Genesis 11 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Genesis 11:1-9

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar [That is, Babylonia] and settled there.

3 They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They used brick instead of stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’

8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel [That is, Babylon; Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused.] – because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

A. Find Out:    

1. Where did men settle? v.2 (see also footnote)
2. What did they start making? v.3
3. What did they decide to build? v.4a
4. Why? v.4b
5. Why did the Lord confuse their language? v.6,7
6. What was the city called? v.9 (see also footnote)

B. Think:

1. How in this passage did men start moving towards the artificial?
2. How would you summarize the aim of their building a city?
3. What was the Lord’s objection to this?

C. Comment:

Again the sinful nature of mankind starts rearing up again. Their tendency was to turn away from God to their own self-reliance to “make a name” for themselves (v.4). They were not content with being part of God’s creation; they wanted to be masters of their destiny!

It is interesting to note that they stopped using stone, a natural material, and started making brick (v.3), an artificial, manufactured material. Nothing wrong in itself but a pointer nevertheless towards their general trend away from God and His provision for them.

 Again it is significant that the forming of a city created a sense of corporate human power that could move more and more away from the Lord to such a measure that He felt he had to scatter them. Collective power so often becomes godless. Often today, it is cities which become some of the more godless parts of our society, where corporate man ensures he is master of his own destiny without reference to God. Babylon was to become the symbol again and again, even to recent history of godless, man-centred activity.

D. Application?

1. Do I exclude the Lord from part of my life?
2. Do I have a tendency towards self-rule and self-reliance or God-rule and God-reliance.
3. Affirm today your total reliance on Him. 

Passage: Genesis 11:10-32

10 This is the account of Shem’s family line.

Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. 11 And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

12 When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. 13 And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.[e]

14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. 15 And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. 17 And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. 19 And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. 21 And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. 23 And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. 25 And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

26 After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

27 This is the account of Terah’s family line.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 28 While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. 29 Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah. 30 Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.

31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.

32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.

A. Find Out:

1. Whose family tree is this? v.10
2. How many sons did Terah have? v.26
3. Where were they living? v.28
4. What are we told about Abram? v.29,30
5. Where did they start out to go to? v.31
6. But where did they settle? v.32

B. Think:

1. How many generations were there from Noah to Abram?
2. How would you describe the difference between verses 10-26 and verses 27-32?
3. Who had been the last man previously noted in these studies who had had much said about him?

C. Comment:

First we have a family tree, from verses 10 to 26, being run through quickly, almost like a video recorder on “fast forward”, but as soon as we reach v.27 it slows to normal “Play” and we are able to observe in more detail the lives of those being spoken about.  

The first eleven chapters of the Bible range over a long period of history, covering a lot of people. The next 12 chapters are all about the one man, Abram. Suddenly God’s focus is upon one man who will become the father of His chosen nation Israel.

At this point we should note the flow of history from Noah to Abram. Many suggest that genealogies such as we’ve seen here are not meant to be comprehensive and all-inclusive i.e. they don’t cover every generation, merely sufficient to make the links. Whatever the truth, we have history here. From a specific point in “history” where God created the world, we have now come to a point where He takes a man whose life will be very special. We all are part of the planned flow of history from the time when God made the world to the time when He will end it.

D. Application?

Do I have a sense of being in the flow of God’s purposes in history, whereby future lives will be affected by what I am today?