A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Genesis 11:1-9, “Stalled,” for January 28, 2024.

A video version of this lesson is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION 

In 2011 NBC Sports began their coverage of the U.S. Open golf tournament with what was intended to be an inspirational montage of children saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Only they left out something: they cut words “Under God” from the words of the Pledge! It caused a firestorm of protest from many Christians, as they had left God out of the Pledge of Allegiance.

But there are many times, and many ways, that we can “leave God out” of our lives. This morning in Genesis 11 we see a group of people after the ark who sought to “make a name for themselves” but they left out God in the process, and were judged for it.

(OR ALTERNATIVE INTRODUCTIONS:)

??? Does anyone here speak a foreign language? Which one(s)??? — and tie that in the confusion of languages at Babel.

??? Has anyone spent much time tracing your genealogy???

(Talk about that for a few minutes, then = In Genesis 10 we see the genealogy of Noah’s family after they got off of the ark …

CONTEXT

We are continuing our study in Genesis; we saw in Genesis 7 how God judged the earth with a flood which destroyed everyone but Noah and his family. Then in Chapter 8 Noah WAITED on God’s word to lead him out of the ark, in and Chapter 9 He gave directions on how to live on earth, the food they were to eat, the sanctity of life — and then He gave the promise of the rainbow, that He would not again destroy the whole earth with a flood. 

This brings us to chapter 10 and the genealogy of his family after the flood: it talks about Shem, Ham, and Japeth, and their descendants, and where they all settled.

MAP OF WHERE SHEM, HAM & JAPETH SETTLED

(All these kinds of maps are a bit over-simplistic, but they do show the “basic” areas in which the descendants of these 3 families settled. 

Something of general interest related to this lesson:

PRINT FOR BOARD:  ANTI-SEMITIC

??? Do you know what this term means???

“Semitic” comes from “Shem”; thus the term “anti-Semitic” means “anti-Jewish,” or against the descendants of Shem that we see delineated here in Genesis 11. 

So all of this brings us to our focus passage for this week, Genesis 11:1-9, the story of the Tower of Babel.

OUTLINE

I. The Godless, Self-Centeredness of Man (:1-4)

II. The Ironic Judgment of God (:5-9)

TEXT

I. The Godless, Self-Centeredness of Man (:1-4)

:1 begins, “Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. (:2) It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.”

(If you look at 10:10 = Shinar was where Nimrod, the descendant of Ham, went and Babel (or Babylon) was in his kingdom. 

(SO you might go back to a MAP and show where Babylon/Mesopotamia are)

THIS is the area that Genesis 11 is referring to, where Nimrod and the descendants of Ham settled and began to build this city

:3 says “They said to one another ‘Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.’ And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.”  

All of which is good: they are settling, they are building. But then in :4 we see their godlessness begin to emerge:

:4 “They said, ‘Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

Two things here:

A. These people are GODLESS

This is all about THEM. **THERE IS NOT A SINGLE MENTION OF GOD IN :1-4.  This is totally “humanistic,” man-centered. It is all about them, and what they can do, with no mention of God.

(We will contrast this with what we see in :5-9 later!)

This is very much like many segments of our society today: there is no mention of God, no fear or respect of God. 

(If you didn’t use the story of NBC taking “under God” out of the Pledge story, you might use that here. 

+x Psalm 10:4 “The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, ‘There is no God.’”   That is just like the people here in Genesis 11, and just like many people in our society today. They don’t even think about God. He is not a factor in their consideration. 

We can point out numerous people/places in our society who have left God out ….

But we should also make sure we apply this to US. Are there ways that WE are leaving God out?

??? What are some ways we can leave God out of lives today???

(Start a day without seeking Him; not pray about all kinds of things; celebrate a Christmas with no Jesus focus; worry as if there was no God to help us; have the same worldly priorities as lost people have/living only for this world … and so on.

Let’s make sure that WE too have not taken God out of our lives!

B. They are very SELF-CENTERED

NOTICE the “self-centered” nature of what they are doing here. They say, “Let us make for OURSELVES a name.” They are all about themselves, promoting THEIR name. 

You might point out/mark on the board all the “self-centered” words here:  “let US … OURSELVES … let US … OURSELVES … WE …”. It is all about them!  It is very self-centered.  

This is one of the key sinful drives of mankind: “to make for ourselves a name.” To get people to notice US, worship US

There is a great story from a biography of Walt Disney you could use with this poiont:

“Walt once expressed his feelings bluntly in a talk with a young animator, Ken Anderson. ‘I’m impressed with what you’ve been doing, Ken,’ Walt remarked. ‘You’re new here, and I want you to understand one thing: there’s just one thing that we’re selling here, and that’s the name, ‘Walt Disney.’ If you can buy that and be happy to work for it, you’re my man.  But if you’ve got any ideas of selling the name ‘Ken Anderson,’ it’s best for you to leave right now.'” (Bob Thomas, Walt Disney, An American Original, p. 192) 

This is what so many people are after: to promote THEIR name. To leave THEIR mark.

??? What are some ways that people try to “make a name for themselves” today???

(— become an actor/singer/famous person

— blog, Twitter, YouTube can be a quick way to fame. This is the motivation for many people.

— make a lot of money

— name a building or company or foundation after themselves

— etc.)

This is the burning desire of the world: to make a name for themselves. 

I read an article several years ago by a young “influencer” on how people could “create a platform” for themselves, and he talked about making a blog, Twitter, and so on. 

What stuck out to me was that evidently he, and so many like him today, think that the GOAL is to become “famous,” to “get a lot of hits on the blog,” to be an “influencer.”

I thought, that’s the whole wrong motivation. Our goal should be to do what God wants us to do, and do it well, and to His glory. And if we do that, hopefully it will touch a lot of people — but that’s not really what it is all about. 

Some people’s whole goal is just “to become famous” or well-known — and it basically doesn’t matter what they have to do to get it.  

That was the attitude of the people in Genesis11. But that’s not to be our attitude as Christians.  We don’t live for our own glory; we live for the glory of God. We exist to make JESUS famous; not ourselves.  

I saw a post on Twitter the other day that applies here:

“You are not called to be famous.

You are called to be faithful.

Make Jesus famous.”

Carolyn Weber was a liberal atheist who lived with her boyfriend, who went to Oxford England to study, and ended up becoming a Christian. She wrote the story of her testimony in the book (and movie) “Surprised By Oxford.” She said:

“As I sat there irreverently doodling in the Duke Humfrey’s Reading Room instead of taking notes, something else lurked beneath my hesitation about presuming greatness, in others as well as in myself. Noteworthiness according to worldly standards suddenly seemed relative. Fame is fleeting, fickle, relative to others’ interests and tastes. … By contrast, greatness, when you have God, it would seem is absolute. Perhaps righteousness was not boring at all. … Perhaps righteousness commanded respect and my full attention. And, perhaps, in trying to know God better, becoming righteous made you known to God—the only fame that matters.  (Carolyn Weber, Surprised By Oxford, p. 187)

I like that: when you are known to God, it is the only fame that matters! THAT is where we need to focus our efforts: NOT on making ourselves known to the world — we’ve all seen who fickle that “fame” is! — but let’s be known to GOD. THAT is “The Only Fame That Matters”! 

(You might want to make a poster of that and discuss it:

“Known to God — the only fame that matters.”

The people in Genesis wanted to “make name for ourselves.” That is one of the biggest motivations people have in our world today too. But let’s make sure that is not OUR motivation as Christians. Let’s make GOD known, and be known to HIM! 

II. The Ironic Judgment of God

A. WHO is judging?  

:5 begins “The LORD”. When you see “LORD” in all 4 capital letters like that in the Old Testament, that means in the Hebrew text it is “YHWH”: “Jehovah,” The Great I Am, who would later appear to Moses in the burning bush; the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who said “before Abraham came into being, I AM!”  THIS God, not just any god of the nations, is the one who was judging here.

And NOTICE how active GOD is in : 5-8

— :5 “YHWH came down …”

— :6 “YHWH said …”

— :7 “Come let US go down …”

— :8 “So YHWH scattered them abroad from there …”

— :9 “… the LORD confused the language … the LORD scattered them abroad …”

I think it is significant that “YHWH” or “US” is mentioned SIX TIMES in :5-8 — whereas there was NO mention of God in the “self-centered” humanistic goals of :1-4!  

When we leave God out, we call His judgment upon ourselves! 

ALSO: NOTE  the “US” of :7, it is significant too. 

Not only is this not just “any” God, but YHWH God the Bible is talking about here, it is also the TRIUNE God: He refers to Himself as “US” — giving us one of those Old Testament hints of central New Testament doctrine: the doctrine of the Trinity, that there is One true God, who exists eternally as three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This is a crucial doctrine — but is often neglected these days.

We need to remember it. The doctrine of the Triune God is one of those teachings that separate Christians from many other religions who talk about “God.” 

“Moralistic Therpeutic Deism” — the general religion of most Americans — talks about a “god” — they believe there is a benevolent God in heaven who just wants you to be happy doesn’t mind your sins and just wants to help you.

But when we Christians talk about “God,” we are not talking about that false concept of God or any other. As the ancient Christian pastor Gregory Nazianzen (who lived about 300 years after Christ) said, “When I say God, I mean ‘Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.’”  I love that quote, and we would do well to drill that into the minds of our people. I made a little POSTER with that quote, and intend to share it in class Sunday at this point and talk about the importance of it.

Let’s make sure that when WE say God, we mean the Trinity, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” And let’s make sure our class members are well-versed in the doctrine of the Trinity. This is one of those even Old Testament passages where we can point that important doctrine out.  

B. Then notice that this Triune, YHWH God DOES JUDGE.

Whenever man sins, God judges. We saw in a previous lesson how God revealed His inherent nature to Moses in the cleft of the rock in Exodus 34 … “by no means leave the guilty unpunished.”

He MUST punish sin! 

We have seen this repeatedly in Genesis, haven’t we?

??? Can you think of several times we’ve seen in Genesis so far, that God has punished sin??? 

(The Garden (Adam, Eve, snake), Cain, The Flood, now Babel. When man sins, we are accountable to God, and He will judge us.)

Here in Genesis 11 we see again that God sees and judges:

:5 “The LORD came down to see …”

God always sees. We cannot escape His notice.

We try (Adam (tried to hide) …. Jonah (tried to run) … David (tried to cover up) 

But we can’t escape. God always sees, and He always judges. 

Psalm 139’s “where can I go from Your Spirit, where can I flee from Your presence” is comforting in one sense — but it is also convicting if you are sinning. You can’t get away from God. He WILL see, and He WILL hold you to account!  He will judge. 

NOW NOTICE: there is an ironic “shape” to God’s judgment, that shows itself in this text. This is not original with me, it is from Kenneth Matthews NAC commentary on Genesis 1-11. 

But it shows how everything MAN tried to do in this text, GOD UN-DID in His judgment of them:

:8 shows us how this played out, and how IRONIC the judgment was:  “So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.”

They were building this city and tower specifically so that they would NOT be scattered — and what was God’s judgment?
He SCATTERED them. 

They very thing they did NOT want to happen, HAPPENED due to their sin.

How often is the end of sin just like this? The very thing we did not want to happen, happens. 

— We don’t want to serve God, so we end up becoming a slave to some sin that dominates our life instead. Jesus said in John 8:34, Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” 

Like some man says, I am not going to serve God, I am going to be my own man! And he ends up getting addicted to drugs, or alcohol, or pornography, or becomes a workaholic, or whatever. He didn’t want to be someone’s servant, but rejecting God he ends up being a slave to sin. 

 (you are going to serve someone/something; it’s only a question of who or what!)

— We don’t tithe or give to God, because we’re afraid we won’t have enough money. SO what happens? We don’t have enough money! 

How many times does it happen just like this. When we turn away from God or leave Him out, we will be judged for it. And often the very thing we were afraid of, happens to us anyway.

But make no mistake: God WILL judge Man’s sin. It’s just like we saw a couple of weeks ago, when we referenced Exodus 34, how God told Moses He is “compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and truth … (etc.) YET who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” God WILL punish sin. He is holy and just, and MUST punish sin. 

In Carl Sandburg’s “Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years,” Sandburg relates how one general’s reputation for fair dealing spread far; when he assured an offending soldier, ‘You shall have justice,’ the answer was quick — ‘that is what I am afraid of.’” (p. 301)

That’s what we SHOULD be afraid of: if we leave God out of our lives; if we try to elevate our own ego over His glory; we WILL suffer for it. 

And of course, we have all done that. That is why we can be thankful for the GOSPEL of Jesus, who came to die on the cross to forgive our sins when trust Him. This might be the place where you share the gospel in your class this week. 

But it’s a great lesson: on how man tries to leave God out, and make himself great — but we are always brought to account by Him when we do.

______________________________________________________

— If you’ll type your email into the “Follow blog via email” blank on my website home page, WordPress will automatically send you next week’s lesson and you won’t have to search for it.

— And if you write something in the Comments below, I’ll be sure to pray for your and your group by name this week.

Per my licensing agreement with Lifeway:

— These weekly lessons are based on content from Explore the Bible Adult Resources. The presentation is my own and has not been reviewed by Lifeway.

— Lifeway resources are available at: goExploretheBible.com  and: goexplorethebible.com/adults-training

— If you have questions about Explore the Bible resources you may send emails to explorethebible@lifeway.com