A Rethinking of the Tower Of Babel Story 2011 Roy III and Donna Blizzard In the story of the Tower

of Babel we have been taught for many years that this story is telling us how come there are so many languages in the earth. Unfortuna tely, this semi-historical thinking has no truth in the actual historical spread of the languages on the Earth. If this is so, then what is this passage in the Old Testament really trying to tell us? The Bible is a wonderful book which relates the intimacy between man and God and every story in the Bible needs to be reviewed in this aspect. When we get sidet racked on the languages issue it tends to cloud the real story that God has been trying to communicate to his people for thousands of years. In Genesis 10:8-10 a man named Nimrod is first mentioned. 8) And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. 9) He was a m ighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hu nter before the LORD. 10) And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. In Chapter 11 we get a continuation of the story. 1) And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2) And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Sh inar; and they dwelt there. 3) 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. 4) 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 abr oad upon the face of the whole earth. 5) And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6) And the LORD 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. 7) Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not und erstand one another's speech. 8) So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence u pon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9) Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the languag e of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the fa ce of all the earth. The real key here is in the words themselves in Hebrew. , - . , , And all the earth were of sapha echat and debarim echadim. This phrase is translat ed in the King James as one language and one speech. However, the best translati on of echad is not one, but unified in purpose. So if we utilize this understand ing of echad it would read they were unified for a purpose in language and speec h. But this still is a bit of a problem. If we look at the words for speech and language in Hebrew both of these words ca n easily be translated as simple talking. In other words, these people at Babel were unified in their daily talking about some purpose that they had. Not that t hey all had to be speaking the same exact language, but they could have been. Bu t what was important to note was that they were all speaking the same plan or pu rpose. They were of one accord! When we look back at chapter 10 we see that old Nimrod -was a mighty hunter, but wha t was he hunting? Not animals. He was a kingdom builder. He was usurping God and mans authority and claiming for his own. He was setting himself up to be a God.

In other words he was running around overtaking other peoples and convincing the m either by speech or the sword that they needed to obey him. But what do we see in the text? Does the text support this? Nimrod is an ancient word. In the Brown Driver Briggs, they have no idea where t he word comes from etymologically. They equate it with Kings of Babylon etc, but what if this is just a simple Hebrew word that describes the aspects of an Evil Man. We certainly have examples of that in the text, just look at King Saul. Hi s real name wasnt Saul. Saul means asked for because thats what the people did was a sk for a King! So God gave them King Asked For. Could Nimrod be the same thing? Hebrew joins words together quite frequently. If we look at Nimrod, it seems to be a compound of two words, Neum and the word Ruud . Neum means utterance, declaration or a revelation, something spoken of by a prop het in an ecstatic state. What is unusual is that this word is usually found onl y in a construct form!, meaning it usually doesnt stand alone, it is joined with another word. Ruud means to wander or roam restlessly and in the Ethiopic can mean to attack, invade or run upon and invade. So if we just simply apply linguistic principles to these two words we would easily come up with Nimrod, a man who is a wandering and invading orator, someone who can control the masses because of his power of speech. In other words, a little Hitler. Who says history cant repeat itself if you dont properly look at it! If in fact this is what the word Nimrod means, what does this mean for us in rel ation to chapter 11 of Genesis? Part 2 Continuing from part 1, we need to ask ourselves a question, If we are dealing wi th naming and inheritance issues, where did Nimrod come from? This is of critical importance in our study because it will begin to reveal to us the roots of an i ssue that we must face in our walk of intimacy with God. Lets look back in Genesis at chapter 9 verse 18, And the sons of Noahwere Shem, Ham , and Japheth... Noah had 3 sons and from Ham springs the lineage of Nimrod. In C hapter 10 verse 6, And the sons of Ham;Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut and Canaan. The n on to Verse 8, And Cush beget Nimrod We need to look at these names maybe more like monikers than names, as God is tr ying to communicate to us an intimate story in minute detail, but weve been too f ocused for years on the trees to see the forest. In any case, whatever these nam es are they are very descriptive of the qualities found within each person and a re crucial to our correctly understanding the real story God wants us to know in our spiritual relationship with Him. So lets look at the rest of the Players in this story: Noah - means Rest, but more specifically here it would mean one who is at rest, so to speak, in the doing of the righteous labors of God. He is comfortable, happy , peaceful, and content in his intimate relationship with his God and his family . This is very descriptive in the instance when the Dove comes to the Ark and br ings the olive branch. God is saying to him that you are now at rest and at peac e; you are Kosher or fit for Gods purpose. There is a New Testament parallel if you remember. Ham means anger, hotness, and volatile. He is rebellious in his intimate relatio nship, such that one can have when they are eaten up with hatred and jealousy.

Shem can mean several things like name, reputation, designation, but here its be st translation may be the embodiment of the revealed character of YHWH (Gods name ). Japheth can mean expansive, extensive, and open, but probably means in its best sense here compliant. He hears and obeys in his intimate relationship out of lov e. Now lets look at the tragedy in Chapter 9 verses 21 ff and see if you can begin t o get a better understanding of the story. 21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his te nt. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it up on both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their f ather; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father s nakedness. 24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done unto h im. What we see here at first is a story of Violence, but yet in the end, something quite amazing. A son of the most righteous man on earth at the time becomes a pe rpetrator of the most violent act, outside of physical murder, against both Hams earthly creator and his heavenly creator; but it is also the most destructive ac t against Noahs intimacy with God and the peace which God had bestowed upon him a nd his family. Ham goes to his Fathers wifes tent, (the actual meaning of the text) into Noahs mar riage bed and forever defiles his father * and murders his relationship with his family and defies God. In Hams mind, to take away Noahs joy and peace and family relationship would forever damage the special relationship God and Noah and his family had. It forever changed the structure of Noahs family. *(Refer to Leviticu s 18:8 where seeing nakedness is a Hebrew idiom that means to have sex) Hams mind and spirit man was corrupted! It was incapable of anything else but hat red and violence as it had been eaten up in the dwelling on the earthly desires. Sin had produced the addictive mind! But, even through the most violent of acts of man against man and man against Go d, we see the hand of God in this new picture arising in the situation with Noah . After the violent Rape of Noah by Ham, Shem who embodies the totality of God and Japheth who embodies mankind in his relationship with God (one who hears and ob eys God) come in to Noah in love and in respect for his relationship with God an d cover his shame and defilement. This is and early representation of the acts o f the Messiah. Shem and Japheth bring comfort and healing to Noah in the name of God. What we s ee here is a perfect picture of the fruits our intimate relationship with God, w e also are to represent the totality of God dwelling within us in obedience to G od and with respect for man and thereby bring healing, comfort, restoration and salvation to all mankind. It is also 180 degrees opposite of all that Hams lineag e in the embodiment of his grandson Nimrod desires. In Chapter 11 verse 2, we see the descendants of Ham wandering. They had fled th eir family and the retribution that was upon them in the curse pronounced upon t hem by Noah, in chapter 9 verse 25, a servant of servants shall he be unto his bre thren. These people didnt want anything to do with being servants to anyone or any God; they desired greater things for themselves upon the face of the earth as t hey never understood who they were and what God really wanted of them. They were

eaten up with earthly desires, hatred of those who are godly, a desire to rever se their familys servitude and an overwhelming desire to reject the God and the s piritual heritage of Noah and all that He represents. But why are they trying to make a name for themselves and why is making a name g oing to prevent them from being scattered around? And what does this have to do with intimacy? And the sons of Noah were standing seemingly unified in purpose against Ham and his descendants. Part 3 Deuteronomy 5:9 (King James Version) Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy Go d am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, Continuing from part 2 we need to take a look at Canaan. Why did God via Noah pu t the curse on Canaan and not Ham? Simple, God had blessed all those who had com e out from the Ark and Noah wasnt about to try and reverse what God had declared, but Canaan was probably the first born of Ham and the next one in inheritable l ineage so he was the obvious recipient of Noahs curse.

Again, the answer to what is going on appears to be hidden in the moniker of Can aan- .In Hebrew we can clearly see two compounds again kun meaning a base or some established and ahnan meaning to practice soothsaying. So you have the off shoot o f Ham, the man who was a rapist of his father and a destroyer of Gods commandment s, coming forth to be the establisher of sorcery and soothsaying. One of the substantiations to this theory is to look at what comes forth from Ca naan, so we can simply look at the religion again of the Canaanites. The Canaani tes worship included human sacrifice as well as witchcraft and sorcery. One may recall the story of the witch of Endor, 1Samuel 28:7ff, which occurred in the Ca naanite city of Endor in the Jezreel Valley. The Canaanite worship also included cult prostitution. However there was a twist with the Canaanites, their cult pr ostitutes were men who were dressing up as women and then having sex with other men. Do you wonder where this oddity came from? Deuteronomy18:10ff may make a bi t more sense now. Ok, now we have the outcast clan of Ham,Canaan, and Nimrod, all deviants, occult ic practitioners and power hungry orators, seeking to overtake and overwhelm the ir own families and enslave them. Again, sound familiar? Take in this case the man called Nimrod. It is a descriptive, but not at least not the one he desired. Nimrod and the other relatives of Ham im had a purpose in mind as they began wandering. They wanted to make a for themselves. But why? Because they were rejecting the name that God n them in the Gan Eden the Garden of Eden, Adam! his name, or around h new name had give

Did you ever wonder why they were trying to make a new name for themselves? Let me ask you a question, Who are you? Mary, Bob, Ari, Moshe? Names grant you special privileges. They can grant you inheritances, power, authority, rank, etc. Just as a son has power granted from the Father, so the Father can take it away if he so chooses and give it to whom he wills. Think Jacob and Esau. What happens when we are born? We are a some body for sure, but we are nameless. We have not acquired an identity. Only after our parents name us do we have an identity in the world. It may take years for us to have a complete understanding of our identity as we learn intimately about who we are from our Father, Mother

and God. Some people go through their entire lives never truly understanding th emselves because they have never learned who they are from their parents and God , or they learned a False Identity from others. This seems to be the problem here, they learned a false identity from the one wh o provides them, HaNachash, the deceiver or HaSatan. Whatever your name is, you have certain attributes and power associated with you r name. You have rights of inheritance because you are the son or daughter of yo ur parents and there are certain things expected of you as inheritors. In the sa me way, Adams name had a power and authority associated with it. These wanderers were to be inheritors of the totality of all that God had bestowed upon Adam and his lineage upon this Earth. God was to give them rights and dominion as inheri tors of Adam. Further study on the name ADAM will come in another article. Needless to say, this bunch wanted to reject the totality of all that God was in their being progeny of Adam. They did not want intimacy with the creator. They were rejecting their God given being and purpose and they were busy wandering, n ot being satisfied with Gods rest, looking for another purpose and another identi ty. They were going to usurp the creators role and their familys position and beco me a society of narcissistic self worshippers and create a name, to be feared by other men, for themselves. This relates exactly to the destruction of the famil y structure. And here in Babel, for one thing they are trying to rename themselves because th ey didnt want to be named by God as servants of anyone especially their brothers. They didnt want to do penance for the sins against their family or God. They are trying to regain Power and Authority that was taken from them due to the acts o f Ham. They attempt this by forcing others to abrogate their Power and Authority to their oppressors. God, however, wont allow righteousness to be destroyed. Verse 4, And they said: Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

,- , , - In Babel, there is a problem. While they build a walled city and high imposing f ortress tower, it is manifest that it displays a total lack of dependence on God and the protection of His Name. They no longer believed in the power of the fam ily name Adam and all that imbued. One question it seems no one has ever asked is who were these people who Nimrod and his clan were trying to kill off and enslave, and why? Just as Cain killed t he righteous, this group of God hating people was killing the God loving people, the righteous, the sons of Noah who had survived the flood. They were setting u p a self styled fascist empire, just like Hitler. Historically, many kingdoms were built upon the enslavement of others and the th eft of the inheritances of others. Wealth back then was the same as today, tied up in the families and their possessions and that is exactly who and what was ta rgeted by Nimrod and his cronies. As the people of Babel built their Tower, the higher they placed themselves upon the earthly throne it was designed to send a message to all the other peoples o f the earth that they are the Dominant Power on the earth. You must fear us and bow down and worship us. This is much like the ancient Egyptians and their Pyram ids.

They separated themselves away from Gods creative purpose and they fell further f rom God and the other people. No intimacy. Their love of self was separating man from man and man from God as it causes a loss in unity and empathy and a birth of hatred because it caused a focus on only their own wants and desires. When you revolt against God and his creation, God and his creation will revolt a gainst you and you will find yourself being scattered, in more ways than one. The higher they put themselves up in their own minds; God turns them over to a r eprobate mind. Since they are no longer renewing their minds in God and in that intimate creative relationship with Him, their minds becomes seared; sickly and unable to hear words intelligently. Let him that hath an ear hear what the spiri t says to the churches. When a person becomes addicted to anything, be it drugs, sex, power or self, the mind changes tremendously. At Dr. Amens Clinic inCaliforniahe has shown definiti vely how the brain atrophies and becomes abnormal in long term addictive patient s. They become confused and it becomes very difficult for them to make cognitive decisions. Because of the brains confusion it would become difficult to communi cate with others in a rational and purposeful way. To see if what Im telling you is true all you have to do is try and hold a rational conversation with an addic tive person. As these people at Babel built their city God wasnt pleased at all. He knew what was in their hearts, sin. Their lawlessness in every form was abounding. They ma nifested the totality of all that was evil in their very plan to destroy the rig hteous off the face of the earth. This forced God to mandate the consequences fo r breaking His Law, a scattering. And here is the keys again, misunderstood beca use of the past failure to see the path of Gods word. 6) And the LORD said, Behold, the people [is] one, and they have all one languag e; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, whic h they have imagined to do.

; , , , From the Hebrew we can see that these people were unified in purpose and speech, but in what? In the creating of false prophecies and dreams.

The word HaChelam- has the meaning of dream or vision of a prophetic nature. Here uld be a dream or vision of a false prophet such as in Deuteronomy 13:1ff. They were fabricating a false vision of what they were to do and in the word Yezmu - we se where it was leading. Yezmu means to devise evil, specifically wicked acts such as murder, incest, unchastity, adultery, idolatry, etc. These evil people were building a kingdom based on the d had created and asked us to uphold. Right after Noah aved from destruction; the evil seed had found fertile ighteous of the earth again! But God had a plan and it exact opposite of what Go and his family had been s soil and threatened the r was implemented.

7) Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not u nderstand one another's speech. 8) So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9) Therefo re is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the langu age of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. The Hebrew word that is important here is yaphets . Yaphets means here to scatter as an army routs an enemy. It had nothing to do with God creating all sorts of lan guages or races and this causing a dispersal. God allowed them to suffer defeat

at the hands of his righteous inheritors. They had failed to repent and turn tow ards God and they suffered as a result. God confused their unified purpose found within their everyday speech. Because t hey were confused they couldnt work towards a common goal any longer and therefor e they became weak and were scattered, and by who, by the real inheritors of the blessings of God, Shem and Japheths family as agents of God. Intimacy with God had seen one attack after another, yet God always prevailed ov er the evil that had tried to obliterate the righteous that were being intimate with YHWH. And Abraham who loved God and was intimate with Him came forth from the line of the Righteous Shem. Deuteronomy 5:10,And shewing mercy unto thousands of them th at love me and keep my commandments. This is a story of family and what can happen even to the best of families when sin creeps in and true intimacy is compromised. They lost everything when their focus turned from YHWH and turned inward to self, even to their lives. http://www.artofredirection.com