This lesson is compatible with the "Enoch, Noah, and Babel" Flash-A-Cards from Abeka Books.
Bible References: Genesis 8-9:19; Hebrews 11:7, 1 Peter 3:20, 2 Peter 2:5
“Go spread out to all of the earth and have many children and grandchildren. Fill the earth!” God told Noah and his family when then came off of the ark. “The animals will also go out and fill all of the earth!”
God wanted the earth to be filled with his beautiful creatures, and more importantly, people! God loves His creation very much. But God told Noah and his family to spread out in the earth. He wanted families living all over, not just in one place. God knew that people are sinners, and before the flood, there was nothing to stop people from being as wicked as imaginable. God told them to spread out so that wickedness would not be so fast to grow among people.
We tend to spread our bad attitudes, don’t we? Think about someone you know who complains. Do they hang out with people who are always happy and thankful, or do they hang out with other complainers. What about bullies? They hang out with other bullies! That is because bad attitudes and mean spirits are contagious! Kind of like the flu! When you are around someone who is always yelling at you, it is natural to want to yell back at them, isn’t it? Jesus told his followers to love people who were unkind to them, though. It’s not easy to do, but those who have accepted Jesus have the Holy Spirit to help them!
On the days of Noah’s sons, Jesus had not come to earth yet, and the Holy Spirit had not been given as a helper, yet. He helped those who obeyed God on special occasions, like the men who wrote down God’s words…what we call the Bible. But God knew that man would become just as wicked as before the flood if they were all together in one group.
So, after the flood, Shem, Ham, and Japheth had many children with their own wives. They must have told their children about what the earth was like before the flood, and what the animals used to be like. “Before the flood, the animals were more peaceful. They weren’t scared of us, either! But now things have changed. They don’t just eat plants anymore. I saw a lion eat a lamb the other day! It was horrible! I had to look away!”
They told their children and grandchildren what it was like to live on a boat for a year. They had to have mentioned how God shut the door and kept them safe, just as He promised. They also taught their children how to make sacrifices to God for their sins. After a while, Shem, Ham, and Japheth had grandchildren! And some of them began to have children! We don’t know how long it took, but people began to forget about God, again. Many of them stopped making sacrifices for their sins. They didn’t think they were that bad. “I don’t really need a sacrifice. I’m a pretty good person!” Many of them stopped teaching their children about God, and how He created everything. They forgot about God’s promise to send someone to die for the sins of the world. They knew God had told Shem, Ham, and Japheth to spread out to all the earth, but they liked living together as one big family. Soon, they began to hate the idea of living apart.
“With all of us together, we can do ANYTHING! We will be such a great nation! People years and years from now will talk about how great we were! We will be in the history books for our great inventions and accomplishments!”
They decided to stay together, even though it meant disobeying God’s command. Soon, someone came up with an idea. “Hey! Let’s build a great tower in our own honor! It will reach to the sky!” They loved this idea! “Oh! I want to study the stars and figure out how they got there!” said someone in the crowd. “Oh! I want to design the tower! I will put statues of each one of us, so people many years from now will see the greatness of our intelligence and strength!” said someone else. “Oh! I will fill the tower with books about how we have become so great!” said someone else. I often wonder if there was someone in the crowd who stood up and said “Wait a minute! Isn’t God the One who is great? He put the stars in the sky! He forgives our sins when we come to Him the right way…through the blood sacrifice! He deserves to be remembered, not us! We must obey Him and fill the earth! He knows what’s best for us.”
The Bible doesn’t say if anyone stood up to say these things, but even if they did, no one listened. The Bible tells us that they started working on their plans. They built big mud ovens for put bricks in to harden. They wanted very hard bricks, so the tower could reach the stars. They put together pully systems to help lift the heavy bricks, and they probably used some animals like elephants and horses to help pull them along. Brick by brick, they built a tower. The organization of the people was impressive! Soon, the tower would be built, and they would be so proud of themselves!
God hadn’t forgotten about the big family. He knows everything and knew exactly what they were thinking. He knew they didn’t want to make sacrifices for their sins, because they thought they were good enough. He knew they didn’t want to obey His command to fill the earth, but instead make a name for themselves. God still loved them, though. The Bible says He came down to see the tower. He spoke to the Son and the Holy Spirit. “Look how they are all speaking one language. They will soon be just as wicked as the people were before the flood. Any wicked thing they think of, they will find a way to do it. Let us confuse their language, so they can’t understand each other when they speak.”
God wanted to slow down the spread of wickedness, so it wouldn’t be like before the flood.
So, God gave the families new languages! The one who was giving directions on where to unload the bricks began speaking in Chinese! The unloaders began to speak in French. “What did the director say?!” A father asked his son, as they began unloading the bricks in the wrong place. “I have no idea! He must be sick!” replied the son.
The woman in charge of decorating the tower began giving directions in Spanish to the people bringing in pots of flowers. “She sounds weird! What’s going on?” said one worker to another in English. “Everyone has lost their minds!” yelled the other worker in Portuguese.
Soon, there was chaos everywhere! No one could understand the other workers. I think husbands and wives, and mothers and fathers could understand their children, but the Bible doesn’t really say this. It sure would be hard for people to get married and have kids if at least a few of them didn’t speak the same language, though!
The construction on the tower came to a screeching halt. Since no one could understand one another, I imagine they began getting into fights! It was so frustrating for them, that families decided they had to move away to someplace where they could start fresh and speak just their own language. The families moved all around the world looking for a new place to settle. Now, we have different countries where different languages are spoken, because long ago God gave the earth new languages to speak. Now that the people were scattered, it would take much longer for wickedness to spread. Everyone was still a sinner, but it was harder to make plans to do bad things in groups. Bullies couldn’t get together and make fun of others if they couldn’t understand one another! God had seen His plan of filling the earth come to pass, even though the people rebelled against Him. God is certainly more powerful than any of us! If He wants something to happen, do you think we can stop Him? No!
I for one, am very glad! God wants us to have forgiveness of sins, and to live our lives to show HIS glory, not our own glory. And because He is more powerful, no one can take the forgiveness of sins away from me that I have in Jesus who died for my sins! I can’t even take that forgiveness away from myself! I am not powerful enough to make Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross go away. No sin I do can make Jesus’ sacrifice not work. He died for all sins! ALL of them! If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you can rest in the fact that God is more powerful than anyone and anything, and the forgiveness of sins you have will never go away!
God is SO GOOD! And He deserves to get the glory, not us.
When we are tempted to think we deserve recognition, and we don’t want to obey God, we must ask God for help. The Bible says we are to throw down the thoughts in our minds that say we deserve glory and recognition. Jesus, God the Son, deserves glory!
“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” 2 Corinthians 10:5. The Holy Spirit can help us obey God, and not lift ourselves up in our own minds, thinking we are great.
Let’s thank God for His greatness and His goodness and ask for help in obeying God’s word.