The End of Pre-Abrahamic History

[0:00] I want to begin tonight with an announcement at the conclusion of tonight's lesson.

[0:15] ! We will have looked at key scriptures in Genesis chapters 1 to 11.! Now, why is that significant?!

[0:30] That is called pre-Abrahamic history. Many of the very liberal theologians over the centuries, the years, decades, liberal denominations, liberal universities, liberal seminaries, have taken the position that pre-Abrahamic history, which is Genesis 1, chapter 1 through chapter 11, are fiction.

[1:00] Can't be believed. They claim these chapters are filled with metaphors and symbols, but do not represent real people or events.

[1:13] As the liberal version of the story goes, the words of pre-Abrahamic history are essentially Jewish fables made up around campfires, later written down purporting to be truth.

[1:30] And I didn't look it up, but they actually say that Moses didn't write the book of Genesis, or for that matter, the first five books, that it was written by three people.

[1:43] And this is the kind of stuff that you have to deal with when you're dealing with that. Part of the problem had to do with Charles Darwin.

[1:56] Darwin wrote a book that was overtly racist. Today, the people that hold to the truthfulness of Darwin and evolutionary theory and all that, they don't even like to tell you the title of the book.

[2:14] You'll never hear this on national public radio. They call it The Origin of the Species. The actual title is much more revealing. It is on the origin of the species by means of natural selection or the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life.

[2:39] It doesn't take a mental giant to figure out that book is quite racist. I always remember when I was in high school and I was in biology, the teacher, fortunately for me, was one of the football coaches, so I got a really good grade.

[2:58] But I always remember, Mr. Stein, he started out, he said, I'm required, I went to high school in New Jersey. I'm from here, but my dad got transferred to New York City with Phyllis Petroleum.

[3:09] And he started out and he said, I'm required by state law to teach Darwinian evolution. But he said, before we start, he said, I'm going to do that because it's a law.

[3:23] But before we start, I want you to know what I'm going to teach you is absolutely impossible. It did not happen. And then the rest of the semester we talked about Darwin and evolution.

[3:40] I slept through most of it. Charles Darwin sailed around the world from 1831 to 1836 as a naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle.

[3:55] His experiences and observations caused him to develop the theory of evolution through natural selection. We also call that survival of the fittest.

[4:08] And that's had some tragic consequences. I'm throwing this in for free, too. It's not in your notes. When the Russians went into Afghanistan and that kind of became their Vietnam.

[4:20] But they killed over a million Afghans. And they interviewed the Russian general as they were leaving, fleeing. And he said they made reference to that.

[4:34] I mean, they even dropped things from airplanes that looked like little toys for children, dolls and things. They were explosives. And a child would pick it up and blow off his hand, blow off a leg.

[4:45] And he said, we're all part of evolution. And he said, so what if you die early? We're all just going to be worm food.

[4:56] That was his whole attitude. I was talking to Diane at night. I always remember when Genghis Khan was conquering the world. He got to Afghanistan. And he said, boys, we're not going in there.

[5:08] We're going around this country. I've met Afghanis. Boy, they're tough people. Same thing happened with Diane's people in Scotland. The English got to the northern part of England. They said, we're not going in there.

[5:20] They looked at her relatives and said, we're not going to go from here. That really happened many generations ago. When Darwin published his Origin of the Species, theologians bought into it.

[5:32] The liberal school bought into it. Lock, stock, and barrel. And over the years, even to our own day, they tried to explain the geologic table and evolution in terms that could be believed without doing harm to the science behind it.

[5:54] Now, they cared a lot less about doing harm to God's Word and God's people. But that's what we were stuck with. Well, we have the perfect answer to any who would mistreat or deny the truthfulness of Genesis.

[6:13] And of all the places, this answer is found in the book of Luke, chapter 24. Jesus has just been crucified, buried, and this is what transpired.

[6:27] The very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus. Remember the road to Emmaus? They were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

[6:42] And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus drew near and went with them.

[6:57] Now they're joined by the Lord Jesus Christ. But, next sentence, their eyes were kept from recognizing Him. So they didn't recognize Him, but it was Jesus.

[7:09] Now, it's interesting, they joined together. That was very common in Israel. There were highway robbers. And the more numbers you had traveling with you, the less likely you were going to be robbed. So that was very common in that day.

[7:21] And He said to them, that's Jesus, what is this conversation that you were holding with each other as you walk? And they stood looking sad.

[7:34] One of them named Clopas answered him, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that happened in these days?

[7:45] And He said to them, What things? And they said to Him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed in word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to be condemned to death and crucified Him.

[8:06] But we had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel. In other words, we hoped He was the Messiah. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things have happened.

[8:22] Moreover, some women in our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find His body, they came back saying that they had seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive.

[8:37] Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but Him they did not see. And He said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer in these things and enter into His glory?

[9:01] Now listen to the key verse. And beginning with Moses, and all the prophets, Jesus interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.

[9:22] The Lord took them back to Moses. He took them back to Genesis and began to describe to them. Here we have Christ Jesus.

[9:32] Jesus, very God of very God, second person of the Trinity, creator of the universe, the great I Am, sustainer, redeemer, and so much more, placing His seal of approval on the authenticity, inerrancy, and authority of Genesis.

[9:56] Jesus believed in a literal interpretation of Genesis, and we should as well. If it's good enough for Him, it's good enough for me.

[10:11] In the tenth chapter of the book of Genesis, we find the genealogy of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. These were the three sons of Noah. And apparently in that order, Shem we know was the oldest.

[10:23] You may recall from last time that Ham was involved in an undescribed indiscretion with his father, and Noah wasn't very happy.

[10:39] In fact, when Noah found out, he cursed Ham's son, Canaan. Interesting that he would do that. But it's also interesting that Canaan's descendants, we call them the Canaanites, ultimately became the historic and bitter enemies of what would later become Israel.

[11:03] So they were the bitter enemies. Well, that begs the question, are there Canaanite descendants today? So I did some research, and apparently so.

[11:14] Through studies of genetics and DNA, historically, historically, the Canaanites lived in Israel, larger Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.

[11:28] So that surrounding area to the nation Israel. Today, in fact, it is believed that the people of Lebanon are, about 90% of them, descended from the Canaanites.

[11:41] But all of these areas either have been or are to this day bitter enemies of the state of Israel. Bitter enemies.

[11:53] So here, in the 10th chapter of Genesis, we see the descendants of Noah. We see Shem, who was the godly line.

[12:05] We see Ham, who was not part of the godly line. And we also learn that Ham's son, Canaan, had several sons.

[12:16] And one of them is probably a name you'll recognize. He was named Nimrod. I cannot imagine naming my little boy Nimrod. It's like having a daughter named...

[12:29] What's the bad name in the Bible? I'm deaf. Oh, Jezebel. Yeah. Should have said that. That name is probably familiar to us. Nimrod.

[12:39] Nimrod was a mighty hunter. Which brings us to Genesis chapter 11. And there's something interesting here. We can't really calculate exactly how much time has transpired from the flood of Noah until the beginning of chapter 11.

[13:00] We do know, of course, people lived a long time. And apparently, these people took God seriously, His command to replenish the earth. One thing is certain, after eight people walked off the ark, they begin the process of replenishment.

[13:19] they started having kids, sons and daughters, probably twins and triplets. Another thing that is certain, the sinfulness of man did not decrease as a result of the flood.

[13:37] That didn't apparently have much of an impression on the descendants of the three sons of Noah. Noah. The sinfulness of Nimrod's time was just as widespread as in the days of Noah.

[13:52] And you know what? That sinfulness has not decreased in our day. We read this in Genesis chapter 11, verses 1 to 4.

[14:05] Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar or Sinar and settled there.

[14:20] And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar.

[14:34] Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.

[14:49] They didn't want to be dispersed. What did God told them repeatedly? Disperse. They didn't want to. So we see in these opening words of chapter 11 that there's only one language on earth.

[15:05] And only one word for words. I mean, the same word all over that region, all over the earth. The people group of Nimrod migrated but not very far, settling in a place called Shinar.

[15:25] I wonder if anyone's ever been to Shinar. Shinar is the ancient land of Babylon. It would later be called Babylon. Babylon. Today, we call that Iraq.

[15:39] Most of it is Iraq. Some of it spills over in Iran and some of the other countries, but the majority of it's Iraq. But there was a problem. On more than one occasion, God had commanded that people spread out across the earth and populate it.

[15:59] instead, they migrated a very short distance, saw what they liked, and settled down. So we're not going any further than this.

[16:11] This is good land. This was sin being committed by sinful people under obvious sinful leadership.

[16:22] They've got sinful leadership that's directing them. So under Nimrod, they settled in Shinar for the express purpose of building a city.

[16:35] Now, why would you want to build a city? Well, there's only one answer to that. This is rank human pride. That's what forced them to do that.

[16:47] Pride. They're going to settle here in a city in violation of the instructions they had been given by God to disperse over all the earth.

[17:02] Nimrod and his people are directly and blatantly defying the God of heaven. Not a smart thing to do. Now, Nimrod has a problem.

[17:15] He wants to build a city. But what's he going to make it out of? What's he going to make it out of? I've actually been up to the border.

[17:26] I've been to Kuwait and been up to the border with Iraq and looked in. There's no rocks in there. This is a desert area. This is sand. There's very few rocks.

[17:38] They had no rocks. So that's Nimrod's problem. What's he going to make this city out of? Having no rocks, but having plenty of sand and some dirt, so he's going to manufacture bricks.

[17:55] And that is precisely what he did. And the scriptures say he used bitumen for mortar. And that's very instructive. So what is bitumen?

[18:06] Well, in the United States we call bitumen asphalt. And we get our asphalt from the manufacturing process in refineries, but it also can be produced in nature.

[18:19] And it is over in the Middle East. It is a substance produced through the distillation of crude oil that is known for its waterproofing and adhesive properties.

[18:30] It's a waterproofer. And again, it can occur in nature. Deposits of naturally occurring bitumen form at the bottom of ancient lakes where prehistoric organisms have since decayed and been subjected to heat and pressure.

[18:48] I found out during my research, I didn't put this down, but there's an outcrop of asphalt, if you will, in western Canada, I think it's in Alberta area, that if they took it all, it would cover the entire country of England.

[19:04] It would cover the whole, every square foot of England. Might not be a bad idea, I've been to England. Bitumen also has another name, probably more familiar to us if we read the Bible, pitch.

[19:18] It's pitch. It was used for the mortar of Nimrod's bricks, but it appears that they may have covered the entire brick with bitumen.

[19:33] Bitumen, or pitch, appears elsewhere in the Bible. It was used as the waterproofing agent to cover the basket.

[19:44] Remember when Moses' mother put him in a basket and put him adrift on the Nile River? And I've been right in that area. In fact, we looked off our little barge, it was a nice barge, at bulrushes.

[19:58] We used to sing about that when we were a little kid. And I've been on the Nile and seen that. But the waterproofing was pitch. And it protected Moses from the Nile River.

[20:12] water. It was also used to cover Noah's ark to keep out the water. And there was plenty of water since it was above all the mountains of the earth.

[20:25] But why would Nimrod insist on covering the bricks with pitch or bitumen? We know from verse 4 that he's going to build a tower to reach to heaven.

[20:39] Now I don't think even Nimrod thought he's going to be able to reach into the upper stratosphere. I mean I can't imagine that. But he is building an edifice to himself that would rival the God of heaven.

[20:54] So why waterproof the structure with bitumen or pitch? Nimrod's making a statement. He's defying the God of the universe and he's saying you can send all the global floods you want in the future.

[21:12] We are waterproofed and we will defeat your plans. You will never drown us out because we've waterproofed our structure.

[21:24] He also says in verse 4 that these people are going to make a name for themselves and refuse to disperse over the entire world. Well they made a name for themselves. We still talk about them don't we?

[21:37] We still talk about them. It's interesting that a group of explorers from Europe in the 5th century B.C. traveled to that area of Babylon and they wrote down their findings which has been discovered that the ruins they saw there contained pitch.

[21:55] When they would look at the bricks of Babylon they were covered in pitch. Well the Lord saw of this and he was not pleased. he was not pleased at all.

[22:08] So we pick that up in verse 5 and the following. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built and the Lord said behold they are one people and they have all one language and this is only the beginning of what they will do and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them although it will be sinful.

[22:42] Come I love this phrase let us go down and there confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech.

[22:54] It's interesting that God uses that phrase let us go down. I believe that is a direct reference to the trinity. It's similar to when God said let us make man in our image.

[23:08] The trinity is involved here. God is concerned because now in Nimrod's mind nothing is going to be impossible. He'll try anything to defy God.

[23:21] And I think that's a way of saying that no sin will be beyond man's reach to commit it. God. So the triune God came down and had a plan to get the people to fulfill his command to disperse across the earth.

[23:41] And what a plan it is. He came down and he confused their language. They all had one language.

[23:54] And now all of a sudden they can't communicate with each other. They can't communicate. They begin to instantly break into people groups that could understand each other and leave that area.

[24:10] And you can just imagine you go up to a guy and you say something and he doesn't understand you. You go to the next guy. Well finally you get to somebody and he understands. So they go together and find other people. And so everybody's starting to split up into the groups where at least people can communicate.

[24:27] That had to be a sight to see. That had to be a sight to see. And here is the result starting in verse 8. So the Lord dispersed them from over the face of all the earth.

[24:44] And they left off building the city. How do you build a city? You tell your construction chief, well this is what it needs you to do. He can't understand you. And you can't understand him.

[24:57] They just abandoned. Therefore its name was called Babel because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth and from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

[25:14] And by the way Diane's put a quote up here that pastors, I've got a church in California, he's on John MacArthur's staff at the Master's Seminary, but that really fits with our lesson tonight.

[25:26] So you might look at that while we're doing this. Nimrod and his people just abruptly abandoned the building of this sinful edifice. They can't communicate, so they begin to disperse in people groups, language groups.

[25:43] And there he is called Babel. That is how Moses recorded it using a Hebrew word, which means to jumble or to confuse.

[25:55] If you've ever heard the phrase you are babbling, that is where it comes from. That's where it comes from. I have a theory, and it's only a theory.

[26:07] I've never read this anywhere, so it's my theory, meaning it's probably wrong. You know, all over the earth we have cave dwellings and cave drawings.

[26:17] archaeologists go and look at those things, and they claim that these were ancient peoples that evolved sometimes hundreds of thousands, sometimes I want to say millions of years ago.

[26:31] They evolved from apes. They date these findings in the multiple thousands, millions, whatever. They try to one-up each other. I always remember when the leakies and they found, they said they found the remains of a human female.

[26:49] In reality, what they found was a bone fragment about as big as my thumb. And they reconstructed that, well, this is what she looked like.

[27:00] And they claimed, I think it was 2.3 million years old. So it took back. But I heard them being interviewed, this is back in like the 50s or 60s. and the reporter said, well, how do you know this bone is 2.5 million years old?

[27:18] And the leakies said, well, because the strata that we're digging in is at the 2.5 million year level going back in time.

[27:30] Okay, well, how do you know that? Because we're finding bones that are 2.5 million years old. Totally circular reasoning. They came all the way around.

[27:43] I'm trying to remember her name. Lucy? Yeah, I started to say Susie. I knew there was an E on it, but Lucy. That's my theory. When the human race was dispersed by language groups, they had to stay somewhere on their journey.

[28:05] it's not like they could go to a town 100 miles away or 1,000 miles away. There weren't any. They're walking on land that's never been walked on by humans. And they're not going to find a Hampton Inn or a Motel 6.

[28:22] Caves provided shelter from weather and animals that probably like to eat people. And they could stay there for long periods of time until they moved on.

[28:36] Perhaps that's where the cave drawings came from. I mean, why not? And it's interesting that cave drawings on almost every continent depict the story of a massive flood.

[28:49] That's interesting. It's also interesting that many people around the world still live in caves. I'll tell you something else that's interesting. They found cave drawings in Africa of dinosaurs.

[29:01] dinosaurs. Now, the evolutionists say dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. They don't want to talk about the cave drawings in Africa of dinosaurs.

[29:12] They don't want to talk about the dinosaurs remains being found in South America that still has skin on it. Still has skin. And they've done the DNA and there's protein in there.

[29:25] That should have been gone a long time ago. We won't get into that tonight. I guess I just did. Chapter 11 continues with the genealogical tables of the descendants of Shem.

[29:38] Again, the godly line. And I'm positive that before you go to bed night you'll want to study all those on your own. When we come to verse 24 we are told of a man.

[29:54] This man is named Nahor. He had a son named Terah. That ought to start getting a little familiar to you.

[30:05] Terah grew up. He had three sons which he named Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Now if those aren't familiar to you, you need to be reading more in the Old Testament.

[30:19] Haran, I'm going to call it that, had a son named Lot. Sound familiar? But Haran died early. Remember all those guys were living hundreds of years?

[30:30] Haran died. I mean, probably in his 30s. And he died. Abram took for himself a wife named Sarai.

[30:42] Later, Abram would be renamed by God into Abraham and Sarai would be renamed Sarah. And we are told very early now, still in chapter 11, that Sarai was barren and could not have children.

[31:01] And we know that story, don't we? Because wars are still being fought over Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar and the unfaithfulness of Abraham in believing the promise of God.

[31:17] And we see chapter 11 concluding with these words. Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran his grandson and Sarai his daughter in law his son Abram's wife and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan but when they came to Haran they named it in honor of his dead son they settled there.

[31:48] The days of Terah were 205 years and Terah died in Haran. By concluding chapter 11 we have brought to a close pre-Abrahamic scripture.

[32:06] Far from fiction this is a detailed and inspired description of what occurred from the creation of the universe to the creation of the Hebrew nation from whom the Messiah would come.

[32:25] So it's a great read as we work through the Bible. Let's close with a word of prayer. Father thank you for the day the grace and mercy by which we draw every breath.

[32:42] One of the Old Testament prophets said you hold our very breath in your hand. We can't take another breath without the grace of God. Lord we thank you and we thank you for this lesson.

[32:52] We thank you for your word which is perfect. And Lord we thank you for this church where we can come and study and worship you in spirit and in truth.

[33:04] We pray all this in Jesus name amen. Amen.