Luccas Rodor: Happy Sabbath. Welcome to the Granite Bay Hilltop Seventh Day Adventist Church. It's so good to have you here with us. Thank you so much for investing your time, learning more about God's Word, learning more about the Bible. We sure have a great study planned for today. We're going to be studying lesson number 5 of this lesson about Genesis, and we're going to be studying with Pastor Shawn Brummund. The title of this week's lesson is "Babylon," or "All Nations and Babylon."
Now, before we get into the study of the lesson, I'd like to invite you to take advantage of this free offer. It's called "Coming One World Church." It's a very interesting study. If you would like to receive it, you could call the number 866-788-3966, and you could ask for study number 138. If you're in continental North America, you could text SH076 to 40544, and you would get a digital download, or you could go to study.aftv.org/SH076, and you can also get a digital download.
Before Pastor Shawn comes out, though, we have a special song that is going to be sung by the Sacramento Ukrainian Choir, and you are going to be blessed by this song. May God bless you in the study of today's lesson.
[Singing in foreign language]
Luccas: Dear Lord, thank you so much for the grace of this day. Thank you for your love and your guidance, and thank you for your Word. As Pastor Shawn leads today, Lord, in the study of this lesson, may the human instrument fall into the background, and may your knowledge, your wisdom, Lord, and your understanding fill our hearts and our minds. I ask this in Jesus' name, amen.
Shawn Brummund: Good morning to everyone. It's good to see your smiling faces, as we come together here on this special day that God has blessed and sanctified, and that He has called holy. And so, it's good to be able to come together and worship Him on that special day that God has given us from the beginning of time. And speaking of beginnings, we are continuing to coming back to our quarterly study, which is that of Genesis, the very first book in the Bible, where Genesis means from the beginning or origins, and so we're looking back at history. There's a lot of important theology, a lot of important truth that we're drawing from that, and today is no exception.
I want to invite you to open your Bibles here this morning to Genesis chapter 9, as we get right into the Word. There's lots to look at, more than we can cover today; but nevertheless, we'll see if we can learn as much as we possibly can. These are, again, as is the case with the first half of Genesis, some very packed chapters, and there's just a whole lot for us to be able to draw from.
So, we're going to Genesis chapter 9, and we're picking up with verse 18, and we're going to read right through to the end of the chapter, and then we'll talk about what we find here, as we continue to study together. So, we're in Genesis chapter 9 and verse 18. In verse 18 it says, "Now the sons of Noah, who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Ham was the father of Canaan."
Now, we're going to find out that that's pointed out twice. Why? Because Moses is inspired to be able to point out some sad connections there. We're going to talk about that once we get to the end of the passage. So, he points out that Ham was the father of Canaan, and these three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. And then he drank of the wine, and he was drunk and became uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and lay it on both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father, and their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness. And so Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done to him, and then he said, 'Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren.'"
Interesting. As God is inspiring Noah to respond in a prophetic way, God speaks not to Ham directly but speaks to one of the four sons of Ham, which is that of Canaan. And then in verse 26 it says, "And he said, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant; and may God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.' And Noah lived after the flood 350 years. So, all of the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died." And so there we finish up what we looked at in the first half of Genesis chapter 9 last week, and we look at those last tragic words in the latter part of Genesis chapter 9.
Now, here we find sin on two different levels. We find two family members that are guilty as charged. We have the dad, which is Noah. And not only did he start to farm wine grapes, but he fell into the temptation of fermenting those or at least found them fermented. We don't know all the details on how some of those grapes became--or the grape juice became fermented and contained alcohol, but it did. And Noah found himself indulging in something that the Bible later on tells us--and this is one of those Exhibit A's why God would have us abstain from alcohol in the first place. So, it's interesting.
It's very sparse, as we find the Genesis record in the first chapters. You know, it's covering a whole lot of history and a lot of centuries, millennia of history, and so it has to be sparse. But, you know, when we look at it, we kind of connect all the dots. We can put some important truths together in concern to this. Again, we don't have all the details of how Noah got to the point where he indulged, why he decided to indulge. I'm guessing that obviously there's some temptation, there's the evil one, not exactly the prettiest place to live after the flood.
We have to remember the whole place is just distorted. It was paradise. Anywhere you went on the planet--you didn't have to get on a plane and go to Hawaii to find paradise, like we do today. Everywhere you went, there wasn't a spot on the planet that wasn't paradise. But now, you know, the contrast that Noah and his family were forced to be able to see--you know, the children that--Noah's grandchildren, his great grandchildren, his great grandchildren--all the generations after, they only know one world, and that's after the flood.
Noah and his family, they know paradise before. They know how much they've lost, and so imagine being on a planet that used to have billions of people, and now there's eight, and paradise is gone. And even much of the beauty that we have around us hasn't grown up from the ground yet. And so there's not a lot of grain. It's pretty depressing, pretty tragic. And so sometimes, as we, as human beings, even as Christians sometimes can find theirselves at a weak point, and we're looking for some escape. And so Noah finds himself indulging in some alcoholic wine that got into his possession.
So, both Noah and his son, Ham, are guilty as charged. They both are guilty of sin. Noah has a temporary setback in his righteousness and walk with the Lord. And does it bring a shame and embarrassment to himself and to his family? Always does. Many of us are familiar with that. Many of us have family members that deal with alcoholism, problem drinking, and so on, and we know the embarrassment. We know the shame that it can bring; and certainly, this is no exception to that.
And so Noah is certainly not an alcoholic, but certainly he did find himself at a weak point, and he made a sinful choice, found himself in a very sinful situation. And yes, it brought shame and embarrassment to himself and to his family, to the point where we don't know if he passed out, but he certainly--you know, alcohol is a sedative, and so, you know, the more you indulge, the more you're going to pass out. And Noah didn't quite make it to his bed. Or if he did, he wasn't able to fully dress himself and cover himself with blankets, and so there he was in his tent naked, passed out. It's not a pretty picture.
Noah was a prophet of God, yes? Yeah, very clearly, he was a prophet of God. He had conversations with the Lord directly, and God had called him to build the ark. Was Noah a preacher of righteousness? Yes, he was. You know, Peter made it very clear, as Peter looks back on the overall life and pattern of Noah. He calls him a preacher of righteousness, and so he was a preacher, and a prophet, and a boat builder. He walked with God. He had a pattern that tells us that Noah most certainly repented. Noah most certainly had found forgiveness from the Lord, once again. He had found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Now, of course, we know that Noah is not only one of the champions of the Lord that found themselves in a very embarrassing situation, sinful spot at some point in their life. We look at King David. We look at pretty well every other figure and champion in history, and there's different blemishes that are found there. But just like David, Noah found himself on his knees, prostrating before the Lord, begging for forgiveness, and repenting from his sin, and so we don't find the Bible reporting any kind of pattern that he left behind in the rest of his life. And so Noah was found guilty of sin, but it's on a different level than that of his son, Ham.
Now, when we come to Ham, we find a much different level of sin. Of course, as we just read the Bible record, we find that, sadly, Ham, when he finds his dad naked and passed out in his tent from overindulging in this alcoholic wine, we find that Ham, instead of responding like the other two brothers--very clearly full of respect and love and reverence for their dad, find themselves backing up, you know, into the tent with a blanket and covering his dad so that they don't look upon his shame and his nakedness and this embarrassing blemish in his life. Ham didn't respond like that. He was the first one to find him.
And so we can kind of picture Ham giggling when he sees his dad and says, "Oh man," you know. And then he runs out to his other brothers and said, saying, "Listen, we've got a really serious situation. Dad has kind of lost it. You know, he went and indulged in this alcoholic wine. He's passed out in the tent. We need to be able to respect him and help him through this as best as we can." He doesn't do that, does he? The other two brothers do, but Ham doesn't. He goes out there and says, "You won't believe what the old man just did. You know, you've gotta see this, guys, come on." Get the camera, get out your phones, you know. Let's open Instagram and YouTube, and let's take some videos. Let's take some pictures, and we'll post it up, and so on. And so he's having fun with it. You know, he thinks this is a joke.
And so the other two respond, of course, by honoring their father and their mother. They know the commandments of the Lord. And so, sadly, Ham not only is guilty of sin just like his dad is at this juncture in their life, but it reflects a pattern of his life that must have existed beforehand.
So, the very fact that he responded in the way that he did doesn't just come out of a vacuum. For Ham to respond the way that he did, he already reveals that he had already set into motion a pattern in his life that was not full of reverence before God and before his father, before his parent. And so and definitely throughout the remaining of his life, the rest of the Bible record tells us that Ham set in motion a family line that is familiar, very similar and parallel to that of Cain.
You know, when we find the first family, the only family on the planet--Adam, Eve, the first two sons--we have Cain, we have Abel. Abel chooses the righteous and holy pathway of God and his repentant parents, and then we find Cain that chooses a pathway of rebellion and independence from God. And here we have again, you know, all families on the earth destroyed except for one family.
We're back down to one family on the planet, and sadly again we find that--fortunately two of them chose the pathway of righteousness, and then we also have Ham. And so Ham, you know, definitely remained rebellious to God. Now, this is demonstrating, first of all, in his dad's prophetic response--and by the way, the prophetic response, the very fact that God chose to speak through Noah tells us that Noah has reconciled himself to God, tells us that Noah has begged for forgiveness, and found grace, and reconciliation, and such in the eyes of the Lord. He's made himself right with the Lord; but as God now speaks through him, as a continued spirit of prophecy, we find here that sadly the words that God gave to Noah to speak don't speak well of Ham and particularly of one of his sons, Canaan.
Now, we have to remember that Canaan is one of the four sons of Ham, one of the four grandchildren of Noah, but Canaan kind of stands out for--especially for the author of Genesis, which is Moses and Moses's generation, which is the children of Israel, the Israelites. Why? Because they're just about to enter into the promised land, and that is inhabited by the Canaanites. These are inhabitants--or the descendants of Canaan, the grandchild of Noah, the son of Ham.
And so this is very relevant, present truth for Moses and for his generation, when Moses is penning Genesis. And so Moses points that out, that when you look at the legacy that Ham left behind, he left behind a horrible legacy of Canaan, because Canaanites became so wicked and so desperately wicked that God eventually sent the Israelites in and said, "Listen, not only am I giving you the promised land. I'm not asking you just to go and ask them to find another home. I want you to wipe out complete tribes, complete peoples."
Because the desperate wickedness that had developed in these Canaanite tribes was horrible, atrocities that you and I can hardly but imagine. And so, you know, this is about a thousand years after Noah gives this prophecy, we find that God and Moses and the Israelites are casting out or destroying the Canaanites in judgment on their wickedness. And so the Bible says that God is not just saying, "Here's some promised land, take it."
Part of that purpose, as God so often accomplishes more than one purpose, He's not only establishing a headquarters for the gospel and for truth in this crossroads of the known world back then in Israel, along the Mediterranean Sea there in the fertile crescent there, this prime real estate. But He is also accomplishing a judgment on the wickedness and sin of the Canaanite tribes.
All right, so there's Genesis chapter 9. Not very good news, is it? I wish it could get better, but it doesn't. I really appreciate, by the way, Monday's lesson. When we go to Monday's lesson, and we look at Genesis chapter 10, we find there, you know, many scholars, Christians call Genesis chapter 10 the Table of Nations, because now God gives us a quick rundown. It's not precise, as the quarterly points out. It points out and lists 70 nations, and it's not quite in the same precision as we find in some of the other genealogies, but it is the Table of Nations. This is where the nations split into their various languages and peoples that came from the family of Noah, from the three sons of Noah--Japheth, Shem, and Ham--Shem and Japheth. And we find here that there's a key connection.
Noah is that key connection between the generations, and the peoples, and the nations that lived before the flood, as well as after, because Noah lived how many years again? 350 years, 350 years after the flood. So, Noah was around for more than a couple of years after the flood had begun. And so by the time he died, he had great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren. And so you see the pattern there.
As the quarterly points out--and this used to fascinate me so much. When I first started to read the Bible many years ago, and looked at the genealogies and how long they lived--you know, Noah 950 years. You know, Methuselah 969. Noah--Adam, 930 years. You know, it was just hundreds and centuries of years of life. And, of course, there's these massive overlaps. So, that's why they didn't need the Bible. God didn't inspire the Bible to be written at first because there was so much overlap between the generations.
You know, the first people that lived during the first 930 years of history could hear the truth concerning the gospel, concerning the fall into sin, and Satan, and rebellion in heaven, and all that. All that was available through Adam himself because he lived so long. And as it turns out, as the quarterly points out that there is--in fact, let's go to Monday. Let me see now. This is page 40. And at the very top of Monday it says, "The chronological information about Noah's age makes us realize that Noah served as a link between the pre-flood and the post-flood civilization. Because Adam died when Lamech, Noah's father, was 56 years old, Noah must surely have heard stories from Adam, which he could've transmitted to his descendants before and after the flood." And so there's an overlap there of 56 years.
So, Noah's dad lived for 56 years while Adam was still on the planet, still walking around. And so because of that, Noah almost for certain received secondhand information directly from Adam to Lamech and then to Noah. So, when Noah grew up, he would be able to hear the stories about Lamech hearing the gospel and the truths of their origins and all the great controversy between Satan, and between God, and between truth, and between error, and so all straight secondhand from his dad, directly from Noah.
So, we've got some fascinating overlaps of the Bible--gives to us concerning these different first centuries of history. And so verbal, verbal transmission of truth was the only way that they needed back then--and unlike us, where we need it on paper or on our phones and so on to be able to see and remember these different truths.
Now, one of the other things that the genealogies points out in the quarterly, gives us that insight, as well, is that there is a--when the genealogies are there, you'll notice that the genealogies list all the children. You know, so they'll list all four children of Ham, and they'll list all the children of Japheth, and all the grandchildren, and all the great grandchildren, so on.
One of the things you'll pick up is some of those figures, some of those names become outstanding figures in the history of the world and in Bible history. Most of those names are never mentioned again. And so this is very unlike legends or fables and other accusations and misunderstandings that people have concerning the Bible record. Legends and fables don't have genealogies that give you precise, full, complete records of all the different children, and grandchildren, and great grandchildren, the descendants of these different figures, if they're not already playing a key role in the narrative of the legend or of the fable. But in this case, it's a history book.
You know, Genesis is a literal history book, and so these are literal figures, very real and authentic people that lived in the past. And so that's important for us to be able to pick up, as well, because, of course, the world and the devil continues to propagate these falsehoods concerning the Bible record. One of the most profound insights that I found in the quarterly lesson this week was on Monday again. So, let's go back to that again.
On Monday, we find there that it points out the 70 nations that are listed there, and it foreshadows the 70 members of the family of Jacob. So, we have this fascinating 70 that kind of is strung through the Scriptures themselves that is not by coincidence. And so in that second to last paragraph, after the first sentence, it says the 70 nations foreshadow the 70 members of the family of Jacob and the 70 elders in Israel in the wilderness, when God told Israel--I mean told Moses, "Listen, have 70 key elders of Israel consecrate themselves, bathe themselves, fast, pray, get ready to meet me at the mountain of Mount Sinai." And they had a meeting with the Lord.
And so we have these 70 key representatives of Israel. And so the idea of a correspondence between the 70 nations and the 70 elders suggests the mission of Israel towards the nations. And later on, the same paragraph points out that Jesus, when He first sent His disciples out, He sent them out in the total number of 70. Did Jesus pick that randomly? Was that coincidence? I would say not. I would say that God is using that key word--that key number, I should say--70 to represent both ancient Israel and its mission--because we have the 70 nations that dispersed and spread out and multiply and fill the earth, and God has a gospel for every single one of those nations.
So, when God established Israel and gave them the 70 elders, this was designed to be able to tell them and further impact the fact that they have a mission, that God has not given them the truth just for themselves to enjoy, to keep them to themselves, but to spread it out to all nations represented by the original 70. Now we have over 200 and something nations that are recognized by the United Nations on the planet today. The 70 disciples that were sent out by Jesus is to represent that we are now spiritual Israel. And so Israel has morphed into a different kind of organization that no longer has borders. It no longer has a civil government and so on, but rather, instead, it is the holy church, the body of Christ that is throughout the whole world.
We have the same mission and thus we have 70 representative disciples that Jesus sends out, representing that God has called us to bring the gospel to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. So, I found that very fascinating, as far as an insight in concern to God's working and His original plan right from the beginning for Israel of Old Testament times and now also for modern Israel, New Testament Israel, which is the church itself.
Another helpful point in concern to Genesis chapter 10 and the nature of Genesis 10 is that as you read through it--we don't have time to read the whole thing--is including the dividing of the nations after the Tower of Babel. Now, the details of the Tower of Babel and the circumstances and the events that came up to it, as well as that which followed it, is found in Genesis chapter 11 in the following chapter. But as Genesis and other Bible authors do more than once--and we can find more and more an example--where they will assume that you're going to read the next chapter and know the details. But for now, they're just saying, "Listen, at some point, multiple languages developed and were found within the nations and the planet and among humanity, and different nations were represented by their various languages.
And then God backs up in Genesis chapter 11, and He gives us further detail on how that took place. And so that's why you'll find, even as you read through Genesis chapter 10--it can be confusing at first when we say that, when we read it, because we would say, "Well, wait a minute. Was Moses confused? Did he forget when he wrote Genesis 10 that, you know, the tower of Babel and the confusion of languages didn't exist yet?" You know, Genesis 11 starts with the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.
Well, no, Moses already did this once already in Genesis, by the way, didn't he? Where was the other example? What other point did he describe something, and then he backs up and gives further detail in the next chapter? Genesis chapter--Genesis chapter 1 and 2, the very first two chapters, right? He goes through the record. He goes through the Genesis record--I mean through the creation record. And as he goes through each day, the 6 days of creation, he comes to the climax of the 6th day, and He says, "Let us make man in our image. And thus He made man and woman in the image of God."
And then in Genesis 2, he backs up, and then he gives the details on how He made Adam and Eve. And so then he kind of brings in the magnifying glass in Genesis chapter 2 and gives us further details on how that took place. And so Genesis 10 and 11 is in that same style. And so that can be helpful and avoid some confusion as you're studying, perhaps, this for the first time or getting to know it just a little bit better. Another interesting thing that we find here is Peleg, and Peleg in verse 25, and so Genesis chapter 10 and verse 25 it says to Eber--and this is one of the sons of Shem.
Now, remember, Shem is kind of lifted up prophetically in the end of Genesis chapter 9 as the most faithful before the Lord and gives the biggest and best legacy of faith and truth. And so it says, "To Eber were born two sons: and the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother's name was Joktan." And so Eber decided to name his son, one of the two sons, Peleg, which literally means division. Why? Because almost for certain, at this point, the tower of Babel, the whole project was stymied by the Lord, as He brought in supernaturally all kinds of different languages among the different groups of people that were building that tower. And so there was the division that took place among the nations.
And so we find that that must've took place sometime about the time that Eber had one of his first sons. And so I find that fascinating, as well. Some people have suggested that that may be also the continents that were dividing. You know, even today, when you look at Europe and North America and so on, you know, you bring them together, it's kind of a bit of a fairly obvious puzzle piece there. They used to be connected. Now our evolutionist friends will say, "Yeah, that's right, they were. You know, but then the earth's crust kind of slowly moved in one inch per year. It started to separated and now millions of years later, we're where we are today." But the flood tells us, the Genesis record tells us, no, no, no, it wasn't millions of years. It was weeks.
And some have suggested perhaps even years after, there was a faster drift that was continuing to take place in those first several decades after the flood, as well. Ah, it could be. I don't know. I wasn't there. But it's probably more likely that Peleg is named after the division of the nations through the different languages that God brought to the tower of Babel. All right, and then we come to Genesis chapter 10 and verses 6 through 11, and it's not in the study quarterly, but, you know, I just can't, you know, not look at this.
This is just so intriguing and key. In verse 6 it says, "The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan." Now Canaan's already pointed out. We talked about that and its connection, and it certainly wasn't a good legacy that Ham left to Canaan, and Canaan left to his following generations. And the fruit that it bore is--it led to some great wickedness and suffering. But Cush is no saint, either. And so we come to verse 8, as we look at the other son of Ham, Cush, and he begets and has a son, and he names his son Nimrod. So, here we have one of the grandchildren of Noah--or great grandchildren--and his name is Nimrod, and he began to be a mighty one on the earth.
Now, Hebrew experts tells us that that "mighty one" is referring to one with bold deeds and daring deeds. It is also associated with being a tyrant. It's not a compliment. This is a mighty one in regards to his daringness, his defiance before God, and his power. You know, the power base that he developed in his generation was tremendous, but it wasn't in a godly, and it wasn't in a loving way, by any means. You know, we have modern examples of that today. We have different dictators that are ruling different nations of the world today. We have some that are causing great suffering.
We have one individual today that we know of that's causing great suffering and destruction upon innocent civilians, even as we speak this morning. This is a mighty one. Is he powerful, the figure that is over in Ukraine and Russia today? Yes, okay. Is he a loving, compassionate, wonderful man? No. I wouldn't want to be married to him. I feel sorry for his wife, his children. El Chapo, you know, another individual that we have, you know, on the criminal side of things, you know, outside of politics, and the government and so on. Again, a mighty one, daring, bold.
But friends, you know, this is not in a complimentary way. And so we have different figures. And so Nimrod is no saint before the Lord. In verse 9, it can be confusing. He says he was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Now, you know, you can get confused because later on we read about how the prophet and faithful follower of Christ who was a very godly, loving, compassionate, Spirit-filled man, King David, he danced before the Lord when he brought in the ark, you know, of the covenant into its tabernacle and so on, and put it in its rightful spot and place and such in Jerusalem. And so we find here that David danced before the Lord. He was worshiping before the Lord.
But in this case, it's not Nimrod being faithful before the Lord to worship. Instead, we find that Nimrod in the original Hebrew and such--in fact, the Hebrew experts that translated the Old Testament Hebrew of the Old Testament Scriptures into Greek, we call that the Septuagint today because Sept means seven, and there was like 70--the tradition goes there's 70 Hebrew scholars, Greek scholars and Hebrew scholars that came together not very long before Jesus was living on the earth. And they were rabbis and such and scribes, and they translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, because there was a growing number of Jews that weren't learning Hebrew, but they knew Greek, because Greek was the international language of the Roman empire. And so they translated the Old Testament Scriptures into Greek.
And in the Septuagint, when they translated this particular verse, they render it, "He began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter against the Lord." And that certainly gives us some clarification on that verse there, as well. "Therefore it was said Nimrod was the mighty hunter before the Lord." Now, Nimrod went on to develop the city of Babel or Babel and in the land of Shinar. And so we find here that Nimrod is one of the leaders in this rebellious, defiant project called the tower of Babel. And not only is there the tower of Babel; but as we're going to find out in Genesis chapter 11, that is also a city that developed at the same time.
So, it wasn't just a tower that they were also blueprinting and starting to develop, but it was also a city. And so we find there some of the foundations that were being laid. Later on, in verse 11 in Genesis 10, it says, "And from that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh." Now, Nineveh, again, became a longstanding--for centuries, it became a longstanding enemy of God, a center of wickedness and sinfulness and false religion of all different kinds, just like the tower, just like the city of Babel or Babylon, as the Greek rendition eventually was adopted; and, of course, we're most familiar with the name Babylon.
And, of course, that means confusion, pointing not only to the origins of the confusion that God brought through the different languages that He confused, the different people groups with, but also the religious confusion that developed in the ancient city of Babylon, because Babylon became known--in fact, you know, the Babylonians, by the way, didn't name their own city. Nimrod didn't choose Babylon--or in their case, Babel--as their name for the city. That's what God inspired the Hebrew prophets to label it as. But when you went to the city or you looked at the map of their day, it didn't say Babylon or Babel. It actually said Babilu, B-A-B-I-L-U, Babilu. And so in the language of the Babylonians, the Mesopotamians, that actually meant the door to the gods or the gate of the gods.
You know, and again that's very fitting in the fact that they prided themselves as being the center of religion, the center of the gods. This is the greatest, most powerful connection to the gods. And, of course, they were all false gods. They were all fictitious gods, but this was the center of confusion in regards to religious things.
Okay, so now we go on to Genesis chapter 11, and we pick up that--we pick that up in verse 11--sorry, chapter 11, verse 1, it says, "Now the whole earth was of one language and of one speech." So, again, God is clarifying, led us to know that, you know, for the first several hundred years, over 1,000 years, over 1,500 years, there was only one language that was spoken throughout all of humanity. In verse 2 it says, "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."
That's modern Iraq today. You know, this is where the Babylon that many of us are familiar with, where King Nebuchadnezzar ruled from, the golden city that ruled the empire, that was the world empire for many centuries, you know, that ruled in that part of the world. This is the same Babylon, the same plain. "And then they said to one another, 'Come and let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, 'Come, let us build a city for ourselves. Let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.'" And so, this is a very defiant and rebellious statement that is being quoted here by Nimrod and by Canaan and probably by Ham, as well.
We have this lineage, this legacy that is starting to develop, and it tells us that the bulk of humanity that existed back then fell into place, fell into their leadership, and they said, "Hey listen, we need to be able to make a name for ourselves. Let's build ourselves a city, a tower whose tops is in the heavens."
Now why do you suppose they would want a tower that would go all the way to the heavens? It's a little bit different than ours today. You know, we still have this competition a little bit, this unsaid silent competition between the nations. You know, the Empire State Building went up, and then the Twin Towers, and then we had, you know, Dubai come along and say, "Well, we're gonna outdo that." And they built the longest--you know, the highest tower and building in the world. And now somebody just told me the other day that Dubai has part 2 now. So, Dubai was looking and said, "Well, there's gonna be somebody that's gonna pop up somewhere and say, 'We've gotta outdo Dubai,' and so let's get ahead of them.'" And I don't know if that's the conversation or not, but I'm guessing. And so they built another one that's even higher.
So, they outdid themselves before somebody else could, you know. And I'm guessing that there is some very real pride behind some of that and not what we would probably godly pride, but it is fascinating to see some of these buildings. But this was one that they wanted to get up into the clouds to because the clouds was the culprit. You know, they looked--and, of course, we have to remember that years have gone by, maybe decades, likely decades have gone by. Because as we come to Peleg again in chapter 2, the son of Eber and so on, you know, this is more than a couple of years down the road. And so, you know, the devil's brought in all kinds of theories, like he does today, you know, convincing people that there is no God, that this was all a natural occurrence. It's just nature doing its thing. There was climate change that started to take place, and the temperature changes, and the carbon dioxide levels started to change, and then suddenly rain appeared in these clouds that we'd never seen before. Rain came down and flooded the earth for a time, and it's just an occurrence of nature.
So, if we could just get up into the clouds--first of all, if it happens again, we have an escape route. And number two, if we can get up there where the culprit is, these mysterious weird clouds that are forming rain, and they continue to bring rain, maybe, you know, we can figure out what caused the rain in the first place, so we can control that rain. And so we have all of this kind of, you know, implied--and for me, it's a very clear way. "Let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves."
And so you can see that kind of satanic, it's kind of Luciferian mindset, you know. "I will be like the Most High," as Lucifer eventually came to say. And so it was a very heady--it's a very heady statement in verse 4. "But the Lord came down to see the men of the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, 'Indeed the people are one, and they all have one language, and this is what they will begin to do. Now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them."
And so, of course, God is rightly concerned as He looks down. And He says, "Indeed the people are all one. They're all one language, and they're working together very, very effectively. We have some power mongers down there that are kind of taking the reins." And that's another insight that I found fascinating, as well, is back in chapter 10 and verse 10 it says, "In the beginning his kingdom--" That's Nimrod. His kingdom was Babel, Erech, Acca, Accad, Calneh, in the land of Shinar, and then later Nineveh.
This is the first record of somebody on earth taking the prerogative of being a king, a monarch, you know, with absolute power, the final say. And so under this new defiant form of government called a monarchy, with Nimrod at its head and such, we find that there's this city and this tower, this great project of defiance and rebellion that is underway. And when mankind comes together, and they cooperate, we can do amazing things, cant' we? I mean, we've got space shuttles now that are going out and traveling through space in ways that we couldn't imagine 100 years ago. You know, so we're capable of amazing, amazing accomplishments, even in spite of our language differences, even in spite of our culture differences, even in spite of the fact that we continue to have animosity, and wars, and at national levels, at group levels, gang levels, family levels, individual levels. Even then, we are accomplishing things that we could hardly but imagine that we could accomplish 100 years ago.
So, imagine if we were all of one mind, all under one leadership, one government, and one language. And not only that, but you have to remember that we deteriorated for the last 4,000--this is 4,500 years later. Your mind and my mind is not nearly as bright and sharp. And not only that, but we can't live very long anymore. And so if you make it to 100, you're doing extraordinarily well. And so even if you absorb like a sponge as much as you can over the next 100 years of your life, you still can't absorb nearly as much information as somebody that could that lived four, five, six, seven hundred years long.
And so not only did they have more time to accumulate information, but they could hold it there way better because their mind hadn't deteriorated nearly as much. And so their intellect was genius. And so you put that together under one leadership. God knew that we would self-destruct way before the Messiah would come and this great controversy played out in the way that God knew He needed to. And so because of that, He looked down and He says, "If we don't do something now, nothing will be withheld from them. They're gonna accomplish things that they should never be able to accomplish at this point in history."
And so God had to slow down the progress of mankind. He had to slow it down, and so He put on the brakes. And, of course, many of us know the story. In verse 7, it says, "Come, let us go down there and confuse their language, that they may not understand another's speech." And so Moses talks about God coming down. Of course, this is implying very clearly that Moses understood that God is the maker of the universe. He is sovereign. He is the one that calls the shots, even though sometimes we think we do. And there's more than one politician that think they do. But it's really God that calls the shots.
God's the one that's sovereign. He always has the last word, and this is just another demonstration of that. "Let us go down." There's the plurality of the Trinity there. God is talking to himself, once again, just like He did when He created Adam and Eve. He said, "Let us make man in our image." We have that plurality. We have that Trinity that is being revealed there. God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And as the three are talking amongst themselves, the eternal Godhead, they go down and confuse the language that they may not understand each other's speech.
"And so the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the earth, and they ceased building the city. And therefore the name is called Babel because the Lord confused the language of the earth." And so again, that's what the Hebrews and God named it. It's not what the actual--of course, it wouldn't make sense that they would give their own name a derogatory name like confusion. But rather, instead, they called it Babilu.
Well, that's it for the time that we have here today, friends. It was good to be able to visit and study with you. And don't forget, if you haven't taken advantage of our free gift offer, if you joined our program after it already began and you missed the free gift offer in the beginning, I want to make that available to you, and it's called, "The Coming One World," "The Coming One World," written by one of my friends, Gary Gibbs. He used to work for Amazing Facts many years ago.
And so take advantage of that. Just dial into the number, 1-866-788-3966 and ask for offer number 138. And the screen is also revealing that you can text the code SH076, and you want to dial that to the number 40544. Now, friends, there's also a website that you can get if you're outside of North America and you'd like to be able to make that available to you. You'll see it on the screen there. Please take advantage of that. It's nice to visit with you, and we look forward to seeing you next week.
Announcer: Don't forget to request today's life-changing free resource. Not only can you receive this free gift in the mail; you can download a digital copy straight to your computer or mobile device. To get your digital copy of today's free gift, simply text the key word on your screen to 40544 or visit the web address shown on your screen, and be sure to select the digital download option on the request page. It's now easier than ever for you to study God's Word with Amazing Facts wherever and whenever you want, and most important, to share it with others.
Bill: I went to church as a child, I think more out of because that's what you did. So, I became an altar boy because it looked cool. It was very ritualistic, which was fascinating to me. There was a pattern and a process to it, and you got to be out in front of all those people and just do something. After that, we moved away. I never really went to church again.
As I became a teenager, drifted away from church, never believed in God, never thought about God. Got through high school, did pretty good. Began hanging out with the wrong people, doing things I shouldn't have been doing, just involved in doing drugs, doing recreational drugs, sometimes more than recreational drugs. And from that, I knew I needed some discipline in my life, and I joined the U.S. Navy, and I thought that would change my life. And in some ways, it did, but I still had that big hole. I was still looking to fill it.
I now had direction, and I had discipline in my life. I learned a trade, but I never found God. The circumstances never led me to God. I got married while I was in the Navy. I married a naval officer. We married and had a son together. We didn't go to church. God was not a part of our lives, and it reflected in our lives, and it ended up in a failed marriage for a lot of reasons. Got in a second failed marriage. We didn't have God in that marriage. And then met my current wife.
From a career perspective, I was doing what I loved. I'd found this job. It was great. I loved what I did. I felt I was good at it, and that filled part of the hole, but there was still a big hole in there that was empty, and I didn't understand why it was empty. I just knew there was an emptiness inside of me. Package showed up one day, and I opened it, and it was a bunch of DVDs and a Bible study guide, and it was Doug Batchelor. And we had nothing else to do, so we started watching the DVDs, and I was absolutely engrossed in it.
It was fascinating to me. I was hearing things I had never heard, and I learned more in that two or three weeks it took us to do those than I had in my whole life, and it was amazing. Nobody talked about prophecy. Nobody talked about Revelation. Nobody really talked about the Sabbath. And so it was fascinating to me. And as I learned more, I wanted to know more.
The Amazing Facts website was phenomenal. I was able to go through that. I could find studies on the Sabbath. I could find studies on prophecy. And taking this journey hand in hand and going through it together, it was amazing for us and what it did for our marriage and for our life. And then the next thing I know, I'm getting baptized. Then I became a Sabbath School reader for that class and continue to teach to this day. I'm able to take that information, the resources, the links, and provide that to others and start multiplying that effort out. Without Amazing Facts, I don't think I would've gotten to this point. My name is Bill. Thank you for changing my life.
Announcer: "Amazing Facts, Changed Lives."
Male: My greatest wish is that my children will see me the way I see my own father. He's a very devoted man, and that kind of framed my childhood going forward from there, where I was always involved in church work, and I had a very rich experience with the Lord at a young age, all the way up through college. Then after I got married, I got in a company called Comcast, and I spent the past roughly 8.5 years, 9 years at Comcast, and I was actually watching television with my son, and a Comcast commercial came on the air, and he said, "Oh, Daddy, that's Comcast. That's where you work, Daddy."
And most fathers would be proud of something like that, but it really struck me that, you know, my son's getting older, and he does not see me as a servant of the Lord. He sees me as a servant of my company. And I knew that I would have to make some changes, because I wanted him to know me as a man of God. I never thought I would be a preacher or anything like that, but I knew that there was room in the work for me and for my talents, and I wanted my son to see me operating in the work. That's when I knew that my time there was coming to an end.
I was sitting in my office one day, and I was kneeling in prayer. I said, "God, you know, show me what you want me to do, because, you know, it seems like a big move here." And, you know, everyone's thinking I'm crazy. And I don't know exactly how, you know, things are gonna go if they don't go well. A crazy thought when you're thinking about God. And I lifted my head up in prayer, and there were just like a flock of, I don't know, maybe 300 birds that were just flying. And they were swooping down over the water, and they would fly back up, and then they would chase each other around and, you know, I was just looking at the pattern of the giant flock.
And the promise of the Lord came to me where He says that, you know, He takes care of the sparrows. And you don't see them worrying about how they are going to be taken care of from day to day. You know, they don't, you know, wring their hands wondering, you know, will there be any worms to eat tomorrow? And that promise really stood out to me.
You know, He said, "How much more do I love you? You know, I'm not gonna send you on a mission to do my work and leave you high and dry. Because you claim to be my child, you claim to be my son, and everyone knows that." That assurance allows me to know that whatever happens here, whatever happens after here, we're sons of God, and there are certain things that we shouldn't worry about.
From the day we arrived at AFCOE, it's been obvious that God has blessed the Amazing Facts Ministry, the AFCOE program, and I will be using my AFCOE experience, no matter where I go to reach people. Because the personal touch of face to face evangelism, speaking and sharing the Word of God out of your own mouth, there's no replacement for that, and Amazing Facts has been very instrumental in helping me find the area of the work of God and showing me how large and how broad it is. It's been a tremendous blessing to be in a place where we're around people seeking to do God's will and listening for His voice in their life. And that's very, very important today.
Announcer: Together, we have spread the gospel much farther than ever before. Thank you for your support.