea.

Thirty descendants of Ham are identified in verses 6-20. These thirty descendants consist of four sons, twenty-four grandsons, and two great-grandsons. After the judgment at Babel, Ham’s descendants would move mostly to the west and to the south, populating Arabia, northeast Africa (particularly Egypt and Libya), Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), and Palestine (the land of Canaan).

Twenty-six descendants of Shem are identified in verses 21-31. These twenty-six descendants consist of five sons, five grandsons, one great-grandson, two great-great-grandsons, and thirteen great-great-great-grandsons. After the judgment of Babel, some of Shem’s descendants remained in the greater Mesopotamian world (Elam, Assyria, Babylon, and Syria), and others headed south to Arabia.

Though oversimplified, one can say that Shem’s descendants were predominant in the center of the Middle East; Ham’s descendants were predominant to the west and southwest in Palestine and northeastern Africa; and Japheth’s descendants were predominant to the north and northwest in Europe and Asia Minor. This is oversimplified, of course. For some of the descendants named in Genesis 10, we really don’t know where they ended up geographically. And sometimes the descendants of one brother ended up in close proximity as neighbors to the descendants of another brother.

In addition to this general picture, some other things stand out in Genesis 10.

The first thing that stands out is Nimrod, who receives focused attention in verses 8-12. Five “sons of Cush” were listed in verse 7, but Nimrod isn’t included. That “Cush [also] fathered Nimrod” is singled out for special emphasis in verse 8. The alternative ESV translation “he began to be a mighty man on the earth” is to be preferred, since there were a crop of mighty men back in Genesis 6:4, long before Nimrod arrived on the scene. Nimrod was a mighty man, “a mighty hunter before the LORD”. This isn’t necessarily a compliment, for the context suggests that the phrase “before the LORD” carries a negative connotation, namely, that Nimrod pursued an agenda that was opposed to the Lord’s agenda.[1] After all, Nimrod was an enthusiastic and determined builder of his own kingdom. The way that Nimrod established and expanded his empire was to build cities. Verse 10 says, “The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.” Most likely, Genesis 10:10 is connecting the unfolding history of Chapter 10 with the judgment at Babel in Chapter 11. This would mean that Nimrod was the leading figure of rebellious humanity as it sought to pursue its misguided ambitions at the building project at Babel. When Nimrod and his co-conspirators had to “[leave] off building the city” (Genesis 11:8) of Babel, then Nimrod would have proceeded to build other cities in the land of Shinar (Genesis 10:10), and from there he expanded into the land of Assyria (Genesis 10:11-12).

The second thing that stands out is Shem, who receives special attention in a number of ways:

• Although the order of Noah’s three sons is always given in the order of “Shem, Ham, and Japheth” (in Genesis 5:32, 6:10, 7:13, 9:18, and 10:1), nevertheless the genealogical information about these three sons is not given in that order. Instead of expected order of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the actual order in Chapter 10 is Japheth, Ham, and Seth. That is unexpected, but it helps to explain why Shem is identified as “the elder brother of Japheth” in Genesis 10:21. Why is Shem’s genealogical information given last? Probably for the sake of emphasis, as Shem’s genealogical information is going to be revisited and expanded in Genesis 11:10-26. For it is through Shem’s line that the Messiah will come. So let’s get Japheth out of the way, let’s get Ham out of the way, and now let’s focus on Shem – not only once (in Genesis 10:21-31), but also a second time (in Genesis 11:10-26).

• Another thing that stands out regarding Shem is that he receives a preamble before his sons are identified. Verse 2 begins: “The sons of Japheth”. Verse 6 begins: “The sons of Ham”. We would expect Shem’s section to begin: “The sons of Shem”. But it doesn’t. “The sons of Shem” is written in verse 22, but a preamble comes first: “To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born.” I already mentioned the significance of Seth being “the elder brother of Japheth”. It is also interesting to notice that right off the bat, Shem is identified as “the father” of Eber’s children. In this verse “father” doesn’t mean ‘immediate biological father’ but instead it means ‘ancestral patriarch’. As a matter of fact, Eber is Shem’s great-grandson. So verse 21 is telling us that Shem is the father – the ancestral patriarch – of his great-grandson’s children. Isn’t that interesting? Some commentators suggest that the terminology ‘the Hebrews’ derives from the name of Eber, in which case verse 21 would be saying that Shem is the father of the Hebrews[2], among whom will be Abraham.

• Regardless of that, we know for sure that it is Shem’s genealogical line through Eber that eventually gets us to Abraham, and which long after that eventually gets us to the Messiah. So, the fact that Shem’s line is the Messianic line explains why Shem’s descendants are traced out to the fifth generation. Japtheth’s descendants were traced out to the second generation. Ham’s descendants were traced out just a little bit into the third generation. But Shem’s descendants are traced out to the fifth generation: Arpachshad, then Shelah, then Eber, then Peleg and Joktan, and finally Joktan’s sons. The line that leads to Abraham and the Messiah runs through Peleg, and we will receive additional information about that in Genesis 11:10-26.

The third thing that stands out in Chapter 10 is the significance of Peleg’s name. Genesis 10:25 says, “To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided”. The name “Peleg” means ‘division’. Here the phrase “the earth” is being used as shorthand for the people who inhabited the earth.[3] This is the same idea with which Chapter 11 begins, “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.” But the division of languages, and the dividing of the earth’s inhabitants, took place because of the judgment at Babel – and from Genesis 10:25 we know that this division took place in the days of Peleg. It is possible that Peleg was so-named to memorialize the fact that the dispersion of peoples was underway, but it is also possible that Peleg was named prophetically to foretell what would take place later in his lifetime. Peleg was born about 100 years after the flood, and he lived a total of 239 years (Genesis 11:18-19). Chronologically, this puts the judgment at Babel somewhere between 100 and 339 years after the flood.

So, Noah’s three sons and their families had a run of at least several decades, and possibly 200-300 years, to grow their families into small clans. During this stretch of time Noah’s large extended family lived in relative proximity to each other. Only after the events of Genesis 11:1-9 did these small clans “spread abroad” (Genesis 10:32) “over the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:9).

THE DISPERSION AT BABEL (Genesis 11:1-9)

This brings us to Chapter 11. As we begin Chapter 11, we are given a brief description of human civilization in the post-flood world. First, “the whole earth had one language and the same words.” (Genesis 11:1) This makes sense, because God created mankind with built-in language for the sake of communication with God and with one another. All human beings descended from Adam and Eve, upon whom the Lord had conferred humanity’s first language, and that language would have been readily passed down from one generation to the next. Having a common language is important to communication and unification, to unity and community. Mankind was made to be unified under God’s sovereign, righteous, and gracious rule. Unfortunately, sinful mankind is always pursuing pseudo-unity in rebellion against God.

During these early decades after the flood, humanity stuck together geographically. Any spreading out that took place during these early decades would have been very minimal. The land of Ararat, somewhere in the greater Middle East, was ground zero after the flood. In due course “people migrated from the east [although the Hebrew word could just as easily be rendered ‘toward the east’ or ‘eastward’], [and] they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.” (Genesis 11:2) The land of Shinar is in ancient Mesopotamia.

Verses 3-4 give us insight into their plan, presumably under the leadership of Nimrod. Notice the obvious: they are using their common language – they are speaking to each other and conspiring with each other – to act in unity against God. That, of course, constitutes the abuse and misuse of language. Verses 3-4 say:

“And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, 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.”” (Genesis 11:3-4)

The mention of bricks and bitumen (or asphalt) fits the Mesopotamian context. The mere fact of building a settlement or city is not the problem here. It is to be expected that as human beings multiply and move about on the earth, they will build villages, towns, settlements, cities, and so forth. That’s not the problem. The problem – and it is a big problem – lies in their motivations and pretentions.

First, the effort to build this city and tower in Babel is an act of proud defiance. Human beings are determined to not do the very thing that God commanded them to do: “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”” (Genesis 9:1) Now, in Chapter 11, we learn that humanity doesn’t want to “fill the earth”. Instead, they want to hunker down in one place and not “be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

Second, the effort to build Babel city and Babel tower is aimed to exalt man, not God. The builders say to each other: “let us make a name for ourselves”. They don’t want to search out and study God’s name; they don’t want to ponder God’s character and display God’s worth; they don’t want to hallow and lift high the name of the Lord throughout the earth. Instead, they want to lift high their own name in this one place. They are humanists: man is the measure of all things, mankind is worthy of adulation, humanity’s progressive agenda is what matters. “[Let] us make a name for ourselves” – let us make a name for us, let us make a name for mankind. And of course, you can bet that Nimrod and the other leaders of this project were especially interested in making a name for themselves as mighty men, as king and aristocrats, over this humanistic project.

Third, the effort to build the city of man is aimed to achieve heavenly glory: “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens” (Genesis 11:4, italics added). This is a radical distortion of the true heavenly glory to which we are called. God designed the world in such a way that we would look up and be overwhelmed by His majesty: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” (Psalm 19:1) God created the heavens in such a way that we would look up and be humbled: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4) So, do you see what is happening in Chapter 11? Mankind wants to look up at the heavens and see a man-made tower. Instead of looking up and seeing God’s handiwork, mankind wants to look up and admire its own handiwork. Instead of looking up and being humbled, mankind wants to look up and feel proud that it can ascend into the heavens on the basis of its own diligent labor. Instead of trusting God, mankind wants to trust its own works and climb the steps that it has built on its own.

Nimrod’s kingdom-building project at Babel was a project that mankind pursued in its own wisdom and strength, for its own purpose, unto its own praise. And this means that sooner or later, the project was destined to fail. Consider the principle of Psalm 127:

“Unless the LORD builds the house,

those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the LORD watches over the city,

the watchman stays awake in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)

Sooner or later, the pride of men and their misguided projects will come crashing down:

“The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,

and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,

and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.” (Isaiah 2:11)

Next, we are told that the Lord was not pleased with man’s effort to build a city and tower:

“And the LORD said, “And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”” (Genesis 11:5-6)

Arnold Fruchtenbaum calls attention to the irony: “No matter how high man towered, God still has to come down to see it and to get a better look.”[4]

In the context of verses 1-4, it is important to understand that the problem isn’t “one people” having “one language” in and of itself. The problem is that these “one people” with “one language” are leveraging the power of their unity and the potency of unified communication in rebellion against the Lord. Unity is a great force for good when people are united together in that which is truly good. When human beings are united together under the Lord, their unity is a wonderful blessing and their ability to collaborate bears much good fruit. However, unity is a great force for evil when people are united together in rebellion against God. When human beings are united together in opposition to the Lord, their unity is a precursor to the spread of deception, corruption, and ruin.

When the Lord says, “And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them,” He is not saying this as someone who is intimidated by these proud men. Remember, not long ago God blotted out all of mankind, except for the eight people who were on the ark. There is no contest between God and man. Every man’s breath is in the hand of the Lord, and the Lord can extinguish that breath at any moment. So, the Lord is not intimidated by Nimrod and his henchmen. However, the truth of the matter is that the Lord often allows the choices of men to run their course. And as the Lord considers what is happening with this city and tower project, He knows that if He lets the sinful choices of this self-exalting gang play out for the foreseeable future, then they will succeed at wreaking havoc and destruction upon the earth.

We have this testimony from the history of mankind, that when great power is concentrated into a unified center of political leadership, great evil is perpetrated and ordinary people suffer great harm. Just consider the Communists ruling the Soviet Union for 70 years in the 20^thcentury, or the Nazis ruling Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, or the dictatorial regime in North Korea or the one-party rule in China today. These various expressions of totalitarianism have this in common: they represented a totalizing unity of ideas, resources, and leadership in pursuit of a virulent anti-god agenda. The cruelty, the human suffering, the suppression of truth, the pretentious attempt to exercise god-like control over other people, is frightening and sickening. And this is just the testimony from particular nations at particular times in history. Just imagine the entire world being unified and totalized under the Chinese Communist Party. If that thought raises your blood pressure, then I suspect you have a window into the problem at Babel.

On this Fourth of July weekend, it is worth remembering that America’s constitutional government, which limits the power of government, and which separates the various powers of government to avoid their concentration in a single person or in a single branch or a single level, and which recognizes the God-given right of the people to live, and to freely and publicly exercise their religious commitments, and to be unmolested in their conscience and in their political freedom and livelihood and property, is a remarkable and undeserved gift that God gave to our forefathers. Ancient Israel’s God-given covenantal government, and America’s constitutional republic, are two of the most exceptional governments in the history of the world that buck the trend of totalizing wickedness in the mold of ancient Babel or modern China. And frankly, America has squandered its heritage. While the power afforded to the Supreme Court and the powers reserved to the states provides us with some resistance to the onslaught of evil, America has been fast-tracking the totalizing of an anti-god agenda for several decades now. At a certain point we may have to acknowledge, “And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” Such is the power of unity and the potency of unified communication.

Now if you want to undermine such unity, then destroy the lines of communication. Without intelligible communication, there cannot be unified community. And it is in this way that the Lord brings judgment upon the Babel building project:

“Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of the earth.” (Genesis 11:7-9)

One moment, “the children of man” (v. 5) seemed destined to succeed in their self-promoting effort to “build [themselves] a city and a tower with its top in the heavens” (v. 4). The next moment, they couldn’t communicate with one another. All of a sudden, one clan of people couldn’t communicate with anyone from outside their clan. Such confusion would have been shocking and frustrating to them all, but once they realized the situation, each clan packed its bags and moved out to “fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). They should have moved out to fill the earth as an act of obedience to God. Instead, they moved out to fill the earth as a result of God’s judgment upon their disobedience.

The city name ‘Babel’ apparently means ‘gate of God’, and it makes sense that the builders of Babel would have called it that. But now God brings their lofty and misguided ambitions down upon their own head. Instead of being a gateway to heavenly glory, Babel became a place of confusion, broken communication, and separation. God said ‘No’ to their pretentions. Thus the name Babel gets stuck with a new meaning, because the Hebrew word ‘Babel’ sounds like the Hebrew word ‘confused’. God literally brought the scheme of their city-building to a confusing end.

When God put different languages into the human population at Babel, this caused the newly formed language-groups to scatter about to different parts of the earth. The confusing of human language was itself an act of God, and specifically an act of judgment against people who were using language to plot and scheme their own anti-god agenda. Although we don’t know how many languages were created at Babel, the number must have been much smaller than the 6,000 to 7,000 known languages upon earth today. A plausible explanation for all this is that the event at Babel created several dozen language groups, and over time – as people continued to migrate and separate – these languages morphed into the thousands of languages that are known today.[5]

Genesis 10:1–11:9 is a foundational part of human history. But what God had planned for it all, is even more important.

To the Ends of the Earth

I titled this sermon, “From Babel to the Ends of the Earth.” I titled it this way, not only because it is an apt summary of Genesis 10:1–11:9, but also because it anticipates the glorious salvation that God prepared beforehand for the benefit of all people-groups (Luke 2:29-32).

In Genesis 11:1-9, God disperses the people “over the face of all the earth.”

In short order, God will call Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees, and will promise to give the land of Canaan to him and his descendants. In due course the Lord brought Abraham’s descendants – the nation of Israel – into the promised land. Once established in the land, Israel went through many ups and downs, with more downs than ups as a result of their unfaithfulness to the Lord. Israel’s kingdom had been divided between the northern kingdom (called Israel) and the southern kingdom (called Judah). As a demonstration of the Lord’s judgment, Israel was defeated by the Assyrians in 722 BC, and Judah was defeated by the Babylonians in 586 BC. To make a long story short, what ultimately happened is that the Jews were dispersed over the face of the earth. Some would return to their homeland, but many would not.

First, humanity in general was dispersed throughout the earth because of its unfaithfulness. And second, the Jews in particular were dispersed throughout the earth because of their unfaithfulness.

Third, in the fullness of time the promised Messiah came forth, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of Shem, the son of Adam. He lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death in our place on account of our sins, rose again as the triumphant victor over sin and death, and sat down at the right hand of the Father, from whence He will come again to judge the living and the dead. In the meantime, between His ascension into heaven and His future return, the good news of His gracious salvation must be proclaimed throughout the earth, so that all who trust Him will be rescued from sin and adopted into God’s forever family. God’s plan was that this wonderful gospel should first be proclaimed in Jerusalem.

So fourth, the initial and momentous proclamation of the finished work of Christ took place on the day of Pentecost. This is recounted in Acts 2. Do you know who was there? Devout Jewish men “from every nation under heaven” (Acts 1:5). Which nations? “Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belong to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians.” (Acts 2:8-11)

The nations had been dispersed. Then the Jews were dispersed among the nations. Now representative Jews from many nations are back in Jerusalem to hear the good news about Jesus. Was language a barrier? No, because God performed a miracle in Acts 2: the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus’ disciples and enabled them to proclaim “the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:11) in the languages of the people who were present. God breaks up the unity of those who oppose Him, but through the gospel He is forming a new unified family under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the undoing of Babel. The gospel alone brings clarity to our confused and divided world.

Eventually, this gospel that was first proclaimed in Jerusalem went forth to “Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). For it is God’s will “that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his [Christ’s] name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:47) 

Thus the message of God’s judgment ‘from Babel to the ends of the earth’ was actually preparation for the message of God’s salvation ‘from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth’. God disperses the peoples, that He might regather them again under Christ. For those who remain outside of Christ, the judgment remains. But for those who repent and believe, they form “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Revelation 7:9) – and they are seen “standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and [they are heard] crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”” (Revelation 7:9-10).

ENDNOTES

[1] Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, The Book of Genesis (Ariel’s Bible Commentary). Fourth Edition. San Antonio: Ariel Ministries, 2020: p. 196.

[2] Andrew E. Steinmann, Genesis (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries Volume I). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019: p. 128.

[3] Jonathan D. Sarfati, The Genesis Account: A theological, historical, and scientific commentary on Genesis 1-11. Second Edition. Powder Springs, GA: Creation Book Publishers, 2015: p. 652.

[4] Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, The Book of Genesis (Ariel’s Bible Commentary). Fourth Edition. San Antonio: Ariel Ministries, 2020: p. 206.

[5] Jonathan D. Sarfati, The Genesis Account: A theological, historical, and scientific commentary on Genesis 1-11. Second Edition. Powder Springs, GA: Creation Book Publishers, 2015: p. 663-667.