Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

We are continuing this morning in our series from the book of Genesis where we have been looking for images of the Gospel message in this book of beginnings.

This initiative is called “The Gospel Project” and this is our 5th week in and already we have hit a bit of a milestone.

Today we will be finishing up with what Biblical Scholars call “Primeval History”.

The word “Primeval” is from two different words means “First” and “Age”.

So this is the first age of human existance and while it covers, hundreds even thousands of years there is not a lot of detail given to us.

You might have noticed this as we went through the past several weeks that the text really presents the happenings more in broad strokes then in any level of detailed description.

We don’t have everything that we could know from this first “age”, but we do have everything that we really need to know.

We know why the world was created: To reflect the beauty, creativity and goodness of the Creator

We know why we were we created: To have a good relationship with the Creator and the world that He created

We know why those relationships are so hard: Because we rebel against our Creator in our sin, missing the mark that He aimed us at and it changed everything

We know how much our creator hates our sin and rebellion: He is willing to do whatever it takes to rid his world of every evil thing, everything that is contrary to His goodness.

(foretaste of this example in the flood)

We know how much our creator loves us: He is willing to do whatever it takes to preserve mankind and restore the goodness of his creation and the goodness of his relationship with us.

The very “First Age” has taught us a lot of foundational truths in just a short time, and this final story in the “Primeval History” record in Genesis helps us to understand how and why we went from one family with one language to the many languages that we have today.

We didn’t go into a lot of the details of it last week, but we did mention how the catastrophic event of a World Wide Flood has changed the course of all life on earth.

One of the more striking examples of this is in how long people used to live.

While in Noah’s day it was not uncommon for people to live more than 900 years, after the flood the Lord declared that the days of men would be only 120 years.

So mankind started living for fewer and fewer years until today when we hardly know anyone who has lived past 100 years old.

In fact, in our country it is such a rarity that if you live that long you get a letter from the President of the United States congratulating you.

I only know this because Rachel’s Grandpa Joe who passed away a few years back made it to 101, and I got to see his letter.

So the flood answers for us the question of why man is no longer living as long.

The last story in the “Primeval History helps us to understand what happened that we have such diversity in our languages, cultures and ethnic groupings.

This last story is the story where God used the mixing of languages to disperse people from the city and Tower of Babel.

Before we get into the story, I wanted to do a little exercise with you all to get us thinking about the importance of language and essential it is to being human.

So this “excercise”...Ok, it is really a game, but it sounds more educational to call it an exercise…so it is similar to the board game “Mad Gab” if you have ever played that.

So what is going to happen is I am going to show you on the screen like 3 or four words in a row and at first they are not going to make any sense to you.

But when you consider the sounds of those words together in this order a new word or phrase will reveal itself.

Life on the earth

While we didn’t go into a lot of detail last week about the many ecological changes that the World Wide flood

The best way to explain it is probably to just start with an example so let’s just get started.

has Science uncovered so many unique geological, biological and historical

You Shore New Dull (Use your noodle)

Of Lions Quarrel (A Flying Squirrel)

You Shore New Dull (Use your noodle)

Language Barriers / Lost in Translation

Of Lions Quarrel (A Flying Squirrel)

Why Tail Huff Hunt (White Elephant)

Dew Wino Who (Do I know you)

Ape Hand Hub Hair (A panda bear)

Mike Ranch Heal Wren (My grandchildren)

Sea Can’t Higher Dove Fit (Sick and tired of it)

Sea Can’t Higher Dove Fit (Sick and tired of it)

Isn’t it incredible how our minds work, because if you go back and read those same words again you can totally see it and you wonder how you ever missed it.

Words and language are a powerful thing.

Tension

Isn’t it incredible how our minds work, because if you go back and read those same words again you can totally see it and you wonder how you ever missed it.

Now I know some of us here are Biblical Scholars and we might think that playing a game like this during the sermon is beneath our academic prowess, but for those of us who are more fun, something like this will stick in our brains all week.

So when someone asks us what the sermon message was on this past Sunday we might actually remember.

The Tower of Babel, where God confused the languages and dispersed the people into different lands, cultures and ethnic groups.

Now I know some of us here are Biblical Scholars and we might think that playing a game like this during the sermon is beneath our academic prowess, but for those of us who like fun, something like this will stick in our brains all week.

So when someone asks us what the sermon message was on this past Sunday we might actually remember.

The Tower of Babel, where God confused the languages and it sent out the people into different groups and that is why we have languages, cultures and ethnic groups.

Now I know some of us here are Biblical Scholars and we might think that playing a game like this during the sermon is beneath our academic prowess, but for those of us who like fun, my hope is that something like this will stick in our “noodle” all week.

So when someone asks us what the sermon message was on this past Sunday we might actually remember.

The Tower of Babel, where God confused the languages and it sent out the people into different groups and that is why we have so many languages, cultures and ethnic groups.

But is that all this story is about?

Is it just an explanation of how so many people groups developed from just the 8 people who were saved from the flood or is there more?

Particularly as we look at this story through the lens of the Gospel.

I think it is fascinating and so helpful to look at the Biblical accounts historically and consider how they all fit together, but since the entire Bible is about the good news of salvation in Jesus, “the Gospel” it is also a good practice for us to search for the message of the Gospel even all the way back here in Primeval history.

So turn with me to (p. 8) and Ill pray and we will continue in our Gospel Project this morning.

Truth

Last week we ended the story of the flood in Chapter 9 where God re-establishes his covenant with Noah.

In the midst of the many changes that the Flood brought, God affirms some things that have not changed.

1.

That the image of God remains in every man

2. That man should be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth

Following the renewal of those truths the book of Genesis goes on to list the many generations that come from Noah and his family.

Often it simply gives names of “this particular father” who “begat that particular son” but occasionally there are interruptions to the list.

The author of Genesis gives us these short little stories amidst the geneologies to help explain how and or why the lineage of these men went this particular way.

The first of these stories involved Noah and his three sons and is found right away at the end of chapter 9. Noah does something shameful, one of his sons does something even more shameful and then Noah pronounces a curse on that Son, while blessing the other two.

Then the lineage report begins again, but we have a better understanding now of why the line of one son heads one way where the others head in a different direction.

Moving a little further down the line and we get a chilling description of a man named “Nimrod” who was a descendant of Noah through the cursed Son.

This is what is said of Nimrod:

So here we have the first mention of the “Kingdom of Babel” and it was a kingdom of this “mighty hunter” named Nimrod.

Now in our culture here in Wisconsin, calling someone a “mighty hunter” would be an honorable compliment right?

but that is not the connotation of this label for Nimrod.

He was not after turkeys, dear or bear - he was a hunter of men.

A ruthless leader where the motto of “Might makes Right” rang true.

When it says he was a “mighty hunter before the LORD” it means that he was constantly using his ability to challenge the authority of God.

And this man began his reign in the city of Babel.

Then the report of the lineage picks up again.

If we were to spend the time to read through all the lineage here in chapter 10, then you would probably notice that there is repeated mention of how these various people are listed by “thier clans, their languages, their lands and their nations” (,) and that might be confusing because it seems that we haven’t gotten to the story of Babel yet, but the Bible is not always laid out Chronologically.

In fact quite often the Bible will try and get the lesser facts and lists out of the way first so that it can leave the reader with the most important message last.

Then the lineage continues.

It’s kind of like when my children eat trail mix.

I have a rule that if you want to eat trail mix then you take some and eat everything that is there.

In other words no mining for your favorite item and leaving the rest in the bag.

Well at times I will observe my children eating all the nuts and berries first so that they end up with a pile of chocolate at at the end.

They want the chocolate to be the taste that remains in their mouth when they are done.

That is what the author is doing here.

So with that somewhat lengthy introduction, let’s get to the chocolate...

Tension

Truth

Think of our “Mad Gab” excercise here.

What would that be like do you think?

That every person that you ever met in your life spoke the same language using exactly the same words.

We have a hard enough time just understanding the different dialects of English.

England's English, Ireland's English, Australia’s English and the English of the Uppers, “don’t you know”.

But at this point in history every person spoke the same language using the same words.

Communication was much more fluid.