05-CHAPTER FIVE - THE TOWER OF BABEL

CHAPTER FIVE -

THE TOWER OF BABEL

"And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 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 said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 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. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth" (Genesis 11:1-9).

Following the beaching of the Ark the mightiest human factor on earth, as we have already seen, was Nimrod. He early "began to be a mighty one in the earth." As "the mighty hunter" he became a hero. So far as "The people" were concerned, Nimrod was their deliverer. "The people" repudiated the historical form of their true unity, which was the religion of Shem.

The "whole earth" has become "of one language, and of one speech." In considering this verse we have always placed the emphasis on the form rather than the substance. Both are here; but the substance is far more important than the form. The whole earth has become one in thought and counsel. The whole earth has become united around one set of ideas - the ideas of the Rebellious Panther - Nimrod.

They have got tired of the mountainous country. They have pulled up stakes and set out for a milder climate, for some place where the maximum of production can be realized with the minimum of labor. How many times they put down and pulled up stakes we are not told.

"And it came to pass, as they journeyed (put down and pulled up stakes) from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there." (Genesis 11:2)

This is the place! Eureka!

It was a plain in the land of Shinar, which became the site of Babylon, "the golden city." Old Herodotus said that the grain in that plain yielded from two hundred to three hundredfold. We know what it was in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. With a little irrigation Shinar will produce today what she produced in the ancient world - and more. "There can be no doubt that the next generation will see the civilization of the West repossess itself of the fertile plains in which it was born and nursed. Irrigated and tilled, she would again become as prolific as of old and would make her capital such a Babylon as the world has not yet seen." ¹

"They" journeyed; "they" found; "they" dwelt; "they" said one to another: "they" had brick; slime had "they"; "they" said - seven of those restless, arrogant, progressive, unified "theys" in four short verses.

"And they said one to another, Go to (come on, give way now), let us make brick and burn them thoroughly." They are animated, enthusiastic, united, all for one and one for all. And they mean to do the job right. They will not be satisfied to harden the bricks in the sun, which would be the most natural thing in Shinar: they are going to burn them. They will build with skill and pride.

They have built dwellings. They are spreading out. Shinar’s plain is doing more than its part to justify the faith of its new arrivals. Atheism, unity, wine, rich food, dancing, music, the clearest skies and most brilliant stars ever seen by man, dancing, naked flesh - Eureka!

"And they said, Go to (come on, give way now), let us build us a CITY and a TOWER, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a NAME (a shem). . ." (Genesis 11:4) (Capitals, of course, mine.)

They have had phenomenal success in building their dwellings; they will now build a city such as Cain never heard of, and they will build a tower about which the world will talk to its last fiery day.

How long it took them to build the city and tower, we are not told. The unity, enthusiasm, smiling climate and abundant supply of bitumen would cut the time to a minimum.

The Tower of Babel is commonly identified with the ruins called BIRS-NIMRUD, about six miles to the southwest of the site of ancient Babylon.

Even though the ruins of BIRS-NIMRUD be not those of the original tower, two important things about it are definitely true:

1. The ruins are associated with Nimrod - BIRS-NIMRUD.
2. It could not have been, as archeologists have shown, built but a few centuries after the original tower, and therefore was copied from the original.

Here is a part of what Professor George Rawlinson says about BIRS-NIMRUD in "Smith’s Dictionary":

"Birs-Nimrud faced north-east, and formed a sort of oblique pyramid, built in six receding stages. The platform on which these stages rested was of crude; the stages themselves of burnt brick, painted in different colors in honor of gods or planets each stage as it was placed on the other, receding, so as to be considerably nearer the back of the building, or the south-west.’

- "The first stage, painted black in honor of Saturn, was a square of two hundred and seventy-two feet, and twenty-six feet high;
- the second stage, orange colored, in honor of Jupiter, was a square of two hundred and thirty feet, and twenty-six feet high;
- the third stage, bright red, in honor of Mars, was a square of one hundred and eighty feet, and also twenty-six feet high;
- the fourth stage, golden, for the sun, was one hundred and forty-six feet square and fifteen feet high;
- the fifth stage, dark blue, for Mercury, was sixty-two feet square, and fifteen feet high;
- and the sixth stage, silver, for the moon, was twenty feet square, and fifteen high.

The whole was surmounted by a chapel, which must have nearly covered the whole top. The whole height, as already stated, was one hundred and fifty-three feet; or about one-third that of the great pyramid of Egypt (also built by Hamites - N.S.), which measures four hundred and eighty feet. It is also interesting to notice, how exactly what we know of early Babylonian architecture tallies with what we read in the Scriptures ’Let us make brick and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime (or rather, bitumen) had they for mortar.’

The small burnt bricks laid in bitumen, are still there; not only in the tower, but in still existing ruins of the ancient palace of Babel, which was coeval with the building of the city itself." ²

"And they said, Go to (come on, give way now) let us build . . ."

"And the Lord said . . . Go to (come on, give way now), let us go down . . ."

And here you have one of the greatest battles that ever took place since the world began. As I pointed out last week, this battle between GOD and Nimrod was the origin of the famous myth of the battle between Zeus and the titans.

Everything that was done there on the plain of Shinar was done in deliberate defiance of GOD. Every stage of that huge tower mocked and challenged and defied GOD. The shouts of defiance are echoed in the Second Psalm: "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." (Psalms 2:2-3)

What happened there is echoed in the words of Sennacherib (the Assyrian) to Hezekiah (GOD’s servant): "Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my father utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of mine hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of mine hand?" (2 Chronicles 32:14).

It is probable that through Nebuchadnezzar’s lips we hear almost the very words of Nimrod: "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?" (Daniel 4:30).

And then - GOD decided to ’come down.’ In what way did He come down?

He ’came down’ in judgment. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure" (Psalms 2:4-5). "The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen (nations) to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect" (Psalms 33:10).

The old traditions say that the thunders roared above the tower, and the lightnings flashed. Nimrod answered by shooting arrows into the heavens.

". . . dire was the noise.
Of conflict; overhead dismal hiss,
Of fiery darts in flaming volleys flew,
And, flying, vaulted either host with fire."

There is considerable evidence that the Divine "vexing" went on for days. Then the Almighty decided to bring it to an end. There was a mighty roll of thunder, and a mighty crash of a sheet of flame. The tower came down. Their unity was broken. Their speech was confounded. They were scattered over the earth. ³

There would be no more unity of speech until Pentecost. And that would be a Divine unity.

(Another article will deal with the philosophy of what we have been considering here today, and the hellish world-wide efforts now being made to organize the whole world into a modern Babylon of one culture, one religion and one army. The United Nations has a tower - one of the most imposing on earth - hates GOD, has a culture which it is preparing to teach in American schools at our expense, and is now engaged in organizing an army. It is Nimrod come to town again. It is preparing the way for the coming of the final King of Babylon - Antichrist. It all means, not peace, but slavery, violence, tyranny, suffering, bloodshed. And don’t forget, "The people" are creating it. - N.S.)

¹ Parrot, History of Art in Chaldea, Quoted by Keith L. Brooks in his recent splendid volume Prophetic Questions Answered (Van Kampen Press, Wheaton, Ill., 165 pp., indexed).
² Because my old set of Smith’s Dictionary is in small print, I have here copied Edersheim, whose source, as already stated, is Professor Rawlinson’s article in Smith’s Dictionary, Bible History - Old Testament, by Alfred Edersheim, Volumes 14 - in one volume - pp. 62-3: Reprinted by Wm. B. Eerdmans Co., Grand Rapids, 1949).
³ Nimrod, as we shall later see, remained and continued to build Babylon, and went on to build one of the greatest empires of history and become master of the world.

~ end of chapter 5 ~

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