3. Humans Take the Throne
Week 3 • Day 3
In many ways, the patterns we have seen in the story of Adam and Eve as well as their descendants reads very similar under the kingdom of the serpent. It all starts with a small act of succumbing to the kingdom of the serpent. With Adam and Eve, it was a bite of the forbidden fruit. In Noah’s case, it was over-indulging in the “fruit” of the vine and getting drunk. Next, this simple act of disobedience escalates into Cain’s murder of Abel. In the same way, the story of Noah continues by looking at the actions of his sons to see what they would do.
Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” - Genesis 9:20–25
Sure enough, Ham escalates sin by engaging in a rather lewd act considering that the phrase “saw the nakedness of the father” is thought to be a euphemism for something sexual with Noah’s wife, or his own mom. The serpent kingdom continues to advance and innovate in its wickedness as humans take their own thrones from generation to generation.
Earlier in Genesis, Cain’s story moves from his egregious sin to him multiplying and building his own kingdom-city in which humans progress in both technological innovations and serpent-like innovations (think Lamech). In the same way, the Bible takes us on a journey to see what would happen to Ham as his descendants multiply rapidly.
The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. - Genesis 10:6–12.
Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites dispersed. - Genesis 10:15–18.
Ham’s descendants develop into multiple kingdom-cities that spread across the world and grow into kingdom-nations recorded in Genesis 10. Remember, God’s kingdom place was designed so that the 4-fold river in Eden would provide life for these very nations! Now, the exact same kingdom-nations which descended from Ham, flow through the line of Canaan, and built by Nimrod would quickly become filled with enemy combatants in the serpent kingdom.
With the first Adam, the story moved from his own sin, to Cain’s murder of Abel, to the development of Lamech’s sin in Cain’s kingdom-city, then to an entire generation of wicked people during Noah’s time. In the same way, Noah’s story (a second iteration of Adam) flows from his own sin, to Ham’s lewd sexual act, and to the development of enemy kingdom-nations of Nimrod and Canaan.
The sequence is completed with yet another story of an entire generation doing wicked things during their time.
THE SERPENT KINGDOM REALIZED
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” - Genesis 11:1-4
From the beginning, God’s kingdom family of image-bearing people have been designed to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth by working and keeping creation. We see evidence of humanity doing exactly this with the latest technological advancement made with the raw materials of God’s kingdom place: brick and mortar. Then, as humanity multiplied, these kingdom people were destined to co-exist, co-labor, and co-operate together to further the human project. This is what image-bearers were designed to do!
In order to achieve this kingdom cooperation, Genesis 11 informs us that there was one language amongst all the people of the land. Could you imagine a world in which everyone spoke one language? All the words meant exactly what they meant, everyone understood what was being said, and all mankind shared the same experiences with each other. The Lord knew what His people could do with one language: build a kingdom! In fact, this specific building project would only be the beginning of what they could do. The scripture tells us that they would be able to do anything they proposed in this kingdom-city.
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. - Genesis 11:5-6
And so with the rule and authority that had been given to them by God, these kingdom people - just a few generations away from the Garden but with clarity in one language - used the latest technological advancement in God’s kingdom place and did everything they could to get back to that perfect place, the center of which was God’s kingdom rule. Isn’t that what we all want? What’s missing from the story? Why wouldn’t God allow this and where is God in this story?
After this week’s readings, we now know that there is one more additional experience introduced to humanity: sin. And we have already seen that the consequences of building a kingdom in the name of the serpent as opposed to the name of God can be catastrophic.
The truth in the language of the Bible is that there was no mention of these people ever looking to return to God’s kingdom, only the people wanting to get to the heavens and make a name for their own human kingdom. Instead of God’s people multiplying and “filling the earth” to spread God’s glory throughout His kingdom place, the tower of Babel marks the human attempt to stay put in one centralized location, build their own kingdom place, and sit on their own thrones.
It may have seemed nice that there was one common language and use of “the same words”, but this could equally be interpreted as those with powerful ruling positions dictating language and determining what others could and could not believe. Everyone, under the rule of the serpent, saw fit to believe the same things which motivated them to build a name for themselves instead of honor God. The Tower of Babel is like the anti-Eden. Here, we see the forced shalom of one family of people attempting to use the resources of God’s created place to construct their own kingdom-tower and ascend to the heavens in their own glory. Humans had abandoned God’s powerful rule to rule over themselves.
When Noah’s generation escalated to this level of rebellion, God allowed the chaos waters to flood the earth. Since the Tower of Babel is the imagery the Bible uses to show us the completed elevation of man’s own kingdom once again, how would God respond?
GOD’S RESPONSE: THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. From there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. - Genesis 11:5-10
At this moment of complete rebellion, God responded with His mercy once more! The divine “us” comes down to protect humans from themselves in this state of being. Just like God prevented Adam and Eve from eating of the tree of life in their sinful state, God keeps this generation from doing anything and everything that they wanted apart from Him. He knew that their own knowledge of good and evil will inevitably lead to disaster. Therefore, he scatters their language and forces His image-bearers to fill the earth.
I can’t help but reflect on the fact that God’s word translates to my own sinful actions. Genesis 11 shows us how we all need a posture of humility in order to put God’s kingdom agenda ahead of our own serpent-like plans. Yet so often we fail. Over the past 3 days, as we have looked at Genesis 3-11, I see the Bible shouting to me that I too have inherited the sinful nature of Adam and Eve and that the kingdom of Satan has a grip on my heart in so many ways. Yet I pray that we can also find a growing desire to see the gospel of the kingdom fully realized: that there is hope that God would be merciful upon us and that one day the serpent will be destroyed.
GOD’S RESPONSE: THE SERPENT-CRUSHER?
In the flood generation, God singles out Noah and decides to work through him due to his faith. As a result, we saw glimpses of the gospel of the kingdom. This should leave us to wonder - at the Tower of Babel would God be able to find anyone that is righteous like Noah? Is there still hope that someone would come and finally crush the serpent?
Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. - Genesis 11:27–32
The end of chapter 11 focuses on a genealogy that leads to a man named Abram. This genealogy shows God’s powerful rule over everything that has happened so far. As you see how Shem lived 500 years and fathered children who fathered children and on and on, it brings to life that all throughout the escalation of humanity’s sin, God still continues to orchestrate all things together! The early chapters of Genesis grows our desire to see the gospel of the kingdom fully realized including the demise of the serpent along with the rescue, return, restoration, and reestablishment of all things! Our attention now shifts to the next candidate to become this “serpent crusher” - Abram!
Share the Gospel: The pattern of the serpent kingdom is rather predictable. Genesis 11 is the anti-Eden image. The tower of Babel is where humans force shalom on a community of people attempting to use the resources of God’s created place to construct their own kingdom-tower and ascend to the heavens for their own glory. Humans had abandoned God’s powerful rule in favor of ruling over themselves.
