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While the descendants of Noah dispersed, the "sons of men" did not. They chose to remain together thinking themselves wiser than the God of Noah. There appeared to be advantages to this. They all spoke the same language. They all had the same background. Disagreements were kept to a minimum. They found a plain that was fruitful and would accommodate everyone. This plain was in the land of Shinar which was located on the north end of the Persian Gulf. Instead of relying on "divine protection", they choose to build a walled city and fortify the walls.
Everyone seemed to be caught up in the excitement. Work became a pleasure as all anticipated the beautiful city. Making bricks became fun. Digging ditches became fun. All would have been well, but they built for the wrong reasons. The whole thing was designed to be an affront to God. Included in the city would be a tower. A tower reaching up into the heavens that would put them on a level with God. They would make for themselves a name in history. We do not find in history so much as one name of the tower builders. They did it to prevent the dispersion. This was the hand of Nimrod who, under the pretence of safety, contrived to keep them in one place where he could keep his eye on them.
But God was aware of what was going on, and it is well to note that He did not punish them in proportion to their sins. He did punish them in three ways.
All men were now scattered and would not come together again until the "Son of Man" comes the second time to sit upon the thrown of His glory and all nations shall be gathered before Him.
In the remaining part of Chapter 11 we are given the descendants of Shem up to Abraham, "the friend of God", and in the linage of Christ, "the promised seed". An interesting thing about this genealogy was their ages. No one born after the flood lived the 900 plus years that they did before the flood. Noah was the last, he lived 950 years. His son Shem lived 600 years. The next 4 lived less than 500 years. The next 3 lived less than 300 years. All from that point on lived less than 200 years except Abraham's father who lived 205 years. By the time we get to Moses, the average life span will be 80 years except for Moses who lived 120 years.
Now, lets look at Abraham or Abram as he was called at this point. He was born and raised in the country called Sumer, which lay north of the Persian Gulf on the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, in a city called Ur about 1700 BC. This city is often referred to as the Ur of the Chaldees even though the Chaldeans did not come into this area until around 600 BC. It was an idolatrous country where the children of Eber (Heber), a descendant of Shem, degenerated into moon worshippers.
Abram's fathers name was Terah. He worshipped the gods before the flood. It didn't take long for sin and disobedience to return to mankind, as it had been only about 300 years since the flood. Abram had a brother named Haran who became the father of Lot. Abram's wife was named Sarai. Abram describes her in Ch. 20:12 as the daughter of his father but not the daughter of his mother. She was 10 years younger than Abram. A relative is mentioned, Nabor, from whom Abram's son, Isaac, and his grandson, Jacob, obtained wives.
God called Abram to leave his home and go to a place that He would show him. Abram obeys and takes with him his father Terah, his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot. They head north toward Canaan. About halfway there they stop at Haran. It appears that Terah was unable to travel any further because of his age. They stay there approximately 5 years when Terah dies at the age of 205 years.
This ends lesson 3. Its major theme was the dispersion of the races. The central message was "disobedience brings judgment". We need to learn three things from this lesson:
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