Bible Study 102

Lesson 3: The Third Dispensation

The Tower of Babel

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech" (Genesis 11-1).

Please open your Bible to Genesis Chapter 11.

The entire earth was of one language. What language? I do not know. No one knows. Whatever the language was, God gave it to them, therefore it was a language that must have been without problems in any respect. But, as often happens, whenever man touches something, it turns into something less perfect.

"And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there."

Now to the tower itself. The tower was called a ziggurat. A ziggurat was an edifice for worship of creatures, rather than the Creator. It was also a place for the worship of the heavenly bodies such as the moon, sun, and stars. And the Lord being award of the building, came down from heaven to see the ziggurat, and He became exceedingly angry. He agitated the language into unrecognizable tongues causing the people to become disorganized. God then scattered them over the earth. My! What a sight that must have been. Can you envision disturbing an ant hill and watching the ants scatter in every direction?

"There are many theories on why this tower upset God. Some say the term tower is more like our observatory and this tower was starting to get into astrology and the occult. Others say that the wording of making the tower reach heaven and to "make us a name" in verse 4 implies human pride setting in. They wanted to be like God (does that sound familiar?) and be a god and have a name for themselves. We're not given any specific information about either of these theories. But, one this is for certain. The intent of the tower was disobedient to God."

Now, there was something about the previous verse that I could not quite put my finger on. As I read it over and over, it occurred to me that some people migrate from east to west, while others move from west to east. I don't know why this should have struck me, but it did. Perhaps it has something to do with the sun setting in the west. I don't know, and it probably is of no importance. But since these people had begun to worship not only the stars and moon, but the sun, I rather think they were following the sun as an object of idol worship.

These people moved toward the west into the land of Shinar, which was located in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. Now apparently the soil had sufficient clay that was good for brick making, and they said, "Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." The generations of Noah's sons were told by God to scatter and populate the earth. They did not want to scatter, hence the biblical statement, "lest we be scattered."

Now from Noah's son Ham, came the boy Cush, who begat Nimrod who was the founder of four great cities, the best known being Babel. Nimrod was instrumental in the construction of the Tower of Babel. It was he who wanted to bring ALL of the people into one race and be their great ruler. What ideas of grandeur Nimrod had. In fact, Nimrod was the first world ruler. He is also a foreshadow of the final world ruler called the Antichrist in Scripture, who is yet to come upon this world's scene. Some Bible expositors attempt to show how the final Antichrist will be in the paternal genealogical line from Nimrod.

This third dispensation ended with the judgment of the confounding of tongue, or the multiplying of languages. With the advent of numerous different languages, it became impossible for these rebellious people to operate under the rule of a single ruler or government. This incident occurred approximately in the year 2,247 BC on the plain of Shinar, somewhere in modern day Iraq.

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