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Genesis Chapter
Eleven
Genesis 11
Chapter Contents
One language in the world, The building of Babel. (1-4)
The confusion of tongues, The builders of Babel dispersed. (5-9) The
descendants of Shem. (10-26) Terah, father of Abram, grandfather of Lot, they
remove to Haran. (27-32)
Commentary on Genesis 11:1-4
How soon men forget the most tremendous judgments, and go
back to their former crimes! Though the desolations of the deluge were before
their eyes, though they sprang from the stock of righteous Noah, yet even
during his life-time, wickedness increases exceedingly. Nothing but the
sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit can remove the sinful lusts of the human
will, and the depravity of the human heart. God's purpose was, that mankind
should form many nations, and people all lands. In contempt of the Divine will,
and against the counsel of Noah, the bulk of mankind united to build a city and
a tower to prevent their separating. Idolatry was begun, and Babel became one
of its chief seats. They made one another more daring and resolute. Let us
learn to provoke one another to love and to good works, as sinners stir up and
encourage one another to wicked works.
Commentary on Genesis 11:5-9
Here is an expression after the manner of men; The Lord
came down to see the city. God is just and fair in all he does against sin and
sinners, and condemns none unheard. Pious Eber is not found among this ungodly
crew; for he and his are called the children of God; their souls joined not
themselves to the assembly of these children of men. God suffered them to go on
some way, that the works of their hands, from which they promised themselves
lasting honour, might turn to their lasting reproach. God has wise and holy
ends, in allowing the enemies of his glory to carry on their wicked projects a
great way, and to prosper long. Observe the wisdom and mercy of God, in the
methods taken for defeating this undertaking. And the mercy of God in not
making the penalty equal to the offence; for he deals not with us according to
our sins. The wisdom of God, in fixing upon a sure way to stop these
proceedings. If they could not understand one another, they could not help one
another; this would take them off from their building. God has various means,
and effectual ones, to baffle and defeat the projects of proud men that set
themselves against him, and particularly he divides them among themselves.
Notwithstanding their union and obstinacy God was above them; for who ever
hardened his heart against him, and prospered? Their language was confounded.
We all suffer by it to this day: in all the pains and trouble used to learn the
languages we have occasion for, we suffer for the rebellion of our ancestors at
Babel. Nay, and those unhappy disputes, which are strifes of words, and arise
from misunderstanding one another's words, for aught we know, are owing to this
confusion of tongues. They left off to build the city. The confusion of their tongues
not only unfitted them for helping one another, but they saw the hand of the
Lord gone out against them. It is wisdom to leave off that which we see God
fights against. God is able to blast and bring to nought all the devices and
designs of Babel-builders: there is no wisdom nor counsel against the Lord. The
builders departed according to their families, and the tongue they spake, to
the countries and places allotted to them. The children of men never did, nor
ever will, come all together again, till the great day, when the Son of man
shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and all nations shall be gathered
before him.
Commentary on Genesis 11:10-26
Here is a genealogy, or list of names, ending in Abram,
the friend of God, and thus leading towards Christ, the promised Seed, who was
the son of Abram. Nothing is left upon record but their names and ages; the
Holy Ghost seeming to hasten through them to the history of Abram. How little
do we know of those that are gone before us in this world, even of those that
lived in the same places where we live, as we likewise know little of those who
now live in distant places! We have enough to do to mind our own work. When the
earth began to be peopled, men's lives began to shorten; this was the wise
disposal of Providence.
Commentary on Genesis 11:27-32
Here begins the story of Abram, whose name is famous in
both Testaments. Even the children of Eber had become worshippers of false
gods. Those who are through grace, heirs of the land of promise, ought to
remember what was the land of their birth; what was their corrupt and sinful
state by nature. Abram's brethren were, Nahor, out of whose family both Isaac
and Jacob had their wives; and Haran, the father of Lot, who died before his
father. Children cannot be sure that they shall outlive their parents. Haran
died in Ur, before the happy removal of the family out of that idolatrous
country. It concerns us to hasten out of our natural state, lest death surprise
us in it. We here read of Abram's departure out of Ur of the Chaldees, with his
father Terah, his nephew Lot, and the rest of his family, in obedience to the
call of God. This chapter leaves them about mid-way between Ur and Canaan,
where they dwelt till Terah's death. Many reach to Charran, and yet fall short
of Canaan; they are not far from the kingdom of God, and yet never come
thither.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Genesis》
Genesis 11
Verse 1
[1] And
the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
And the whole earth was of one language — Now while they all understood one another, they would be the more
capable of helping one another, and the less inclinable to separate.
Verse 2
[2] 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.
And they found a plain in the land of Shinar — A spacious plain, able to contain them all.
Verse 3
[3] And
they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly.
And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
Go to, let us make brick, let us build us a
city — The country being a plain, yielded neither
stone nor morter, yet that did not discourage them, but they made brick to
serve instead of stone, and slime, or pitch, instead of morter. Some think they
intended hereby to secure themselves against the waters of another flood, but
if they had, they would have chosen to build upon a mountain rather than upon a
plain. But two things it seems they aimed at in building. 1. To make them a
name: they would do something to be talked of by posterity. But they could not
gain this point; for we do not find in any history the name of so much as one
of these Babel - builders. Philo Judeus saith they engraved every one his name
upon a brick; yet neither did that serve their purpose. 2. They did it to
prevent their dispersion; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the
earth - It was done (saith Josephus) in disobedience to that command, Genesis 9:1, replenish the earth. God orders
them to scatter. No, say they, we will live and die together. In order hereunto
they engage themselves and one another in this vast undertaking. That they
might unite in one glorious empire, they resolve to build this city and tower,
to be the metropolis of their kingdom, and the center of their unity.
Verse 5
[5] And
the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men
builded.
And the Lord came down to see the city — 'Tis an expression after the manner of men, he knew it as clearly as men
know that which they come upon the place to view.
And the tower which the children of men
builded — Which speaks, (1.) Their weakness and
frailty, it was a foolish thing for the children of men, worms of the earth, to
defy heaven. (2.) Their sinfulness, they were the sons of Adam, so it is in the
Hebrew; nay, of that Adam, that sinful disobedient Adam, whose children are by
nature children of disobedience. (3.) Their distinction from the children of
God, from whom those daring builders had separated themselves, and built this
tower to support and perpetuate the separation.
Verse 6
[6] And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one
language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from
them, which they have imagined to do.
And the Lord said, Behold the people is one,
and they have all one language — And if they continue
one, much of the earth will be left uninhabited, and these children of men, if
thus incorporated, will swallow up the little remnant of God's children,
therefore it is decreed they must not be one. And now nothing will be
restrained from them - And this is a reason why they must be crossed, in their
design.
Verse 7
[7] Go
to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not
understand one another's speech.
Go to, let us go down and there confound
their language — This was not spoken to the angels, as if
God needed either their advice or their assistance, but God speaks it to
himself, or the Father to the Son and Holy Ghost.
That they may not understand one another's
speech — Nor could they well join hands when their
tongues were divided: so that this was a proper means, both to take them off
from their building, for if they could not understand one another, they could
not help one another; and to dispose them to scatter, for when they could not
understand one another, they could not enjoy one another. Accordingly three
things were done, 1. Their language was confounded. God, who when he made man
taught him to speak, now made those builders to forget their former language; and
to speak a new one, which yet was the same to those of the same tribe or
family, but not to others: those of one colony could converse together, but not
with those of another. We all suffer hereby to this day: in all the
inconveniences we sustain by the diversity of languages, and all the trouble we
are at to learn the languages we have occasion for, we smart for the rebellion
of our ancestors at Babel; nay, and those unhappy controversies, which are
strifes of words, and arise from our misunderstanding of one another's
languages, for ought I know, are owing to this confusion of tongues. The
project of some to frame an universal character in order to an universal
language, how desirable soever it may seem, yet I think is but a vain thing for
it is to strive against a divine sentence, by which the languages of the
nations will be divided while the world stands. We may here lament the loss of
the universal use of the Hebrew tongue, which from henceforth was the vulgar
language of the Hebrews only, and continued so till the captivity in Babylon,
where, even among them, it was exchanged for the Syriac. As the confounding of
tongues divided the children of men, and scattered them abroad, so the gift of
tongues bestowed upon the Apostles, Acts 2:4-11, contributed greatly to the
gathering together of the children of God, which were scattered abroad, and the
uniting of them in Christ, that with one mind and mouth they might glorify God,
Romans 15:6. (The imagination of a late writer,
that God did not confound their tongues, but their religious worship, is
grounded on criticisms concerning the meaning of the Hebrew word, which are absolutely
false. Beside, would God confound their religious worship? Surely, He is a God
of order, and not of confusion. 2. Their building was stopped, they left off to
build the city - This was the effect of the confusion of their tongue's; for it
not only disabled them from helping one another, but probably struck a damp
upon their spirits, since they saw the hand of the Lord gone out against them.
3. The builders were scattered abroad from thence upon the face of the whole
earth - They departed in companies after their families and after their
tongues, Genesis 10:5,20,31, to the several countries and
places allotted to them in the division that had been made, which they knew before,
but would not go to take possession of, 'till now they were forced to it.
Observe 1. The very thing which they feared came upon them; that dispersion
which they thought to evade. 2. That it was God's work; the Lord scattered
them; God's hand is to be acknowledged in all scattering providences; if the
family be scattered, relations scattered, churches scattered, it is the Lord's
doing. 3. That they left behind them a perpetual memorandum of their reproach
in the name given to the place; it was called Babel, confusion. 4. The children
of men were now finally scattered, and never will come all together again 'till
the great day. when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and
all nations shall be gathered before him, Matthew 25:31,32.
Verse 10
[10]
These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat
Arphaxad two years after the flood:
Observe here, 1. That nothing is left upon
record concerning those of this line, but their names and ages; the Holy Ghost
seeming to hasten thro' them to the story of Abraham. How little do we know of
those that are gone before us in this world, even those that lived in the same
places where we live! Or indeed of those who are our contemporaries, but in
distant places. 2. That there was an observable gradual decrease in the years
of their lives. Shem reached to 600 years, which yet fell short of the age of
the patriarchs before the flood; the three next came short of 500, the three
next did not reach to 300, and after them we read not of any that attained to
200 but Terah; and not many ages after this, Moses reckoned 70 or 80 to be the
utmost men ordinarily arrive at. When the earth began to be replenished, mens lives
began to shorten so that the decrease is to be imputed to the wise disposal of
providence, rather than to any decay of nature. 3. That Eber, from whom the
Hebrews were denominated, was the longest lived of any that were born after the
flood; which perhaps was the reward of his strict adherence to the ways of God.
Verse 27
[27] Now
these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and
Haran begat Lot.
Here begins the story of Abram. We have here,
1. His country: Ur of the Chaldee's - An idolatrous country, where even the
children of Eber themselves degenerated. 2. His relations, mentioned for his
sake, and because of their interest in he following story. 1. His father was
Terah, of whom it is said, Joshua 24:2, that he served other gods on the
other side the flood; so early did idolatry gain footing in the world. Enough
it is said, Genesis 11:26, that when Terah was seventy years
old he begat Abram, Nabor and Haran, which seems to tell us that Abram was the
eldest son of Terah, and born in the 70th year; yet by comparing Genesis 11:32, which makes Terah to die in his
205th year, with Acts 7:4, where it is said that Abram removed
from Haran when his father was dead, and Genesis 12:4, where it is said that he was but
75 years old when he removed from Haran, it appears that he was born in the
130th year of Terah, and probably was his youngest son. We have, 2. Some
account of his brethren (1.) Nahor, out of whole family both Isaac and Jacob
had their wives. (2.) Haran, the father of Lot, of whom it is here said, Genesis 11:28, that he died before his father
Terah. 'Tis likewise said that he died in Ur of the Chaldees, before that happy
remove of the family out of that idolatrous country. (3.) His wife was Sarai,
who, tho' some think was the same with Iscah the daughter of Haran. Abram
himself saith, she was the daughter of his father, but not the daughter of his
mother, Genesis 20:12. She was ten years younger than
Abram. 3. His departure out of Ur of the Chaldees, with his father Terah, and
his nephew Lot, and the rest of his family, in obedience to the call of God.
This chapter leaves them in Haran or Charran, a place about the mid-way between
Ur and Canaan, where they dwelt 'till Terah's head was laid; probably because
the old man was unable, through the infirmities of age, to proceed in his
journey.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on
Genesis》
11 Chapter 11
Verses 1-3
Of one language
God’s gift of speech
1.
Language
or speech God hath allowed to men as men.
2. One language did God vouchsafe to all for good. It was mainly to
keep them to the Church.
3. Sin perverts the sweet blessing of one speech to conspiracy
against God (Genesis 11:9). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Two kinds of unanimity
Men may do wrong things unanimously, as well as things that are
right. We must distinguish between union and conspiracy; we must distinguish
between identity and mere association for a given object. Twelve directors may
be of one language and of one speech, but the meaning of their unity may be
self-enrichment, at the expense of unsuspecting men, who have put their little
all into their keeping and direction. It is nothing, therefore, to talk about
unanimity in itself considered. We must, in all these things, put the moral
question, “What is the unanimity about?” “Is this unanimity moving in the right
direction?” If it be in a wrong direction, then unanimity is an aggravation of
sin; if it be in a right direction, then union is power, and one-heartedness is
triumph. But it is possible that unanimity may be but another word for
stagnation. There are words in our language which are greatly misunderstood,
and unanimity is one of them; peace is another. When many persons say peace,
what do they mean? A living, intelligent, active cooperation, where there is
mutual concession, where there is courtesy on every hand, where there is
independent conviction, and yet noble concert in life? Not at all. They say
that a Church is unanimous, and a Church is at peace, when a correct
interpreter would say it was the unanimity of the grave, the peace of death. So
I put in a word here of caution and of explanation: “The whole earth was of one
language and of one speech”; here is a point of unanimity, and yet there is a
unanimous movement in a wrong direction. (J. Parker, D. D.)
One language and one speech
What that language was it is not necessary on the present occasion
to examine. The arguments are very strong that it was Hebrew. But the fact that
all men did use the same tongue, and the way in which the fact is recorded,
lead us to infer that there was something much more than identity of dialect.
For we all well know how language is connected with thought and feelings, and
how our words react and determine our feelings. So that a oneness of expression
will go a great way to produce oneness of soul. Have we not all proved its
effect to unite and bind us one with another? Is not that the charm of the
familiar language of co-patriots in foreign lands? Is not this one of the
secrets of the bliss of song? So that a real and perfectly “one language and
one speech” might be expected to have a most united result on the minds of all
who used it, and a most favourable influence on the spirit of true religion.
But it is a thing which now is not. No one country has it within itself. No two
persons that ever meet have it. It is a lost thing. There is not, truly, upon
this earth, in any fraction of it, “one language” and “one speech”; and hence a
very great part of our sin and our misery! And even if there were a language
perfectly the same, yet until there was a setting to rights of disorders which
have come into human thought, and until minds were themselves set in one
accord, there could not be unity. So that, indeed, there must be something
which belongs to a higher dispensation than this. For if the thoughts were
disordered, they would themselves give disordered senses to the words spoken.
And remember one other thing. In that age, it was not so long after the flood,
nor had people been so divided, nor truth so lapsed, but that all must have
known the faith of the one true God. And, therefore, their worship must have
been one, the same thoughts and the same expressions going up to the same God
everywhere. But the world was evidently not yet ripe for unity. Unity is a
beautiful flower, but it can only grow in its own proper soil. Then the Fall
cropped up, and at once poisoned human nature. They could not use even their
one language or their one mind without its unity becoming sin. So they took
occasion, by their very oneness, to determine to do two things, which real
unity never does. They resolved to make a great monument to their own glory,
and they thought to frustrate an original law of God and to break a positive
rule of our being. For the primary principle of all religion is that we should
seek first the glory of our Maker. Therefore God breathed upon their work, and
it was crushed. It was a false unity. They sought their own praise, and it ran
contrary to the mind of God. And God Himself at once traced the sin to that
root--an unhallowed and unsanctified oneness of mind and language; and God
proceeded to punish them in that very thing which they thus misused, and to
take away from them that privilege and blessing for which man was not yet
educated and prepared. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the
face of all the earth. Said I not right they were not ripe for this precious
gift--the omnipotence of unity? Generations must pass; new eras must unfold;
Christ must come down and suffer; the Holy Spirit dwell amongst us; the Church
must live and work; missionaries must preach; martyrs must die; the whole earth
must be regenerate before men could hear their own, their higher, their
destined unity. And so the unity, the profane unity, was dashed into hundreds
of divergent atoms, and was carried by the four winds to the four corners of
the earth. And what was the consequence of this judicial scattering, and this
division of the human race which began on the plains of Shinar, and has been
increasing ever since, and which we see all around us now? God never does a
work, how purative soever it may be, in which there is not a mercy and some
purpose or another. Doubtless this scattering of the early post-diluvians
carried the knowledge of the true God and of the one faith into all the lands
whither they went, even as the early Christians, when they fled from Jerusalem,
bore the seed of the gospel into every land. And that knowledge, diluted,
indeed, and marred, would go down from generation to generation; and hence,
perhaps, the fact--the remarkable fact--that there is no instance in the
history of the whole earth of a people, even in the remotest islands of the
Pacific, who had not some vestige of the knowledge and worship of a god. And
once more there was a plea for prayer, an argument for hope, a pledge of
promise--“We were all one once, Lord. Thou didst scatter us. Bring back again
Thine own image. Give us, give the whole earth, its unity again.” I will not
now speak of the evil results of that broken language and these severed
interests of the family of man. They are too large and too patent to be
catalogued here. I will proceed with the unfolding, as it seems to me, of God’s
great means for the restitution of unity. From that moment God has steadily,
progressively, uniformly carried on His great design to restore the unity which
man then fulfilled. Just as He set Himself at once to give back the lost
paradise--a better than the first was--has He graciously worked in His working
to repair, and much more than repair, the fractured oneness. It became
necessary by this dispersion that God should select one family and one race
which He should make a special and secure depository of His one truth.
Otherwise probably the truth, split and scattered, would not have survived in
the earth. And therefore the next fact in history is the call of Abraham. And
when God elected Abraham and his descendants to be the stewards of revelation,
it was for this very end--that truth might continue one in the world. But in
that act of electing grace God did not choose Abraham only, but in Abraham that
“Seed” which was to gather together not only all truth, but all people into
Himself. Accordingly, “in the fulness of time” Christ came. And by His life,
death, resurrection, and ascension He became the Head into which all
members--thousands and millions of members--were to be gathered and united, and
so to make a oneness--oh! how different from all before! how glorious! how
entire!--the oneness of one body and one life, the oneness of God. To give
effect to, to supplement and complete that unity, the Holy Ghost came as at
Pentecost. And at once--mark the fact--He dealt with language, that lost
gift--the “one language” and the “one speech”; language, doubtless a gift to
man at the creation, but now how much more better a gift by the redemption. So
it came to pass that the gulf of separation--unknown speech--that great gulf of
separation, was, at that moment, taken away. But it was not only in tongue and
in speech that they assimilate, but in mind and heart. For the theme and
interest of all are one--“We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful
works of God.” Observe, then, the effects. At that moment all the Church was
really and truly of one heart and one soul; and that union expressed itself in
the gift of speech which made all language one. So that the unity was the same,
only greater and purer than that before judgment fell upon Babel. And why was
it, why was it at Pentecost? It was a beautiful thing, but it did not last. It
was a bright rift in the cloud of separation. Why was it, and why did some
retain the power of language while in the Church by the gift of tongues, why
was it? I have no doubt in my own mind that it was the first drop in the
shower--a pledge of what is to be. And will it not one day come--one pure
language on the whole earth, one worship, and one service with one consent? But
this, I conceive, is the order: First, the body of Christ made one, made one by
the individual embodiment into Him of each one of His elect, in His own proper
season. Then the mind, made one by the indwelling and inworking of the same
Holy Spirit. And then the language, made one by some infusion of the power of
the Holy Ghost in the latter days. You have read, perhaps, of two heathen men
of different countries, both converted, who met, but could not understand each
other’s speech, when one by chance or providence said “Hallelujah,” and the
other, taking up the formulary, said “Amen.” And they ran into each other’s
arms. The story may be true or not, but it is a pretty allegory, and a true
type of what I believe shall one day be. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Verse 4
Go to, let us build us a city and a tower
The tower of Babel
I.
Three
motives may have led to the building of the tower of Babel.
1. A feeling that in union and communion lay the secret of man’s
renown and strength; that to disperse the family was to debilitate it.
2. A remembrance of the deluge, and a guilty dread of some similar
judgment, leading them to draw close to each other for support.
3. Man was awaking to self-consciousness and a knowledge of his own
resources. He was gaining a glimpse into the possible progress of civilization.
The tower was to be a focus where the rays of his power would be concentrated.
II. To all
philanthropists this narrative preaches this simple and sublime truth--that
genuine unity is not to be effectually compassed in any other manner than by
striking at the original root of discord. Every scheme for the promotion of
brotherhood which deals only with the external symptoms of disunion, and aims at
correcting only what appears on the surface of society, is ultimately sure of
frustration.
III. In His own
good time and manner God realized the presumptuous design of the Babel
builders, and united in one central institution the scattered families of man.
In the mediation of His Son He has reared up a Tower whose top reaches to
heaven. It was in order to gather the nations into this world-embracing
community that the apostles of Christ went forth charged with a message of
peace and love. When the Spirit descended at Pentecost the physical impediment
obstructing union--that difference of language which the sin of Babel had
introduced--was removed. The apostles spake with other tongues, as the Spirit
gave them utterance. (Dean Goulburn.)
The tower of Babel
The events connected with the building of the tower of Babel
forcibly illustrate the power and the weakness of man. There is great power of
scheming, great power of working, ending in an ignominious failure. So it is in
all the ways of life; there is a way of spending force for naught, and there is
a way of turning every effort to good account; there is a scheming that is
nothing but inflation, and there is a purposing which gives shape and strength
to one’s daily life. The courses of Providence, as revealed in the history of
the world, enable us now to judge programmes by anticipation; before we begin
to build we can now tell how we shall finish, or whether we shall finish at
all. Poor self-deceiving heart! How many bricks has it made, and burnt
thoroughly, and yet how few towers it has ever finished! The people constitute
themselves into a community of builders, and they propose to themselves a city
and a tower. In this plan there are three things which men generally account
laudable--
1. There is self-reliance. The loudest cry of today is, Help
yourselves! It is thought that the man who trusts his own arm trusts a good
servant. So far, therefore, there is nothing amiss in these builders.
2. There is a desire for self-preservation--“lest we be scattered
abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” Self-preservation is held to be the
first law of nature. If a man will not take care of himself, who will take care
of him? Still, therefore, the builders have not trespassed.
3. There is ambition--a city, and a tower, and a name! No man can
make much headway in life who is not ambitious. The finalist grows weaker every
day; the progressionist strengthens with every encounter. The whole work was
within man’s own sphere. They wanted more than a city and a tower; they wanted
a name, “let us make us a name.” That has been the ruin of many a man: anything
for a name--any price for renown! This is not the ambition which is commended;
this stands to a true ambition as presumption to faith. One thing is clear,
viz., that God is observant of human plans. He knows our purpose, He overhears
our secret communings. He allows men to build for awhile, and in the time of
their rejoicing over the work of their hands He throws the city and tower to
the dust. The error of these people was not in having a plan, but in having a
plan without God.
(a) Appearances;
(b) Miscalculations;
(c) Oversights; have contributed their share to his disasters.
(3) Regulate ambition by the Divine will.
(4) If we make great plans let us make them in God’s name and carry
them out in God’s strength. See the folly of planning without God.
(a) God has all forces at command.
(b) God has set a limit to every man’s life.
(c) God has pronounced Himself against those who dishonour His name.
All these considerations have also a reflex bearing on those who plan in a
right spirit.
(a) We all have plans.
(b) Examine them.
(c) Remember the only foundation, on which alone men can build with
safety. (The Pulpit Analyst.)
The builders of Babel
It is a melancholy fact that the evil of our nature tends
continually to increase, and assume a sad variety of forms. As men abide under
the power of evil they wax worse and worse. We have an instance of this
downward tendency in the builders of Babel. Since the flood the course of sin
may be thus traced;
1. In the form of sensual indulgence. The type was drunkenness, of
which Noah has given a sad example.
2. Disregard of parental authority. Ham.
3. In the form of ambition. Builders of Babel.
I. LOVE OF GLORY.
They would indulge the passion for fame at all costs.
1. The boldest schemes of ambition are generally the work of a few.
2. Such ambition involves the slavery of the many.
II. FALSE IDEAS OF
THE UNITY OF THE RACE.
1. They thought that it was external “City.” “Tower.”
2. They held that the individual must be sacrificed to the outward
grandeur of the State. This is the genius of all Babel-building, to make the
city supreme, and to sink the individual. All must be sacrificed to one idea:
the nation--State--Constitution. It is not within the province of worldly
ambition to recognize the sublime importance of the individual soul. Hence the
conflict between the policies of statecraft and the interests of true religion.
This exaltation of the State above the individual has--
III. PRESUMING TO
PLACE THEMSELVES ABOVE PROVIDENCE.
1. God interferes in all matters which threaten His government.
2. God often interferes effectually by unexpected means. These
foolish builders imagined that they were safe in the unity of their speech, yet
it was here that they were vanquished.
IV. A PREMATURE
ATTEMPT TO REALIZE THAT BETTER TIME COMING FOR HUMANITY. (T. H. Leale.)
Babel bricks
These emigrants to Shinar were evidently dissatisfied with a
patriarchal life, and desirous of founding a great monarchy.
I. AMBITION, or
the perversion of the divinely-implanted principle, “Excelsior.”
I
1. Cautions us to beware of our own hearts; and--
2. Counsels us to be careful of the Divine will.
II. ASSUMPTION, or
the presupposition of man’s independence of God. It--
1. Cautions us to remember our entire dependence; and--
2. Counsels us to regard the Divine preeminence as essential to our
happiness.
III. ASSOCIATION,
or the persuasion that human unity means human perpetuity. It--
1. Cautions us against forgetting that God must come into any scheme
after unity; and--
2. Counsels us about fulfilling the Divine ideal of unity in Him.
Lessons:
1. Moral towers of Babel (great or small) should be erected in God’s
name, and carried through in God’s strength.
2. Moral towers of Babel (great or small), if not so attempted and
accomplished, tend to dishonour God’s name, and to disown God’s strength.
3. Moral towers of Babel (great or small), thus dishonouring Him,
are sure, sooner or later, to be overthrown by God, who has all forces at His
command; and--
4. Moral towers of Babel (great or small) conceived in God’s name,
constructed by God’s strength, and contributing to God’s glory, are certain of
the Divine permission and permanence. (W. Adamson.)
Human labour
I. HUMAN LABOUR
ALWAYS DEVELOPS THE NATURE OF MAN.
1. The constructive element.
2. The ambitious element.
3. The social element.
4. The cooperative element.
II. HUMAN LABOUR
GENERALLY ILLUSTRATES THE PATIENCE OF HEAVEN.
1. Their enterprise from the beginning was rebellion against heaven.
2. They were allowed to go on almost to its final accomplishment.
III. HUMAN LABOUR
MUST ULTIMATELY MEET WITH THE JUST TREATMENT OF GOD.
1. He discloses its purpose.
2. He arrests its progress.
3. He frustrates its design. (Homilist.)
I. THAT
SELF-RENOWN IS AN OBJECT TOO LOW FOR MAN TO AIM AT.
The tower of Babel
1. Because he has duties to perform towards others.
2. Because man’s highest and best powers cannot be properly
developed by having this as the only object in view.
3. Because there is no true happiness in the pursuit, nor actual
attainment of the object.
II. THAT UNION
PRODUCES STRENGTH.
1. It concentrates the powers of many towards one object.
2. It is recognized in heaven.
3. The more Divine the union, the greater will be its reality and
strength.
III. THAT HUMAN
EFFORTS ARE FRUITLESS WHEN NOT IN HARMONY WITH THE DIVINE INTENTIONS.
1. A higher intelligence is opposed to them.
2. A greater power.
3. A purer love. They deserved to be destroyed, but were only
scattered.
4. This failure was--
1. In every undertaking, let us endeavour to know if it be according
to God’s will.
2. Let us have God’s glory as the sole object of life. (Homilist.)
Universal monarchy
But why, it may be asked, should it be the will of God to prevent
a universal monarchy, and to divide the inhabitants of the world into a number
of independent nations? This question opens a wide field for investigation.
Suffice it to say at present, such a state of things contains much mercy, both
to the world and to the Church. With respect to the world, if the whole earth
had continued under one government, that government would, of course,
considering what human nature is, have been exceedingly despotic and
oppressive. The division of the world into independent nations has also been a
great check on persecution, and so has operated in a way of mercy towards the
Church. If the whole world had been under one government, and that government
inimical to the gospel, there had been no place of refuge left upon the earth
for the faithful. From the whole we may infer two things--
1. The harmony of Divine revelation with all that we know of fact.
If all that man can be proved to have done towards the formation of any
language be confined to changing, combining, improving, and reducing it to a
grammatical form, there is the greatest probability, independent of the
authority of revelation, that languages themselves were originally the work of
God, as was that of the first man and woman.
2. The desirableness of the universal spread of Christ’s kingdom. We
may see in the reasons which render a universal government among men
incompatible with the liberty and safety of the world abundant cause to pray
for this, and for the union of all His subjects under Him. Here there is no
danger of tyranny or oppression, nor any need of those low motives of rivalship
to induce him to seek the well-being of his subjects. A union with Christ and
one another embraces the best interests of mankind. (A. Fuller.)
Lessons
1. Sinful apostates are active in drawing each other to sin.
2. Wickedness is studious for means to effect its ends.
3. No difficulties usually hinder sin from its undertakings.
4. It is but brick and slime wherewith wickedness builds (Genesis 11:3).
5. Wicked ones are much encouraging one another to evil.
6. Cities and towers, ornament and strength, are sinners’ trophies.
7. Sin’s structure would be as high and stately as heaven.
8. Sinners are ambitious of a name on earth.
9. Dispersion is the evil which sinners fear.
10. Sinners resolve to provide their own security against God’s
judgments by the works of their own hands (Genesis 11:4). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Right building
There are times in life when lucky ideas strike men; when there is
a kind of intellectual springtide in their nature; when men rise and say, “I
have got it! Go to, this is it!” And in the bright hours when such ideas strike
one the temptation is to be a little contemptuous in reference to dull men who
are never visited by conceptions so bright and original as we deem them. A man
has been in great perplexity, month after month, and suddenly he says, “Go to,
the solution is now before me; I see my way right out of this dark place”; and
he heightens his tone as the joy swells in his heart. That is right. We could
not do without intellectual birthdays; we could not always be carrying about a
dead, leaden brain, that never sees light or shouts victory. We like these
moments of inspiration to break in upon the dull monotony of such a lifetime as
ours. So it is perfectly right that men should express their new
conceptions--their new programme--and lay out a bold policy in a clear and
confident tone. But are all our ideas so very bright? When we see our way to
brick making, is it always in the right direction? When we set our mind upon
founding a city and building a tower the top of which shall rest against the
stars, is it right? You see that question of “right” comes in again and again,
and in proportion as a man wishes to live a true Divine life he will always
say, before going to his brick making and his city founding and his tower
building, “Now, is this right?” Many of us could have built great towers, only
we knew we should be building downwards if we set our hands to such work as has
often tempted us. Do not let us look coldly upon apparently unsuccessful men,
and say, “Look at us; we have built a great city and tower, and you, where are
you?--stretching in the dust and grovelling in nothing.” They could have built
quite as large a tower as ours; they could have been quite as far up in the
clouds as we are, only we had perhaps less conscience than they had. When we
saw a way to burning bricks, we burned them; and a way to establishing towers,
we founded them; and they, poor creatures, unsuccessful men, began to pray
about it, and to wonder if it was right, and to ask casuistical questions, and
to rack themselves upon conscience; and so they have done no building! And yet
they may have built. Who can tell? All buildings are not made of brick; all men
do not require to lay out brick fields, and burn clay, in order to build. It
may be found one day, when the final inspection takes place, that the man who
has built nothing visible has really built a palace for the residence of God.
It may be found, too, that some successful people have nothing but
bricks--nothing but bricks, bricks, bricks! Then it will be seen who the true
builders were. What I pause here to say is this: We may have bright ideas, we
may have (to us) new conceptions; there are, to our thinking, original ways of
doing things; now and again cunning plans of overcoming difficulties strike us.
Do I condemn this intellectual activity? No; I simply say, Let your intellect
and your conscience go together; do not be one-sided men; do not be living
altogether out of the head, be living out of your moral nature as well; and if
it be right, then build the tower with all industry and determination. Let it
be strong and lofty, and God shall come down upon your work and glorify it, and
claim it as His own. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Ambition
Bold men--men of vigorous mind, striking out something that is
very definite, and about which there could be no mistake. We, too, are doing
just what they did; we are following the god Ambition--the restless god
Ambition, who never sleeps, never pauses, never gives his devotees vacation,
but is always stirring them up to more and more furious desires. Do I condemn
ambition? Nothing of the kind. I praise ambition; I say to every young man who
may today accept me as his teacher, Be ambitious; build loftily; let your
aspirations be confined only by the limits which God Himself has set to human
power and human capability; but--but--that old question comes in again, Is it
right? Is it right? Our ambitions may be our temptations; our ambitions may be
stumbling blocks over which we fall into outer darkness; our ambitions may be
the cups out of which we drink some deadly intoxicant, poisoning the mind and
destroying the heart’s life. Therefore I pause again to ask, Is it right? Then,
too, we pronounce some men ambitious who are really not ambitious. All men do
not understand the word ambition. Ambition has been vulgarized, taken out
altogether from its refined and beautiful associations, and debased into
something that is intensely of the earth, earthy. I call men to intellectual
ambition; to spiritual ambition; to the ambition which says, “I count not
myself to have attained; this one thing I do, I press.” Alas! there are ten
thousand men in our city streets today who are “pressing”; but the question is,
Towards what do they press? The apostle says, “I press towards the mark for the
prize of my high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” That is better than saying,
“Let us build a tower whose top shall reach even unto heaven”; and yet it is
true tower building--it is palace building. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Bad advice soon taken
It must needs be that one man gave his counsel first, saying to
the rest, “Come, let us build,” etc. But when once it was broached not one man
allowed it, but even all full quickly yielded to it. Whereby we see, first, the
vileness of man, not only to devise that which is naught, but to set it full
greedily abroad when it is devised, and to labour to persuade others to embrace
and follow the same. Again, to consent to that which is wickedly devised of
others, and to make a particular conceit a general judgment, action, and work at
last. Great cause, therefore, that men’s lewd devices should be restrained from
being published, since both the deviser’s wish and man’s great corruption is so
prone to yield a wicked consent and following of the same. Caiaphas’s counsel,
when it once sounded of Christ’s death, was quickly hearkened unto, and from
that day forward consultation had together how they might accomplish the same.
Whosoever broached it first that the people should ask Barabbas and refuse
Jesus, it was soon received, liked, and followed of such ignorant spirits and
giddy heads. That a sort should combine together and kill the apostle had a
beginner, and how quickly pleased the plot such other bloody minds and spiteful
hearts! How soon embraced Lot’s younger daughter the counsel of the elder to do
so vile a thing! That unbrotherly conspiracy against Joseph was soon yielded
unto when once it was uttered. Do you remember the murmuring against Moses and
Aaron, in the Book of Numbers? How began it? Had it not a captain, then a
second, then a third, then a number? Once broached that Moses and Aaron took
too much upon them; that others were equal with them, and therefore should be
in like authority; that the people were wronged, and so forth--soon was it
liked, soon was it caught, soon was it prosecuted of proud minds, that would be
aloft, and knew not to obey. Conclude we, then, upon all those that sin, some
be wicked to broach a wickedness, and thousands weak to follow the same when
once they hear it; yea, though it be to build a tower against God. It never
was, nor ever shall be, either godly policy or Christian duty to suffer men’s
brains to broach what they list, and others to follow unquiet devices, hateful
to God and hurtful to His Church in a high degree. (Bishop Babington.)
The tower of Babel
In Babylonia there are at present the remains of three stupendous
ruins, each of which have been claimed by different travellers as occupying the
site of the tower of Babel. One of these especially has much to support its
claim. The temple of Belus was in all probability erected on the site of the
tower of Babel, so the arguments which settle the position of one of these
erections serve to fix the other. Rawlinson says of these particular
ruins:--“It is an oblong mass, composed chiefly of unbaked bricks, rising from
the plain to the height of one hundred and ten feet, and having at the top a
broad flat space with heaps of rubbish. The faces of the mound are about two
hundred yards in length, and thus agree with Herodotus’ estimate. Tunnels driven
through the structure show that it was formerly covered with a wall of baked
brick masonry: many such bricks are found loose, and bear the name of
Nebuchadnezzar.” The difficulty of identifying the site of the scriptural
Babylon arises chiefly from the fact that the materials of which it was built
have at various times been removed for the construction of the great cities
which have successively replaced it. Nebuchadnezzar either repaired Babylon, as
many suppose, or built it anew upon a neighbouring site with the remains of the
more ancient Babel. The kind of building which was erected, and known as the
tower of Babel, may be best understood by the description of the great temple
of Nebo at Borsippa, known to moderns as the Birs-Nimrud. It was a sort
of oblique pyramid, built in seven receding stages. “Upon a platform of crude
brick, raised a few feet above the level of the alluvial plain, was built of
burnt brick the first or basement stage--an exact square, two hundred and
seventy-two feet each way, and twenty-six feet in perpendicular height. Upon
this stage was erected a second, two hundred and thirty feet each way, and
likewise twenty-six feet high; which, however, was not placed exactly in the
middle of the first, but considerably nearer to the southwestern end, which
constituted the back of the building. The other stages are arranged
similarly--the third being one hundred and eighty-eight feet, and again
twenty-six feet high; the fourth one hundred and forty-six feet square and
fifteen feet high; the fifth one hundred and four feet square, and the same
height as the fourth; the sixth sixty-two feet square, and again the same
height; and the seventh twenty feet square, and once more the same height. On
the seventh stage there was probably placed the ark or tabernacle, which seems
to have been again fifteen feet high, and must have nearly, if not entirely,
covered the top of the seventh story. The entire original height, allowing
three feet for the platform, would thus have been one hundred and fifty-six feet,
or without the platform, one hundred and fifty-three feet. The whole formed a
sort of oblique pyramid, the gentler slope facing the N.E., and the steeper
inclining to the S.W. On the N.E. side was the grand entrance, and here stood
the vestibule, a separate building, the debris from which having joined
those from the temple itself, fill up the intermediate space, and very
remarkably prolong the round in this direction.” (Things Not Generally
Known.)
The materials used to build it
The materials generally used for the construction of Babylonian
buildings are here most faithfully described (Genesis 11:3). As in Egypt, the edifices
of Mesopotamia consisted of sun-dried, but often also burnt bricks, baked of
the purest clay, and sometimes mixed with chopped straw, which materially
enhances their compactness and hardness; these bricks were generally covered
with inscriptions, promising to prove of the greatest historical value. But
instead of mortar, the Babylonians used as a cement that celebrated asphalt or
bitumen, which is nowhere found in such excellence and abundance as in the
neighbourhood of Babylon. One of the most gifted of the modern explorers
declared the ruins of Birs-Nimroud a specimen of the perfection of Babylonian
masonry, and remarked, “that the cement by which the bricks were united is of
so tenacious a quality, that it is almost impossible to detach one from the
mass entire” (Layard, “Nineveh and Babylon,” p. 499). Nothing but the violence
of a fearful conflagration, the ravages of which are manifest in the ruins of
Birs-Nimroud, would have been able to annihilate a building which appeared to
be beyond the destructive power of time. (M. M.Kalisch, Ph. D.)
Babel
This, we may depend upon it, was no republic of builders; no
cooperative association of bricklayers and bricklayers’ labourers, bent on
immortalizing themselves by the work of their own hands. This early effort at
centralization, with a huge metropolis as its focus, sprang, we may be quite
sure, from the brain of some one ambitious potentate, and was baptized, from
the very first, in the blood and sweat and misery of toiling millions. That “Go
to, let us make brick, let us build us a city, let us make us a name,” is not
the language of voluntary association; but is the stately style, which emperors
affect. By this time we know only too well what it means--the cynical
indifference to human suffering, the wastefulness of human life, the utter
selfishness, the cruelty, the hardness of heart, masked under gilded forms. The
characteristic of all world empires--that which makes them world empires--is
that they lean upon might, and not upon right. Just in so far as they do this,
they are world empires. And, doing this, they are a defiance to the eternal
righteousness of God. And, being this, they are doomed to decay. In such world
empires there is no true cohesion. The force which unites is purely external.
The moment its pressure relaxes, the thing breaks up. In other words, man,
seeking to make himself as God, can offer no rest, no centre of unity, no
position of stable equilibrium, to his fellow men. He may be armed with
irresistible might. He may be statesman and general, as well as king or
emperor. By his very success he sows the seeds of decay. Collapse and
disintegration overtake his work, even in the very hour of its seeming triumph.
I remember visiting the tomb of the First Napoleon in Paris on one of the last
days of the June of 1870. You know it, or you have heard about it. It struck me
irresistibly, with all its accompaniments, as the symbol of just such a world
empire, as I have been speaking about tonight. Within three months from that
day, that empire--like its predecessor--had collapsed in blood and disaster.
Not he, who, being man, would make himself as God; but He, who being God, makes
Himself man; is the true centre of rest and union for a suffering and divided
humanity. (David J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Let us make us a name
Human greatness
1. A “name” is an important thing for a man.
2. All men make some kind of “name” for themselves.
3. Striving to “make a name” as the chief end of life is a grand
mistake. This is what the men in “the land of Shinar” were now doing. Men have
a natural desire for distinction; but what is the legitimate object? Is it to
appear great, or to be great? Reputation is one thing, character another. The
words of Christ, in Matthew 23:12, will enable us to discover
the right and wrong direction of this ambition.
I. A GREATNESS
THAT COMES TO HUMILIATION. “He that exalteth himself shall be abased.”
1. In the moral reflections of his own soul. Conscience can never be
satisfied by achievements the most brilliant, or possessions the most splendid,
where selfishness has been the spring of their attainment.
2. In the estimation of all Christly men. These men see no greatness
where there is not goodness.
3. In the retributions of Providence. There is a moral government
over us all, there is a Nemesis that tracks the steps of men.
II. A GREATNESS
THAT COMES FROM HUMILIATION. “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
1. In their own spirits. They master their passions, rise superior
to mere personal considerations, rule their own souls, and are greater than
they who take a city.
2. In the moral judgment of society. Just as a man makes himself of
no reputation and works from disinterested love--unostentatiously and with no
selfish motives--does he get enthroned in public sentiment.
3. In the friendship of God. (Homilist.)
Vainglory foolish
That we may get a name: see the madness of the world ever to
neglect heaven, and seek a name in earth, where nothing is firm, nothing
continueth, but fadeth away and perisheth as a thought. This madness the
prophet David mentioneth in his 49th Psalm, and laugheth at it, saying, “They
think their houses and their habitations shall continue,” etc.
Making a name
This is a disease that cleaves to us all, to “receive honour one
of another, and not to seek the honour which comes from God John 5:44). A rare man is he surely that
hath not some Babel of his own, whereon he bestows pains and cost, only to be
talked of. Hoc ego primus vidi, was Zabarelle’s ἐπινίκιον. Epicurus would have us believe that he was the first that ever
found out the truth of things. Palaemon gave out that all learning was born and
would die with him. Aratus, the astrologer, that he had numbered the stars and
written of them all. Archimedes, the mathematician, that if he had but where to
set his foot, he could move the earth out of its place. Herostratus burnt
Diana’s temple for a name. And Plato writes of Protagoras, that he vaunted
that, whereas he had lived sixty years, forty of them he had spent in
corrupting of youth. Tully tells us that Gracchus did all for popular applause,
and observes that those philosophers that have written of the contempt of
glory, have yet set their names to their own writings, which shows an itch
after that glory they persuaded others to despise. “These two things,” saith
Tully somewhere of himself, “I have to boast of, Optimarum atrium scientiam
rerum gloriam, my learned works, and noble acts.” Julius Caesar had his
picture set upon the globe of the world, with a sword in his right hand, a book
in his left, with this motto, En utroque Caesar. Vibius Rufus used the
chair wherein Caesar was wont to sit, and was slain; he also married Tully’s
widow, and boasted of them both, as if either for that seat he had been Caesar,
or for that wife an orator. When Maximus died in the last day of his
consulship, Caninius Rebulus petitioned Caesar for that part of the day that he
might be said to have been consul. So many of the popish clergy have with great
care and cost procured a cardinal’s hat, when they have lain a-dying, that they
might be entitled cardinals in their epitaph, as Erasmus writeth . . . And
Sextus Marius, being once offended with his neighbour, invited him to be his
guest for two days together. The first of those two days he pulled down his
neighbour’s farmhouse, the next he set it up again far bigger and better than
before. And all this for a name, that his neighbours might see, and say, what
hurt or good he could do them at his pleasure. (J. Trapp.)
End of worldly ambition
Look to the end of worldly ambition, and what is it? Take the four
greatest rulers, perhaps, that ever sat upon a throne. Alexander, when he had
so completely subdued the nations that he wept because he had no more to
conquer, at last set fire to a city and died in a sense of debauch. Hannibal,
who filled three bushels with the gold rings taken from the slaughtered
knights, died at last by poison administered by his own hand, unwept, and
unknown, in a foreign land. Caesar having conquered 800 cities, and dyed his
garments with the blood of one million of his foes, was stabbed by his best
friends, in the very place which had been the scene of his greatest triumph.
Napoleon, after being the scourge of Europe, and the desolator of his country,
died in banishment, conquered and captive. So truly “the expectation of the
wicked shall be cut off.” (G. S. Bowes.)
Verse 5
The Lord came down to see
God’s visitation
1.
Men’s
apostasy and proud attempts are knit together with God’s visitation.
2. God is below when men think He hath forsaken the earth, and is
near to visit the wickedness of man.
3. God’s descent is for vengeance sometimes upon sinners.
4. God doth visit the beauty and strength of wickedness.
5. The apostate sons of Adam may build their fabrics to prevent
God’s judgments.
6. Jehovah will mark for vengeance the sons of wickedness and
weakness in all their buildings against Him (Genesis 11:5). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Lessons
1. God speaks, as well as
marks, the attempts of the ungodly to their reproach and confusion.
2. God points out the greatest advantages of violent workers of
iniquity to scorn.
3. Unity of minds, resolutions, and communications, are the greatest
props to wicked undertakers.
4. Violent workers of iniquity presume to finish as well as begin:
that nothing shall be withheld from them.
5. Proud and presumptuous undertakings of men are a scorn and
derision to God (Genesis 11:6). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
God’s inspection
Almighty God Himself came down to see what the children of men
were doing, and when He comes down (a phrase which is used to accommodate
Himself to our methods of expression), nothing can escape the penetration of
His eye. He looks at our day books, ledgers, and other memorandum books, to see
how we are building the tower of our life; He visits our country residences and
palatial buildings for the purpose of trying their foundations; He looks into
all the building of our fortune, that He may see whether our gains have been
honestly secured. Terrible is the day for the bad man on which Almighty God
lays His great hand--the hand on which the winds are hidden, the great palm in
which all the stars of the heaven are gathered--upon the tower which is being
built. He will shake it, and, if the foundation is bad, the whole
superstructure will be thrown down to the dust! When men build their towers
under the conviction that every stone of them will be tried by Divine
power--when they build their cities, and erect their towers, and extend their
properties, under the assurance that not one thing of all the things that their
hands are doing will escape the test of God’s Spirit--we may expect life to be
built upon a true foundation, and according to a righteous plan. What we have
to ponder is this most certain fact, that God will come down to see our work,
and that there is no possibility of concealing from Him any incorrectness of
plan or any deficiency of service. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verse 9
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did
there confound the language of all the earth
God causing confusion in order to restore peace
I.
GOD
IS NOT THE AUTHOR OF CONFUSION, BUT OF PEACE. Yet once, in His wise compassion,
He made confusion in order to prevent it; He destroyed peace, that in the end
He might restore it.
II. God, who hath
made of one blood all nations of men, did, by that exercise of His power, THE
BEST THING THAT COULD BE DONE TO CHECK AND RETARD THE RAPID GROWTH OF EVIL AND
TO PREPARE THE MEANS BY WHICH MAN MIGHT BE BROUGHT BACK TO OBEDIENCE. While
there was but one tongue, men easily corrupted each other; when there were
many, evil communications were greatly hindered. God marred the Babel builders’
work, but it was in order to mar their wickedness; and meanwhile He had His own
gracious designs for a remedy. Pentecost. (F. E. Paget, M. A.)
Divine order in confusion
1. The confusion of tongues was not at random. It was a systematic
distribution of languages for the purpose of a systematic distribution of man
in emigration. The dispersion was orderly, the difference of tongue
corresponding to the differences of race. By these were the Gentiles divided in
their lands, everyone after his tongue, after their families in their nations.
2. From the earliest period there has been manifested, in the
history of scientific progress, an invincible faith among scientific men that
the facts of nature are capable of being arranged in conformity with laws of
geometry and algebra. In other words, all have a profound conviction of the
existence of what Argyll calls “the reign of law,” i.e., order in the
midst of apparent confusion and aimlessness.
3. There is no illogical course in arguing that those who believe in
God as the Creator of order in nature have a right to conclude that He
preserves the same order in history. The cataclysms in nature have an order and
object; why not then the catastrophes of history. There is Divine order in the
midst of historical confusion, as palpable and manifest as in that of science.
Looking back upon the pathway which history has trodden, we can perceive traces
of design--powerful evidences of an infinite aim--order in the midst of
confusion. Over the wheels of history, as over the wheels in Ezekiel’s sublime
vision, is the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. (W.
Adamson.)
The scattered builders
I. THE AMBITIOUS
BUILDERS.
1. Worldly wisdom.
2. Desire for worldly power.
3. Worldly pride.
II. THE SUPREME
RULER.
1. God looked.
2. God intervened.
3. God governed. So it is always.
God restrains the power of evil, and makes it serve Him (Psalms 76:10). LEARN:
1. Not to be self-willed, proud, ambitious.
2. To submit to God’s will, and trust always in His wisdom and love.
(W. S. Smith, B. D.)
The tower of Babel
I. THE BUILDERS.
1. Numerous. For one hundred years the posterity of Noah had
continued to increase.
2. Of one speech. Hence present variety of language corroborative of
the dispersion; otherwise there must have been many sources of the human race.
3. Disobedient. Had been expressly commanded to “replenish,” i.e.
refill, the earth. Instead of obeying God, they lived together. Thus, too, the
population of the world was retarded. Men increase more rapidly in new
countries.
4. United in rebellion.
II. THE BUILDING.
1. Purpose. Not to escape another flood, for not only had they the
promise, but very few could in such a case escape that way. Probably it was to
serve some idolatrous purpose, and be a landmark around which they could unite
as one people and nation.
2. Material.
3. Character. Lofty. Eastern buildings not generally marked by
loftiness. This, a grand and solitary exception.
III. THE
INTERRUPTION.
1. The person. “God,” whom they thought least of, and practically
defied.
2. The mode. “Confound their language.”
IV. THE
CONSEQUENCES.
1. The building abandoned. If some speaking one tongue had
continued, the jealousy of the rest would have hindered. But so strange an
event would confound them as well as their speech.
2. They separated. Into how many tribes or nations we know not. The
most eminent philologists (as Bunsen, etc.) find three original stocks, which
some even call the Semitic, Japhetic, and Hamitic.
3. The earth was more widely peopled. Thus was the Divine will
enforced. But had this been obeyed, without the need of resorting to this
compulsory method, how much more easily had missionary efforts, and commercial
enterprises, etc., now been carried out. Thus the world is this day suffering
through the sin of these builders of old. LEARN:
I. The sin and
folly of disobeying God.
II. The ease with
which God can punish sin.
III. The
far-reaching consequence of sin.
IV. No confusion
of tongues in heaven. All sing the one new song. (J. C. Gray.)
Lessons
1. How vain and disastrous it
is for men to contend against God; they cannot effectually resist Him; they can
only destroy themselves. Especially if their contention is against any of the
plans and arrangements connected with His eternal covenant--if the work which
they are opposing, or the providential dispensation against which they are
rebelling, has a direct bearing on His glorious design for the redemption of
the world, and the salvation of souls,--if they are labouring to shut out
Christ, or what is Christ’s, from His own domains, from hearts and homes that
should be His,--how idly and madly do they kick against the pricks!
2. How wise it is, and how blessed, to acquiesce in God’s allotment of
the good things of life, and in His manner of bringing His purposes of love to
pass! The blessed Lord is the God of Shem;--but Shem suffers wrong, and has to
exercise long patience before deliverance comes. Still it is enough that
Jehovah is his God; let him not be careful or anxious. “Seek ye first the
kingdom of heaven, and all other things shall be added unto you.”
3. In regard to the duty and the destiny of nations, the purpose of
God is here revealed.
The dispersion at Babel
I. LET US INQUIRE
WHO WERE DISPERSED OVER THE FACE OF THE EARTH AT THE DESTRUCTION OF BABEL. Who
were those that lived on the plains of Shinar, built the tower of Babel, and
were scattered over all the earth? It is evident they could not be the whole of
mankind; for they had before been sent to the various places of their Divine
destination. Some had gone to one quarter of the world, and some to another.
Who, then, could the builders of Babel be that, after the general dispersion of
mankind, were scattered over the earth? The Scripture history will inform us
upon this subject. They were the sons of Ham; for the sacred historian tells
us, “The sons of Ham were Cush, and Misraim, and Phut, and Canaan. And the sons
of Cush: Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha; and the sons
of Raamab, Sheba and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one
in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: whereof it is said, Even
as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom
was Babel.” But how came Nimrod the son of Ham, and his posterity, at Babylon,
where Babel was built? This portion of the earth was allotted to Shem; and
Nimrod with all the posterity of Ham was appointed to go to Africa. What right,
then, had Nimrod, or any of the sons of Ham, to take possession of the plains
of Babylon? Undoubtedly they had no right at all. But this is the Scripture
account of the event. “And every region was of one language, and of one speech.
And it came to pass in the journeying of the people from the east, that they
found a plain in the land of Shinar.” The people, then, who journeyed from the
east were not all the people of the earth, but only the posterity of Ham, and
especially Nimrod and his posterity. This is a very rational account. But it is
absurd to suppose that the posterity of Noah, who consisted of a hundred and
twenty or a hundred and thirty thousand, should all move in a body from the
rich and fertile country around Mount Ararat, where they first settled after
the flood, without any Divine direction or natural necessity. Hence it is
natural to conclude that the people who journeyed from the east to the plain of
Shinar were Nimrod and his posterity. Especially when we reflect it is
expressly said that “the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom was Babel.” But how came
Nimrod to pitch upon the plain of Shinar after the general dispersion of
mankind, and after he was directed to go to Africa, a country far distant from
Babylon? To this I would answer, There seems to be no account given of his conduct
but the following. When the posterity of Shem and Japheth obeyed the Divine
direction to separate and go to the places allotted them, the posterity of Ham,
or at least Nimrod and his descendants, refused to obey the Divine command. In
open defiance to God they moved from the east and came to the pleasant land of
Babylon, and there by force of arms took the plain of Shinar out of the hands
of the children of Shem. They determined not to disperse, as God had required,
and as the other branches of Noah’s family had done. This shows that they built
Babel in rebellion against God, and that God had just cause to come down and
defeat their impious design by confounding their language.
II. I now proceed
TO INQUIRE WHAT WERE THE MOST REMARKABLE CONSEQUENCES OF THE DISPERSION OF THE
CHILDREN OF HAM AT THE DESTRUCTION OF BABEL AND THE CONFUSION OF LANGUAGE.
1. That their dispersion was productive of war. They waged the first
war after the flood in taking possession of Babylon. And after they were driven
from thence they maintained their rebellious and warlike spirit. Their course
was everywhere marked with violence and cruelty.
2. This knowing and powerful people carried the arts and sciences
with them wherever they went. In these they excelled all other people. And
notwithstanding their tyranny and cruelty, they did much to spread light and
knowledge among the inhabitants of the earth. Of this they have left
astonishing monuments in almost all parts of the world.
3. That this learned and ingenious people were gross idolaters, and
spread idolatry through all nations whom they subdued and among whom they
lived. They were the most corrupt and wicked part of Noah’s family.
IMPROVEMENT.
1. This subject gives us reason to think that true religion
prevailed and flourished for many years after the flood. Everything was suited
to produce this happy effect. Neither Noah nor his family could ever forget the
solemn, instructive, and affecting scenes through which they had passed, nor
erase from their minds the deep impressions those scenes had made upon them.
They would naturally relate to their children what they had seen, and heard,
and felt during the awful period of the flood, and they again would relate the
same things from one generation to another.
2. We learn from the Scripture history of mankind which we have been
considering, that infidelity has been the principal source of the wars and
fightings that have deluged the world in blood.
3. It appears from what has been said that all false religion is
only a corruption of the true.
4. It appears from what has been said how much easier it is to
spread any false religion in the world than the true religion.
5. It is a strong evidence in favour of the religion contained in
the Bible that it has been so long preserved in the world, notwithstanding all
mankind could do to destroy it.
6. We learn from what has been said, the deplorable state in which
mankind in general have been involved for ages and are still involved. It is
indeed a dark mystery that God has suffered them so long to walk in their own
way without using such effectual means to enlighten and save them as He always
has had power to use. But we have good reason to believe that He will yet bring
light out of their darkness, holiness out of their blindness, and happiness out
of their misery.
7. This subject shows the great reason that Christians have to
expect, desire, and pray for a better state of things in the world. (N.
Emmons, D. D.)
Lessons
1. God’s execution of
vengeance falleth soon after His resolution.
2. Jehovah will be the executioner of His own sentence on the
wicked.
3. It is God’s work to set confederates against each other who
conspire against Him.
4. The place of sin may sometimes prove the place of vengeance.
5. Sinners’ consultations to strengthen themselves in one place may
end in a universal dispersion.
6. The earth is overspread with sinners against God by His judgment
taken on them.
7. The strongest councils of sin will be frustrated by God.
8. High resolutions of sinners fall short of all their ends (Genesis 11:8). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Good architecture
Good architecture is the work of good and believing men. (J.
Ruskin.)
God’s infinite resources for punishing sinners
This brings before us a hint of the unknown resources of God, in
the matter of punishing those who disobey His will. Who could have thought of
this method of scattering the builders of the city? God does not send a fire
upon the builders; no terrible plague poisons the air; yet in an instant each
workman is at a loss to understand the other, and each considers all the rest
as but raving maniacs! Imagine the bewildering and painful scene! Men who have
been working by each other’s side days and weeks are instantly conscious of
inability to understand one another’s speech! New sounds, new accents, new
words, but not a ray of intelligence in all! “It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hand of the living God.” God has innumerable ways of showing His displeasure
at human folly and human crime. A man may be pursuing a course of prosperity in
which he is ignoring all that is moral and Divine, and men may be regarding him
as the very model of success; yet, in an instant, Almighty God may blow upon
his brain, and the man may sit down in a defeat which can never be reversed.
God is not confined to one method of punishment. He touches a man’s bones, and
they melt; He breathes upon a man’s brain, and henceforth he is not able to
think. He comes in at night time and shakes the foundations of man’s most
trusted towers, and in the morning there is nought but a heap of ruins. He
disorganizes men’s memories, and in an instant they confuse all the
recollections of their lifetime. He touches man’s tongue, and the fluent speaker
becomes a stammerer. He breaks the staff in twain, and he who was thus relying
upon it is thrown down in utter helplessness. We know but little of what God
means when He says “Heaven”; that word gives us but a dim hint of the infinite
light and blessedness and triumph which are in reserve for the good. We have
but a poor conception of what God means when He says “Hell”; that word is but a
flickering spark compared with the infinite distress, and endless ruin and
torment, which must befall every man who defies his Maker. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Confusion of language
Speaking of this confusion of language, may I not be permitted to
inquire whether even in our own English tongue there is not today very serious
confusion? Do men really mean words to be accepted in their plain common sense?
Does not the acute man often tell his untrained client what he intends to do in
language which has double meanings? Do we not sometimes utter the words that
have one meaning to the world and another meaning to our own hearts? Yea does
not always mean yea, nor does nay always mean nay; men sign papers with mental
reservations; men utter words in their common meaning, and to themselves they
interpret these words with secret significations. The same words do not mean
the same thing under all circumstances and as spoken by different speakers.
When a poor man says “rich,” he means one thing; when a millionaire says
“rich,” he means something very different. Let us consider that there is
morality even in the use of language. Let no man consider himself at liberty to
trifle with the meaning of words. Language is the medium of intercourse between
man and man, and on the interpretation of words great results depend. It
behoves us, therefore, who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, so to speak
as to leave ourselves without the painful reflection of having taken refuge in
ambiguous expressions for the sake of saving ourselves from unpleasant results.
It will be a sign that God is really with us as a nation, when a pure language
is restored unto us--when man can trust the word of man, and depend with entire
confidence upon the honour of his neighbour. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The confusion of tongues
The late Bishop Selwyn devoted a great part of his time to
visiting the Melanesian Isles, and he thus writes home about the difficulty of
languages: “Nothing but a special interposition of the Divine power could have
produced such a confusion of tongues as we find here. In islands not larger
than the Isle of Wight we find dialects so distinct that the inhabitants of the
various districts hold no communication one with another.” (Old Testament
Anecdotes.)
No architect
The late Mr. Alexander, the eminent architect, was under cross
examination at Maidstone by Serjeant, afterwards Baron, Garrow, who wished to
detract from the weight of his testimony, and, after asking him what was his
name, he proceeded: “You are a builder?” “No, sir, I am an architect.” “They
are much the same.” “I beg your pardon, sir; I cannot admit that. I consider
them to be totally different.” “Oh, indeed l Perhaps you will state wherein the
difference consists?” “An architect, sir, conceives the design, prepares the
plan, draws out the specifications--in short, supplies the mind; the builder is
merely the bricklayer or the carpenter. The builder is the machine; the
architect the power that puts it together and sets it going.” “Oh, very well,
Mr. Architect, that will do. And now, after your very ingenious distinction
without a difference, perhaps you can inform the court who was the architect of
the Tower of Babel?” The reply, for promptness and wit, is not to be rivalled
in the history of rejoinder:--“There was no architect, sir, and hence the
confusion.” (Old Testament Anecdotes.)
Verses 10-26
These are the generations of Shem
The generations of Shem
I.
THE
LINE IN WHICH THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD WAS PRESERVED.
II. THE DIRECTION
OF THE STREAM OF HISTORY TOWARDS THE MESSIAH. “God calmly and resolutely
proceeds with His purpose of mercy. In the accomplishment of this eternal
purpose He moves with all the solemn grandeur of long suffering patience. One
day is with Him as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Out of
Adam’s three sons He selects one to be the progenitor of the seed of the woman.
Out of Noah’s three sons He again selects one. And now out of Terah’s three is
one to be selected. Among the children of this one He will choose a second one,
and among his a third one before He reaches the holy family. Doubtless this
gradual mode of proceeding is in keeping with the hereditary training of the
holy nation, and the due adjustment of the Divine measures for at length
bringing the fulness of the Gentiles in the covenant of everlasting peace.”
III. THE GRADUAL,
NARROWING OF HUMAN LIFE. “In the manifold weakenings of the highest life
endurance, in the genealogy of them, there are, nevertheless, distinctly
observable a number of abrupt breaks--
1. From Shem to Arphaxad, or from 600 years to 438;
2. From Eber to Peleg, or from 464 years to 239.
3. From Serug to Nahor, or from 230 years to 148; beyond which last,
again, there extend the lives of Terah, with his 205, and of Abraham, with his
175 years. Farther on we have Isaac with 180 years, Jacob 147, and Joseph 110.
So gradually does the human term of life approach the limit set by the Psalmist
(Psalms 90:10). Moses reached the age of
120 years. The deadly efficacy goes on still in the bodily sphere, although the
counter working of salvation has commenced in the spiritual.” (T. H. Leale.)
Post-diluvial genealogy
The general title is expressed thus, “These are the generations of
Shem.” Of these Moses was speaking (chap. 10), so far as Peleg, whose
name was given him upon the occasion of dividing the earth; by way of
parenthesis, he includes the history and cause of this earth’s division, in the
former part of this chapter. He now returns to draw up the line full unto
Abram, about which this title is set in the front. Consider the use of all
these mentioned in the title.
1. To point where the Church of God was after the flood.
2. To show God’s providence in singling out some generations in the
world for His Church, these and not others.
3. To make known to us the state of the Church either for truth or
for corruption at this time.
4. To continue to us the right chronology of the world, not for
speculation only, but for pious practice to us, upon whom the ends of the world
are come.
5. To make us better understand some passages of the prophets
mentioning these persons or their conditions.
6. To show us the true line of Christ, and to confirm the New
Testament given by Him. Every generation in the Church from the flood is but to
bring Christ nearer. (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Race of man
The human race may be compared to an immense temple ruined, but
now rebuilding, the numerous compartments of which represent the several
nations of the earth. True, the different portions of the edifice present great
anomalies; but yet the foundation and the cornerstone are the same. All spring
from the same level, and all should be directed to the same end. The walls of
the building have been thrown down, and the stones scattered by a great
earthquake; yet a mighty Architect has appeared, and His powerful hand is
gradually raising the temple wails. The only difference between one side of the
edifice and the other is, that here the restoration is somewhat further
advanced, while there it is less forward. Alas! some places are still overgrown
with thorns, where not a single stone appears. Yet the great Architect may one
day look down on these desolate spots, and there the building may suddenly and
rapidly spring up, reaching the summit long before those lofty walls which seem
to have outgrown the others, but which are still standing half-raised and
incomplete. “The last shall be first.” (Merle D’Aubigne.)
Lessons
1. God’s providence hath
pointed out His Church and recorded its line, after as before the flood; herein
helping the faith of following ages.
2. God chooseth what generations and families He pleaseth to pitch
His Church in them.
3. A family God may choose out of the world to set His name upon
them, when the world is passed by; a few or little remnant God reserveth.
4. Every generation in the Church from the flood is but to bring
Christ nearer.
5. Times are appointed for the birth of everyone in the Church for
His work (Genesis 11:10).
6. Length of days, etc., God giveth to His chief witnesses, as Shem
was to Isaac’s days; much work he had to do in that compass of time.
7. The eminentest in the Church, may have many children degenerate
from it. More care should be used to keep them closer to God (Genesis 11:11). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor,
and Haran
The dawn of Abram’s history
Here we have the commencement of the sixth document, indicated by
the usual preface, “These are the generations.
” This portion is intended to bring Abram before us, and therefore goes to the
roots of his history, showing us from what a source so eminent an example of
righteousness sprang. The history is brief, but it may be considered as a
condensed outline of Abraham’s life. Here we find him--
I. POSSESSED OF
GREAT MORAL COURAGE. Terah, the father of Abram, was an idolator (Joshua 24:2). Both himself and his
children were ignorant of the true object of worship, or if they had any knowledge
of this, they did not retain that knowledge, but suffered themselves to be led
away by the impiety around them. Such is the hole of the pit from whence this
sublime character was digged.
II. UNDER THE
SHADOW OF FUTURE TRIAL (Genesis 11:30). (T. H. Leale.)
Children dying before their parents
I. THAT HUMAN
HAPPINESS IS NOT TO BE FOUND IN THE DEAREST OBJECTS OF NATURAL AFFECTION.
II. THAT THE
NATURAL OBJECTS OF HUMAN CONFIDENCE ARE NOT SUFFICIENT TO SUSTAIN US.
III. THAT CHILDREN
SHOULD BE EDUCATED FOR THE SAKE OF THEIR NATURES RATHER THAN WITH A VIEW TO
THEIR CALLING IN LIFE.
IV. THAT
PREPARATION FOR ETERNITY IS AS URGENT FOR THE YOUNG AS FOR THE OLD. (Homilist.)
Death in the prime of life
I. DIVINE
PROVIDENCE SO ORDERS DEATH THAT HUMAN CALCULATION CANNOT BE A FACTOR IN LIFE.
1. Youth is no security.
2. Health is no protection.
3. The order of nature is set at defiance.
4. No reliance can be placed on the distinctions of society--on the
law of heredity, on favourable conditions.
II. GOD’S DESIGN
IN ALL THIS IS TO TEACH MANKIND, from the cradle to the grave, THE UNCERTAINTY
OF LIFE. Death is ever in our path. (The Homiletic Review.)
Death in the prime of life
I. FACTS.
1. Death is no respecter of persons.
2. No respecter of age.
3. No respecter of condition.
4. No respecter of character.
II. LESSONS:
1. To fully understand and accept these facts, and shape life by
them.
2. To make our salvation the first and main duty of life.
3. In whatever state, condition, or period of life we are, to risk
nothing on the contingent of living. (The Homiletic Review.)
Third age--patriarchal era
I. God trained
him by separation; by a series of separations. This is the key thought of
Abraham’s life. We are accustomed to consider faith as the key to Abraham’s
life. Certainly it is; but did not his faith manifest itself in just this, that
he was willing to separate himself from all for the Lord’s sake?
1. You find, him first called of God to leave his country and his
father’s house.
2. The second separation is from his father Terah.
3. The next separation is from Canaan itself as a home.
4. Fourthly, separation from Egypt.
5. The next thing we read of is his separation from Lot.
6. After separation from Lot, comes separation from Ishmael.
7. Passing over what may be called Abraham’s separation from
himself, in the twentieth chapter, we come to his separation from Isaac.
8. The next thing we learn of Abraham is his separation from Sarah.
“And it came to pass after all these things that Sarah died.”
9. Then, finally, we find Abraham separated from all.
In Genesis 25:5, we are told that “Abraham
gave all that he had unto Isaac.” Abraham had been a rich man, but his heart
had not been set on his riches, as was evident whenever questions of property
came up.
II. This leads us
to the second great subject: the gospel unto which Abraham was separated--the
blessing of Abraham--the “Abrahamie covenant” of theology. It is, as already
remarked, the same old covenant of grace, plus the idea of separation and
consequent restriction. And here, as we are entering upon this period of
restriction, this narrowing of the channel of blessing to the line of a single
family first, and a single nation afterward, it is important for us to remember
three things: In the first place this policy of restriction was not adopted
until the offer of mercy had been thrice made to all mankind, and thrice
rejected. In the second place, this restriction of the blessings of grace to a
single family and a single nation was for the sake of all. It was the only way
by which the blessing could be secured finally to all. Abraham was called, not
for his own sake, nor for his descendants’ sake only, but for the world’s
sake--“In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3); and again (Genesis 22:18): “In thy seed shall all
the nations of the earth be blessed.” There is no real narrowing. It is still,
“God so loved the world.” In the third place, even though in the meantime the
channel must be narrowed to a single family and nation, “whosoever will” may
come. The door is open all the while. “The sons of the stranger” have simply to
leave their country and their family, and come and join themselves to the
family of Abraham, and to the nation of the Jew, and they are made welcome. (J.
M.Gibson, D. D.)
Setting out, but stopping short of the promised land
How many are there who set out on the way to Canaan, but never
reach that land of promise--who run well for a time, but are afterwards
hindered! In the present life they obtain rest, in peace with God, in the
exercise of the grace He ministers, and in a conscious sense of His
approbation; and these first fruits of the Spirit are the earnest of the rich,
everlasting harvest. Those only who enter by faith into the land of promise
here shall be admitted into the Canaan above. But how many are there who seem
to set out well, and even to make some progress, and yet die before they gain
that happy reversion!
I. We ask, HOW
FAR MEN MAY GO IN THE WAY TO CANAAN, AND YET, LIKE TERAH, DIE IN HARAN? in
other words, How far they may proceed in the ways of religion, yet fall short
of the kingdom of grace and glory?
1. We may be visited with many convictions, and even with great
terrors, and yet fall short of a state of grace. Does conscience admonish you
that you have been neglecting your duty to your God and your Saviour--your
highest duties, your first interests, even the interests of your immortal
souls? Does the fear of futurity sometimes visit you, urging you to say, “What
must I do?” It may be well--it shall be well, if those alarms impel you to the
Saviour. But rest not in convictions; for if these be the whole extent of your
experience, you are still in Haran, separated by a wide boundary from the land
of promise, the spiritual Canaan: and if you die in your present state, you are
excluded from the Canaan that is above.
2. We may be conscious of tender religious emotions--sorrow, desire,
joy--and yet fall short of real grace. Not only may the conscience beconvinced,
but the heart may be in some measure softened, and yet remain unconverted; for
it is “deceitful above all things.”
3. We may form many good resolutions, and yet be dwelling in Haran.
Who is there that has not often formed these? In a season of conviction, in an
hour of compunction, in a day of trial and adversity, we resolve to apply to
the things that belong to our peace, to attend to the warnings of the word and
providence of God, and to seek after that portion that is satisfying and
abiding. But alas! the conviction wears off, the trial passes by, the danger is
averted; and we forget all our purposes and resolutions. Or perhaps we set
about fulfilling them, and adhere to them for a time; but, trusting in our own
strength, we are overcome and brought again under the power of the enemy. What
avail an army of good resolutions, unaccompanied by prayer, and unsupported by
grace, against the subtlety and power of the enemy of souls? “The way to hell,”
it has been emphatically said, “is paved with good resolutions.”
4. We may actually enter on the work of reformation, and proceed a
certain length in it, and yet fall short. Herod not only feared John, but “did
many things.” Thus are men often induced to abstain from particular
transgressions, to exercise some degree of self-denial, to address themselves
to various duties--things in themselves, no doubt, promising and right, but
being done only from temporary impulse, or from selfish and slavish motives,
consistent still with an unregenerate state, are usually as transient in their
duration as defective in their principle. These facts are affecting, and even
alarming. You are ready to say, If all the attainments you have mentioned are
ineffective, what is there that will avail? My brethren, nothing will avail
without a change of heart--“a new heart” must be given us, “a new spirit” put
within us.
II. We proceed to
ask, WHAT ARE THE OBSTACLES THAT INTERRUPT THE PROGRESS OF THOSE WHO SEEM TO
SET OUT IN THE WAY TO CANAAN?
1. Here the analogy of a journey leads us to mention, first, sloth,
spiritual sloth. Like a paralysis extending over our whole frame, it completely
unfits us for prosecuting our journey.
2. We mention, as a second obstacle, the love of the world; a
principle that entangles and enchains--that perverts the heart, and turns the
feet out of the right path.
3. In fine, the grand obstacle is, an inward aversion to the ways of
God, a dislike of serious religion.
III. We inquire,
WHAT IS THE STATE AND PROSPECT OF THOSE WHO STOP SHORT OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD? Surely
it may well awaken both sorrow and fear. Do you not lament the fate of a
promising youth who, in the near prospect of succeeding to a large estate, is
cut off by the hand of death? Do you not mourn when any object, exceedingly
desirable, seems just ready to be attained, and is then unexpectedly snatched
from us and lost forever? How deplorable! to have gone so far in the way to
Canaan and yet to come short, to have approached so near the promised land, yet
never to enter; to come to the gate of heaven, and to be cast down into hell!
1. Consider; those who stop short of the kingdom lose the benefit of
all they have felt and done in the things of religion.
2. Nay, further, all that they have felt and done in religion will
really serve to aggravate their guilt and imbitter their disappointment.
3. Once more; the conduct of such persons brings peculiar reproach
upon religion. For they convey to others an injurious conception of it; they
represent it as a system of restraints, of difficulties, and of dangers,
without adequate reward. And now, in concluding, I address, first, those who
have not yet set out on the way to Canaan--I intend careless sinners, who
continue to this day, without fear or concern, in the broad way that leads to
destruction. Has God no claims upon you? Has Christ no right to your regard?
Has eternity no demands on your attention? Even in you there is a conscience
that will speak if you will give it a hearing, and if not here, yet assuredly
hereafter. Be persuaded to avert its overwhelming reproaches, yea, the more
overwhelming frown of Him who is greater than conscience, by now making peace
with Him through Jesus Christ. Secondly, I address those who have professedly
set out on the way to Canaan--I mean those who profess that they have given
themselves to Christ, to be saved and to be governed by Him. Remember, my
beloved friends, you must “endure to the end,” if you would be saved. If a man
enter the army, and follow his regiment a few marches, and then desert to the
enemy, is he not accounted a traitor and a rebel? Such will your character be,
if, having professed to give yourselves to Christ, you forsake Him and return
to the world. (H. Gray, D. D.)
Stopping short
The simple fact, “Terah died in Harsh,” stands in the Scriptures
as a monument, like the pillar of salt which uttered its warning to every
passer by, “Remember Lot’s wife.” It exhibits an old man, after his many years
spent in idolatry and ignorance, attempting in a late obedience to Divine
commands to remove from his native condition and home, to the land of promise;
but wasting in procrastination the time for his journey, and indolently staying
upon the road over which he was required to pass to gain the end placed before
his view; and finding all his efforts and plans to accomplish his purpose, to
prove unavailing for his good. He never attained the inheritance for which he
set out so late, and which he pursued so carelessly. Has this fact then no
practical connection with ourselves? Does it not exhibit a striking illustration
of the folly and danger of postponing until old age, our own commanded journey
to the land of promise?
I. Let us
consider THE WORK WHICH GOD REQUIRES SINFUL MAN TO UNDERTAKE. The call of
Abraham from his country and home is frequently employed to illustrate the
great duty which is required of every sinful man. Like him, everyone is
commanded in the gospel to attain and exercise a simple controlling faith in
the Divine promises; to follow in this spirit of faith the peculiar commands of
God the Saviour; to go out, in its reliance upon Him, from a state of
selfishness and idolatry, man’s natural condition, to seek the better and
heavenly country which is revealed in the gospel, and offered in Christ Jesus,
to every believing soul. Such an exercise of faith developing itself in full
and permanent obedience to the Divine commands, is the work which God requires
of all who hear the gospel. But when is this great work to be undertaken? When
shall man begin to subdue his rebellious heart into reconciliation to the will
of God? May he select his own time for the work? Surely not. The Scriptures
never intimate a moment beyond the time in which the command is actually given,
as the time for man’s obedience. The morrow is not given to man. “Now,”
“today,” are the Divine designations of the proper time for man’s submission.
Whenever God speaks, it is that His will may be done at once. He who rejects
and disobeys the commands of God in his youth, is exceedingly unlikely to find
the opportunity or the disposition to obey in his subsequent years.
II. Let us
consider THE COURSE WHICH MEN GENERALLY PURSUE IN REFERENCE TO THIS IMPORTANT
MATTER. Do they, or do they not, generally obey at once? Do they, with Abraham,
arise and go? or do they more commonly with Terah, procrastinate the enterprise
until it is too late to accomplish it at all? Some few accept with gratitude
the blessed invitations of the Saviour, and unite themselves unto Him, in a
perpetual covenant, never to be forgotten. But what is the course pursued by
the great majority of mankind? Do they not altogether drive away the
convictions of this early period? They refuse to yield their hearts and
characters, to be thus subjected by the Holy Spirit to the service of God. They
bargain with their consciences, in order to silence their awakened demands,
that at some future period they will attend to the duty required of them. Thus
most frequently, they live and die in their chosen idolatry and guilt; always
hearing the command, “arise and go,” and always determining that they will obey
it; but never putting their resolution into effect. Like Torah, they die in
Haran; they perish amidst unfulfilled vows and attempts of obedience to God,
and under the guilt and burden of actual rebellion against Him.
III. Let us trace
THE USUAL RESULT OF THIS COURSE OF PROCRASTINATION. It will be but tracing the
history and experience of the great proportion of mankind. Twenty years of the
sinner’s life go by. They are the most important, and in most cases the
deciding period of his existence, in reference to his eternal welfare. But
their close finds him still unrenewed in his character, and hardening his mind
and conscience against the power of truth. In the wonderful forbearance of God,
twenty years more are added to these, all of them crowned with privileges, and
with invitations to a better land. But the lingering sinner still refuses to
arise and go. By this time, he has seen and felt much of the folly of things
temporal, and of the emptiness of the heart which depends upon them. But he is
hardened through the deceitfulness of sin; and he is unwilling to make the
decided and violent rupture which seems necessary if he would now effect his
escape from an impending ruin. With more light in his conscience, he has more
dulness and obduracy in his affections; and the work of true piety grows more
and more difficult. If twenty years more bring him to the verge of feebleness
and death, he is still found more deeply anxious to obtain the hope which he
does not possess, and which he finds it more and more impossible to get. By
this time, he is mourning over nearly all his joys as departed forever. Almost
every monument of his life seems to be a tomb. “Here lie the remains,” is the
inscription which he reads upon pleasures, and possessions, and hopes which are
gone. And now, old age is looked for to effect that which youth and maturity
have failed to accomplish. But here another disappointment comes. Old age also
is very different in its character from its anticipated appearance. Man then
awakes to the sorrowful conviction that he has been deluded through the whole
of his course in life. He sees nothing of that spontaneous preparation for
eternity, which he hoped to find in the later years of life. It is now harder,
vastly harder, than it has ever been before, to lay hold of any adequate and
abiding hope for a world to come. Lingering Terah sits down to measure up, in
the sad calculation of his own experience, the folly by which he has been so
long deceived. The love of the world and the pride of self have grown upon his
heart.
IV. What now
becomes THE RESULT OF THIS PROCRASTINATION? Generally one of two things. Either
total, hardened, self-defending negligence; or a partial, constrained, and
unsatisfying attention to the duties of religion. That is, Terah either
positively refuses to obey the Divine command, and remains to die as he has
lived, in Chaldea; or else, he unwillingly sets cut under the lashes of an
awakened conscience, and goes as far as Haran, and dies there, in a new
condition indeed, but with the same character. (S. H.Tyng, D. D.)
Lessons
1. God may make known His
mind by the child unto the father; and call it before him (Acts 7:2).
2. By revelation to a son, God may make parents willing to obey His
call.
3. The Spirit giveth honour to parents, as leaders, when they follow
the call of grace.
4. God points out by name such as He separates for His Church.
5. Faith puts all believers upon motion, when God calls them even
from their native country.
6. Faith in God makes haste to depart from polluted places.
7. Faith intends to go as far as God calleth the soul. (G.
Hughes, B. D.)
Sarai was barren; she had
no child
Sarai’s barrenness
1. The subject spoken of,
Sarai; she that was to be the mother of the Church, of whom, purposely, the
Spirit writeth this which followeth to show forth the power of God.
2. The condition spoken of her--under two expressions.
──《The Biblical Illustrator》