Our Scripture Of The Week Is:

1 John 2:3 KJVS
[3] And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

One way in which we display evidence of saving faith in Jesus is through obedience. However, as believers, we always have a choice whether to obey or disobey. This particular sense of "knowledge" comes at more than one level.

First, is that of salvation. Behavior is a reflection of belief. Actions, however, in and of themselves, are not an infallible test of one's salvation. This is especially true in regards to other people; only God knows exactly what happens in another person's heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

However, obedience to the commands of Christ is a primary marker, both for others and ourselves, which at least confirms our place in Christ.

The other, more immediate level of this "knowledge" is in fellowship with God. Even in an existing parent-child relationship, the level of fellowship depends on obedience and communication. A lack of communication does not prove that there is no relationship, but it is certainly not the way things "ought" to be (1 John 2:6).

A person who has put trusting faith in Christ is expected to obey (1 John 2:5), but whether or not they do is still up to them. Critical to understanding this passage is the connection between "knowing" and "keeping" as seen in the Old Testament.

The Jewish people were called to show their belief in God through obedience to the Mosaic Law. Even during that time, obedience was the result of faith, not the object of faith. Hebrews chapter 11 offers clear evidence of those godly people throughout the Old Testament who lived by faith, obeyed the Lord, and were recognized for it.

Faith was, and is, essential to knowing the Lord. Here, John places the condition at the end of the sentence. He emphasized knowing Christ as exemplified by obedience.

This is in contrasts to verses 5–10, where the conditions will come first.

Our topic today is:

One Language – The Building Of The Tower Of Babel Discussion

Genesis 11 contains three sections: the story of the Tower of Babel, the genealogy from Shem to Abram, and a description of the life of Terah, Abram's father. Abram will later be renamed Abraham and he will become one of the most important figures in Israel's history.

The events surrounding the building of the city and Tower of Babel are breathtaking. God exercises His power, authority, and creativity to confuse the languages of all the peoples of the earth and then to disperse them geographically around the known world. God's reason for doing so is equally fascinating.

As the families of Noah's children Shem, Ham, and Japheth grew, they continued to live together as a community with one language and one culture. Eventually, they moved to the area known as Shinar and began to build a massive city with a huge tower. To avoid separating from each other, they planned to make themselves great and powerful on the earth.

Not only did the people disobey God's command to "fill the earth," they apparently did not acknowledge God or seek His help. They became arrogant in their self-reliance and accomplishments. Some scholars think the building of the tower was an attempt to evade a future flood from God, or possibly as a symbol of man's power.

God acknowledged that nothing would be impossible if they continued to operate as one people with one language. This comment has been interpreted in various ways, but seems to follow the same line of thought God used prior to the flood: left alone, mankind can find a way to commit any act of evil imaginable.

To prevent this, God confused and dispersed the people. The section involving the Tower of Babel is composed as a chiasm, meaning a literary mirror-image. Everything mankind attempts in the first half of the narrative is undone in the second half.

The building of the city, Babel, later to be called Babylon, ceases. Later, when the Israelites came into conflict with the powerful Babylonians, the name of this city was a reminder that God's power was far greater than the plans and might of mere human beings.

Genesis 11 returns to a narrative where the world of man has not yet scattered across the earth into the nations, tribes, and languages described in chapter 10. Chapter 10's focus was broad, and looking far into the future, many generations from the end of the flood.

The actual division of nations, as described in the Bible, will not happen until after humanity is divided by language and scattered across the globe. This event happens here, in chapter 11, at the Tower of Babel.

The descendants of Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, remained together for a while, then migrated away from the region around Ararat, where the ark settled. It makes sense, given this context, that humanity continued to have one language and to share the same words, or common speech.

Only one people group existed on the earth, and they all shared the same culture. Unfortunately, this led to almost the same problem which happened prior to the flood: a unified humanity can use that unity for sin, something God does not plan to allow (Genesis 11:6).

Here, we're told that this growing extended family migrated away from the region where the ark settled to the land of Shinar. Shinar is the region where Babylon will be established. Thus, at this point in the history of the earth, all the peoples of the world were gathered together in one region.

While it sounds wonderful for mankind to be united in culture and language, human sin makes this a dangerous condition.

As shown prior to the flood, mankind's natural habit is towards depravity (Genesis 6:5).

The need to restrict man's cooperation with man, at least to some extent, is a major reason for God's actions in this passage (Genesis 11:7–8).

Here, we're told that together these people made plans to build a huge structure in their new homeland. This verse seems oddly specific in describing their building materials: bricks hardened by burning—or baking—and mortar made from tar.

Scholars suggest there is wordplay going on in these verses, connecting the words for these building materials to the name of Babel. In addition, Israelite readers would have likely been interested to know that these ancient people used bricks while they themselves often used stone for building.

The descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth had not yet divided and dispersed into the separate nations, tribes, and languages described in chapter 10. And, for this moment, they wanted to keep it that way.

They did not want to disperse and go in different directions (Genesis 9:1).

Most likely, the people recognized that there was power and safety in their unity. If they could remain one people, they would be stronger and safer. If they divided, each group would be weaker and, likely, under threat of war and conflict with other groups.

Their motive makes sense to us, but their plan to accomplish their objective was to make themselves great in a way that God found arrogant and dangerous. The scheme mankind concocts is to build a strong, defensible city with a massive tower that would reach to the heavens. They would "make a name" for themselves.

If, as a people, their city was unable to be defeated and they were prosperous and strong, why would any among them want to leave and risk becoming their rivals?

This culture of man believed that self-glorification and self-reliance would achieve their greatest goals. They did not, apparently, acknowledge God in any way or seek His help. The text reveals that God chooses to "come down" to even see their tower.

Of course, God did not need to travel any distance in any direction to see or know what was happening on the earth. Instead, the language is meant to emphasize what a silly idea it was that people could build a tower that would reach to the heavens, or prevent God from enacting His will.

In a more direct sense, this verse shows God "playing along," much as He did when Adam hid from Him in the garden of Eden and God called out (Genesis 3:8–10).

After seeing the city and the tower that the united people of the earth had built, God does not dismiss their efforts as weak and futile. Instead, He acknowledges that by working together, humanity would and can accomplish whatever they set out to do.

This, of course, leads to an immediate question: why is that a problem?

Why would God stand opposed to such unified productivity?

The answer is in mankind's capacity to turn gifts into curses (Genesis 3:17–19), and abilities into abuses. The flood had not changed the nature of sinful human beings.

God's observation in Genesis 6:5 still applies to the hearts of humans left to themselves: "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

A powerfully united humanity, inclined to do evil, could accomplish great wickedness. No matter how perverse, outrageous, or ridiculous something might seem, mankind can and will attempt it, given the opportunity.

God decides to stop their progress by dividing the people according to language, for starters.
People who speak different languages have an immediate barrier to communication, making it harder to cooperate.

Further, this would naturally begin to separate people into groups, based on those languages, and in fulfillment of God's intent for man after the flood (Genesis 9:1).