January 12, 2023

Where do languages come from?

Genesis 11

Julie Nicholson
Thursday's Devo

January 12, 2023

Thursday's Devo

January 12, 2023

Thursday's Devo

January 12, 2023

Thursday's Devo

January 12, 2023

Big Idea

While there are many languages, there is one true God who understands them all.

Key Verse | Genesis 11:8-9

So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

Genesis 11

The Tower of Babel

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

Shem's Descendants

10 These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11 And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

12 When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah. 13 And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber. 15 And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg. 17 And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu. 19 And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug. 21 And Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor. 23 And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. 25 And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

26 When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Terah's Descendants

27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.

31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

Footnotes

[1] 11:9 Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused

S2:009 Genesis 11

Listen Now

Dive Deeper | Genesis 11

It's hard to imagine that at one time, "the whole earth had one language and the same words" (Genesis 11:1). With different languages come different cultures and nuances of a particular people group. God's creativity in how He made people is evident in language and culture. Some translators have invested years learning another language for the single purpose of translating the Bible into that language, thereby bringing God's Word to people formerly unaware.

Back in Genesis 9:1, God said to Noah's sons, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." Genesis 11:2 tells us that the people found land and "settled" there, but settling down wasn't going to cause the people to "increase greatly on the earth" (Genesis 9:7), as God has instructed—twice. They then wanted to showboat themselves by building a tower—sort of a "Woo hoo, we're so smart and handy we don't need God!" kind of tower. Did I miss the verses about life preservers being handed out? I'm betting that previous worldwide flood was still being talked about around desert campfires. 

Genesis 11:5 says, "And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built." This was serious, like Dad entering the garage to see what all the hammering was about. He didn't send an angel to inspect things; He came down. My guess is the prideful children of man were too busy preening in the midst of their creation to notice the Creator. God said that "this is only the beginning of what they will do." (Genesis 11:6) Confusing their language and dispersing them quickly put an end to this rebellion from God's command to be fruitful and multiply.

Later in the chapter we meet Abram, the man who will ultimately usher us into the language of grace. He will become a father to all of us who believe. Abram one day had a Descendant who gives grace to all believers. So Abram brings promise and hope out of this prideful story of a tower.

This month's memory verse

We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

– John 1:45b

Discussion Questions

1. How does the wording of "the LORD came down to see" change, challenge, or encourage your view of God? If this phrase seems overbearing, how might your filters be affecting your view of God?

2. In what ways have we, as a people group, continued building for our own glory? What are ways we could intentionally remember our Creator in how we use the gifts He's given us?

3. How are you knowingly rebelling against a command God has given to you? Are you responding with the language of pride or the language of grace?

As we gear up to release even more features for Join The Journey in 2025, our staff team, unfortunately, no longer has the margin to continue to support the comment functionality. We have big things in store for Join The Journey 2025. Stay tuned!

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Hugh Stephenson

GM Julie! Thanks for your service in SHIFT. What a blessing it is for those young kids to have such a great pastoral presence. So, if you were asked, would you rather work on a high trapeze with or without a safety net? Better question, do you believe you don’t need a safety net? Or that you’re not on a high trapeze? I can’t cast aspersions. When it comes to habitual sin I can only say “I’m not as bad as I used to be.” Paraphrasing what I get from the notes- The people as a united humanity sought complete and total independence and self-sufficiency. They have supreme confidence in their own ability. They felt that they could use technology, (making bricks), to achieve the goal of social unity. Self-provision versus God provision. Clearly, they had not learned. Post-flood = Pre-flood
HS

Hugh Stephenson

“Depraved humanity is united in its spiritual endeavor to find, through technology, existential meaning apart from God and the means to transgress its boundaries. Unless God intervenes and divides them by confounding their speech, nothing can stop human beings in their overweening pride and their desire for autonomy." (TCs Notes). The link from Babel to Babylon is easily made. Again, the notes edify. -Babylon symbolized the ambition to dethrone God & make the earth its own. An organized rebellion. No fellowship with God and therefore no idea of their true mission or purpose. And all without a net. Even Israel built their own “towers” and were also dispersed but that time with the ”help” off the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Define Irony! One scholar notes, “Genesis 3-11 explains to me why I need the salvation detailed and profiled in Genesis 1 & 2.
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Hugh Stephenson

Lastly, I paraphrase 4 key lessons from Genesis 1-11 1. The same God of 1:1 called Abram and entered his life and Sarai’s - and is the savior of the world. 2. 100% of us have rebelled against our benevolent God and His good will. Universal sin will exist until Jesus comes back. 3. These events shows that there will be interim judgements and a final judgement. 4. Sin will plague until the end. But God…has promised us a Savior. Genesis 12-50 will reveal His plan. Again, the notes edify- “Throughout these chapters the readers will see how God has preserved the members of his chosen family, whose calling it is to walk with him, to be the headwaters of a special people and to be the channel by which blessing comes to the entire world.”
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Michael Sisson

Re: Gen 11:26 According to Jewish tradition, Abram’s father, Terah, was a worshipper and maker of idols. In essence, idolatry was their family business. G-d would choose to reveal Himself to Abram, plucking him out from polytheism, leading him to become a monotheist, and sending him to the Promised Land G-d would show him. Jos 24:2-3 would seem to confirm this backstory. Genesis Rabbah, Chapter 38 (part of the “midrashim;”ancient rabbinic stories which serve to interpret and amplify scripture) offers a bit more detail about Abram’s idolatrous family background. For the sake of brevity, I’ll paraphrase the story… Terah & Sons made and sold idols for a living. One day, Abram was left to mind the family store. However, by now Abram had begun to question the idolatry into which he’d been born and to feel the One true G-d tugging at his heart. With no one around to stop him, Abram took a large club, slipped into the stockroom, and smashed all but the largest idol in the place. He then placed the club into the hand of the one remaining idol. Hearing the great commotion, his father Terah and the rest of the family came running. Finding Abram in the midst of the destroyed inventory, the enraged Terah demanded, “Why have you done this?! We’re ruined!” To which Abram replied, “It wasn’t me; it was him!” as he pointed to the one remaining idol with the club in its hands. “That’s impossible!” snorted Terah indignantly. “Exactly!” replied Abram. Re: Where’s Jesus in Genesis 11:1-32? As we journey together through the Bible “from Genesis to Jesus,” in each day’s reading we should watch for glimpses of Jesus’ approach throughout the biblical narrative (Num 24:17). So where is Jesus in Genesis 11? While His birth is still two millennia in the future (i.e. 42 generations away; see Mt 1:17), the “Seed of the Woman,” (Gen 3:15) a.k.a. the “Seed of Abraham,” (Gal 3:16) a.k.a. Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) is in Abram’s loins (see Mt 1:2, Lk 3:34). Thusly, we see another example of the value of genealogies in scripture.
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Chris Landry

Julie! Good to see you, please give Mark a big hug for me. When I was fresh on the scene at WM circa 2010, Mark was one of the first most intentional godly men I interacted with. He is one of few pillars in my memory of getting plugged in deeply with God’s people at WM. — “The People didn't need a staircase; they needed a Rescuer.” — I love the story of the tower of babel, and it’s one that we cycle past in our Jesus storybook Bible throughout the year. One story each night gives this simple dad an easy way to find Jesus in each story. The last page is great: “You see, God knew, however high they reached, how- ever hard they tried, people could never get back to heaven by themselves. People didn't need a staircase; they needed a Rescuer. Because the way back to heaven wasn't a staircase; it was a Person. People could never reach up to Heaven, so Heaven would have to come down to them. And one day, it would.”
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Michael Scaman

God restrained mankind from evil first by limiting life span. Now God restrains mankind by dividing languages. It makes sense to me that a short ice age after the flood would limit the civilizations that spread out to warmer climates and we see pyramid / ziggurat like structures in the warm places around the world like Incas, Mayas, Aztecs, Egyptians..... but limited in Europe or North America or Russia as those were affected by the then ice age. We still see limited Stone Henge like structures but not pyramids there.
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Michael Scaman

Borrowing a table form Answers in Genesis , ages after the flood dropped gradually first people had very long lives pre flood Table 1. Ages of the Patriarchs from Adam to Noah Patriarch Age Bible Reference 1 Adam 930 Genesis 5:5 2 Seth 912 Genesis 5:8 3 Enosh 905 Genesis 5:11 4 Cainan 910 Genesis 5:14 5 Mahalalel 895 Genesis 5:17 6 Jared 962 Genesis 5:20 7 Enoch 365 (translated) Genesis 5:23 8 Methuselah 969 Genesis 5:27 9 Lamech 777 Genesis 5:31 10 Noah 950 Genesis 9:29 Table 2. Ages of the Patriarchs after Noah to Abraham Patriarch Age Bible Reference 11 Shem 600 Genesis 11:10–11 12 Arphaxad 438 Genesis 11:12–13 13 Shelah 433 Genesis 11:14–15 14 Eber 464 Genesis 11:16–17 15 Peleg 239 Genesis 11:18–19 16 Reu 239 Genesis 11:20–21 17 Serug 230 Genesis 11:22–23 18 Nahor 148 Genesis 11:24–25 19 Terah 205 Genesis 11:32 20 Abraham 175 Genesis 25:7 Looks like a rough exponential like drop off of sorts?
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Sue Bohlin

Beloved sisterfriend Julie! How wonderful to have you lead us on The Journey today!! In this chapter, I see the pride-fueled leaders say three times, “Come, let us _____” with three plans that they leave Yahweh out of: --make bricks (human substitutions for God-made rocks) --build a city and tower (human DIY endeavors that are the opposite of what God had commanded flood survivors to do) --and make a name for themselves (in contrast to being scattered across the face of the earth, which is what God had commanded them to do). Nobody’s checking with God about what they want. They are ignoring Him. But God . . . counters their plans to thwart them, because God is ALWAYS going to be bigger and more resourceful than we give him credit for. God says, “Come, let us go down . . .” And everything human-driven fell apart.
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Alan Beam

11:4, Their actions led to the very thing they were trying to avoid. ("You've become the very thing you swore to destroy!") It's the flip side of what happened in Eden. God wants us to become like Him (1 John 3:2), but in our attempts to do it our own way we cast ourselves out of His presence and out of a right relationship with Him. They wanted to make a name for themselves, not to make His name great. If I try to make much of myself, I will become less like Christ and ultimately less like the me God designed me to be. But if I make much of God, He will make much of me by making me more like Christ. 11:7-8, God is faithful to His covenant with Noah. People's hearts have already strayed, but God does not destroy them. Rather, He scatters them and confuses their language. A severe mercy. 11:9, Babel = Babylon, which becomes the symbol of sin at a civilization level throughout the OT. 11:31, Abram left Ur with his father, but stopped in Harran (named that already? I would guess named that after Abram's brother / Lot's father after the fact). Interesting that Lot was with them. After Terah dies, it makes sense that Abram would bring Lot along, as that's his whole family with him in Harran.
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Amy Lowther

1. It doesn’t change anything for me because I believe God goes the extra mile for each of us. It challenges me because it justifies God holds each of us accountable in what we do. It encourages me because it shows God’s values by him checking what we receive from what he presents. I do not feel the statement is overbearing. 2. Through attending church, reading the Bible, volunteering for church, and participating in weekday church activities, we as a people group continue building for our own glory. Our creator can be intentionally remembered if we pray at the beginning of an activity and if we also pray at the end of the activity. 3. I like God’s commands. I do not intentionally rebel any of his commands. I respond to God’s commands with the language of grace, working to identify, understand, and practice God’s words and values and to help others do the same.