Genesis 11:1-9, Tower of Babel

Genesis 11
1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.
2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.
6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
9 That is why it was called Babel — because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

This is the story of the Tower of Babel on the plain of Shinar. Shinar is located in modern day Iraq. If you recall the story of Noah, at the end, God wants Noah and his family to spread out and repopulate the earth.

Genesis 9
7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it."

Instead of doing that, the people wanted to stay in one spot and make a tower.

4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

In verse 4 we read that their goal was to make a name for themselves and not be scattered over the earth. That was in direct contradiction to what God told them to do. Through their prideful actions they were rebelling and disobeying the Lord.

They were also taking pride in themselves, glorifying themselves instead of the Lord, making a name for themselves. They made themselves an idol. They worshiped themselves.

Exodus 20
2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. 

So God gave them many languages and they spread out. This way, they did what the Lord wanted and populated the earth.

We can see how important it is to for us to obey Him, to follow His wishes. We can also see how we are to give honor and glory to God and not to ourselves.

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Genesis 6:11-7:18, Noah and the ark

9 This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.


11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence.
12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.
13 So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.

When we looked at Adam and Eve, we saw how the punishment for sin is death. God is saying here that He will destroy them for their wickedness, for their sins. God will spare Noah and his sons because Noah was a righteous man. Through the blood of Jesus, we are declared righteous too, so we are spared punishment for our sins.

14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.
15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.
16 Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.

The ark is a huge boat. It is 1 and a half football fields long and 2 football fields wide and 5 stories high. It had to be that large to hold all of the animals. It was also designed by God so you know it was seaworthy.

17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.
18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.
19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.
21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them."
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

Do you know what a covenant is? That is like a contract between 2 parties. Here God makes a contract promise to Noah, that He will save Noah and his family. Notice how Noah did what the Lord told him to do. When God tells you to do something, do you do it? What ways does God speak to us? Through the bible is one way He speaks to us. He tells us in the bible how we are to live. How often do you live as He wants you to live?

Genesis 7
1 The LORD then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.
2 Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,
3 and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.
4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made."
5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.

God told Noah to take 7 of every kind of clean animal and 2 of the unclean animals. Why do you suppose God did that?

Clean animals were sacrificed.

6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.
7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground,
9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.
14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.
15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.
16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.

Notice how God shut Noah in the ark. God was clearly watching out and keeping Noah safe. Some people wonder how the ark could have worked and how it could have held all those animals. Its simple. God made it happen. Nothing is beyond Him.

17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.
18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.
19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.
20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet,
21 Every living thing that moved on the earth perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.
22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.
23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

Genesis 8
1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.
2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.
3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down,
4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

God keeps His promises. He promised to keep Noah and his family safe, and He did. He tells us that if we believe in Jesus that we have eternal life. We can trust God to keep that promise too.

6 After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark
7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.
8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground.
9 But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.
10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.
11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.
12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
13 By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.
14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

Who wants to do the math and tell me how long Noah was in the ark before the ground dried up? Lol, I will make it easy on you. The earth was flooded for 150 days, but Noah stayed in the ark for days.

15 Then God said to Noah,
16 "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.
17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it."
18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives.
19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on the earth—came out of the ark, one kind after another.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.
21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

What was the first thing that Noah did when he got out of the ark?

He sacrificed to God. Why did he sacrifice to God?

He was thanking God and worshipping Him. Do we sacrifice to God today? We do.

Romans 12
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

When we live our lives in a way that pleases God by turning away from sin, then we are a living sacrifice to God. We also make sacrifices when we do good works for Him. These sacrifices are a way we can worship Him.

Philippians 4
18 I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.

What is the ultimate sacrifice? The one sacrifice that paid for our sins?

Jesus

Ephesians 5
1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children
2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Genesis 9
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him:
9 "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you
10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth.
11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."
12 And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:
13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,
15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.
16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."

One last bit of this story. God makes a covenant with Noah and all living creatures. He promises never to destroy the entire earth again by a flood. The rainbow is a sign of that promise. When you see a rainbow, remember the story of Noah. Remember God’s promises to us.

The story of Noah is about how God punishes the wicked, but saves the righteous. Its about the faith of Noah in obeying God, and how God keeps His promise to Noah.

Genesis 1:1-3:24, Adam and Eve

This tells the story of how God created the universe, and how man fell into sin.

Genesis 1: 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Famous words. God created everything.

Just a quick summary of creation, which took place in 6 days. He rested on the seventh day.
Day 1
God created light

Day 2
God created heaven

Day 3
God created the earth, seas, trees and plants

Day 4
God created the sun, the moon, the stars

Day 5
God created the birds and fish

Day 6
God created animals, and finally man

Day 7
God rested

Genesis 2:18 – Genesis 3:24

Genesis 2
18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.
22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
"This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called 'woman,'
for she was taken out of man."
24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Here we see Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. They have not sinned yet and are in His favor.

Genesis 3
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.
5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Does anyone know what the first sin was in this passage?

The sin was disobedience to God. The bible tells us that Eve was deceived and Adam sinned. Both are guilty here.

1 Timothy
14And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.

Romans 5
12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—.

Lets look at this and see how Eve was deceived. What did God say about this tree and its fruit?

Genesis 2
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

God said “don’t eat from it.” What happens in the conversation between the serpent and Eve?

Genesis 3
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

Here the serpent tries to make Eve doubt Gods words. Eve falls for it, and adds her own bit to Gods instruction.

2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

God never said don’t touch it. He only said don’t eat of it.

4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 
5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Here the devil lies and tries to convince Eve that God is being mean by telling her don’t eat from that tree. The devil twisted Gods instructions to make it sound like His instruction is bad. The devil wanted Adam and Eve to disobey God. And Eve fell for it.

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

You know what Adam and Eve did here? They put their desires above Gods wishes. And look how badly that turned out. Lets go on and look at more of this passage.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

You know, people never change. When you do wrong at home, don’t you kinda hide from your parents? (Adults think back alllll those years to the time of your youth.) When someone asks you if you did this bad thing, don’t you try and pass the blame onto anyone, even the family dog? Doesn’t work does it? As we will see in this next portion of scripture, it didn’t work for Adam either. God says we are to blame for our wrongful actions. No one else.

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel."
16 To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."

Ouch that’s quite a punishment. It may seem like a small sin, but sin is a big deal to God. God does not like sin at all.

God holds all 3 to blame for this first sin of mankind. Eve was deceived and sinned. Adam willingly sinned. And the serpent led them into sin. All 3 get punished.

Satan still tries to get us to disobey God.

1 Peter 5: 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Ephesians 6
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

God means what He says. He told Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate of the tree. And they did die from that day onwards.

Even then, God knew Jesus would come and save man from his sins. Did you know that Jesus was planned for before the world began?

1 Peter 1
19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
20He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

God mentions Jesus in this part too. When He handed out the punishments, He also pointed out the hope of being saved from sin.

15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel."

This part refers to Jesus and the devil. Jesus will crush the head of satan, while satan strikes His heel. Good news, Jesus wins. Satan was defeated at the cross when Jesus paid for our sins.

20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

Do you know even science says that all humans came from one female they call Eve. The bible says it here first.

21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

God makes the first sacrifice for the sin of man. God also makes the last sacrifice when Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."
23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

This tells the story of the first sin and why we need Jesus. The sin was disobedience to God. What are some ways you are disobedient to God?

When you don’t follow His commandments. Can you name one of them?

When we have Jesus, He covers for us when we sin. Our sins are forgive.

1 John 2
1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 
2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.