Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 2 * PART 3 * BOOK 3
BABEL: FALSE GODS
GENESIS 9:1 – 12:1-2
It’s so good again to have you all with us and we’ll pick right up where we left off. You’re used to hearing that now, aren’t you? Go back with me then to Genesis chapter 9. I always like to review for just a moment or so, for the sake of our television people who have been away now for a week, maybe some of you more. But anyway, after the flood now we see Noah and the three sons and their families are instructed to repopulate the earth, begin to cultivate it.
And Noah, as someone just expressed after our last program, they had read or heard that in conference with what I said, that evidently before the flood there was no fermentation. There was no mention of alcohol or drunkenness for sure. And maybe as a result then of a change brought about by the flood, or whatever, very possible – I wouldn’t argue the point – that maybe Noah didn’t realize that what he was drinking would do what it did. But nevertheless, the Scripture makes it clear that the alcohol got the best of him. He became drunk.
And then the sad commentary on all that is, and I didn’t make mention of it last week, but if we could have read a little further in chapter 9 is says, “Noah lived after the flood 350 years.” Now isn’t it amazing that there is never another mention of the man in Scripture? Three hundred and fifty years he continues after the Ark and yet not one word. Well the only thing I can put on it is that the catastrophe that happened to him up there in verse 20 and 21 and 22, destroyed the man’s testimony. And you know we as believers have to be so careful. The devil is constantly out to trip us and if he can trip us hard enough and we fall far enough, we too can certainly lose our testimony. It doesn’t take long.
I think everyone, even the secular world, knows it takes a lifetime to build a reputation. How long does it take to destroy it? Moments. It can happen politically. It can happen in the business world. And it can certainly happen even in Christian circles where we can build a reputation over years and years and yet it can be destroyed in almost a moment of time. And I think perhaps that’s the reason then that Noah lost his influence because we’re going to see in the moments to follow, the human race is going to take another track, straight down,in spite of all the knowledge that Noah and his three sons have concerning the will of God, and I also want to remind you these were grown people who went into the Ark and they had complete memory of everything that was before the flood.
In other words, it would be just as if you and I tonight, would all of a sudden find ourselves in the Ark and we’d come out on the other side of the flood, wouldn’t we remember all the technology that we had enjoyed? Wouldn’t we remember all the things that were on the earth before the catastrophe? Of course we would. And so I think these eight people had full recollection and again, only the brakes of God kept things from moving too fast and He kept it slowed down so that technology would not erupt again until God was ready for it, which of course, we’ve seen now in the last 80-90 years.
Well, you remember then that the three sons of Noah, who came out of the Ark with their families, then become the parents of the three great classifications of people that then overspread the earth. You might even break it down this way that out of the line of Shem, came all the mostly great, what we would call “religions.” As you know I don’t like that word. But out of the line of Shem we’ve got Mohammedism, Judaism and Christianity. And of course when I say the line of Shem, the primary man is going to be Abraham.
Out of the line of Ham then we have a lot of the original discoveries. A lot of the original inventions came from the Hamitic people. And we’re going to see evidence of that as soon as we get into the next chapter.
And then out of the line of Japheth, even though as I said, they were basically uncivilized and barbarian for ever so long, yet once they came out of that they mushroomed into the people who became so, what shall I say? So…expert in the arts and the sciences, music…out of that you come with the Beethovens and the Tchaikovskys and you take inventions of the industrial revolution, they all came out of the Caucasian peoples, out of Europe, Great Britain and then of course as it spilled over into America from the immigrations and that’s not to take anything away from the immigrants who came from the Orient, who have also contributed tremendously to the America as we now know it.
But coming back to the overspreading as the Bible lays it out. We’ve laid it on the board for you last week, how that the Japhethites migrated on up into present day Europe. The sons of Ham ended up primarily in the land of Canaan and the sons of Shem out there in the Middle East, and I kind of prefer to put the Oriental peoples out of the line of Shem although I may be wrong in that. But anyway those three basic groups of people come from these three sons of Noah.
Now then if you’ll come on over then into chapter 10 and I want to not take every verse word for word, the sons of Japheth are given there in verses 2 and 3 and then when you come down to verse 6, we pick up the sons of Ham. Japheth are listed first there in the first three verses or four, then in verse 6 we come to the genealogy of Hamitic people
Genesis 10:6
“And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.”‘ and those sons were Cush, Mizraim and Put and Canaan.’ And then in the other verse I want you to pick up is verse 8:
Genesis 10:8
And Cush (one of the sons of Ham) was the father of Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one in the earth.” Now mark that down in your mental bank because Nimrod is the one we’re going to talk about for the next few moments but to keep on going genealogy-wise, through the chapter, you get to verse 21 and then you pick up Shem.
Now there are the three sons. Japheth in verses 1,3,4 and 5, the sons and the genealogy of the Hamites. And then picking it up in verse 21, the offspring of Shem. And out of the line of Shem, we’re going to run into in the last part of chapter 11, the family of Abraham. Terah, the father of Abraham came out of the line of Shem. Also in those series of verses is a little tidbit that I think is interesting. Others may totally disagree and we certainly can’t prove it, but it’s an interesting statement there in verse 25:
Genesis 10:25
“And unto Eber (who was in the line of Shem) were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan.” Now what I’m referring to is, I think you’ve all read or heard or something about the so-called theory of the continental drift. Have you ever heard it? How that the various continents of the world at one time fit together just like a jigsaw puzzle.
In fact all you have to do is look at a map of western Africa and eastern South America and they just look like they would definitely be pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. And various other continents are situated in a way that it’s very possible, now I’m not saying they did, but it’s possible that they drifted apart as we now know them, and if they did indeed, it was during the days of Peleg. “For it was during that man’s lifetime that the earth was divided.” That’s just like I say, one of the little tidbits, you don’t have to hang your hat on it, but it is interesting thinking anyway.
All right, now I said we wanted to deal primarily in this half-hour with the man Nimrod. Come back if you will then to verse 8 where “Cush, a son of Ham, has a son and he calls him Nimrod.” Now even to this day, we speak of someone who does a lot of hunting as a what? As a “Nimrod.” But you see they’ve got it out of context. Nimrod was not a hunter of wild animals. He was not a deer hunter. Nimrod was a hunter of fellow human beings. And we pick that up of course in verse 9 and 10.
Genesis 10:9a
“He was mighty hunter before the LORD:…” Now most of your newer translations, the King James says “before“ but your newer ones will very often say, “He was mighty hunter against the LORD.” He was a rebel. He certainly was not a spiritual man.
Genesis 10:9b-10a
“Wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before (against) the LORD. (and then verse 10 gives us a clue as to what did he hunt) 10. And the beginning of his (what?)kingdom…” It’s a political thing and so what is he? He’s a despot. He’s a totalitarian dictator and he begins to form this totalitarian empire, if we could call it that. It’s probably not fitting word, but nevertheless he puts together a kingdom, as the Bible calls it, and he brings the people under his control.
And then you see the importance of the Hamitic people, as I said they were the pioneers because it’s out of this line of Ham that verse 10 says:
Genesis 10:10b
” the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, or the Tower of Babel, in the land of Babylon. Down there on the banks the Euphrates River. But let’s go on.
Genesis 10:11a
“Out of that land went forth Asshur, and he builted (what city?) Nineveh,…” Now you remember that Ninevah was one of the great cities of the ancients. Who built it? The Hamitic people out of the same beginners of the city of Babel, and then also some other cities. But now I’m going to leave the Scriptural text for just a moment and draw my information from secular writings.
It’s rather interesting that again archaeologists have done us a tremendous favor and they’ve dug up a lot. And they’ve found out a lot about this man Nimrod. And Nimrod as a totalitarian despot type dictator had a wife that you could liken to Jezebel. She was totally immoral. She was unscrupulous. And her name was Semiramis. And Semiramis somehow or other, whether it was by intrigue or whatever, her husband passed off the scene, Nimrod, dies a premature death from what we can gather, and this Semiramis usurps his throne and she becomes even worse than he even dreamed of being. And as her Jezebel type character would bring about, she has a child out of wedlock, and she names him Tamar. So the son of Semiramis is Tamar.
Now she is a totally wicked individual under no doubt satanic influence and if you’ll remember, I haven’t spent a lot of time teaching on Satan, but I have mentioned more than once, that from day one, Satan is the master – what do I call him? Counterfeiter. He’s the master counterfeiter. And he is always bringing something up that is so near to the real thing that people can hardly tell the difference. So through this wicked woman Semiramis, and her offspring Tamar, by satanic influence, she dreams up the whole idea of her son being a “son of the gods.”
And so it’s a copy of course, of Christ as the Son of God and Mary the virgin mother. Because Semiramis claims that this child did not come from human contact but that he was a son of god. And so way back in the antiquities you have a counterfeit of the Mother and Son, or the Madonna and her Child if you want to put it that way. But this Semiramis then is the instigator of all of the wickedness that you can associate with the building of the Tower of Babel. Now let’s look at the text again if you will, in chapter 11 beginning with verse 1.
Genesis 11:1
“And the whole earth was of one language, of one speech.” All three segments: the Hamites, the Japhethites and the Shemites now. By the way, from Shemites we get the word that we’re very familiar with today and that is Semite. When you talk of anti-Semitism it’s from this same root word. And they were all one language and as yet they haven’t really divided by their character or as I’ve said in the last lesson, by their role. They’re all one group of people.
Genesis 11:2-3
“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. 3. And they said one to another, (again I have to feel that it was at the leading of Semiramis, who in turn was lead by satanic influence and so these people said) let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime for mortar.” They had all they needed.
Genesis 11:4a
“And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven;…” Now let’s be logical. These people knew they didn’t have Jack’s Beanstalk! They knew they couldn’t build a literal tower into the very throne-room of heaven. So how do you reach heaven? Well by a worship. And so what they are instituting here is a false, anti-God, ungodly system of worship whereby Satan no doubt inspired them to think that they could usurp the very heaven of God Himself.
Now that’s nothing new to Satan. He’s thought it before and he thinks it even yet today, that he is still going to defeat God and His purposes. So they build this tower as not as something high that they can actually walk up and enter heaven, but rather as a system of approach to heaven, it’s the introduction of false worship.
Now as I go through the Scripture, time and again I’ll, come back and make the statement – remember that every false religion on this planet tonight, I don’t care what it is or where it is, every one of them have their roots back here at the Tower of Babel. This is the beginning of false pagan worship.
Now, archaeologists have found that in the old ancient Tower of Babel, around the top were all twelve signs of the zodiac. And so I maintain that today, the horoscope, the zodiac, is that of the underworld. It’s of the occult and it should be left alone. Now there again, is how Satan has adulterated something, which originally was in God’s program. And I think that before the flood that Adam and the early believers understood the Word of God, not from the written page, but in the stars.
They had an intrinsic knowledge of the constellations and all these things that was the Word of God written in the stars. But, as the human race degenerated, Satan took that which was spiritually perfect, adulterated it, and turned it to his own purposes so that when we get here to the Tower of Babel, this knowledge of the stars is turned into something that we call now, of the spirit world of the occult and the horoscope and everything that’s associated with it is not of God, but it’s of the counterfeiter – of the adversary.
So if you don’t remember anything else tonight, I want you to remember that every false religion that has ever been or is now or will come, and they’re still going to be coming, have their roots, every one of them, in the Tower of Babel. You just can’t escape it. Consequently now if you’ll turn with me all the way back to the book of Revelation we haven’t left Babel behind, not by any stretch of the imagination, because you come back to the book of Revelation, chapter 17 where we’re dealing with the false worldwide religion that’s going to come on the scene in the final seven years of what we call the Tribulation.
In Revelation chapter 17 and you come all the way down if you will with me to verse 4, now this of course is in symbolic imagery. But it’s certainly a literal truth, where John sees this woman – it’s a religious system – worldwide.
Revelation 17:4
“And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, (now all that speaks of what? Tremendous wealth) having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:” And all you have to do is just look at some of the religions in the world today, the cults and the false teachers, some of these people on television. Someone was telling me a while back yet, this one fellow, and I’m not in the business of naming names, but this one fellow draws in a million dollars a day from his television ministry. I mean it’s just mind-boggling.
You take some of the great religions of the world, their wealth tonight is unbelievable. And they’re all going to come together. They’re going to amalgamate all this wealth and here’s what John is seeing pictured then, this woman, this religious system, with tremendous wealth. “decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of (oh not religious things, but what?) abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.” Now I maintain it’s not a physical fornication, but a spiritual, an adulterating of spiritual things, which of course, God hates.
Revelation 17:5
“And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Clear back here in Revelation. We haven’t left Babylon behind, not by any means but here she comes again and this great world religious system that’s coming on the scene and oh listen, it’s already here, we’re seeing it growing by leaps and bounds in what we call the New Age Movement and I warn people constantly and it’s creeping into the churches. It sounds so good. It’s Babylon. It’s Babel. And as we come back to Genesis, this is where it all started at the Tower of Babel.
Genesis 11:4
“And they said, Go to, let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach into heaven; and let us make us a name, (now here’s as far as we got before we went to Revelation.) lest we be (what’s the word?) scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” And what had God instructed them earlier? “Scatter.”
Go out and repopulate the whole earth. Now in an attitude of rebellion what are they saying? I don’t care what God says, we’re going to stay right here. We’ve got it pretty good. So God’s going to have to take things into His own hands isn’t He?
Genesis 11:5-6a
“And the LORD came down and He looked at the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6. And the LORD (or Jehovah) said, Behold, the people is one,…” Now remember they’ve already been segmented genealogically, but they’re still just basically one people, they’re one race.
Genesis 11:5b
“…they have one language; and this they begin to do:…” Now, look at our explosion of technology, right now in the last few years, what has been one of the catalysts, not the only one but one of them? A breaking down of language barriers.
I remember years back when the DNA was first discovered and I read an article on that. And there was I think a German, or a French scientist, there was a British scientist, and there were a pair of American scientists who were all getting real close, to the discovery of the DNA composition. They had all been comparing notes over the years. Until of course, they got real close and they wanted to be the only one to discover it, so then they quit. But basically what enhanced their discovery was this breakdown of the language barrier and they could converse.
This is where they were here at Babel. They had one language and they had already the seeds of technology. Now remember they aren’t that far removed from the flood, probably about 200 years. And there’s a lot of memory of it, but now look what God said.
Genesis 11:6c
“…and this they begin to do, and now (what’s the next word) nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” In other words, as these people looked and they saw a bird fly and they say, hey we want to be able to fly too. What would they have been able to do? Hey, they would have had flight again before long, had God not intervened to slow it down because He wasn’t ready for it. And so God says, we’re going to stop it in its tracks.
Genesis 11:7-8a
“He said, let us go down and there confound (or confuse) their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. 8. So the LORD scattered them abroad…” Now in the Hebrew the word scattered is a lot stronger. It’s a word where He just literally forced them. He didn’t just gently scatter them like an old hen might her chicks. But, He forced them to go out into the very reaches of civilization.
Genesis 11:8b-9a
“…and they left off to build the city. 9. Therefore the name of it is called Babel;…” And the definition of the word babble is confusion. Confusion. It originated by the confusion of the tongues. But today, we speak of the world and all of its business and everything else as Babylon, in the book of Revelation. And why? Because, the world tonight is nothing but a mass of confusion. It’s just unbelievable as you watch the news from day to day the confusion amongst the nations. The confusion within society, that’s babble.
And even the Church tonight is right back to the place of babble, isn’t it? Just mass confusion. And there’s so much disagreement. And yet the Word of God is so plain. Why is it? Because, we’ve come full circle back to the origination of the real confusion. Just take the basic doctrine of salvation for example. God has made it so simple, yet most want to work for it. Paul in this Age of Grace where we cannot work for salvation tells us, “To believe in our heart that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and rose again,” as found in I Corinthians 15:1-4 and Romans 10:9-10. Well, we’ll leave it off there and we’ll pick it up next week.