Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #2 of Genesis, chapter 11 and I will begin by reading Genesis 11:1-4:

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 throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us 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.

As we have spent some time discussing this, we have seen that the order of events had to have started with the confusion of tongues, followed by the division of the continents in the days of Peleg, even though we read in Genesis, chapter 10, verse 25, “for in his days was the earth divided,” and then we read in the next chapter about the tower of Babel. Therefore, in our minds we tend to think that the dividing of the earth must have come first. However, Peleg is also mentioned in Genesis 11:16-17:

And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg: And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.

So, Peleg is mentioned in chapter 11 and it is just a matter of the way God is delivering this information to us that has set up the scenario in our minds that the continents were divided first and then the tongues were confused at the tower of Babel, but that would not be possible. If the division of the continents took place first, then everyone would have spoken one language at that point and as God broke off the section of land that He moved across the ocean floor until it reached the current relative position of “South America,” then the people on that new continent would still speak the original language, as well as peoples on remote islands or Australia, and so forth. And, yet, that is not the case. All of these groups of people speak different languages because their ancestors were present at the tower of Babel and the whole earth spoke one language and then the Lord brought about the confusion of tongues and confounded that one language into numerous languages. Then, suddenly, a family line was speaking the precursor to the Chinese language and another family group was speaking another language, and so forth. In all probability, the people continued to live in the same area for some time as they attempted to communicate, but it soon became evident that there was little understanding. There may have been a little understanding in basic greetings and a few other simple words, but it was not enough and it was not sufficient to develop a cohesive society. In frustration, the “Chinese” speakers would have gone off by themselves to their own area and that area would later become China when the continents were divided. The Mayan speaking people would have grouped together in another place and it would become Central America after the dividing of the continents. This probably worked itself out over several years in the days of Eber, because Eber is the father of the Hebrew language and people. This is when Hebrew began to be spoken and identified with Eber, the calendar reference patriarch that was alive at that time. The Hebrews gathered together in their family line in another geographical area. So, there was a natural separation of peoples geographically as they went off and found their own place on the continent and they were situated in separate areas when God took the next step and divided the continent into many continents in the days of Peleg.

Eber died in 3153BC, the same year that Peleg was born. There is secular evidence in the foundation date of the Mayan calendar that in the year 3114BC (Peleg’s 39/40th year) God divided the continents. A lot of the division of people had already occurred as a result of the confusion of language. It prompted the peoples to separate from one another into separate geographical areas. Then God would have broken off a huge area of land like, for example, where the Mayans were situated and that separated land mass drifted off in a “continental drift.” The scientists recognize that the earth once had one huge land mass and then it broke apart. There are even images that people have designed that show how the continents fit like pieces of a puzzle. Of course, they think that the separation happened over eons of times, but the Bible does not allow for that. God says it happened in the days of Peleg, so the land movement was not a small distance, like a foot a year, like the continents are continuing to shift in our day. But there would have been massive movement of the land masses over a relatively short period of time and this would have resulted in incredibly traumatic events. There would have been major earthquakes and catastrophes, like tsunamis and other terrible damage that would have occurred over days or weeks (or however long God wanted it to take) until the land masses reached a certain distance apart.

This is how the events would have worked out. First, there would have been the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel and then there would have been the division of the continents in the days of Peleg.

Let us go on in Genesis 11 and we will try to think about why God would do this. It says in Genesis 11:5-7:

And JEHOVAH came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And JEHOVAH 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.

God is watching and witnessing the events unfolding on the earth. That is one thing we notice and this tells us that God is still watching today. What is happening on the earth never goes unnoticed and it is not as if God is not paying attention. He is very carefully monitoring the things happening on the earth. He was watching then over five thousand years ago and we should not think He has stopped watching in our time and that He is no longer concerned with what is happening on earth. God is always concerned. He created the earth and the universe and He created man in His own image and, of course, God is very concerned about what takes place in His creation.

God saw mankind during the time after the flood. He had allowed mankind to develop society and multiply. There may have been a couple of million people on the earth at the time of the flood. God intervened at that time to stop all progress and development of man by bringing the flood and destroying everything that man had built. He destroyed the entire population of man, except for eight people. That set mankind back. If anyone has the idea that man must develop and progress and reach some sort of plateau, this was certainly in the minds of the people that came together in the land of Shinar to build a tower that reached to heaven. They were unified in their desire and they were unified in language and they had multiplied and progressed to the point where they were doing some things and God, once again, hindered their forward movement or progress in what they were doing.

This was the second time that God intervened, but this time He did not bring a flood to destroy man. He had a different plan. Let us say it was the year 3154BC. Eber would die and Peleg would be born in 3153. The Bible does not say that 3154BC was the year that God confounded the language, but let us just say it was 3154BC. The flood occurred in 4990BC and 3154BC is about 1,800 years from the date of the flood, so man had opportunity through the four married couples on the ark to multiply and increase in population at a rate four times greater than the time of Adam and Eve. The world had multiplied, perhaps, to two million people from creation to the time of the flood. We do not know the population in the days of the tower of Babel, but there would have been a good number of descendants from the four couples on the ark.

So, let us say that 1,800 years after the flood God, again, “slammed on the breaks” and caused mankind’s unified work to stop and He scattered them by 1) confounding their language and 2) dividing the continents. When God “scattered” people, He really scattered them. In some cases, it would have been thousands of years after the division of continents that that certain groups remained isolated. It was not until the 18th century that some of these people were discovered. There are some remote people groups in South America that are said to have had no contact with other civilizations to this day, so God’s work in scattering the people was very effective in limiting man’s progress. That is one thing we can say. God fully intended to hinder man’s efforts and to limit their progress and ability to develop and advance. We wonder why God did that. This scattering of people effectively caused mankind to remain in the “horse and buggy” stage for thousands of years.

Look at it from a different perspective. Man was created with a keen mind and intellect and the ability to think, reason and figure out things. Man was also created with a natural curiosity for why things work the way they do, so when mankind comes together, their unification serves to increase the potential for discovery and advancement in various ways. For example, in a certain people of a certain language, there is a person whose curiosity is great and he is making certain discoveries. In another country, there is another individual that has discovered things in a related field, and so forth. So, there are these people making related discoveries, but they are not communicating and sharing information and, therefore, they are not pursuing these ideas together for mutual advancement. They are working independently. That is how it has been from the time of the tower of Babel until relatively recent times. These individuals would have made greater progress if they had been able to communicate and share information in the development of a thing.

When God intentionally and purposefully confounded mankind’s language, it served to delay man’s ability to progress quickly in achievements, advancements and discoveries. With the division of the continents, it increased the suppression in these areas. That was God’s purpose. Why would He do this?

Let us look at this verse again and we will see that intent. It says in Genesis 11:6:

And JEHOVAH 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.

We can clearly see that God is saying that the people are one and speak one language and, therefore, nothing is restrained. The Hebrew word “restrained” is Strong’s #1219 and it is translated as “walled” in Numbers 13:28:

Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great…

It also says in Joshua 14:12:

… and that the cities were great and fenced…

Here, the word is translated as “fenced.”

This word is also found in Job 42:2:

I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.

Job is speaking to the Lord and he says that no thought can be “withholden” from God. Nothing can be “held back” or “restrained” from Him. That is what a wall or a fence does, as it holds back the enemies so they cannot just march into the city. They are kept at bay by the fence or wall around a city.

In our verse, God is saying that now nothing will be “restrained” or “held back” from mankind. We can be sure that God is referring to the advancements and discoveries, like those that have taken place in just the last couple of hundred years. There have been discoveries like electrons and radio waves, and so forth, and these discoveries have sped up the advancements of mankind in communication. We can speak over the airwaves and there are radio, television and internet broadcasts all over the world. Now an individual in Siberia can hear me speaking from Pennsylvania. Until relatively recently, these kinds of things were not possible. So, because God confounded the language and divided the continents a little over five thousand years ago, it accomplished the purpose of causing mankind to begin to develop a written language. God had His prophets write His Word in the Hebrew language and the written Word would serve an incredibly important function in spreading the Gospel.

However, these events also impeded mankind’s progress in the secular world and prevented them from discovering the secrets of creation because it did not serve God’s purpose for the world to discover the electronic medium before He intended them to do so.

Just imagine if the people had remained one people speaking one language and sharing their thoughts, ideas and inventions. Certainly, the advancements of mankind would have progressed much more rapidly and, perhaps, five hundred years before the birth of Christ there would have been the discovery of the electronic medium. What would have happened? Mankind would have begun to communicate instantaneously with the world and the “thoughts and imaginations” of man would have resulted in much evil. God said, “and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” Remember what God said in Genesis, chapter 6 before He brought the destruction of the flood? It said in Genesis 6:5:

And JEHOVAH saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

This is what happens with man’s advancements – evil multiplies.