Genesis 11 is in two sections; the first is an account of the Tower of Babel which leads to the scattering of the people into the nations of the world, the second is a genealogy linking Shem to Abraham.

These two ideas are linked by the idea that the setting is really important in the Biblical narrative, because it carries with it some deep level meaning that might easily be missed at first, but once you see it, it can take you to a new level of revelation.

I intend here in this blog post to offer just a couple of brief thoughts on the Tower of Babel story, then I’ll give a link to a short animated video (5 mins, YouTube from ‘The Bible Project’) that explains the next part, then we can come back here to read some really brief reflections, and I’ll attempt to tie it all together.

So, the Tower of Babel… many of us are kind of familiar with the story, so what can I add? Well, you may or may not already know that it is set in the land of Shinar; this is Babylon. You may or may not know that the king who is leading this city & tower building project is most likely to be Nimrod… who? Let’s go back quickly to the previous chapter Genesis 10:

“Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah—which is the great city.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭10:8-12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

For him to be called a ‘mighty hunter’ is probably not a good thing! We can tell he was a king, because it tells us about his ‘kingdom’… a kingdom is a kingdom because it has a king! He obviously aspired to build an empire, seeing as he built many cities across Babylon and Assyria. We can see what Nimrod and his kingdom was like from the start of chapter 11. Remember God’s blessing in chapter 9… “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth”‬‬… well, in rebellion to God’s plan for them to spread out and fill the earth, we see what they say:

“Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭11:4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So we can see pride in wanting to ‘make a name for ourselves’, rebellion against God’s plan ‘otherwise we will be scattered’, and self-sufficiency instead of trusting God’s help and protection in the fact that they are building walled cities out of brick with fortifications and towers. The idea of a ‘tower that reaches to the heavens’ is probably suggesting that Nimrod wanted to be like God, or replace God, or he probably even considered himself to be a god like many other ancient kings like the Pharaohs of Egypt and later Babylonian kings too. This would link us back to the serpent’s temptation in the garden of Eden, and suggest that fallen spiritual beings are involved behind the scenes.

Needless to say, Babylon, Assyria & Nineveh go on to become biblical symbols of pride and rebellion, which leads us on to the video about the importance of biblical setting, which you can view by clicking the blue image below (don’t forget to come back here afterwards).

At this point, I would just like to honour Dr Tim Mackie and his team at The Bible Project, their free animated videos on YouTube are amazing!

So, hopefully now you see how the setting is often really important in the narrative, and how the biblical authors sometimes use the setting to make a deeper level point. Well, the setting is being used here to make the point that the land in the East – the land of Babylon, Assyria, Nineveh and others – the land that symbolises pride, rebellion against God and self-reliance, this is the very land that Abram is called to leave on a journey of faith. Where did Abram come from? Ur of the Chaldeans… where is that? Babylon!

So the point that is being made through the use of the setting, is that all of us are called to (metaphorically) leave Babylon, which is the symbol of pride, self-reliance and rebellion against God, and instead to be ‘called-out’ to go on a journey of faith, to live differently in a way that trusts and honours God.

How does Abram do? We will find out next time.

Don’t forget to leave a comment or add your own thoughts in the Facebook discussion group. If you need details just ask, Neil 😊.

Genesis 4 & 5 take us through the generations from Adam to Noah.

Here’s the plot so far. In Genesis 1 & 2, God created the Heavens and the earth, including all the living creatures and He creates mankind (male and female) in His image to rule and to reign on the earth. In Genesis 3 we meet the serpent and discover that there is a back-story of spiritual beings in rebellion to God, led by this serpent, who is Satan. The Psalmist in Psalm 8 considers this scenario when he writes:

“what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet:”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭8:4-6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The thing is, Satan and the fallen spiritual beings appear to be unhappy that God has ‘crowned them (the human beings) with glory and honour’ and ‘put everything under their feet’… the humans are lower than the angels after all! So fuelled by jealousy and pride, the serpent deceives the humans in Genesis 3, and the humans eat the forbidden fruit as a result.

You may find it useful to read Genesis 4 & 5 again to refresh your memory of these chapters, then come back here to read my reflections on what is going on next.

It doesn’t take long in Genesis 4 to realise things have gone seriously wrong! Things are not as God planned and created them to be. Adam & Eve in the previous chapter have already hidden from God and cast blame on each other; and now their first children are also against one-another, resulting in Cain murdering his brother Abel out of jealous rage. As we read through the generations we see that death has entered into humanity just as God said it would.

The humans are behaving really badly; there’s even a guy called Lamech who has the first polygamous marriage, and he sings a song boasting about how he murdered someone! We know that ‘sin’ has entered into humanity through the fall, but does the bible offer us any way we can understand this better, and why all the subsequent generations were so badly affected by Adam & Eve’s mistake?

The apostle Paul has evidently been pondering this in Romans 5 (New Testament) when he considers how sin entered humanity and affects us all through Adam, and he contrasts it with how righteousness is available to all through Faith in Jesus. Let’s read what he says because it helps us understand what is going on:

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned— To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam…”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:12-14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Did you notice the phrase “death reigned?” That is kingdom language and we should take notice of these things because the humans were created to reign. And it sounds pretty odd, how can death reign? Is death a person? Well, no; but let’s see what Paul says elsewhere in Hebrews 2:

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too (Jesus) shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭2:14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So… ‘death reigns’ is to say that he who has the power of death reigned during that period in time… that is, Satan. We know that sin and death are connected, which is why God said they must not eat the forbidden fruit or they would surely die. So we know that the generations after Adam are under the power of sin, because they are also under the power of death; this is what theologians would call ‘original sin.’

There is so much we can say and unpack about this, but in the interests of keeping this blog short we will continue to explore this as we go forward on our journey through scripture. But let’s just establish 2 brief, but important things before we move on from this.

Firstly, Satan did not have unlimited authority & reign, even during that time period; that would make him equal to God and that is not the case. It is made especially clear in the book of Job, which we will get to eventually, that Satan can only do amongst humans what God allows him to.

Secondly, humans at least in theory have the ability to resist, master and overcome Satan’s power over them. Remember God tells Cain before the murder “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” (Genesis‬ ‭4:7‬ ‭NIV‬‬). Cain obviously did not resist or rule over sin, and neither did the subsequent generations to Noah, which is how we end up at the story of the flood which we’ll discuss next time.

Thanks for reading. Please leave comments below or on the Facebook page or discussion group.

In what way did the serpent/enemy deceive Eve?

Adam and Eve both clearly knew and understood that God had commanded “you shall not eat of it.” (Eve – 3:3, Adam – 2:16-17, 3:17). So how did the serpent deceive Eve and Adam to completely go against this and eat? It seems bizarre at first when you think about it.

The verse in context:

On the first page or two of the bible, God has been creating everything in our material world. He speaks everything into being, separates things and puts them into their place, and importantly, He has been defining what is ‘good.’ For example:

“And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.” Genesis‬ ‭1:3-5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In addition to the light, God defines the following as ‘good’ in Genesis 1: dry land & seas (v10); Grass (v12); Seed-bearing plants (v12); Fruit-bearing trees (v12); Sun & moon (v18); Sea animals & flying animals (v21); All land animals (v25); Then after God has also created humans to rule over creation, he sees that it is all ‘very good.’

Notice that the things that God defines as ‘good’ are not things that He Himself needs, God doesn’t need any of these things, but they are ‘good’ because they are good for others, even the lowest of the living creatures need these things to live. God is not self-focussed, but others-focussed.

Adam & Eve redefine ‘Good’ on their own terms:

Genesis 3:6 is the key verse here:

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

God had clearly said that the fruit of this tree was not for food, but here is Eve redefining it as good for food… what happened?

Remember in the last blog post, that we established the serpent is actually a spiritual being that had his own ‘fall’ due to pride and ‘self-will’. What the serpent has done here is to appeal to Adam and Eve’s selfish desires in such a way that they were prepared to directly disobey God’s command, and go through with it in order to satisfy their inner desire… here we have the first human sin, or the first human rebellion against God. It was an act of ‘self-will’ or another word for that is selfishness, which is putting ‘my own needs or desires first.’ I often say that: ‘“I” is at the centre of SIN’

Without going off track, let’s look quickly to a New Testament verse that helps us unpack this a little. I think the Apostle John is clearly thinking about the Gen 3:6 verse, and referencing it, when he writes his warnings in 1 John 2:15-17 about living a Christian life that is carnal or worldly. Let’s look at that verse:

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John‬ ‭2:15-17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If we put John’s statements alongside Eve’s this might appear a little clearer:

Eve – saw that it was good for food; John – Lust of the flesh

Eve – Pleasing to the eye; John – Lust of the eyes

Eve – Desirable to make one wise; John – The pride of life

So the serpent was encouraging Adam & Eve to go after their own desires and to put their own needs first, ahead of what God has said to them. As a result, they redefined ‘good’ on their own terms.

Let’s leave it there and ponder that this week, and ask God if there is any way we are to apply this in our own lives & situations.

I think it would be good to close with Paul’s message from the end of Romans, who is warning his Christian friends to watch out for deceivers (do you think he had Genesis 3 in mind when writing this?)

“I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” Romans‬ ‭16:17-20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This chapter is packed full of things that are really important to the story of the bible as we journey through it. The Bible has this great way of coming back to these first 2 or 3 pages as a way of grounding us, or adding revelation & understanding to some of the things that are happening here that might not make much sense straight away. We have this saying, “the bible interprets the bible” so don’t worry if some of the things in this chapter are puzzling at this point, we just have to stick with it on our journey and we will keep coming back to this point and hopefully things will become more clear. Chances are, I might have to stay in Genesis 3 for a couple of blog posts in order to highlight the different things that are going on here, whilst also trying to keep it ‘bitesize!’

Let’s start with verse 1:

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?””
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3:1‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So if anyone here is reading the bible for the first time… yes, we just met a talking snake… or so it would appear at first glance. What we need to acknowledge here, is that later verses in the bible show us that this character is not just your regular talking garden snake, it is in fact a ‘spiritual being.’ We know this particular being as ‘the enemy’, ‘Satan’, ‘Lucifer’, or more commonly as ‘the devil.’

“Wait! what is a ‘spiritual being’ and why is there an evil one in the garden?” I hear you say. Good question! What is going on here, is that we realise there is some kind of ‘back-story’ that has been going on behind the scenes, and we’re not told much about it at this point in the biblical narrative. If we want to find out more about this ‘back-story’ we need to keep reading for quite some time. When we get to a collection of books within the bible called ‘the prophets’ we will see that Ezekiel and Isaiah in particular, offer us windows into what happened in this back story.

I know, you don’t want to wait that long! Ok so we can come back to it in more detail later on, but the Bitesize version for now, is that it appears that God created certain ‘spiritual beings’ before He created time and space and the world that we live in. Furthermore, it turns out that there was something of a rebellion in the spiritual realm (led by Lucifer, who we will find out more about later), and many of these spiritual beings were cast out; the word we use to describe this is that they are ‘fallen.’ So that is the reason there is an evil spiritual being in the garden, there was ‘a fall’ of spiritual beings in the spiritual realm, before what we refer to as ‘the fall’ of Adam and Eve. That’s what I meant in the title when I said ‘the fall before the fall.’

How we end up getting to Adam and Eve’s fall, let’s come back to next time, but for now, whilst we have been introduced to spiritual beings, check out this animated video from ‘The Bible Project’ that I found really useful in getting my head round understanding the bible’s view of ‘spiritual beings’… I’m sure you will find it helpful too, don’t skip it, it’s only 5mins!

Clicking the image below will take you to the first video in their series on YouTube called ‘intro to spiritual beings.’