Table of Nations and Babel

Genesis 10-11. In Genesis 10, we get the Table of Nations. This is way more interesting than it sounds, because it lays out who ended up populating each portion of the world. It's been a topic of study for historians and linguists for hundreds of years, so there's plenty of information out there, if you want it. There is evidence for Genesis 10's accuracy. 

Japheth’s descendents span from India up to Western Europe. Ham’s descendents took up Africa (bringing to mind Noah’s curse on Ham’s descendents mentioned in chapter nine) and the Far East. Ham’s included Nimrod, a mighty warrior and hunter before the Lord. He inspired a saying: “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” This isn’t a compliment. Nimrod means “let us rebel.” Nimrod was violent guy. 

Shem’s descendants (the Semites) are Persian, Assyrian, Syrian, and Hebrew. Some think that one of Shem’s named descendants, Jobab, might have been the man we know as Job later in the Old Testament. It’s possible and around the right time to be Job. Most Bibles that put the books in chronological order put Job either before or right after Genesis, implying that the writings inside indicate that Job lived close to the beginning.

One of Shem’s descendents, Peleg, was named so “because his time on the earth was divided.” It’s unfortunate that we can only speculate as to what that means. It’s been suggested that this was a continental divide, a family/language divide that happened after Babel halfway through his life, or some other sort of natural division on earth. Something happened to Peleg that divided his life into two halves. If you are nerdy enough to want more on the Table of Nations, you can check this out to start.

Now to Babel. This was in Babylon. The Bible says that the whole world had one common speech and decided to build city with a tower that reaches to the heavens. It is unlikely that they really wanted to reach a physical Heaven. It is more likely that they wanted it to just be very tall. The main reason for this was so that they could make a name for themselves, rather than be “scattered over the face of the whole Earth.” The ancient Greek historian Herodotus claimed to have seen the tower of Babel, saying that it still stood in this day. It was made with the same waterproof material God advised Noah use for the ark, so it is possible that this tower would be very durable.

God saw this tower and 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.” HUH?!! So does that mean that God doesn’t want us to achieve anything? Is it wrong for us to have success and to work together? Obviously not, but man, couldn't he have worded it better? We should always look at God’s possible merciful motivations, because that’s just who he is and what he’s about. He was probably making it so that our power over the Earth would not go unchecked.

Picture us all, now, as one nation with all the resources. Things could go badly. It’s also merciful to stop these people from trusting in the power of the mob and in organized rebellions against God. Yeah, we've built taller buildings before, but here it was time to create nations, separate destructive people, and spread them out over the Earth so that they could get diverse and discovery a whole host of differing things.

The attitude of Babel was to trust in its own ability and find success that way, rather than trust in God. I think today’s culture is similar to that of Babel. Everywhere you look, there are messages telling kids to follow their dreams, go to college, succeed, get famous, nurture their talents, whatever. Success in itself isn’t a bad thing and there’s a fine line between pursuing goals with God in mind and with yourself in mind. It’s good to do your best to achieve you were made to accomplish on Earth.

It’s wrong to find your identity, security, joy, and glory in that success. It’s wrong to be so focused on accomplishment that if you start failing or lose those accomplishments, your life means nothing and you are devastated. I think in today’s culture, we don’t realize that we are doing this. We don’t realize that we are trying to control our destinies and ensure bright futures at the cost of slowing down, questioning our motivations, and focusing on serving others. I think this society’s most hidden idol is the idol of success. One pastor when speaking of idols says that idolatry is when you take good things and make them ultimate things.

Look especially at movies where the salvation arc ends in financial, career, or achievement-related success. They are common and they are cathartic. This sort of salvation arc where people throw off their obstacles and succeed is one of the only salvation arcs the secular world has. But this attitude bleeds over into Christian circles. It leads to people taking jobs and picking majors that are soul-crushing to them. They don’t love the work, they weren’t made to do the work, and the work does not fit them. They do this work because it will bring them money or acclaim.

There are TONS of these people walking around law school. They don’t do the jobs because they believe in them or enjoy them; they are a means to an end, which is a shame. I know lots of people have to make a living, financially, and that’s different. There is a difference between doing something for survival and doing something mostly for pride. Some people use survival as an excuse when they could really live on a smaller salary and do a job that fits them. Do you think the people of Babel enjoyed making all those bricks? Naw. It was for the goal of self-glorification.

God then said, “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so that they will not understand each other.” Whether God was saying this to Jesus and the Holy Spirit (in a Gollum-like way) or to his angel buddies, I don’t know, but God scattered these people all over the Earth and confused the languages of the whole world. That’s why the city is called Babel. This story has sort of dampened my desire to learn other languages, because I decided as a kid that other languages are bad and that the whole differing language thing was a curse and a punishment. I’m over this attitude, because you can see how the languages we have today (as opposed to the ancient ones in Babel) developed through cultural and geographical factors. They are a part of history and there are good parts to history to learn and celebrate.

Following this story is an account of Shem’s family line all the way to Abram and his nephew Lot. Abram means “father.” It is immediately mentioned that Abram married an infertile woman, Sarai, whose name means “contentious.”