Genesis 11 continued

Here I am back again with the details of how our world got into the mess we are in as the result of the dispersion from Babel.

Here is the principle:-

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Romans 1:

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What a loss to those who had set themselves against God! It was His purpose that as men and women should go forth from Babel to found communities (not cities or nations) in different parts of the earth, they should carry with them a knowledge of His will, that the light of truth might shine undimmed to succeeding generations. He knew that they had more chance of hearing the truth in small groups. Noah, the faithful preacher of righteousness, lived for three hundred and fifty years after the Flood, Shem for five hundred years, and thus their descendants had an opportunity to become acquainted with the requirements of God and the history of His dealings with their fathers for a long time after the division.

But they were not willing to listen to these unpalatable truths. Most of them had no desire to retain God in their knowledge; and by their willing confusion of tongues they were, in a great measure, shut out from interaction with those who might have given them light. (The Spirit explained it to those who wanted to hear.) The Babel builders had indulged the spirit of murmuring against God and now they and their children must live in separation from Him while professing to be His followers, thereby deceiving themselves. So they built many nations and cities all over the world to protect themselves.

Then, instead of gratefully remembering God’s mercy to Adam and His gracious covenant with Noah, they complained of His severity in expelling the first pair from Eden and destroying the world by a flood. They thought of Him as many do today, a destroyer by "acts of God". But while they murmured against their loving Father as arbitrary and severe, they were accepting the rule of the cruelest of tyrants. Satan was seeking to bring contempt upon the sacrificial offerings that reminded them of the death of Christ, and as the minds of the people were darkened by idolatry, he led them to counterfeit these offerings, and sacrifice their own children upon the altars of their gods in place of THE Son of God.

Eventually, even the professed people of God rushed into that way!!

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2 Chronicles 28:1-5

Jeremiah 32:34-35

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As men turned away from God and His Son, the divine attributes – justice, purity, and love – were exchanged for oppression, violence, and brutality which is where we find most of humanity today, even in religious people.

Lateral thought:

I wonder how we cause our sons and daughters to "pass through the fire" today?

See Note at the end of the reading for some history on Molech.

Here’s one way we could do it today.

From my library:

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Fathers and mothers who should understand the responsibility which rests upon them relax their discipline to meet the inclinations of their growing sons and daughters. The will of the child is the law recognized. Mothers who have been firm, consistent, and unbending in their adherence to principle, maintaining simplicity and fidelity, become indulgent as their children merge into manhood and womanhood. In their love of display they give their children to Satan with their own hands, like the apostate Jews making them pass through the fire to Molech.

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Or maybe this?

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Children are not to be trained to be the devotees of society. They are not to be sacrificed to Molech, but they are to become members of the LORD's family. Parents are to be filled with the compassion of Christ, that they may work for the salvation of the souls that are placed under their influence. They are not to have their minds all engrossed in the fashions and practices of the world. They are not to educate their children to attend parties and concerts and dances, to have and attend feasts, because after this manner the Gentiles walk.

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But, back to our reading:

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Genesis 11:

10 These are the generations of Shem: Shem was a hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: 11 and Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 12 And Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and begat Salah: 13 and Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

14 And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: 15 and Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. 16 And Eber lived thirty-four years, and begat Peleg: 17 and Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.

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What happened after the dividing, apart from the religious wars? Would you like to know?

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Genesis 11:

18 Peleg lived 30 years... and begat Reu... 20 lived 32 years... and begat Serug...

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As the "barbarian" nations departed to the north-east into Europe, and south-west into Africa and Asia, the Son of God concentrated on the family of Shem, for they still listened, even if only a little. One group of them lived amongst the descendants of Ham in Mesopotamia right in the area of Babylon.

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Joshua 24:

2 And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the LORD God of Israel,

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The men and women of Babel had determined to establish a government that would be independent of God. Had they gone on unchecked, they would have demoralised the world in its infancy. Their confederacy was founded in rebellion; a kingdom established for self-exaltation, in which God was to have no rule or honour. Had this confederacy been permitted unmolested, a mighty power would have borne sway to banish righteousness – and with it peace, happiness, and security – from the earth. Men were endeavoring to substitute laws to suit the purpose of their own selfish and cruel hearts in place of the divine statutes, which are "holy and just and good." (Romans 7:12).

There were some among them, however, who feared the LORD, but who had been deceived by the pretensions of the ungodly and drawn into their schemes. For the sake of these faithful ones the LORD delayed, and still delays, His judgments and gives the people time to reveal their true character. As this is being developed, we are to labour to turn them from their purpose; but the people are becoming even more fully united in their Heaven-daring undertaking (e.g. the United nations) and the end of the world keeps getting closer and closer.

As time went by after the dispersion the idolatry of nationhood and patriotism again became almost universal, and the majority finally left the LORD and unconsciously joined the Lord (the boss god). However, the living God called on Abram (aka Abraham), of the line of Shem, and was able to get him to accept the role of the keeper of His law for future generations. Abram lived with his father and extended family in Ur of the Chaldees near Babylon. Tradition tells us that he was rich, had been what we would call a university professor, lived in a three-story house, and was more than sixty years old when his call came, about 250 years after the Flood. (He was 75 when he left Haran, a city to the north of Canaan after his father died. See Genesis 12:1-4.)

The true faith was not about to become extinct. God has always been able to preserve a remnant to serve Him. Adam, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Shem, in an unbroken line from age to age, had cared for the precious revealings of His will. (Shem was alive until Abraham was about 150 years old.) Thus the son of Terah became the inheritor of this holy trust by direct intervention. Idolatry invited him on every side, but in vain. Faithful among the faithless, uncorrupted by the prevailing apostasy, he steadfastly adhered to the worship of the one true God. "The LORD is near to all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth." Psalm 145:18.

His father Terah had accepted the false ideas of nationhood and patriotism and had absorbed them into his religion and was quite content with them, but certain experiences obviously caused Abram to query this. One of these was the death of his brother.

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Genesis 11:

27 Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.

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This unnatural event caused Abram to feel that there should be more to Christian life and he enquired of the LORD, the Son of God, about it.

Then we are told:-

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Genesis 11:

30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.

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This was not incest as we know it today and was done to keep the families within the faith (as well as for love), for these women were earnest Christians. Only as the health of mankind has deteriorated badly has the Son of God had to advise us not to marry close relations. See Leviticus 20:17.

Then came the exodus from Ur.

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Genesis 11:

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Although it was Abram’s suggestion to leave (it came to him from Jesus, Genesis 12:1), Terah was still the head of the family so it is written that he led them to Haran in northern Canaan. While Abram and Sarai were waiting in Haran they were able to reach many Canaanites with their gospel and this caused a major problem. Instead of encouraging the ex-Canaanites to stay and work among their own friends as Jesus did, Abram allowed them to move on with him when he left Haran. (When his nephew Lot needed rescuing Abraham was able to raise 318 fighting men from his group. Genesis 14:14. Counting the women and children, this would mean that there were about 1,000 people associated with him in his Christian family.)

This was a mistake. Here is the correct principle:-

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Mark 5:

18 And when He was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed Him that he might be with Him. 19 Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them how great things the Lord has done for you, and has had compassion on you."

20 And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.

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Thus Jesus showed that congregating together in a church system is not what He wants. So why the church? God says:-

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Romans 3:

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So what is the church? I see it as:- a meeting centre; a nursery; a school for training missionaries; a place to go from and return to after doing the LORD’s work; a family home; even like a tennis club, where people of like interest congregate!

Bye for now,

Ron

Some of the comments in these readings are adapted from books in my library. No recognition is given because they are not intended as authorities, but are used because they express my understanding clearly. All the ideas expressed in these readings, right or wrong, are my own.

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Genesis 12:

1 Now the LORD had said to Abram, "[If you want to follow Me] Get you out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you: 2 and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing: 3 and I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed."

4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran.  Back

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Leviticus 20:

1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 Again, you shall say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that gives any of his seed to Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones. 3 And I will set My face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people [he would have left God and be worshipping Molech]; because he has given of his seed to Molech, to defile My sanctuary, and to profane My holy name.

4 And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he gives of his seed to Molech, and kill him not: 5 then I will set My face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people. [In this type of situation, the Hebrews would cut a man off from all their society and referred to him as "dead."]  Back

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I picked this up on the Net recently:

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http://www.roytaylorministries.com/am01224.htm

Molech was an ancient fire deity, of a common type worshipped throughout Canaan generally, and Phoenicia particularly. Under various names, depending upon the city or country, Molech is essentially identical with Chemosh of Moab, and probably Melqart of Tyre. The general name for this type of fire god used throughout Palestine was Baal, meaning ‘lord.’ Molech was the national deity of the country of Ammon, east of the Jordan, or the Ammonites. Molech was also worshipped by the Israelites on many occasions, much to the distress of the prophets. . . .

According to Jewish tradition, the cult idol of Molech was made of brass, hollow, and with hands so positioned that something laid therein would fall to the fire below. . . .

That the Israelites occasionally became enamored with the cult of Molech is also inescapable. There are many passages in the Bible where the prophets do verbal battle against the influence of these foreign gods. . . .

As mentioned before, Molech was a fire-god and many things were sacrificed to him by burning. Ancient sources mention food and drink, birds and animals, and of course, humans occasionally. However, the practice most spoken of was the sacrifice of young children to the fires of Molech. This practice was especially abhorred by the ancients, and not just the Jews. The Greeks and Romans also mention this inhuman rite in derogatory terms.

From the position of those who worshipped Molech, the sacrifice of one’s first born child, or any child, was the ultimate sacrifice. It was done only at times of extreme hardship, and not necessarily willingly. . . .   Back