Gen. 11:2

The people had the entire Earth to use for God's glory. They had been given a fresh start. In a way, it was similar to Eden because mankind just had to follow God and not get into the evil that had come with time that wound up resulting in the Great Flood. 

Also like Adam and Eve, they went up setting their minds on becoming like gods. And, they didn't need any help from the devil this time.

Studying slowly through Romans in my personal devotionals, I got a very real sense of what these people went through in Romans 1:20 where it says that the people had the knowledge of God. They know Him, and yet chose to ignore Him and worship the things that were created rather than the Creator. From this, all sorts of evil came because the people decided they would work on their own to reach God. They wanted to ascend to Heaven.

However, we can't get up to God's level. We are not perfect, and no sin can enter Heaven.

Instead, God lovingly reached down to our level. He humbled himself and chose to become flesh and dwelt among us. He did that so that He could take the punishment for our sins when He died on the cross and then He rose from the dead.

As for these people, this large group journeyed together till they got to in the land of Shinar. I have a couple of observations on that.

One is that the Euphrates River is named as one of those from which flowed out of Eden. The geography of the pre flood world was incredibly different, so it is almost impossible for it to have been the same Euphrates as flows today and flowed them through Shinar. However, it is possible that the river was named after the one which flowed out of Eden. This actually makes sense because of the other connection.

Nimrod founded a great empire, in the area which is perhaps the most continually settled area in the world. That area of Babylon ground up developing several empires, and the city of Babylon is mentioned more than any city except Jerusalem in the Bible.

So, even here, one can see the battle between God and rebellious man. The battle which has seen the devil tried to wipe out the Jewish people so often. Indeed, many believe the area around Babylon is filled with evil spirits. We do know that during the End Times four unclean spirits looking like frogs will be released from the area.

All this, then, provides the context for what they did next.

Genesis 11 1

As mentioned before, there is good unity and there is bad unity. Simply being unified is not a good thing when that unity is done in an effort to do mischief. A group plotting to rob a bank, for instance, is certainly not unified in a good way. God had told them to fill the earth and enjoy it's fruits. They had.the whole new world to explore.  Instead of setting their hearts on honoring God with their actions, though, they began to let mischief creep in. 

Everyone on earth had the same language at this point. However, they were starting to drift away from the Lord quite a bit. Noah and Sam were still around, we presume that Ham and Japheth were as well, and yet people refuse to listen to these wise men. Wisdom is only helpful if it is listened to and if it is Godly wisdom. Whatever we take into our minds must be tested against the absolute truth of God's Word.

Being of one language, one wonders if everyone's idioms and usage of it was the same. I don't think so. There are many differences between people in the same neighborhood in a small city. However, the important thing is that they can still understand each other. Context can be grasped quite easily as long as someone is willing to listen. And, this was made easier here because - like in that small town - there is still a major common experience all had in growing up in the same area and listening to the ancient wisdom from people like Noah and Shem.

Gen. 10:24-32

The final part of Genesis 10 covers the children of Arphaxad, Shem's oldest child. There are a few things to consider with this genealogy.

This is mostly a description of where the children of Shem's oldest son Arphaxad and others wound up, except for one thing.

Worthy of note is that Peleg is born and it is not long after that the Earth was divided. This could have two meanings. One could be the separation of the large continent into separate continents. However, we showed that if that happened, it was almost surely during the Flood. The other of course is that the events of chapter 11 with the Tower of Babel occurred during his lifetime.

One wonders what 'in his days' might mean, but it is mostly considered that this is when he came to maturity. When he was the leader of those who would become God's chosen people. Of course, Shem was still alive at this point. Even Noah was. But as people aged much more quickly than before the Flood, it fell to on the younger generation much earlier to take the lead.

The earth was divided time as we shall see later, because people were uniting for a false unity. Unity and peace are not good when those things are used to try to go against God's plan. Remember, God's Way is easy. His burden is light. We humans just want our own way so much.

The only other thing to note here is that the people scattered rather quickly. For several hundred years after the earth was divided they wandered. Some information in Michael Oatd's book Life in the Great Ice Age shows how they could have easily covered all the earth.

Essentially, he notes that during the Ice Age, right after the Flood, there were land bridges between Spain and Morocco and between Russia and Alaska. The former would have been used by Japheth's descendants after they went into Europe and found it too cold and filled with glaciers.

It should also be noted that not every area was inhabited right away. Even secular scientists agree that Southern Africa was not inhabited by many people before several hundred years before Christ, which gives these people almost 2,000 years to make it down there. Madagascar was not inhabited till a few centuries after Christ, Iceland and New Zealand till centuries after that. It's possible that New Zealand was not inhabited till a little after 1000 A.D..

So, you can see how these things happened so easily. I could also mention how God's word was corrupted so quickly, but I will save that for some notes on Emperor worship when I mention Babel. Because, the situation in China is a telling example of how people, doing things their own way and not God's, can make things so bad.

 Because they took Emperor worship to such a level that only the elite were allowed to know of God. And yet, the Chinese language that developed contained symbols of knowledge of God that exist to this day, such as the symbol for "boat" containing the symbol for "vessel" and "eight" - the number of people saved in the Ark.

Gen. 10:21-23

Here, we see the sons of Shem discussed. There are several things worthy to note here.

God mentions these people last, even though they wind up being the ones who see God's chosen people come out of them; indeed, even the one from whom His people come is listed third. There are many lasts which shall be first and firsts which shall be last, Jesus reminds us. There is no importance to things like birth order to God, since He looks upon the heart.

"Wait," some might say, "wasn't it important to the Jewish people?" Only in two ways which are not connected to the way God sees us. The first is because the culture developed that way. We have seen before how we must follow God's Word and not the ways of man. Down through history, all the way back to Biblical times, we see the traditions of fallen man leading people away from God. Seeing oneself as important just because of birth or something that person has done leads easily to false pride, and God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. The second reason is connected to the first, and is the reason the first developed. The promised Messiah was supposed to come any time, and nobody knew exactly how or when. So, the first boy born was automatically seen as very important.

However, remember that King David of Israel, a man after God's own heart - the man who God promised that his seed would reign forever through the Messiah someday - was the last born in his family.

Speaking of lasts, one other interesting point - usually these genealogies only mention the people from among the firstborn, but here the last is mentioned. Birth order and other reasons God might have had for naming certain ones have both been discussed previously. However, one particular name stands out to me, at least, though it may escape the notice of some.

Uz is named - the land of Uz is where Job came from. We don't know if Uz named this area himself or if his descendants did. If his descendants did it's not necessarily wrong as long as one doesn't go overboard; America has a state and Federal District named after its first president, for instance, adn the man wanted nothing named after himself in his own lifetime. George Washington was a very humble man. And, Americans don't bow down to him or anything. A similar president with much named after him after his death - Abraham Lincoln - became known for freeing the slaves. Yet, according to one biography of him, after Richmond was captured near the end of the Civil War, President Lincoln toured the area and a former slave bowed down to him. Lincoln very quickly corrected him, "Never bow down to a man, it is not proper." And, the man then stood.

Job is considered by some accoutns the first book of the Bible to be written. It's possible Job lived at the time of Abraham, though that of Jacob may be a little more likely, siply based ont he life span of Job.

Well, if this land of Uz is named after this grandson of Shem, and people multiplied in thos early days after the Flood at about the same rate as before(notice that life spans go down, but people are still living several hundred years at first, meaning they could hve dozens of children), then it is possible that a large number of people could have inhabited that area. It would have been several hundred years after the Flood, after all.

The world was about to change drastically, however - even more so than it had changed from before the Flood.

Gen. 10:15-20

The evil of the Canaanites has been discussed elsewhere, how they grew so wicked and cold they eventually slaughtered even their own children by sacrificing them to idols - though of course doing so to anyone is evil.

They likely didn't start this way, of course. Romans 1:17-32 provides a good summary of how a nation starts a slippery slope by doing evil and not following God's plan to show grace and mercy to everyone. Yes, sin must be stopped, but since we are all sinners it must be done with love towards a person involved so they can be taught God's love. Otherwise, eventually it becomes so filled with evil that there is no longer any knowledge of what good and evil really are. And, the human heart is filled with wickedness because of the lust of the flesh, the west of the eyes, and the pride of life, so people naturally gravitate toward the evil when there is no knowledge of God and his saving grace. Because, it is that saving grace that causes us to become new creatures when we are in Christ.

By the time Abraham receives God's covenant to him, though, they were clearly pretty far down the road to that extreme evil, though. God promises to give Abraham that land, and when Abraham needs to find a wife for Isaac, God tells him to have his servant go way back to his homeland instead of having a wife from among the natives. He wanted to make sure those people were not polluted with evil. Of course, there were Gentiles who ended up marrying into the kingdom and even into the genealogy of Jesus. However, these were people who clearly had repented of all that evil.

God can do anything with a willing and repentant heart. That is what he wants of all of us, He is not looking for us to be perfect before we come to him. He wants us to come to Him so He can perfect us. Of course, we need to do our part by allowing Him to, but His grace and mercy is sufficient to keep us saved.

The Canaanites, however continued to go further and further away from God. Indeed, with Goliath and other giants in among the Philistines, it's possible that the Nephilim also being there after the flood means that the angels who left their first estate may have been involved, if that is the meaning used in Genesis 6, as mentioned earlier. The evil of sacrificing children show that they were in some ways totally lacking natural affection. This is one of the signs of the end times, that many people would lack natural affection, along with being lovers of themselves more than others and many other things. We can see in how God showed patience with them, however, before allowing them to be conquered and destroyed that God's mercy is incredible. It will, however, eventually run out for those who have not received His free gift of salvation.

Gen. 10:10-14

As noted, the subject of Nimrod is one which people then knew very well. Even if Moses borrowed from notes written by Abraham or even Noah or Shem, the people receiving Genesis for the first time were sure to be familiar with him.

The fact he built Babel, from which eventually came the city of Babylon, is crucial. It establishes the start of the second most mentioned city of the Bible,  behind only Jerusalem. It also establishes the start of the battle between the devil and God for control of the post-flood world - certainly there was sin before, and the devil was quite active. However, with fewer people it took a while for a leader to emerge who would try to lead so many down a dark, destructive path.

Nimrod brashly followed the devil, though. He chose to do everything his own way, and so with his turning so much away from God, it was easy for the devil to use him. He would soon deceive many into trying to attain Heaven and be like God, though as Adam and Eve found, that is a lie - only God is God, and trying not to be like Him only leads to destruction.

Thankfully, God does love us enough to call each of His disciples friends. He is personal, not transcendant. God desires a relationship with each of us, and while we are separated by our sin from him, he came to this earth, God in flesh, fully God and fully man, to live a perfect life and He died on the cross for our sins and rose from from the dead. He did this because He is a loving God who wants a personal relationship with each of His creatures, if they will only turn to Him, forsaking their sin and trusting him to save them and make them new inside.

While the relationship can be strained when a believer wanders from Him, He is always willing to forgive us. Nothing can pluck us out of His hand(John 10:28-30, Romans 8:36-39, etc ), and He will keep us from falling (Jude 24, etc.). If a believer becomes totally useless, God simply calls them home, just as 1 Corinthians 11 warns. That's because each believer in Christ is sealed with the Spirit unto the day of redemption.(Eph. 1:13-14, etc.)

Beyond Babel, Nimrod and other descendants of Cush began other cities as well. Nineveh is the most well-known for the terrible evil that came out of it. Archaeologists have shown that cultures around them we're terrified of them and that the Ninevites dragged people away from their conquered cities with hooks in their noses. The Bible doesn't tell us much about the others except for the Philistines in verse 14, but every piece of history archaeologists find corresponds perfectly with the Bible. The Bible may not tell every little bit of history, but where it does mention history it is totally accurate. (Other commentaries may be able to delve more deeply into who some of these other people groups were.)

This is only one group of the descendants from him, yet it is important to notice what was stated before. There was never a curse on Ham. Only Canaan is named, and as stated earlier, it may not have been a curse, it was likely a prophecy.

Gen. 10:9

Here we see why Nimrod began to be mighty in the earth. And, it says a lot about the world and it's system opposing God.

He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. That description it brings up several interesting thoughts.

First, while one's skill at hunting game would bring great respect, this was probably not all that was meant. In founding his empire, he hunted men, not necessarily to kill but to enslave or, at best, subjugate them. Numerous secular sources tell of his thirst for power, and the empire that developed on the plains of Shinar. Indeed, possibly the oldest archaeological artifacts come from the area where ancient Babylon stood.

The fact his physical power could have even been considered is another major point. Whether it is physical gifts, overwhelming power, stirring speech, or whatever else leads people to follow a man, 1 Samuel 16:7 is very appropriate: “…Man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh upon the heart.” The right leader should have God's loving heart and want to be a person after God's own heart with humility, not false pride. Sucha  leader should be willing to call a nation to repentance because of his or her own desire to model Godly virtue, and follow that virtue.

We people often want to follow those who will satisfy our physical desires. Those can be lusts of the flesh or of the eyes, such as in physical relations, but they can also be lusts that lead to the pride of life. In other words, one's desires are satisfied when one has power over another. They can also be satisfied by tearing others down and being told they are inferior - hence the pride of life causes one to become puffed up in thinking wrong thoughts about some group. Numerous dictators have worked this way.

God calls us to edify one another instead. When we build others up and realize we are all equal before God, all sinners in need of his salvation, we can more readily combat the evil ways in which some work. There is only one race, the human race, and we are wrestling not against flesh and blood, but against powers of darkness in this world.

Nimrod brashly followed those lusts - and hence powers of darkness - by being a mighty hunter before the Lord. This can mean two things. He put his desires, skills, etc. before any consideration of God, and/or he brash showed God his skill, daring God to act. Whatever it was, or maybe both, it shows that Nimrod desired to make a name for himself that would last a long time in the world, rather than doing what God tells us to do when He says to build treasures in Heaven.

And, in a way, he did, since that saying is stated as coming from him. By the time Genesis was written by Moses several hundred years later, Nimrod was still very well known in that saying.

However, that ends up not mattering at all. Nimrod did not follow the Lord, but instead chose to follow after the devil and his own selfish desires. Because of this, he did not have faith that God would send a savior for him, instead he chose to rebell as we shall see. He did not get to see Heaven, which is sad. God is willing that none should perish but that all should come to repentance. But, He also gives us free will so we won't be mindless robots. We have the ability to follow Jesus if we choose.

Jesus puts it so well when he asks, “What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet lose his own soul?” He states right there in His Word, the Bible, all the things on this earth will pass away, but our souls are forever, just like his word. Each of us needs to make that decision, once we are old enough to understand what it means, to call upon Jesus Christ to forgive us and save us from our sins. Each of us is only that single sincere prayer of repentance away from eternal life.

It's as easy as ABC. Admit your a sinner, and can't make it to His perfect Heaven on your own. Believe Jesus Christ, God in flesh, died to take the punishment for your sins and rose from the dead. And, Call on Him to forgive you and save you, and come into your heart and make you new inside.