In this sermon, the speaker discusses the story of the Tower of Babel from the Bible. He highlights how the people of Babel were united in language and purpose, seeking to build a world empire and a new world order. However, God intervened and confused their language, scattering them across the earth. The speaker emphasizes that unless the Lord is involved in our endeavors, our efforts are in vain. He also draws parallels to the present day, urging listeners to seek God's guidance and not settle for less than His best.

Genesis chapter 10, we come to the table of nations, as it's called. Dr. William F. Albright, who was a non-believer and a renowned anthropologist and archaeologist, and a scholar of Middle East culture and history, said that this table of nations in Genesis 10 is unparalleled in ancient recorded history. There is nothing as accurate or that comes this close to it. So we will trace out the lineage of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah. The interesting thing for us to take note of is we are all the same family. We are all from Shem, Ham, or Japheth. We're all from Noah's line, Noah and his wife. And we are all here this evening, kin. You know, sometimes people ask, you know, what about my Aunt Marge if she doesn't get saved? I grew up, I love her, when I get to heaven, you know, it'll be a bummer forever if she's not there. You know, how am I going to handle that? You know, I think one of the things that's going to happen in heaven is it says that the former things will be remembered no more, first of all. And Jesus says, any man who leaves mother, father, sister, brothers in this life, I will give a hundredfold now and in the life to come. And I think as we stand around the throne, all the family ties will come back to us. And you're going to look around at people that you sat with in church, year after year, and you're going to realize that is great Uncle Sammy. That is, you know, I mean, we're going to realize there the same blood flowed in all of our veins. We will know fully even as we've been fully known. So we will trace our lineage this evening from these three men. Ham and Japheth are only followed to the fifth generation. Now, that is if we don't skip any particular individuals. There was no word in the Hebrew, no phrase for grandfather or for grandson. If they wanted to indicate that, they would often say the son's son, but they would call both my father or my grandfather or my great grandfather, my father. So taking into consideration that there are no loops in the missing links here in our genealogies, it seems that Japheth and Ham are only followed for about five generations. We're only taken with them to Babylon there to see the scattering of mankind. It is the line of Shem that we follow in particular to Abraham. We'll find there are ten generations as we follow there from Shem to Abraham, because that is the Messianic line. That is the line through which we all have life. So that is the line that is important to us. So it is interesting to see though the nations of the world laid out before us in interesting detail as we read through this. Now, these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth. Unto them were sons born after the flood. Now, by the way, if you want to do a little bit more in-depth study, the commentary by Henry Morris on Genesis is wonderful. It's called the Genesis Record. He's a scientist from the Creation Investigation Institute, and he's written a commentary about this thick. And by the way, even when you get out of the scientific pictures, he has a tremendous amount of heart for a scientist. He's very sensitive, too, and a lot of great instruction and application as you go through. But if you want to follow through with one commentary, that's a great one you might want to follow through with, the Genesis Record, it's called. Now, we start with Japheth. The sons of Japheth were Gomer, not Pile. This is Sumerians, not the Sumerians, SU, but CI. The Sumerians, which the western part of that would be what the German Saxons, that branch today are from Gomer. Magog, Scythians, Russians. Madia, the Medes. Javon is the Greeks. Tubal, possibly Tubalsk. Meshach, the Moscovites, probably pointing at not modern Moscow, but northern Turkey, north of the Black Sea, and that area. Tyrus, Tyre. The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, the Ashkenazi Jews that have come back to Israel, basically German from that area. Rifath and Togarmah, even today Armenia is called the House of Togarmah. The sons of Javon, that is where the Greeks originated from. Elisha. Tarshish is a question mark. It was a place where tin was mined. Some tried to locate it in parts of southern Spain. Others tried to take it around Gibraltar, somewhere into the Atlantic. Some even tried to force it as far as Britannia. We know that there were tin mines there during the Roman Empire, so we're not sure exactly what Tarshish is. Kiddim and Dodanim, these were the isles the Gentiles divided into their lands. Everyone, notice, after his tongue, so this is after the scattering in 11. Chapter 11 kind of backs up and gives us a closer picture. It's kind of parenthetic. We look at these nations divided, then chapter 11 kind of gives an overview how that happened. So it's speaking about different languages right here. Up until chapter 11, the scattering, evidently every human on earth spoke the same language, not even different dialects, the same. Now, today, they say there's about 3,000 different languages, that's including dialects. There are probably about 10 major strains that they follow languages from, but they say there are about 3,000 languages today. So these that we've followed here, everyone after his tongue, after their families, that's the first time the word family is used in the Bible, and their nations, by and large, give us a picture of the Europeans. That would be from the Russians all the way over to Spain, the Sino-Europeans, basically Europe. It gives us a picture of Japheth in that way. Now, it is interesting because the prophecy in the last chapter, at the end of the chapter there, where it says, look in verse 27, it says, God shall enlarge, the Hebrew has the idea of to persuade Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. Speaking about Japheth entering into the blessing that God would put upon Shem. Now, certainly, if we're looking prophetically, it could be a picture of the fact that, by and large, the gospel spread in a westward direction, and the Jews were temporarily blinded until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. Certainly, it was towards Japheth, it was that direction that the majority of the moving of the gospel is followed, westward, westward flow. So, possibly. So these would be the European families, basically, if you're European, you are probably related to Noah through Japheth. The sons of Ham. My kids still get a kick out of that guy named Ham. Cush, which is linked to Ethiopia, probably larger part of Africa than just Ethiopia. Mitzrayim is Egypt, that is always the name of the ancestors of Egypt. When you read Mitzrayim through the Bible, speaking of Egypt, put would be Libya, North Africa, Muslim Africa today, and Canaan. Now, by the way, Canaan is somebody we particularly take note of. Canaan is the one family in Ham's lineage that is cursed. Ham is not cursed. The bigotry that has arisen from that is biblically not founded. There is no curse on the black man, and there is no curse on Ham. The only one of his sons that had a curse on him was Canaan, all the way through, and that's written so clear that I can't believe anybody could bollocks it up. You can't believe people bollocks up the things they do. Canaanite, a perennial enemy of Israel, there will be a perennial problem there. So, the Canaanites are marked out as having a curse upon them, not all of the family in the tribes of Ham. The sons of Cush, Sheba, and Havilah, Sabta, Re'amah, Sabtica, the sons of Re'amah, Sheba, and Dedan, that's Arabia, and by the way, if I pronounce any of these wrong, you won't know it anyway. So, I'll just fake them as I go through. None of them mean anything to us anyway, but we'll go through. Sheba and Dedan, Arabia, tribes in Arabia today, and Cush begot Nimrod. Now, there is a particular point made about Nimrod here. His name means to rebel, it means rebellion, as a verb, not as a noun, rebellion. He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord, and the idea is defiantly, or against the Lord, something that he hunted the souls of men, and that's why it says this. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord, the idea isn't defiance or rebellion, that's what his name means. Wherefore, it is said, even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord, and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Echad, Kalneh, and the land of Shinar. He began to build Babel, Babylon. Now, the Greeks added to the Babel, they like to put the suffix on, they called it Babylon. The ancient Chaldeans itself called it Babaloo, which is the gate of God. The Hebrews called it Babel, which is confusion. So there's a play on the words through there. Babylon is what we know it by today. The ancient Chaldean was Babaloo, gate of God. The Hebrews played on the word Babel, because there God confounded the language, which means confusion. It was the city that Nimrod began to build. Now, Nimrod's an interesting character because he is linked to the first priesthood in the earth. He is linked to really the birth of idolatry, it seems, after the flood. Nimrod had a wife whose name was Semiramis. They gave birth to a son named Tammuz. Now, the rumor was that Tammuz, though Nimrod's son, was actually divine, that Semiramis conceived while she was a virgin. She was called the Blessed Mother. Ancient pictures of Semiramis with a halo around her head holding a baby with a halo. The whole imagery of the Madonna comes from there. Legend was that Tammuz was gored by a wild ox or a wild boar and died, and after so many days was resurrected and come back to life again. So then, because of that, they began to worship, which evolved into Saturnalia, which is centered around the winter solstice on December 25th. They would take a yule log, and they would put it in the fire, a huge log that would burn all night, and then when the kids were asleep and the family was asleep, they would bring in an evergreen tree and put it in the living room. When the family got up in the morning, the yule log was gone, but there was new life. It was a symbolic of Tammuz being raised from the dead, and they would celebrate this for so many days, and by the way, I think seven days after that feast, they had their ball games. We're a little off now because we have many different divisions. Now, from Semiramis, this Blessed Mother, came Ashtoreth and Ashtart, and Venus and Diana, and the line of female fertility cults that were very immoral. The creative ability of man in regards to bringing forth children, that always found itself in the center of ancient idolatrous worship, and certainly Satan perverted that. Now, of course, Ashtoreth is where we get the Easter, they say that word comes from there, and they would use eggs as symbols of fertility. Years ago, my wife and I were in a ministry on the west coast before Calvary, and we lived in communal houses, and we gave all our money to the ministry every week, and we were disciples, and we stored food, and we expected to go through the tribulation, and Christmas trees were Babylonian, and we wrote to our relatives, don't send us Christmas cards, and we don't do that tree thing. My parents and relatives at that point thought, he's completely gone. He has lost his mind. He is insane. The Jesus thing is bad enough, but now he's touching the sacred things. Christmas trees, Easter eggs, what's wrong with them? In our zeal, what we were actually doing is we were cutting off any opportunity to share the gospel of Christ, which is what we're called to, with other people, because in our phony spiritual, you know, paraphernalia and exterior we surrounded ourselves with, we were so screwy that we cut off any opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ. We're not called to preach Christmas trees or Easter eggs. We're called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and by the way, you know, my parents are saved now. Now, we don't put a Christmas tree here because we don't want to freak any of you out. If I knew in my heart I wouldn't freak anybody out, we'd put a nice one up here, but we have one of those Babylonian trees in our house, and my kids don't know anything about Nimrod or Semiramis. It's a Christmas tree. There's lights on it. We talk about Jesus. We pray before we open our presents. I remember Joanna was about three years old, and we were buying her, you know, little girls have to have those real black shiny shoes for Christmas, patent leather ones, you know, and we're buying a pair of those, and the lady who was one of the makers then said, well, honey, what's Santa Claus bringing you for Christmas? She said, they're not such things as Santa, and the lady looked at us like, you blasphemers, you know, you blasphemers, what have you done to this child? You looked at us, and she looked at us and said, well, honey, what do you think Christmas is all about? She said, it's Jesus' birthday, and the lady went, huh, I guess it is, isn't it, you know? So, we didn't have a Christmas tree and we enjoyed, you know, I never tried to relate Easter bunnies to the resurrection, we don't bother with that, you know, but we enjoy Christmas, and it's up to you. We like it. It's fun family time. Out of Cush's line comes Nimrod. Through him, the first priesthood, idolatrous priesthood, seems to come into existence, and then the world begins to be worship of this Madonna figure, which we find coming down through the ages. Now, that is why in Revelation 17, it says, Mystery Babylon is the mother of all the harlots of the earth, because this is where worship that stands in contrast to true worship is born. And Satan understood from the prophecy in Genesis 3.15 that through a virgin, his head would be crushed. So, there is given birth to that imagery in a false sense from Babylon, which has been an alternative to what the gospel is really all about. So, it does take time here to center on Nimrod. Out of that land went forth Asher, one of the sons, and builded Nineveh, and the city of Rehoboth, and Calna, and Rezin, between Nineveh and Calna, the same as a great city. Now, what happened was, as Nineveh went on, all of these became suburbs. Rehoboth and Calna, Rezin, which was between Nineveh and Calna, it all developed into one huge, huge city, which was really a remarkable city at one time. And that's what it's saying here, the same became that great city. And Mitzrayim became Begat, Lodim, Ananim, Lehobim, Naphtuim, and Pathruzim, and Kasluhim, out of whom came the Philistines, Kapturim, seemed to be the Phoenicians coming there, and Canaan is a particular line we take note of. Begat Sidon, Sidon still in the news today, his firstborn. Heth, where the Hittites came from, and we found thousands of their tablets, 2000 B.C. And the Jebusite, remember they inhabited Jerusalem. Jerusalem was called Jebus. When David went and took the ancient city, it was the city of Jebus. It was called Jebus in ancient times. These are those Canaanites that dwelt in Jerusalem in ancient times. The Jebusite, the Amorite, the Gergesite, the Termite, they're all in here, the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite seems to spread to the Far East, Sino, China, pointing to the Oriental. Very interesting to see the spreading of nations. The Arvidite, and the Zemurite, and the Hamatite, and afterwards were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. Now one of the interesting things here by the way, at least to me, is there's no mention of the Rephiam. As we come to the tribes in Canaan, seven tribes are named in Canaan, the seven Canaanite tribes, one of them is the Rephiam. There's no mention here in the origin of families because the Rephiam were a tribe of giants. They had a different origin. There was another outbreak of that kind of perversion, particularly when Abraham is identified and the Messianic line comes into the open again. There once again is a demonic type of resistance from these tribes of giants. They're not mentioned here in the families that have come from the sons of Noah. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, and unto Gaza, as thou goest unto Sodom and Gomorrah, and Adma and Zeboam, even unto Lasha. Now we followed them for five generations. These are the sons of Ham after their families, after their tongues in their countries and in their nations. Now unto Shem, there's where our interest is, also the father of all the children of Eber, and it is from Eber that we believe we have our origin of the word Hebrew from this family of Eber, which was originally the Haburai, which had the sense of those who crossed the river or was given to Abraham as they went to Canaan, or those who become nomadic. And the Hebrew, by the time they went down to Egypt under Joseph, were despised by the Egyptians and called the Haburai, because they considered them by then, anybody nomadic, keeping flocks instead of farming, was considered the Haburai. We get the word Hebrew from it, and they despised shepherds. So Eber is the family we're looking at here, the brother of Japheth, the elder, even to him were children born. And the children of Shem, Elam, and Asher are Phaxad, Lod, Aram. The children of Aram were Uz, Hol, Gather, and Mash. What a crew. You know, this guy figured none of these long names. I mean, this is, I'm glad he did this. He's got less syllables and four names. Some of these other guys got one name. So, Uz, Hol, Gather, and Mash. What a crew. You know, the interesting thing here is the children of Shem, Elam, is Persia. Very interesting. Asher, the Assyrians, to follow these tribes. You know, it's amazing to go to Israel and to see the hostility between many of the people there, and to look at them and realize Abraham's blood is running in both their veins. Or Shem's blood is running in both their veins. Very remarkable. And you know, you hear kind of a generic thing on the news about the Arabs. Well, you can be an Arab Christian, you can be an Arab Jew, you can be an Arab Muslim. An Arab is not anything but someone who was from Arabia, or from the desert, from the south, and that lived in the desert. There are Muslims that are there, there are Arabs that are Christians, there are Druze there that are Arabs, and it's a mishmash there. Anybody born in that land before 1948, on their birth certificate says they're a Palestinian, whether they're a Christian, a Jew, or an Arab, or a Muslim. But it's very interesting as you study these families to see that many of their enemies today have the same blood flowing in their veins. And the interesting thing is, God's not losing track of anybody here. We look at the world today and we think, what a remarkable evangelism is taking place in China. What a remarkable evangelism is taking place in the former Soviet Union today. You know, God hasn't lost any of these. The first time he uses the word family in the Bible is as he looks at the sons of Noah, whom he loved, who found grace in his eyes, and he watches his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, spread across the world. You know, the Bible tells us, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believed would not perish but have everlasting life. God is not losing track of any of these. He actually traces out for us the families that cover the world in a remarkable way. And as we read through this, you know, there's a part of the genealogies of just a drag and trying to pronounce the names, but there are some times when I read through these things and I think, you know, God knew where everybody was. He knew their address. He knew their phone number. There's times when we read about the Israelites. He said their camp between this hill and this valley and this river. And you read through this stuff and you think, oh, let's move on to something. But I say, wait a minute. I think, look, God, what God's saying is he knew exactly where they were on that day. And the remarkable thing about this chapter as I look to me is not just the accuracy historically, but to me, I think it is remarkable God taking note of and watching all of this as mankind spread, whom he loved and whom he would send his son to die for and how he traces them. Verse 24 says, Our fax had begot Selah and Selah begot Eber. And unto Eber were born two sons. The name of one was Peleg. And this is interesting and here's why. His name means division. And it says he was named Peleg, for in his days was the earth divided. His brother's name was Jokten. Now, scientists look at this and Christian scientists and wonder, is it just talking about the earth being divided by language or are we talking about a continental drift as God confounded man, confused his language and dispersed him? It seems that there may have been a time when all land masses were connected by land bridges. And it seemed as God dispersed man, there may have been, we don't know for sure, also during that time, after the flood, a lot of geologic activity and the drifting of continents at that point in time. It is interesting that again in 240 ancient cultures, over 240, we have record of the flood. We have record of a man who saved his family and animals on a boat in a worldwide deluge. It's very interesting as we look at Babylon and the next chapter we'll see this tower being built. And it's not a tower like a lighthouse, it's a ziggurat. It has steps up and yet we see them confounded there and spread across the world and then we find the same construction in Egypt, we find it among the Aztecs and the Incas, we find it in Indonesia, we find that kind of structure around the world. So it's very interesting as we look at this man, he's named Peleg, which means division, because it was in his days that the earth was divided. And that's why we have this record of a deluge and that's why we have similar architecture and so forth spread around the world. So Peleg, in his days the earth was divided, his brother's name was Joktan. Joktan begot Elmo, tickle me Elmo, Elmo dad, and Shalef, Hazar, and Mavah, Hazar, Mavah, and Jera. That's not bad, I mean Isaiah named one of his kids Maher Shalalazbat, you know, I thought what is wrong with this guy, he's a prophet. Verse 27 says Hedorahm, and Yuzal, Diklah, Oblah, don't make me sing it, Abimeal, and Sheba, and Ophir, and Havilah, Jobab, and some scholars question whether this is the Job, Jobab, that we have the book of. And by the way, there are some who feel that the book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible, that before Moses, led by the Spirit, set his hand to write the first five books, that Job had been put in print before that. That is listed below in the poetic books, but we don't know, maybe Job here. All these were the sons of Joktan, and their dwelling was from Misha, as thou goest unto Shefar, a mount of the east. These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations. These are the families of the sons of Noah, after the generations, in their nations. And by these were the nations divided in the earth, after the flood. Now, as we come to chapter 11, we kind of back up a little, and look at man collecting after the flood, in the plains of Shinar, to build there to themselves an empire, a city. It says the whole earth was of one language, one dialect even, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed, now King James says from the east, the phrase seems to indicate they journeyed eastward, that would be from the mountains of Ararat, where Noah's sons, and Noah left the ark, and their wives, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, go to, or come, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime they had for mortar, bitumen, asphalt. Now, Moses of course writing, takes note of the fact, because the children of Israel had been in Egypt, and certainly they had seen mud huts, but they had also seen the huge monuments made of sandstone, and limestone, and so forth. So, he says there they built this city out of bricks that were baked hard, to resist then moisture, and so forth. And what they used for mortar between them was this slime, this bitumen. Now, by the way, it was the Rockefeller family who took note of this record, and said to themselves, well the Bible says in this ancient plain of Shinar, which is Iraq, that area of the world, that there was asphalt, there was tar on top of the ground. They then said there must be large oil fields there, and it was through their taking note of this verse that they invested untold millions in that part of the world, and of course became the powerful family that they are today, who knows how powerful, owning many of the large oil companies. I do think it's interesting here. Man is saying, come let us do this. Let's read it. They said one to another, come let us make brick, burn them thoroughly. They had brick for stone, they had the slime for mortar, and they said go, let us, or come, let us build a city and a tower whose top, now it's not may reach to heaven, it's a ridiculous idea, the idea is the top is to the heavens, a ziggurat, a place of worship again, of idolatry, and let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Now they had been told by God to multiply and replenish the earth, to fill the earth. What they're saying is let's do this, let us build a city, let us build a tower, a place for worship, let us make a name for ourselves. And there is this then movement towards a one world government. Now by the way it hasn't stopped. I do think it's interesting as I look at this, they are building or trying to build here a one world government out of mud and slime. That's what it says. God in the meantime is building us upon the rock. And then there is a vast difference. You know the word for city, if you take and tear it apart, study the ancient word and it comes from a verb form and it means to guard or to stand watch over, and the city is the idea would be the place that would be walled, unlike a village or a hamlet where there would be small grouping of homes, that the city would be the place where there would be actually watchmen and gates and walls. And it was initially in the mind of man a place for safety. You know this will keep us safe, this will be our security. Now of course the crazy thing is because man is sinful, now the city is the place that everybody wants to move out of because it has become a dangerous place. In those days it was let us build this city, this walled place of security and let's make a name for ourselves and let's make one world worship for ourselves and let's bring ourselves together and today we see the same move. We hear of the Bilderbergers and the Club of Rome and the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilaterals and there are so many conspiracies, you know, it shouldn't surprise there is a conspiracy, there is Satan behind everything, certainly there is a conspiracy on one level or another. And the Bible tells us very clearly that the world will be brought under a one world government and it will lend itself to tyranny, the Antichrist of course will end up at the steering wheel. And it's almost as though the best Babylon isn't arisen yet, it's on its way. But it's almost in the heart of Christians, we want to do the same thing, we want to elect Christian officials, we want to build our own Christian Babylon, we want to make our own kingdom through the ballot box or something and I think we should be responsible and I think it's a tough issue because we should use the privilege, the great privilege we have to vote in the right way. But on the other hand I think we always need to remember that his kingdom is not of this world and the kingdoms of this world are likened to beasts and it doesn't say except America. Certainly we need to pray for our officials but his kingdom will be completely different. As we get to chapter 12 verse 1, here is all of mankind gathering together, let us build a city, let's make a name for ourselves, let's make a one world government and let's take control of things. Meantime God is saying to one man, Abraham, you follow me and through you all of the nations of the world will be blessed. Much different building program. They're saying let's make a name for ourselves. Well if they weren't written down here I don't know how many of their names we would even remember. God is the one who makes a name. Abraham, Joseph reigning over Egypt, Moses, Abraham, David, Solomon, Daniel, men sitting on top of empires, and by the way not Bible teachers but administrators. God is the one who can make a name, who can take an individual, who can establish something and all of the world kingdoms whether it was Babylon or Egypt or Greece or Rome or the Medes and the Persians were all idolatrous. They never brought forth any lasting fruit, they never accomplished anything, they never produced any security but war after war. And it's the same today. Man is desperately trying to unite and no doubt there are those with sincere motives. I mean as you and I look at a world of raising children we hear of nuclear proliferation, we hear of terrorism, we would love to see order. I think one of the very difficult positions to be in as the President of the United States even if you are a believer in that position it behooves you to use your power to work towards world order. And that's very difficult knowing that it will ultimately lend itself to tyranny. But God is building in a much different way. The church has been here for two thousand years, all of those kingdoms are gone. Very interesting when you go to Israel today and your Jewish tour guide takes you to Roman ruins and says the Romans named this land Palestine because it represents the Philistines who were our enemies and they wanted to insult us and this is where they built this city. And you look and here's a Jew taking you on a tour of Roman ruins. God is able to sustain a people. The Romans are gone and the Jews are making money on the ruins today who they try to obliterate. We look at man here. You know God says unless the Lord builds the house they labor in vain and build it. And unless the Lord keeps the city the watchmen watch in vain. And God says and the same goes for a nation. And here they have set themselves to build for themselves a world empire, a one world government, a new world order. The Lord came down to see verse five, the city and the tower which the children of men built it. The Lord said behold the people is one. They have all one language and this they begin to do. Now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to or come, isn't it interesting here's the Lord speaking, let us go down the Trinity. 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. Now imagine being a foreman on a job having fifty guys working under you. You're working on part of the city and you're just finishing your first cup of coffee and all of a sudden everybody works for you. Everybody's looking at each other. You know I mean just imagine what this day must have been like you know. It's interesting if you go to Israel if you've ever heard two Arabs arguing over a cab fare. You think they're going to get out machine guns and kill each other. You can't believe they're having a conversation. And it's strange to us. I'm sure as they listen to us it sounds just as strange. But isn't it strange to listen to somebody speaking a completely different language? And you think how crazy. Imagine all of a sudden if everybody in the city is all of a sudden talking a completely different language. You know sometimes you feel like you and your wife speak a different language and you speak the same language. Imagine if you really did speak a different language and you're trying to communicate and trying to get something accomplished. No wonder they left off building the city. They're probably fist fighting and yelling at each other and it didn't matter because you didn't understand what they were saying. I just think what an incredible thing this must have been. And language by the way you know whatever the eagles have going for them. You know maybe it was a mating call or something. And the cows. You know you don't know what they're saying. I mean it's not a language. You know it is it is exclusive to mankind to enjoy idiomatic language. It's exclusive to mankind to be able to communicate and to write in that way. Walter Smith while he was still alive told us that he had been involved with grants worth millions and millions of dollars trying to develop a computer that would listen to idiomatic Russian and then immediately translate it into idiomatic English. Now they do it to a degree but not that freely. And he said yet the remarkable thing is you can take a child and by the time the kid is three years old by observation and listening he learns an idiomatic language. Because he sees when his mom gets a mad look and goes so he understands and he puts all kinds of ideas together. Or she goes sits down has a cup of tea puts her feet up. Well the kids are in bed you know or you know I mean they're not he's watching he's not in bed. But you know it's amazing that you take a child that has the capacity just by observation to learn an entire language. And and by the way when they're small they have a greater ability to learn other languages. Now Walter Smith said they discovered something in the DNA called the P factor. And it's what enables human beings to learn other languages. It starts to die out as you get older. And just by the time you're getting into high school and they want to teach you a foreign language your P factor is shot. Now if you're here and you're in high school and you're having a hard time learning Spanish or French you tell your parents hey my P factor is shot it's not my fault. Language is certainly a very remarkable remarkable thing. They left off building the city as their languages were confused. Because of that therefore is the name of it of the city Babel which is confusion. 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. So and from there the stories of demagogues and the half man half God all of the Titans of the Greek mythology all of you know the ancient epics of Gilgamesh from back in this ancient Babylon before Nebuchadnezzar supposedly half man half God. There was a playing the reason God scattered is they were building this tower again not to reach heaven but unto the heavens. They were something they were they were reaching for again and may have involved the fallen angels it was certainly dark it was idolatrous and God then confounded that and spread them. So it now picks up and gives us the lineage of Shem because we're going to go from this vain attempt of man to establish something to Abraham where is where is where God's work is at where he begins to establish. So let's read through these names again. These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. Now by the way as they add up these ages that are given here we come out to about three hundred forty some years which brings us to Abraham which seems to be about three hundred forty years after the flood. You can sit down with a paper and pencil and work on these yourself. Shem had Arphaxad two years after the flood and verse 11 says Shem lived after he begot Arphaxad five hundred years. Now which means Shem outlived Abraham by thirty five years. You'll take note as we go through the antediluvians before the flood their ages averaged around eight to nine hundred years. Now after the flood God said he would shorten the age of man and with each generation we hear it going from five hundred to four hundred to three hundred to two hundred the age of man is shortening. It didn't just happen like that but whatever genetic ability man had to have longevity slowly was brought to bearing the results of the vapor canopy being gone and infrared and ultraviolet light coming through. It's very interesting to watch that as you go through this genealogy. Arphaxad lived five hundred and thirty years and begot Selah and Arphaxad lived after he begot Selah four hundred and three years and begot sons and daughters. Selah lived thirty years and begot Eber and Selah lived after he begot Eber four hundred and three years and begot sons and daughters. Eber lived thirty four years and begot Peleg and Eber lived after he begot Peleg four hundred and thirty years and begot sons and daughters. Peleg lived thirty years and begot Ru and Peleg lived after he begot Ru two hundred and nine years and begot sons and daughters. And Ru lived thirty two years and begot Sirug and Ru lived after he begot Sirug two hundred and seven years and begot sons and daughters. And Sirug lived thirty years and begot Nahor and Sirug lived after he begot Nahor two hundred years and begot sons and daughters. So they're living about two hundred and thirty years now. The lifespan is shortening. Nahor lived nine and twenty years, twenty nine years and begot Terah. And Nahor lived after he begot Terah a hundred and nineteen years and begot sons and daughters. Now, verse twenty six here, we begin to pick up the lineage of Abraham. That is where we were heading. And through these eleven, first eleven chapters, that's where we've gone. We've gone from Adam and Eve to the fall, then following the line of Seth to Noah, to a new beginning after the flood, to through a corruption again in Babylon, but following one line to Abraham where there then would be a new beginning and a covenant through this man. So once we get to Abraham, now history is expanded. We went through the first two thousand years in eleven chapters. Now we will spend that many chapters on Abraham's life and make much more detail as we move onward. So Terah lived seventy years and begot Abram, which is Abraham. His name will be lengthened to Abraham. Abram means exalted father. Abraham means father of nations. God will change his name. Nahor and Haran. Now by the way, there seems to be a discrepancy here in the age of Terah, but that's only if Abram is his first born. Abram is named first because that is the covenant line where God will make the covenant. Evidently Abram was not the oldest son, but Abram was born when Terah evidently was around a hundred and thirty years old. And that will bring out when you compare Acts chapter seven and Genesis chapter eleven. Because if I don't tell you this, some of you guys are going to do it and you're going to come back next week and say, Aha! What is this here? Well now you know. Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begot Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran begot Lot. Haran was the father of Lot. And Haran died before his father. Haran evidently the first born, the oldest it seems, died first before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, that is in Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, which will be changed to Sarah. Sarai means princess. And the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. So we're going to find out that Abram is married to a half-sister. And that, let me see where we're at. Nahor's wife is Milcah, which is his niece. As you follow this through, you know, the question arises, what about the intermarrying? Well, until we get to the Mosaic Law, there is no stringent prohibition of marrying cousins or sisters. Now, also it seems that again, the gene frequency, the genetic code was pure enough then that we wouldn't see the problems we see today. Today, if a brother and sister marry who both have recessive genes that lend themselves to retardation or to a disease or something, there will be that problem then of inbreeding where it creates illness and problem. Evidently early on, God had not yet established that law. So we see here Abram married to a half-sister. We see Nahor married to a niece. God will, in the days of Moses, make the prohibitions and stop that. But at this point, that hasn't happened yet. Verse 29 says this, Abram and Nahor took them wives. Oh, we were just there, weren't we? Verse 30, and Sarai was barren. By the way, this will be a very important bit of information in our record. She had no child. It will be through her and Abram in their old age that Isaac will be born, which will be a miraculous conception, not a virgin birth, a miraculous conception because they're both so old. And he will be then the child of promise, which will foreshadow, of course, the son of promise, the seed singular, the coming of Christ. So Sarai was barren. She had no child. And probably that's why when Haran died, who was Abraham's brother, Abram and Sarai took Lot under their wing, who was their nephew. They didn't have any children of their own. So it may be one of the reasons that Lot is closely kept here as this family then moves. And Terah, who's Abram's father, took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, who was his son's son, Lot was his grandson, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan. Notice that. They came to Haran, which is about an 800-mile journey from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran, and they dwelt there. And the days of Terah were 205 years. And if you go through the map, you can figure out how long they were in Haran. Terah died in Haran. Now, again, we find out, let's read 12.1. It says, Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and of thy kindred, and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. Now, when was that said? The answer comes to us in Acts chapter 7, if you will turn to the right, to the book of Acts. Stephen has been brought before the Sanhedrin. He has been doing miracles. He's been serving the body of Christ. Powerful ministry. He's standing there. His face is shining like an angel. Chapter 7, verse 2, it says, He said, Men and brethren and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran. So Stephen is the one filled with the Holy Spirit who gives us the information that God came to Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia and appeared to him there, the God of glory. Now, Joshua, again, chapter 24, verse 2, tells us that Terah and his family worshipped idols in Ur of the Chaldees. Rabbinic tradition says Terah was an idol maker. That's what he did for a living. He made idols. We don't know if that's true or not. It's tradition. But the interesting thing is, again, as we look at Abram, he is not a Jew. There's no such thing as a Jew at this point. He is an idol-worshipping Gentile, certainly of the line that we're following. But it isn't until the covenant is made with Abraham and Isaac is born, when Jacob comes into the world, Jacob's name is changed to Israel, and the twelve tribes of Israel are the children of Jacob, or the twelve tribes of Jacob. It is not until then we see the nation established. So it isn't until then in the covenant of circumcision that we begin to see this nation forming. Abram himself was living in Ur of the Chaldees, a very advanced place. He was a city boy, evidently not a shepherd, and he was living there, and at some point God just blew his mind and appeared to him. We don't know if it was in his bedroom or where it was, and God appeared to him. Now, you think again, if God appeared in your bedroom, you'd probably die of a heart attack. I don't want God to appear in my bedroom. I don't want to see God until this corruption puts on incorruption and this mortal puts on immortality. Because if I see him before that, I'll probably have a cardiac arrest. But he appears to Abram, the God of glory. And rather than saying, your name is mud, you idol-worshipping, this is what he says. Look in chapter 12, verse 2. I will make of thee a great nation. I will bless thee. I will make thy name great. This is all in contrast to Babylon. Thou shalt be a blessing. I will bless them that bless thee, and I will curse them that curse thee. As far as I know, that hasn't been lifted. I think that Warren Christopher and our government should remember that as they try to constantly take more and more land away from the Jews. God said, I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So we come now to Abram. We will, as we journey on next week, read now, as we go into chapter 12, we're going to immediately see his failings. We're going to see God working in his life. Abram is not a perfect man. That is very encouraging to me. He has failures. He'll head down to Egypt next week. And as he gets to Egypt, he'll say to Sarai, his wife, by the way, because she was beautiful at 65, she must have been a looker. Because it happens again after that. And Abraham says to Sarai, by the way, if anybody asks who you are, tell them you're my sister. This is the father of all those who believe. Because Abram knew that even in Egypt at that point, the Egyptians considered adultery wrong. So if they liked your wife, they killed you. Then it wasn't adultery after you were dead. And Sarai, what do you see? She gets put in Pharaoh's harem. And Pharaoh, because he thinks that Sarai is Abram's sister and he really likes her, he's being nice to Abram, giving Abram cattle and sheep. Sarai must be looking out the window feeling what a trade, you know. And he's taking all this stuff, saying thank you. Here I am in Pharaoh's harem. It's very interesting to watch now this journey. As we go through, we will dig up some gems that are buried through here. God said to Abram, get thee out of thy country, get away from your family, and go into the land I'll tell you of. Abraham only got one out of three right. He left his country. He took his family with him and went to the wrong place. He went to Haran. But God is not done. God will continue to work. And there are lessons that he would learn. His father's name was Terah. It is a word that means delay. And how often natural relationships have delayed us from moving onward with Christ and really taking a stand. Haran, where they stayed, is a word that means parched. And it's because it was one of the last oases, the last stop before the caravans would cross the desert. So the name of the town. Different word than Haran, the father. Different spelling in the Hebrew. Spoken the same. But it has the meaning of parched. And how, when God tells us to do something, and we go where he hasn't told us to go, how often we find that those delays put us in a place where we're parched. God, because he loves us and he has a greater blessing for us in Canaan, as it were, will never let us be satisfied with less because we're his kids. You know, I'm a dad. I have a 17-year-old daughter. Now, when she dates, I'm very involved. Because I'm her dad, I want her to have the best. We have, in the office, we have these applications. It's called application to date my daughter. You know, it's name, rank, serial number, income. Do you have a van or a truck with oversized tires? Do you have a nose ring, an ear ring, or a belly button ring? If so, discontinue application. It says, you know, it's really funny. In 50 words or less, what does late mean to you? In 50 words or less, what does don't touch my daughter mean to you? And then it says, if you grow up, with the capital IF, what do you want to be? You know, it's interesting. You know, but there's, in all the humor of that, there's kind of that parental concern. You read it and it's so funny because there is all that emotion behind it. Well, God loves us, the Bible says, more than we love our earthly children. And when he has a plan for you, and he does, and we take some delay, we take a detour deliberately, and we hesitate to move, God will allow us to be parched there. It is a blessed parching. Remember when David was in sin, he said, well, as long as I kept my mouth shut and didn't confess, my bones were dried, I was parched. It was when I went to the Lord and communed with him again and confessed that I felt life come back to my bones and to my body, I was renewed. And God will not let us settle, because he loves us, for less. Now, have you noticed since you've been saved, you don't get away with anything anymore? Before you were a Christian, you got away with stuff. Now that you're God's kid, you don't get away with anything anymore. Because he sees you everywhere you go and everything you do. And you can fool, you know, some of the people some of the time, how's it go? And most of the people all the time, but you can't fool God anytime, because he loves us. So, we'll be digging. There's some beautiful things as we go through here. Read ahead, I encourage you. It's wonderful as we come to the lives of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph. What incredible lessons there are to learn. Let's stand and pray together.