Chuck Larsen

In Genesis 11:1-4, the residents on the plains of Shinar built themselves a great city with a very tall tower that was to reach “into heaven.” It was to keep them from being scattered throughout the earth and to “make a name for themselves” that everyone else would have to look up to. Obviously, they wanted to be looked up to! Don’t we all? Larry Richards observes, “It’s a very natural thing to want to be appreciated as men and women of God and to be looked up to with respect. It’s healthy to want to be a leader.” Unfortunately, many times, we want the respect and appreciation of others for the wrong reasons. We want people to look up to us so that we can look down on them. I expect this is one of the many sins at Babel.

For some reason, Christians often measure each other by the severity of their lifestyles. We look down on those who eat when we fast. Who’s lives are different than our own and we build our own tower of babel to put ourselves above others. This was the major problem of the religious leaders in Jesus’ day. They practiced a public kind of piety expecting to be honored and respected by the rabble around them. Jesus often confronted the “super-spiritual” for their pride and arrogant opinion of themselves. This should serve as a reminder for us to constantly reflect on our actions and motivations, and to correct ourselves when necessary.

Jesus taught us not to call each other exalted names like rabbi, teacher, master or father (Matthew 23:8-12). He did not want us to put others as inappropriate mediators between us and Himself. It’s often been said that the ground is level at the foot of the Cross. And that applies to us all. It should also be evident in church, for all of us are equal in Christ. When we gather in His name, it should be clear that here, “there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, male or female” (Colossians 3:11), and we could go on. You see Christ is all and is in us all. Charles Bugg wrote, “The church exists for everybody because we are brought into the community of faith not by our goodness but by God’s grace and forgiveness. The Bible is clear: “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23, NIV). Our sins may be different, but we have all sinned. Our failures may be our own, but our faith is the same in Christ. The ground is level at the cross. When we come to Him, we come to each other. That is true community.”

After the Ark landed on Mount Ararat, Genesis tells us how Noah’s family became dysfunctional.  The three sons of Noah, Ham, Shem, and Japheth had different personalities and related to their father in different ways.  Like every family, it seems, there is always a black sheep. In Noah’s family, that seems to have been Ham. Ham “uncovered” his father’s “nakedness,” and Noah responded with the age-old parental curse, “I hope you have a son that does to you that you have done to me!” I’m sorry to say that I can remember my mother saying similar things to me. However, God was in Noah’s curse on Ham’s son, Canaan.  There are many suggestions as to what Ham’s sin was. Michael Heiser makes a convincing argument that the sin was that Ham had sex with Noah’s wife. That was his own mother! He considers the context of the Phrase “uncovered his nakedness.” It shows up in the Old Testament on several occasions. To uncover a man’s nakedness is to have carnal knowledge of his wife. If this is the case, the offshoot of Ham’s relationship with his own mother gave the world Canaan. It explains why the curse fell on Canaan. This abhorrent sexual behavior became associated with the Canaanites.

Canaan was the father of the Canaanites. They became Israel’s greatest enemy. Kent Hughes observes that “The Canaanites were a sensually depraved people. Everything the pagan Canaanites did was an extrapolation of Ham’s lurid sensuality. From the moment Abram entered the land, the Canaanites were there spreading corruption… Leviticus 18 describes the degenerate practices of the Canaanites with a litany of euphemisms so as not to offend the reader, employing the word ‘nakedness’ twenty-four times.” Uncovering one’s nakedness in Leviticus was to perform some kind of disgraceful sexual practice. Thus, we have an explanation why God insisted that Israel drive out the Canaanites before they occupied the land.

Of course, Israel failed to do so. The lurid practices of the Canaanites infiltrated the Israelites during nearly every generation. It corrupted their faith in God and lead them to all kinds of sin. Samson fell victim to wiles of the Canaanite women. David did also. Solomon married the daughters of the princes of the Canaanites to build strong alliances with them to avoid war. Every generation fell prey to the seduction of the Canaanites. This helps me understand why God commands Israel to drive out the “Canaanites” and to obliterate every visible evidence of their presence. The Canaanites as a people no longer exist. But their practices do. We are still commanded to drive out the “Canaanites” and to eliminate any hint of their presence in our own lives.

The genealogies in Genesis chapters 5 and 11 present two intriguing contrasts. The first is the recurring theme of mortality, and the second is the significant difference in lifespan. But, back in Genesis chapter five, every birth recorded is followed by a recorded death. Remember? “And he died… and he died…and he died, ” over and over! It was a dramatic reminder to us all of our mortality. This was even more remarkable in the fact that these men who all died lived to be hundreds of years old. Shem lived for nearly 700 years. Eber lived nearly 500 years, and, of course, Methuselah lived nearly 1000 years. But they all ended with the refrain, “and he died.” The length of their lives didn’t matter. I remember my dad telling me that the most frequent phrase in the Bible is “And it came to pass.” I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do know that it’s true. All things will come to pass!

Notice that in the genealogy of chapter 11, no mention of death is made. Why? How strange is it that Shem’s son Arphachsad’s life is only 2/3rds the length of his father’s? Peleg’s 239 years is about half of his father Eber’s life. In the end, Hathor’s life span is only 138 years. You would think death would be even more prominent in this genealogy, but it is completely absent. Why? This genealogy is moving towards great hope for mankind. It’s introducing us to Abraham. The genealogy of chapter five ended with Noah, the man with three sons. All life died. The genealogy of Genesis 11 ends with Terah, the father of three sons. One being Abraham, through whom everyone who trusts God will live.

The man who teaches us how to trust God did so by obeying God’s command to sacrifice his son. The Angel stopped this sacrifice, and in keeping with Abraham’s prophetic answer to his son’s question, “Here is the wood, here is the fire, but where is the sacrifice,” God, himself, “provided the sacrifice.” God took death in the person of his son Jesus Christ and destroyed death itself for everyone who believes. Thus, even though our lifespans are so much shorter than even the shortest (138), to us, death has been destroyed. God so loved the world that he sent his only son, so that whoever believes in him, will not perish (read “die”), but will have everlasting life.