Transcript: Verse by Verse Study – Genesis Chapter 10 to Chapter 11:30 – Zac Poonen

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In an earlier study from Daniel through to Nehemiah, we considered what that movement from Babylon to Jerusalem consisted of. But here in this chapter, we are told about the origin of Babylon, the beginning of Babylon. And the man who built Babylon, the original Babylon, was a man called Nimrod, born to Cush, who was the son of Ham, of that cursed seed.

Three times it’s mentioned in verse eight that he was mighty. Three times that word mighty comes and that symbolizes the essence of Babylon, human might. That can be physical might. In those days, I think it was physical might, but not only physical might, it is what I would call soul power. Babylon is built by people who are mighty, humanly speaking. If not physically, in their soul.

Soul Power and Human Might

Just to understand what soul power means, and I believe that Nimrod had this when it says he was a mighty man. He was a man who had such soul power that he could dominate people, just like physical power. It’s like if you have a mighty giant, he can squeeze the life out of a whole lot of pygmies in front of him through his physical power. Something of the equivalent of that is also possible in the soul realm, in the realm of the intellect and personality. And not everybody has it, just like not everybody has physical power.

Some human beings are physically weaklings. And just like that some people don’t have soul power. In their soul they are weaklings. But there are other human beings who are very strong physically and there are many human beings who have tremendous soul power. The ability to rule and dominate others by the strength of their personality, strong willed, and able to dominate and lead others with their human ability.

Hitler was one like that and many others. Nimrod was the first great leader with human soul power, a mighty man who had a tremendous following. When you come in chapter 11 to see how the details are given about the building of Babel, you see how he was able to get the whole world into a project. You can imagine what a man he was. He was the first great world leader.

And we must remember that although Noah had died, his God-fearing son Shem was alive and Shem was a grand uncle of Nimrod. And Shem was a God-fearing man, but Shem couldn’t do it. But this man could gather the whole world. Of course, there were not many people interested in following God-fearing Shem. But Nimrod, he could gather the whole world.

And it says a mighty hunter before or against the Lord means one who led a spirit of rebellion against God. And he was a mighty hunter. One who probably not only hunted wild animals, but hunted men. Just like Stalin and others wiped out anybody who opposed him. The first great dictator and tyrant mentioned in the Bible, Nimrod, a hunter who wiped out all opposition till people were so scared that he was able to be the ruler of the whole world.

Nimrod as a Type of Antichrist

We can say that he is the first clear type of the Antichrist in the Old Testament. Because in the final day, also the word of God says that one will arise in the last days called the man of sin, who will be a world leader in rebellion against God. And it’s gonna be exactly the same spirit as it was there in Nimrod, who was called a mighty hunter before the Lord. And there, the beginning of his kingdom, he was the first man mentioned who had a kingdom. Kingdom means he was a sort of a king.

He was a king. In which case, he’s the first king that we read of in the Bible. And he was a man who turned the world against God. He had a kingdom. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel.

Babylon is the first kingdom mentioned in God’s word. And when from the Tower of Babel, they were scattered, which we read in chapter 11. It says in verse 11, from that land he went forth into Assyria. That is when the people got scattered in Babel, which we’ll read in the next chapter. He had to move into Assyria and built Nineveh.

He was the one who built the city of Nineveh as well. And I just want to mention something that we know from secular history. We can’t speak of it with the 100% certainty that we can of words of scripture. But it’s fairly well documented that Nimrod was the founder of a religious system, which involved magic and secret rites, which became the original Babylonian religion, which involved idolatry.

The Origins of Babylonian Religion

And history tells us that he had a very wicked wife called Semiramis. And that when Nimrod finally died, his wife, lived a very loose evil life, had an illegitimate child and she said that was Nimrod come back to life again. That was the first claim to resurrection long before Jesus rose from the dead. Satan was determined to counterfeit everything. And she knew that people respected Nimrod so much that she was afraid that she would lose her position once Nimrod died. And so she said, this child is Nimrod come back to life.

And then people began to worship her and her child, Semiramis and the baby Nimrod. And as this at the time when people in those days were not scattered all over the earth like today, they were in a fairly close area, this religion spread. And as people spread to the various parts of the earth, this religion also spread of worshiping the mother and the child. And of course, the Roman Catholic system came up, they just changed the names to Mary and Jesus. So you see the Jesus that the Roman Catholics worship in the arms of Mary is actually Nimrod.

It’s this Nimrod and that’s the masterpiece of Satan that he’s got a whole lot of Christians thinking they are worshiping Jesus. And then he’s got them to worship his great leader Nimrod. And they used to celebrate the birthday of Nimrod on December because they worshiped the sun. And the December 25 was the day when the sun went down to the Southern Hemisphere. And these folks who lived in Babylon, which is presently known as Iraq, that was the time when the sun would begin its journey back to the Northern Hemisphere and that was called the birthday of the sun.

And that also was transferred to the birthday of Jesus. So all this is another Jesus. Another Jesus worshipped by the Roman Catholics, the mother and child. Another Jesus whose birthday is celebrated on December 25. And you can see what a fantastically wonderful work Satan has done in fooling multitudes of Christians in celebrating all these things.

Another Jesus. If only Christians who celebrate Christmas would realize that they were celebrating the birthday of Nimrod, what a shock they’ll get when they finally stand before the Lord and discover they were celebrating the birthday of Nimrod and calling it the birthday of Jesus. We are not to be without light in these things. That’s why we must say we must stick to scripture.

If you find something in scripture, in the New Testament, do it. We don’t find it in the New Testament, things like Christmas, Easter. You do it because some God-fearing person does it, you’re bound to go astray because God honors His word, not the word of even a God-fearing man, but His word. And that’s where God tests us to see whether our devotion is to His word or to religious systems. I mentioned that because it’s when we move away from God’s word that we can slowly drift into Babylon to a greater or a lesser extent.

And I believe all who celebrate Christmas have got a little bit of Babylon in their religious system. And of course, the greater parts of Babylon is the whole religious system, which includes priest craft and rites and rituals and traditions and all types of things which are contrary to God’s word. So that’s a serious thing that we mustn’t take lightly.

The Descendants of Ham and Shem

Then it goes on to speak about all the others who were the descendants of Ham. Further down in that chapter, the territory we read in verse 19 of the Canaanites and Sodom and Gomorrah, the place that God destroyed was also the descendants of Ham. These are the sons of Ham, it says in verse 20.

And the first great rebellion against the Lord came through the sons of Ham. Ham was probably offended very greatly because his father rebuked him, and it must have made him very bitter against his father, very bitter against God. And he must have transmitted that bitterness to his children and to his children’s children till his children’s children grew up to rebel against God Himself.

And then we read about Shem, the God-fearing brother of Ham. He’s called the father of all the children of Eber. Now, it’s amazing that he’s called the father of all the children of Eber because Eber was not actually Shem’s direct son. It says in verse 22 that one of Shem’s sons was Arpaxad. And verse 24, Arpaxad’s son was Shelah, and Shelah’s son was Eber. So Eber was actually the great grandson of Shem. But Shem is mentioned here as the father of all the children of Eber, probably because it was through Eber that Abraham came and it was Eber that gave the name Hebrew to Abraham.

Abraham is called Abraham the Hebrew. And Hebrew is from the word Eber, which the Jews, the language the Jews speak today. The Hebrews are descendants of Eber from which the word Hebrew comes. And that’s the reason why Shem is called the father of all the children of Eber. And it says in verse 25, two sons were born to Eber.

The name of the one was Peleg. For in his days, the earth was divided. That is the time when the Tower of Babel took place. In his days, in the days when Peleg was alive, the people were divided on the earth across the face of the earth. And it’s interesting to note that because when you read the detailed genealogy in chapter 11, you see something very interesting.

The Timeline After the Flood

If you read from verse 10, chapter 11 verse 10 onwards up to verse 17, where all the ages are given, you’ll discover one thing that Peleg was born just one hundred and eleven years after the flood. I mean, you can work that out from chapter 11 verse 10 to 17. One hundred and 11 years after the flood, Peleg was born. And that gives us an indication of how soon after the flood, Nimrod rebelled against God.

Didn’t take a long time. Just about one century, little over a century, and man was again rebelling against God. It was a very short time. It wasn’t a long time before man drifted away from God. Less than a hundred and fifty years after the flood, Nimrod was able to gather the whole world in rebellion against God.

The Tower of Babel

And we read of that in chapter 11. Chapter 11 verse one, the whole earth used the same language and the same words. Or as the margin says, just a few sets of words, one language. And it came about as they journeyed east that they found a plane in the land of Shinar and settled there. Right from the beginning, significance to their journeying east, right from the beginning man has worshipped the sun because the sun is the giver of light and warmth.

And they journeyed east means they journeyed towards the sun. They journeyed towards their god. You find even today, a lot of the orthodox Syrian churches, they turn their buildings are constructed towards the east so that when people stand in the building, they face the east when they pray. And even in their houses, they turn towards the east when they pray. This is all part of the old Babylonian religion that’s come down through four thousand years.

They face towards the east. In fact, when the Lord – this is something I want you to remember – that when the Lord told Moses to build the tabernacle, He said, put the gate of the tabernacle in the East so that when they go in to the most holy place, their backs will be towards the sun. In the tabernacle when they entered it, they were always facing west. You read that in Exodus. And God was determined to turn people away from this business of worshiping the sun.

The Spirit of Babylon vs. Jerusalem

But the Jacobite and other churches have gone back to Babylon, to turning back to the East. And why? Even Protestants. I remember the Baptist church down here just a few years ago. They went out to a hill down here to have a sunrise service on Easter morning to worship the sun on Sunday morning.

The sun has risen. It’s the old Babylon just a few years ago down the street. It’s widespread, the worship of the sun. They call it sunrise service that Jesus says, what has risen there in the morning? The sun.

You trace it back to the old Babylonian religion, it’s there. And they journeyed east, and Nimrod was the leader of this worship of the sun. Of course, he was probably claimed to be the incarnation of the sun to get everybody to worship him. He was a mighty man. And they found a plane in the land of Shinar.

Shinar is Babylon. You read about Shinar again in the book of Zechariah. And settle there. And they said one to one another, “Come let us make bricks” and you can be sure this was Nimrod’s idea. It was man’s plan to “let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.”

And they used brick for stone and they used tar for mortar. And they said, “Come let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven.” Probably because they thought, just in case there’s another flood, we better find some place high enough where we can climb up and live in case there’s another flood. They wouldn’t believe that God had said, “I will never again send a flood.” No, they wouldn’t believe that.

They wanted to build a tower to take care of themselves. And let’s build something high, this top will reach into the heavens. And let us make for ourselves a name. In the heavens was the God they worship, the sun. And they wanted to reach that.

And “lest we be scattered,” let us make for ourselves a name, “lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

Three Characteristics of Babylon

Now, I want you to notice three things about Babylon, which are true of Babylon right from the beginning, right through even till today. First of all, Babylon is built according to man’s plan without seeking God’s will. Remember that. When we live our life according to our own self-made plans, without reference to knowing is that God’s will or not.

That’s the beginning of the spirit of Babylon. “Come, let us make bricks” and “let us,” verse four, “build a city.” Let us do that. “Come, let us do this.” Come, let us go and take this job.

Come, let us move to this city and live there. Come, let us go and marry this person. It’s all the same system that begins with no interest in seeking God’s will. That is the worship of the son. And you can see that Jesus came and lived exactly the opposite way to all that.

He never wanted to do His will in anything. Always saying, “Father, is that Your will?” I have a will of my own, Jesus said. My will, for example, in Gethsemane, His will was that He didn’t want to drink that cup. But He said, “Not My will.”

And all through His thirty-three years, He had His will, but He never did it. He sought the Father’s will. That is what builds Jerusalem. And we mustn’t think that Jerusalem is just a system that sings songs about the new and living way and has a particular songbook and has a particular language. That can be the greatest deception of all.

Jerusalem is a gathering of people who have learned to seek the will of God and deny their own will in all the little details of life. That’s why I say you can sit in any church building. You can sit in any building and be a part of Babylon. We have often said that you can sit right here in our midst for twenty years and end up as a good pillar in Babylon. Sure.

If you have sought your own way and your own will in your home and in your life, you want to have your own way, you’ve never allowed God to break that stubborn self-will of yours. My brothers and sisters, hear it that you can sit here for twenty years and be a masterpiece in Babylon, a strong pillar of Babylon finally. Because it’s got nothing to do with a doctrine. It’s got to do with a certain attitude towards God’s will. That’s it.

You see that. “Come, let us do this. We can do it.” Man’s plan. And I’ve seen multitudes of Christians who live like that.

In fact, the vast majority of so-called believers, they have no interest in seeking the will of God for their lives. They want something and they are afraid to ask, is it God’s will or not? Which shows that they have such a lust like Balaam, who wanted to go to Moab. And even when God sort of tried to put a hindrance in his way, he still pushed his way and went and God said, “Go. Go.”

“Go where you like. I won’t stop you.” And he who started out as a prophet of God ended up as a servant of Satan. And he’s not the first. There are many others it says who ran after the error of Balaam.

There are many like that who built Babylon. Beware of this spirit, my brothers and sisters, of not wanting God’s will in every area of your life. It is in this that we find our flesh is so strong. When I want to do what I want to do, can you say it is an evil thing to build a city? Were they saying “come, let us all commit adultery with each other”?

They were not saying that. Were they saying “come, let us kill one another”? They were not saying that. They were not doing evil things. What were they planning?

“Come, let us build a city.” What’s wrong with that? Supposing you made a plan one day saying, “I want to build a house for myself.” What’s wrong in that? Nothing wrong in it.

But yet it can be the spirit of Nimrod, the spirit of Babylon, if you want to build a house. Because after all these people are only building a house. That’s all. Can you imagine that Babylon began with people not with people committing murder and committing adultery. No.

It was with just some such a simple thing like building something. And there we need to understand that there’s so many things that look so innocent on the outside. You can say there’s nothing evil in that. There’s nothing wrong in that. Yeah.

There’s nothing wrong in that. But underneath it is your desire to seek your own, your own comfort, your own gain, your own profit, your own advancement. And as long as that is your way of thinking, it is the way of thinking which began with Nimrod. Of course, it began with Cain, but which is manifested in the more collective way in the days of Nimrod. That’s seeking one’s own advancement and gain, and making plans without reference to God’s will at all.

Beware of it. That’s not Christianity. That’s a counterfeit. And that’s the counterfeit that Satan has spread all over Christendom today. And that’s why we say it’s all Babylon.

The Deception of Form Without Power

And I’ve come to see in my brief contact with people who speak of the new and living way that that spirit is found even among those who speak of the new and living way. And I’m not speaking only about India, I’m speaking about Europe and America and other places too where people speak about the new and living way and seek their own. Seek their own gain and comfort and convenience and their own advancement, but it’s the language of denying yourself. It’s one of the greatest deceptions of Satan. It’s not a doctrine brothers and sisters.

It is an attitude towards God’s will. And an attitude towards my own stubborn seeking, my own gain and advancement in this world. And if we are not careful, we’ll end up like those people Paul warns Timothy about who have a form of godliness, but don’t have the inner power. The power is doing God’s will. They don’t do that.

But a form of godliness, all the language, but underneath it, it’s a seeking of convenience. And I will not seek something which is inconvenient or which is going to disturb my comfort in some way and I can speak the right language. We have to be very very careful. And so it says here, they made this plan and we saw in chapter 10 that it says about Nimrod, he was a mighty man. A mighty man.

A man might might might is what’s spoken there in chapter 10, we saw that. And that’s the other thing about Babylon. It is human power. As I said, human soul power, where one man dominates others. That’s another thing I’ve seen Christendom riddled with.

The Danger of Soul Power and Money Power

People finding out God’s will for others, telling people what to do, where to go, controlling them with money. Can you think of any Christian organization in this country which is not controlled by money? Almost all of them by foreign money. Somebody comes and gives money, and then he has a control on the work. That’s where we have to be careful.

Might can be with soul power, money power, so many things. And soul power and money power can never build the kingdom of God. It’s very important if we want to build Jerusalem that we don’t let people’s soul power dominate the church or money power dominate the church. We know that western countries, western Christians have a lot of money. And that’s been the tragedy of Indian Christians that they’ve sold their souls for money.

The solution to that of course is not to have no contact with Western Christians. To be an Indian nationalist is not spirituality. There was a time in my life when I was like that, an Indian nationalist, completely anti-western, and God showed me that I wasn’t spiritual. I was just Indian, not spiritual. And the Lord showed me He had children everywhere, and if I thought that spirituality was to be against a particular group of people, I was deceiving myself and I had to cleanse myself from that.

But we have to be very careful that we don’t let anyone have power over us with money. And I remember in our contact with these brothers from Europe with whom we have had fellowship, one of the first things I told them when they came here first many, many years ago, I said, “If there’s one thing that’s ruined God’s work in India today, it’s western money. So my brothers,” I said, “if you want to have a good fellowship with us, don’t send money and don’t support anybody here.” Fine. We’re not under obligation to anyone. They’re not under obligation to us. Then we are free.

Then nobody can control what we say or do and we can’t control what they assume. Then we can have fellowship. But money power and soul power is the thing that very subtly destroys the building of Jerusalem. And that’s the thing we have to fight in the church. And soul power, that’s the thing which all of us can have brothers and sisters.

You may say I’m not a church leader. Do you know you can have soul power over others? You can have a few younger brothers perhaps who look up to you, or you’re a zealous young brother who got a few teenagers to look up to you, or you can be a sister. And you got a little group of younger sisters who look up to you and you’re dominating them with your soul power. You’re afraid if they’re devoted to anybody else.

They must be devoted to you. What is that? That’s the spirit of Nimrod. That’s what I mean. That’s Babylon.

That you want them to be under you. You don’t have to be a church leader. You can be a 25-year-old young brother or sister and have people under your power. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it.

People who want to control teenagers, tell them what to do. The spirit of Nimrod in sisters and brothers. Babylon, Babylon and we had to fight it in the church. And it’s a terrific battle. And these can be people who know the doctrine so well, and who have so much zeal.

They can be specialists and experts in all these things. But this spirit, this soul power, they don’t give people freedom. They want to rule and dominate. Tell people what to do. “You must do everything according to the way I say it.”

That’s spirit. It’s in all of us, my brothers and sisters. It’s in our flesh. It’s in our flesh. The world is full of stories of mother-in-laws and sons-in-laws and daughters-in-law.

Where does it all come from? It comes from the spirit of Nimrod, where a mother does not know how to leave her son alone after his marriage. Or a father doesn’t know how to leave his son alone after his marriage. He wants to sit on his head and tell his wife how to take care of the boy and how to do this and how to do that. What is that?

That’s Nimrod all over again. It’s all over the world. We just don’t know how to leave other people alone. This desire to lord it over others and rule over others and boss them and get them and be offended if they don’t do it the way I have told them to do it. It is Nimrod.

It’s Nimrod reproducing himself all over the world again and again and again. And now, we proclaim a gospel where we cleanse ourselves from these things. We are not offended if somebody doesn’t do things the way we do it, or the way we advise them. I’ve come across lots of cases where some brothers asked me for advice, and I’ve given him advice, and I see he doesn’t even do it. And I say, praise God.

The Spirit of Nimrod vs. The Spirit of Christ

I’m glad he’s free from me. I’m glad he doesn’t live in such fear of me that he has to do it the way I’ve told him. And if he’s gone and made a mess of his life, that’s a greater opportunity for me to cleanse myself that I don’t sit there, become another little nimrod in my spirit and say, there, that’s taught him a lesson that he didn’t listen to me, and so he’s made a mess of his life. Have you ever felt like that? You told somebody to do something, he didn’t do it the way you told him?

You the great nimrod, and then you got a little delight in your heart when he got his life messed up instead of feeling a bit sad. My brothers and sisters, we got to cleanse ourselves, not only from the filthiness of the flesh, but this filthiness of the spirit. This tremendous soul power which I believe all of us have. You can be a teenager, and you can boss the other little brothers and sisters you have in your home.

You can see some teenagers are tyrants in their home. The big brother, the big sister, bossing all the other ones, telling them what to do. It’s there. You don’t have to be a church leader or any such thing. You can just be a little teenager and that spirit can be there.

And if only you can get light on it in your young days and cleanse yourself from it and have the spirit of Christ who knew, who was lord of all the universe, and yet never bossed people around. I believe He was an elder brother in that house of Joseph and Mary as an example, only to serve, not to boss the others around. He had four brothers and two sisters at least, but He didn’t boss any of them. He had a flesh like ours. And I believe this is the area where we all need to cleanse ourselves.

Husbands who boss their wives, and wives who wanna boss and control their husbands in some way or the other. The spirit of Nimrod with the language of Jerusalem in the mouth, but the spirit of Babylon in the heart. Beware of soul power. Beware whenever you have power over another person, beware of it. It’s a very dangerous thing to have power over another person.

You gotta live in fear. You gotta cleanse ourselves. A true father, a true mother, a true father-in-law, mother-in-law, can only lead by service. By example, and by service, not by passing and lording. Particularly as children grow up, there is a need for discipline in their younger days but not this nimrod spirit.

And you who are older brothers and older sisters, I want to warn you, cleanse yourself from this Nimrod spirit, lest you become a part of Babylon having heard all about Jerusalem and the church for so many years. Be humble. Take Jesus as your example. And when you begin to boss your younger brothers and sisters, ask yourself if Jesus did any such thing. And if Jesus didn’t do such a thing, just imagine whom you’re following.

You’re following Nimrod then. Mighty man, mighty hunter who gathered people and everybody would do exactly what he said. We’re not talking about the heathen, we’re talking about believers now. This is how Babylon is built.

And if we don’t cleanse ourselves from this, we shall live in the greatest delusion of all with the language of Jerusalem and the spirit of Babylon. There’s a great need for that exhortation. Brothers and sisters, judge yourself and don’t be a busybody in other people’s matters. Tremendous need for that.

Because to be a busybody in other people’s matters is the spirit of Nimrod. And the other thing we see here is, it is not only with man’s plan, man’s power, but also it is for man’s glory. Middle of verse four of chapter 11, let us make a name for ourselves. A name for ourselves. People should know that we are something.

Building for Man’s Glory

You can build a church talking the language of the new and living way with this desire. Let us make a name in Bangalore, or in India, or in the world perhaps, that we are the church. Or let us make a name in the church, that our home is the ideal home. That people will see our home and talk about it. The brothers and sisters in the church will say, oh, that brother’s home.

See how he brought up his children and see how he runs his home and see how he lives with his wife. What is it? It’s the same old Nimrod spirit. Let us make for ourselves a name. Only thing they did it for another purpose, you’re doing it for another purpose.

But the same spirit, my brothers and sisters, that is an obvious deception. The most subtle deception is when I’m doing spiritual things with this desire, let us make for ourselves a name. Tell me, aren’t you tempted by this in the church? If you say you’re not tempted by this, I would only say, I wouldn’t say you’re a liar. I would say, you probably have very little light in your life so far.

We are tempted in this area. Let us make a name before the brothers and sisters. Let us make ourselves a name before the elder brothers. Let us make ourselves a name. This is Babylon.

We talk about Babylon and Jerusalem. Basically, is this. Let me make myself a name. Do you think it is possible for a brother who speaks the language of the new and living way to try and make for himself a name? Why not?

That’s why Jesus said the first will be last and the last will be first. There are gonna be some tremendous surprises in the day of judgment when we discover brothers and sisters who spoke and preached about the new and living way ending up as Babylon. What a surprise it would be. Will it be a surprise to you? I’ll tell you, it will not be a surprise to me at all because it has become clearer and clearer to me that many who speak the language of the new and living way have not cleansed themselves from the spirit of Babylon.

It is there. Let us make us a name that I am a godly brother or I am a humble brother or my family is an exemplary family or our church is a wonderful church. Let us make ourselves a name. And we have to cleanse ourselves from this because it is in our flesh. My will, my power, my glory.

That’s basically Babylon. I wanna do what I want. And I’ve got the soul power, and the cleverness, and the sharpness, and the intellect, and what I call discernment, all human to do it. And then ultimately, it will be for my glory. I believe that the vast majority, I wouldn’t be surprised if more than 95% of Christian work is done for the glory of man.

Books written for the glory of man, articles written in Christian magazines, let us make ourselves a name. Songs sung, hymns written for the glory of man, let us make ourselves a name that I am the writer of a hymn or words spoken and solos sung in Christian conventions. All with this principle, let us make ourselves a name. Let me make myself a name. A name.

It can be all types of things. It can be cooking a meal in a house. I cook a meal to serve people and then underlying it, I’m just waiting for all of them to say what a fantastic meal. What is it? Let me make myself a name as the best cook in the assembly or some stupid nimrodish thing like that.

Lots of nimrodish things like that in various areas. Let me make myself a name. If I can’t get it there, can’t preach. Alright. Let me do this then.

Here I’ll make myself a name. The thing is in the area where I think I’m a specialist. There is where I can be a nimrod. I have that spirit because I can’t do it there. Okay.

No use competing in that area. Let me compete in this area and really make myself a name. Beware of those areas where you are specially gifted. Those are the most dangerous areas for you and for me. If we live in fear and if we can stay like Satan, are not like Paul, we are not ignorant of Satan’s schemes.

We see through all this what Satan’s trying to do, then we are safe. It says here, verse five, and the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord examines everything we do. And He comes down and sees, well, what are these people doing now?

God Examines Our Motives

What were they doing? Were they committing adultery? Were they killing one another? Were they stealing from one another? Were they telling lies to one another?

Which of the 10 commandments were they breaking there? Only the ones connected with God. Thou shall have the first one. Thou shall have no other gods but me. They were breaking that.

They were their own gods. Their plan, their might, their glory. And the Lord was examining the whole thing. And we can say concerning all of our life, it can be said, and the Lord came down to see what we were building with our lives, in our families, in the church. There we know what it means to cleanse ourselves.

To cleanse ourselves, brothers and sisters, from that which is defiling. And the Lord said, they are one people. There was unity there. A lot of Christians think that unity means God must be there. You know that the first place in the Bible where unity is mentioned is at Babel?

They are one. And the Lord Himself says that. It is not a deceptive oneness, they were one. And that’s the deception in the ecumenical movement where they think they can get all the churches together and then and the Lord says they are one. Of course, the Lord said about Babylon also they are one.

That’s what He says about the ecumenical movement. That’s another Babylon which is all one externally. Not in the spirit, no. But they were one in their project to rebel against God. They were one in wanting to do their own will.

There are lot of people in the world are one like that. One in loving money, one in doing their own lusts, one in seeking their own gain and profit and honor. The Lord saw, they’re all one they are one. They all have the same language. And this is what they began to do and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.

Think of that. Will be withheld from them. That means what they have set their hearts to do, they are going to do. My brothers and sisters, what a sad thing if God has to say that about any of us, that that which this fellow has started out to do, nobody can stop him now. Almighty God Himself cannot stop.

They are determined to do it. They are not bothered about finding out my will in that area or not. They are so set on doing it and they are determined to do it. The soul power is so strong, nothing which they purpose to do will be withheld. Then God says, alright.

Let me go down and do something. Because He loved humanity. If it was just one little group doing it on their own, God would have probably left them alone and say, alright, you can do what you like. But when it concerned the whole human race there, God had to do something to protect the children, to protect the younger ones. Sometimes God has to come and bring frustration to our plans.

And it’s because He loves us that He does it. And we know that He scattered them. They deserve death. But He didn’t give them death. He just scattered them.

That’s His mercy. And let us confuse their language. Let us go down. That is another verse in the Old Testament teaches that God is more than one person. We know that they didn’t know it clearly in the Old Testament as a trinity.

Today, we know it’s a trinity, but you notice in expressions like this when God speaks, it is come, let us, verse seven, go down. And confuse their language that they may not understand one another’s speech. And the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth and they stopped building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel, meaning confusion. And that’s important to know also that Babel means confusion.

And there’s a verse in 1 Corinthians 14 which says, the Lord is not the author of confusion. Confusion is not God’s will in our life, in our family, or in the church. It’s not God’s will that we should be confused. And that’s why I say it’s part of divine nature to learn to do things in an orderly way, to keep our clothes in an orderly way, to keep our things in an orderly way, to keep our life in an orderly way, to keep our finances in an orderly way. If you say my finances are a mess, what you’re saying is my finances are Babylon.

Yeah. But you better do something about it if your finances are Babylon. Or my home’s a mess. Some people are so proud of it, even hang it up on the wall. House is in a mess.

You might as well write that this house is like Babylon. Now, it’s one thing to—I’m not saying that when you have small children, you can always keep your house neat and tidy for the honor of men. That’s not possible. It’s impossible where there are small children. But what I say is we need to understand.

Orderliness vs. Chaos

I’m not talking about the state of our houses, but I’m saying we need to understand that tidiness and orderliness is part of God. And confusion and chaos is the work of the devil. And sometimes it’s not possible to do many things because of many responsibilities that we have in our homes, but we must have this in our mind at least. I must seek as far as is possible—and the degree of possibility is different for different people—to run all of my life in an orderly way.

Babel and Pentecost: A Contrast

Babel means confusion. The Lord confused the language of the whole earth. And from there, the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. Now, it’s very interesting when you compare this with what happened on the day of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost is exactly the opposite.

There are many people who spoke different languages. The people began to speak languages they had never learned. These people also began to speak strange languages, but there it was a unity and rebellion that God brought a division in. But when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, it was a reversal of Babylon. That they could speak in languages that they had never learned, not to rebel against God, but to praise and glorify Him.

That’s an interesting contrast. Here they built Babylon. There on the day of Pentecost, it was to build Jerusalem. There was a unity which is different from the unity of Babylon.

There’s a unity in spirit, a unity in humility, a unity in the spirit of Christ. And that was the other time where God brought in new languages. And so that’s just in passing.

From Shem to Abraham

And then we read about the records of the generations of Shem verse 10 onwards. How he became the father of Arpachshad and so on, and all the other children, grandchildren and so on.

We come right down to verse 27. In line of Shem, we finally come to the man through whom God begins to make a new beginning. After Nimrod’s rebellion, God begins again with another man, Abraham. We need to see this contrast. Chapter 10, we read of Nimrod.

The end of chapter 11, we read of Abraham. His name was Abram in the beginning. These are the records generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran, and Haran became the father of Lot.

Lot was Abraham’s brother’s son. And Haran died in the presence of his father, Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai. The name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah.

And Sarai, verse 30, was barren and she had no child. And Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran his grandson. And Sarai his daughter-in-law, Abram’s wife, they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan. Why did they want to go to the land of Canaan? Interesting question.

Breaking Free from Attachments

Verse 31, it says, Terah took Abram his son and went from Ur to the land of Canaan. And they went as far as Haran and settled there. If you turn to Acts of the Apostles chapter 7:2, we read what Stephen said. Acts 7:2, Stephen said to the high priest, “Hear me, brethren and fathers, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, that is Iraq, Ur of the Chaldees, before he lived in Haran. And said to him, ‘Depart from your country and your relatives and come into the land that I will show you.'”

God said that to him in Ur. And he departed from Ur and did not reach Canaan, but settled in Haran. And from there, here is the important phrase, after his father died, God removed him into this country. Sometimes a father has to die before God can remove a man to the place where He wants him to be because the man is so attached to his father. Later on, Abraham was attached to his son Isaac and God had to separate him from Isaac.

But before that, Abraham was attached to his father. He was 75 years old but he had this emotional attachment to his dad that God had to break him free from his father. And the only way He could break him free from his father was by allowing the father to die. Otherwise, Abraham would never have reached Canaan. It’s a sad thing.

It says there in Genesis 11:31 that Terah took Abraham his son. What did we read in Acts 7? To whom did God appear? God appeared to Abraham. But who is the one leading?

Abraham went and told his dad, “Dad, God appeared to me and said we got to leave.” And dad got everything organized. He said, “Alright son, we’re going.” Who is the leader? Dad.

And when dad came to Haran, dad said, “We’re settling here.” And Abraham, seventy-five year old Abraham, meekly settled down with his dad. And God had to do something drastic. His father died. God said, “Abraham, I’ve got a plan for your life. You gotta move on.” After his father died, he moved on. We have to break free from our relatives.

In Genesis 11:32, Terah died at two hundred and five years. Now, the Lord had told Abraham, it says—that’s the way you should read chapter 12:1. The Lord had said to Abraham, “Go from your country, from your relatives, from your father’s house.” But he didn’t listen. He went from his country, but he didn’t break free from his relatives. You see how way back there, you have this matter of relatives hindering a man’s spiritual progress.

Keep that in mind. Our love for our relatives can make us stop in a halfway home called Haran when God wants us to reach Canaan. And if I don’t break free from them—respect them, honor them, but don’t let them hinder your spiritual progress. Don’t get into all types of worldly conversation with them and hinder your spiritual progress. So many people have settled in a halfway home, Haran, when God wanted them in Canaan.

And if God loves you sufficiently, He may take away your father or mother or someone so that He wants you to go on with Him. It’s not right to be so attached to someone that it hinders our spiritual life.

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