Beginnings (Genesis 1-11) / Lesson 12: The Third Rebellion - The Judgment at Babel

All right, I thought it might be just me, myself, and I here tonight when I saw the rain out there. So thank you for coming and being here. And I can't believe it, but this is our last session that we're gonna be walking through. And I really have way too much, not, I called out a lot of stuff, but not having the one that I couldn't teach just kind of messed me up and threw me behind a week. But I'm just excited about kind of coming to this. I hope, and I said when we started, that my goal was that our Bibles would wake up and that we would begin to see some things in Scripture that maybe were a little confusing in the past, but over time of walking through this, that all of a sudden they're starting to make a little bit of sense. And hey, if it's still confusing, let me tell you a story. I was taking Hebrew and my first semester, you're basically just lost. I mean, it's a language that I had taken Greek and taken Latin and Latin is pretty easy because it's basically, it's all our letters. We use the Latin letters. Greek, most of our words actually come from Greek. So it was pretty easy to kind of do that. But Hebrew is like nothing that we do. It doesn't look like it. I mean, it looks like, and I've always said, it looks like chicken scratch.

It really does. It just looks like got on there. So anyway, I was in my second semester of my first year and as I was taking it and we were going, it felt like I'm starting to come out of the fog. And I called my dad, we were talking about some other things and I said something, we were talking about Hebrew. Of course, my dad was a pastor and had gone through seminary and stuff. And so I said, well, dad, I said, I feel like I'm in Hebrew. I feel like I'm finally coming out of the fog and I really feel like it's gonna start making sense. And he goes, well, Dave, I never came out of the fog when it came to Hebrew. And so when we come to this, I'm hoping that we're coming out of the fog, but hey, if you say, hey man, I'm not there yet. That's okay. I hope that we're kind of helping you with some things. So tonight we're gonna continue on I'm gonna try to bring some things together, but we're in Genesis 11. And as we're looking at Genesis chapter 11, remember last week, I talked about the fact that 10 and 11 really are combo. Chapter 10 is really the aftermath of Genesis 11. So in Genesis 10, the table of nations, we are learning about all the nations. And I told you, it's the only place you find it.

Nowhere else in the world has a complete lineage like that of the nations of the world. And so we see that and we look at that. And some people have said, well, man, it looks like Genesis 11 should have been before it. Well, the way it's set up, Genesis 11 tells you why Genesis 10 happened. And so it's a good kind of balance to look at. So again, as we walk into this, I'll just start off kind of like I did when we began is to remind ourselves that we have to think different when we come to our scriptures, that we don't realize how much we have a cultural bias when we read the Bible about from a Western culture mindset, from a 21st century believer, from our culture. And let me just kind of say it this way. This past week, been last week, I guess now, I was reading in the Bible in my morning time with the Lord. And as I was reading it, it may have been this week, about the road to Emmaus. You remember the story in Luke chapter 24, the two that were on the road to Emmaus? Before that, it tells about how that the women went to the tomb and whenever they got to the tomb, Jesus wasn't there. It shocked everybody. They were surprised, even though from our perspective, he'd been telling them, you know, how could you be surprised? He's been telling you this was gonna happen.

And then it says they went back to the disciples and told them that he's not there. And there were angels there that told them that he was risen from the dead. And it says that the disciples thought they were out of their mind. I want you to think about that for just a minute. Why would they think that? Why would they had been told over and over, Jesus to the ones on the road to Emmaus said, how can you not know this? And whenever I read it, I remember writing in my journal that morning and just talking to the Lord. And I said, how many things am I not seeing in scripture? Because. of a bias that I have. You see, they had a religious bias about who the Messiah was, how the Messiah was supposed to be. They had a very strong bias about, you know, like most of us, Hey, somebody quits breathing and they're dead and they're not coming back, especially three days later. And so as we come to this, we just have to be reminded that, Hey, we have more of a bias than we want to admit. We have maybe from whatever you grew up in a denomination. If you grew up in church, you've got denominational type biases. So do I. And so as we're coming to scripture, we just want the, the, the Lord to guide us. And this is why I'm encouraged that we have the Holy spirit dwelling in us that he said he'll guide us into all the truth. So as we're walking into this, we've talked about this idea of three different rebellions and over and over, we've talked about it tonight. We're going to be looking at the third rebellion, but I just wanted to give you this again, just to remind us about what we had there. The first rebellion was Genesis chapter three was in the garden. We saw about what happened there. Whenever there was a high ranking spirit called the serpent that came and deceived Eve. And then Adam joined in a rebellion against

God. We then go to Genesis chapter six. We looked at that one where the, the sons of God, they they corrupted the human genome. And in doing that, they brought about evil rulers. And in that there was also, you know, a response that God had to make there. And then we're going to be looking tonight at Genesis 11. And then of course, we're going to leak over a little bit into Genesis 12. But again, just to remind us about this, this chronological exile that humanity went in, that we were on this spiritual decline that first of all, we are taken out of Eden. We, the Bible says that in God said, do not eat of that tree. And for in the day you eat of it, you'll, and when it says in Hebrew in dying, you will die. And it was that spiritual death, that, that separation from God and life with God. But we were still connected in the sense of wanting to get to know him in some kind of way. We just didn't know what we were doing as much. And then we go on to Genesis 6 and we see how it even went farther. And now in Genesis 11, we're going to see how at the tower of Babel, we're going to be looking at was that ultimate defiance where God literally disinherits humanity. So let's look at it. And you have your outline. Let's see what we've got here. And by the way, I tried to leave you some space. If you want to write, I'm going to give you some scriptures along the way, tell a few little stories as we get going. But the first thing I'm going to look at is I'm just put down the word defiance and it's the spiritual mutiny at Shinar. I'm going to talk about Shinar in just a minute. And you know it by another name, that area, but it's important word that we don't want to lose sight of, but it's the spiritual mutiny at Shinar. Let's go to Genesis 11 verses one and two says here. Now the whole earth had one language in the same words. And as people migrated from the East, they found a plane in the land of Shinar and settled there. Now the question comes in, what is Shinar? What is it? Well, I'm going to give you a couple of things. First of all, it's a place. Shinar is a location. It's a place. In Genesis chapter 10 verse 10, it says this, the beginning of his kingdom, and we're going to look about who he is in just a minute. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Eric, Akkad, and Kalna in the land of Shinar. So it's a place. It's an actual place, but it's more than just a place. Shinar is also a mindset. I call it the Babylonian mindset, but in Isaiah chapter 47, as the prophet is speaking about Babylon in that area, this is what is said that they say, that you felt secure in your wickedness. You said, no one sees me. This is talking

about Babylon, your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray. And you said in your heart, I am, and there is no one besides me. It's all about me. A self-centered mindset that focuses on, on knowledge at all costs that focuses on the fact that I have wisdom and of myself and I have knowledge in and of myself. They are following a Babylonian mindset. Does any of that sound familiar? In revelation, you find the, the, the, you find Babylon there as well. And it's talking about a spiritual mindset of. people, a people mindset. And so as we're looking at this, we want to keep that in mind as we go. Now, as we come to this and we see this, we're going to see how did this Babylonian mindset get started? How did it happen? Well, it tells us in Genesis 10, verses 8 and 9, it says this, it says, Cush fathered Nimrod. He was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord. Now, you may remember in our studies, whenever we were in Genesis chapter six, and in Genesis chapter six, when it talked about the Nephilim, it called them mighty men. They were the mighty men of old, the men of renown. And in that it used a Hebrew word that was, that is this called or pronounced gibberim. Well, in this, where he talks about him being a mighty hunter, a mighty man, it uses that same word, gibbor is the, is the root word there that it uses of him. And in reality, when you read this, whenever we read it, our first thoughts are, Hey, he was an outdoorsman. I mean, he was just really skilled at going out and catching wild game. But that is not what it's talking about. What it's talking about is he was the first really world ruler, the first tyrant, and he was over the area of Shinar. He ruled that area, which also included Nineveh. So you've got Nineveh and Babylon and that whole area was what Nimrod, he controlled. And so as we're thinking about that and we start looking at it, we see that he began to consolidate all people under himself. It was in the plain of Shinar is what the Bible says here. And it was what that says they, they, they migrated eastward. God had told them in after, you know, Noah had his sons, they came off the ark. They were going, he said, be fruitful and multiply. And what did he tell them to do? Fill the earth. Right. But they had a better idea. Hey man, if we go out here and, and, and, and part from each other, well, you know, we, we won't be as strong. Why don't we stay together? And you get a guy like Nimrod who was a mighty tyrant and he forced that to happen. He, he forced that, that by through a power struggle, basically

for everyone to stay there in his area. He consolidated all people in one area. And basically his name itself, Nimrod means let us revolt. And so you find here a mindset of revolt against what God has told them to do. Now, what did they do in this revolt? Well, in verses three and four of Genesis 11, it says this, and they said to one another, come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had bricks, brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. 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. The word there, by the way, for name, let us make a name is the Hebrew word Shem. Whenever you think about the three sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, well, none of our Nimrod was from the son of Ham. Ham was his lineage he was in. And yet he was saying, let's make a Shem for ourselves. And in this, as you're looking at it, they made the decision, we don't want to be dispersed. We want to build a tower for ourselves. Now, what does it mean whenever it said they were going to build a tower? Now you may have thought this way. A lot of people think they thought, well, this was the first skyscraper or something like that. And that's not at all what it was. And we're going to look and see exactly what it was that they made here, but it's called really, and I'll tell you more about it in just a minute, but it's called a ziggurat is what they built. And it was literally connecting heaven and earth. It was a temple was what they had built. Now I want you to think about this, that the biblical idea that you find really in Eden was that God graciously descends to dwell with man. He, he created this place called Eden where man and God could connect with one another. He, God could come walking along in the cool of the day. He could have that place. In fact, whenever they later, he had, he instructed Moses to build a tower the tabernacle. It was about a dwelling place for God to be with humans. This was in a completely different way, but an idea of we want God to be with us. The biblical idea was it's built on relationship, trust, and obedience to the Creator. However, whenever you look at the Babylonian reality, what you find is man builds a towering structure to pull the gods down. I'm going to talk about that in just a minute. It's built on ritual control, making a name, a shem is what it is, for themselves and bypassing Yahweh. We're going to see some more about that. Eden was that authorized connection, but this was an unauthorized attempt to manipulate the divine. It was the delusion of works-based religion. I can do these rituals

to appease a god. If I'll do these rituals and do it the right way to appease a god, he will please me, which is what religion is. That is the bottom line essence of religion. If I do these certain things, it will all go good for me. That's what religion is, but that's not Christianity. Ours is built on a relationship with our Creator. Whenever we think about that, I want to talk about that tower for just a minute. I want to talk about some things that are here. What is the tower? We're going to look at this in just a second. There's a couple of things in your outline. The tower was not a staircase for men to climb to heaven. That's not what it was. Instead, it was a ziggurat, which means it was a structure designed for gods to descend to earth. That's what it was. The top of it was built in a way, whenever I taught years ago on Sunday nights, I think it was, or Wednesday nights, I can't remember, on the signs and the stars. Some of you may vaguely remember me teaching that. I had a book. I've got it in my office somewhere. It was written in the 1880s. He says in his book that the Tower of Babel was in Babylon, which is present day Iraq. He says in the book, and it's still here. Now, you do know that it was still there whenever ISIS went in to try to destroy all that stuff. Every evidence of other religions, they went in to try to tear it all down. I don't know if you knew that or not, but anyway, that was one of the things that was part of that. But the tower was still there. He says in his book that, and he's a famous professor from, I think he lived in England. Anyway, he had sent a man to go and climb the top of it, and what did he see? What did he see on the top? Now, the top would be like a temple where they would offer sacrifices. He said he had him write down what he saw, and what he wrote down. This guy brought back to him that he wrote down what he saw, and he said that he had him write down what he saw, and what he wrote down. This guy brought back to him that he wrote down that was on the top of this tower of Babel were the 12 signs of the Zodiac that were engraved on the top of that tower. So, they were attempting to communicate with the heavens, and they were attempting to appease the gods and call them down to meet with them there. And so, the ziggurat, and I've got a, that's just a picture of one. And so, just by the way, just side note, if you've ever gone to Mexico, and you've gone to where the Aztecs were, and you find those things, you'll find them all over the world, and they're ancient in nations all over the world. Well, how'd they get there? Well, why are they all similar like this?

Well, what happened in Genesis 11? They all dispersed. They want to also call the gods down. How are they going to call the gods down? They're going to build a temple, and when they get that temple built, and normally they would be seven layers high, seven being number of completion or perfection, and at the top would be a temple where they would offer sacrifices, and then the gods were to come down from there to be with them. Does that make sense? So, that's what they built. It's interesting in building this, that God did come down, just not quite the way they wanted. And so let's go on to the next part, and the next thing I want us to see here is I'm calling it divorce, the divine disinheritance. Maybe in verse 5, let's see what it tells us here, it says, 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. Did you hear what? God talking about humans. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech. So what God did was he forced dispersion. He saw humanity heading all together in the same direction in a rebellious attempt of mutiny against God. And he said, they're not going to stop. So I'm going to stop them. I'm going to do, I'm going to do something. And so he came down, confused the languages, and then he disinherited them. Now, when we think about that, we think about, wow, man, that seems kind of crazy. But you know, what's interesting that you find in scriptures, and we've been looking at these rebellions, that we find God doing these things out of mercy and not out of anger, but out of mercy.

He has a plan for humanity. And even though we were those rebellious beings that were bent on not following him, we wanted to do it our way. We were, we would rather listen to the lying lies of demons than to worship God. He's not given up. And just think about it. Let's go back. For instance, whenever he made humanity leave the garden of Eden, why did he make them leave the garden? Here it is. It's beautiful place. Why did he make us, you know, kicked us out? Why did he do it? Well, in Genesis chapter three, look at what it told us in verses 22 and 23, then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. In other words, they have attained a knowledge. I didn't want them to attain on their own. I wanted to train them in this rather than them finding it out this way. Now look what he did. Lest they reach, he, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat. Look at this and live forever. Therefore the Lord sent him out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He sent a cast humanity out of Eden, out of mercy. Had he not done that, we would be eternally damned. Does that make sense? That was a mercy move because he has a plan of redeeming. So he gets us out of there and then we go and we go right down the same path to say, we're going to do it our way.

We're going to do what we want to do. In fact, we've gotten so bad that in Genesis chapter six, look at what it says. Verse five says this, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. We had given ourselves over to, to intermingling with these sons of God and had literally corrupted the human genome to the point that it looked like there was no hope. And then we find at the same time though, verse eight, mercy, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. So he destroys all of humanity except for Noah and his family out of an act of mercy for us. Does that make sense? And now we come to Genesis 11 and we see him doing this. This was not a temper tantrum. This was him saying they are bent on a direction and they will not turn away. So I'm going to turn them because I am going to redeem them back. So it was mercy. It was God being merciful to us. You know, it's kind of like you ever, you ever been in with a, a two year old having a tantrum in there, you know what I mean? And they just keep doing it and they keep, you know, well, even a parent that's just sick of it, ultimately you're not going to let them. throw the fit and wind up pulling a knife out and hurting themselves. You're going to put them somewhere until they calm down. Well, that's kind of what he's doing with us. So as we think about that and we think about those things, the Bible says that here we are again in this point. So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of the earth and they left off building the city. 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. So what happened? Well, we're going to look at this, but here's what he did. So we know that he dispersed them by languages, but he also dispersed them in another way. And we're going to see that. And we've talked about this along the way.

There was also what I'm calling here the cosmic inheritance. And he says, let us go down and see what they're doing. Who's the us? Well, we could say the Trinity, but there's also a pretty strong evidence that he's talking about his divine counsel that we've talked about here. I'm going to show you in just a minute. He talks about it in scripture several times in scripture. But in this, we see that what he did was he said, I am disinheriting you directly and I'm putting you under the lesser beings. I'm dispersing you out and they're going to, they're going to be the ones leading you. Now here'd be a side note to talk about that. You may say, gosh, that just sounds weird. You remember, and you may not, but maybe you will. Whenever the children of Israel are leaving, you know, they get out of Egypt, they're leaving, they're going, they just keep messing up one after another after another until finally God's, you know, gives them the 10 commandments, gives them all that stuff. And then in Exodus, uh, was it 32? They build the golden calf. You remember that? You remember what happened after that? God made a statement and whenever you see it in light of this, it really, you see why they responded the way they did is he says, I'm going to send an angel to go with you, but I'm not going because if I go, I'll wipe all of you out. And they all wept bitterly. And Moses cries out begging God, you are the only thing that distinguishes us from all the people on the earth. Does that make sense? You see all the people on the earth were following were under the tutelage of angels because of this. And you say, well, how do you know that? Well, let me just read to you. It's in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verses eight and nine, the cosmic inheritance, the divine counsel and the nations. Look at what it says here. Whenever we read this, it says when the most high gave to the nations, their inheritance, when he divided mankind. Now listen, when did you do this? He did this here. Genesis 11, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob, his allotted heritage. That's Genesis 12. We're going to look at that in just a minute. So what you have here is in this moment, what God says is he says, I'm going to let you, you keep wanting to follow them. I'm letting you have them, but I'm dispersing you. It's not going to be you and all of them together in one because it would be, there'd be no hope, but I'm dispersing you out. I'm letting you go. You want to go that way? I'm letting you go. And so he releases them that way. Now, what happened when he did that? Well, when he did

that, the Bible tells us exactly what happened. In fact, in Psalm 82, you have what happened. What happened? So let me read it to you. Psalm 82 says this, says, God has taken his place in the divine council in the midst of the gods. And that's the word Elohim. He holds judgment. Now this is you say, well, God's what in the world? What do you mean? God's going to, let's stay with me. We're going to get there. Now listen, he's holding judgment on these that he dispersed the nations under. What does it say happened? How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? He's talking to those beings. Give justice to the weak and the fatherless, maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute, rescue the weak and the needy, deliver them from the hand of the wicked. They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness, all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, let me get over here, I left it off, I said, look at what he says, you are God's sons of the Most High, all of you, nevertheless, and here's where he gives his judgment. Like men, you shall die and fall like any prince. Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit all the nations. Do you see what's being said here? Do you see how this, is that, you getting it? Genesis 32, Psalm 82 are speaking about what happens here in Genesis 11. So Deuteronomy 32, amen, Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 82. So what happened is, God said, okay, I'm letting you go, I'm dispersing you out, you're going your various ways. Now there's just so many things here I could talk about that we could look at that would be quite intriguing. And I've got so many, this is what I was wishing I could do in those extra two weeks I had to give up because of just being out of town and couldn't be here. But in Mark chapter five, I think I've said this before, but in Mark chapter five, you remember the story of the Gadarene demoniac? You know that story? Whenever Jesus crosses the sea, he goes over there to the Gadarenes area. There's a man out there that is filled with demons.

He comes up and the demons start begging Jesus, why have you come to torment us before our time? In other words, they know it because of Psalm 82, because of what God has said is going to happen. Why are you doing this? And in Mark chapter five, it says this, in verse 10, as he's telling them, he says, what is your name? He says, my name is Legion for we are many. Verse 10 says, and he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Why did they not want to be sent out of their, and it's the word is the word territory. Because they had fixed borders. Even those spirits had fixed borders. They had territory that they functioned in. You find it throughout scriptures. So that's why you have these various gods here now before, if I've gotten you a little confused, I hope I haven't, but I've talked about this before, but let me just flip over real quick. I don't have any notes, but first Corinthians chapter 10, and we're talking about in here food offered as sacrifices to, um, to other, other gods can, you know, should, is it okay to eat food offered, you know, that way? And Paul is talking to the people. This is new Testament. And he says, um, what do I imply then that food offered to idols is anything or that an idol is anything? No. He says, no, that idol is not anything. He's saying, no. I imply that what Pagans sacrifice, that means to these gods, these Elohim that, that in, in Deuteronomy 32 in Psalm 82, he says, what I'm saying is, is, uh, is that, that what I imply is that, is that what Pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons and not to God.

I do not want you to be participants with demons. This is a demonic work. Does that, does it start, is it fitting? You starting to see it, how this, how you've got these stories here. And so as we come to this, you begin to realize that what happened is God dispersed the people according to languages and they were under these, these angelic beings who rebelled against God. And we're going to talk about this more in just a minute, but let's go on to number three. And that is deliverance. So we talked, we've been walking in this together. We've, we've talked about first of all, the defiance of, of humans, and then we went to the divorce. Now we're talking about deliverance, the reclaim, the reclaiming of the nations. And so, so in Genesis chapter 11, and I talked about how, when you get this, everything else in your Bible is going to start making sense because God has done this. He's just go. I'm sending all of you out. I'm not going to be with you. Cause you know, like we told Israel at that time, he said, I'd wind up having to kill all of you, but I'm going to disperse you. He does this. He gives all the nations over. And then we come to Genesis 12 verse one. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation. Notice what he's saying. And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you. I will curse. And in you, I get this, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Do you, do you now see what he did? He dispersed everyone. So I'm sending them out. I can't because his holiness cannot put up with sin. They go, he puts them under the ruling of these other beings and angels, demons, ultimately for us. And then he says, I'm going to start my own nation. So he starts with an older man named Abram and a wife, Sarah. When they have their son, Isaac, Abraham himself says, and the scriptures tell us that her womb was dead. She was 90. She was incapable of having, so it was a literally a supernatural birth. God says, I'm going to start a nation to bring a redeemer and I'm going to do it to bless

the people. So what you find here is you find God's strategy, his counter move to this continual ongoing rebellion against him. He said, I know they're going to do it, but I am going to redeem mankind. I am going to do it. And so you find him doing this. So he has a new beginning. So whenever they disperse out, you remember we said there were 70 nations that disperse. Now let me just give you a little quick little side note. In some translations of the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that I've talked about, it has 72. That's why sometimes in your scripture, you'll find where like whenever Jesus sent out the 70, some say the 72. You say, well, which one is it? I don't know. I don't know. I just know that the point that's being made is bigger than that. He calls Abraham and what literally is his objective? Well, is Israel was designed as a strategic beachhead for Yahweh's reinvasion of the earth and the ultimate blessing of all 70 lost nations. He sends them out and says, I'm sending you out. I don't, I can't be with you, but I'm not giving up on you. As a matter of fact, when you think about it, you've got, he sent out the families, the 70 nations of Shem, Ham and Japheth, and you got one little bitty tiny speck on earth. And he says, this is my people. You ever wondered why there's so much fighting going on in Israel? We think it's political. It is not. Oh, there's some of that going on, but it is spiritual. It is a war in the spirit realm. That's where the battle is. And so as we look at this, God began his work of just saying, I'm going to do this. And so whenever we start thinking about what he's doing, we start thinking about this. You start walking down the line. What does he do? He miraculously has Abraham and Sarah have Isaac. You remember Genesis 18 talk about, he says about this time next year going to come, you're going to have a child. And she starts laughing. So, and so did Abraham earlier in chapter 17 of Genesis. So the name Isaac means laughter. From there, they couldn't have kids. Isaac and his wife, Rebecca couldn't have kids. And then they have twins, Jacob and Esau. God chooses Jacob to be the lineage from which he's going to fall. down through, and then from there, he had 12 sons, and from there he chooses that the kingly line, where a king is going to come through, is one named Judah. And then through Judah came a guy named David. And God had made a promise to David that through your lineage, your rule will never end. So you have Psalms like Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right

hand. He said you will be a king in the order of Melchizedek. You hear those in the New Testament, they come out of this, that ultimately you come to the birth of Jesus. Galatians chapter 4 verses 4 through 5 say this, but when the fullness of time, and by the way, if you have ever had, I think I've taught this before, but the word time there is not the word Kronos, but Kairos. That means the fullness of time, when God's opportune moment came. In the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Do you see what God's doing? He had a plan all the way. He had a plan. Now listen, obviously in the birth of Jesus, the enemy knew that something's up pretty big, because you find obviously in the birth. What does he do? He leads Herod to go and kill all the babies in that region to try to stop again this birth, this happening, and we're going to talk about what that is, but then even after that, you remember how that the serpent went into the garden and he tempted Adam and Eve to just say, man, just don't follow him, follow me, and they did. Well, what do you think happened in the wilderness? Whenever Jesus, he was baptized, and the Bible says, and then he came out of the waters, and then he went 40 days into the wilderness, and during that, listen to the temptation. Here's one of the temptations that Jesus had to experience. We find it there in Luke chapter 4, verses 5 through 8. It says, and the devil took him, took him at Jesus, up and showed him, listen to this, all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, to you I will give all this authority and their glory, look at what it says, for it has been delivered to me. When? Genesis chapter 11. It has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will all be yours, and Jesus answered him. It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. So, 70 nations dispersed. By the way, just a side note, I think I said this last week, but I can't remember. So, that's 70, that's the seven and the ten, it's the complete number. There, those two together, it talks about completion, it means all the world. And then you have that whenever Moses has his elders, that he's together, they go and worship, they go and actually eat a meal

in the presence of God is on the mountain. There were 70 of them. It was important that it was 70. You have out of that group came what some of you guys in the New Testament know, were the Sanhedrin. They were the 70 elders of Israel. And then in that, whenever it came to the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the things that they do is they offer in that week of feasts, they offer 70 sacrifices, and the purpose was for the sins of the 70 nations. Why? Because Israel was to be the priests of the world. They were to be the ones that were the priesthood. They were a priestly nation, is what the Old Testament says they were. And so, whenever Jesus is in Luke chapter 10, and he has his disciples there that are with him, not just the 12, but he says, and he had the 70 or 72, either way. And in there, he sends them out by twos. And he says, I'm going to send you out by twos. And he says, now, no. He said, you need to be wise as serpents, innocent as doves. I'm sending you out to do this. They go out. What is happening here? It's him giving the. the idea of the reclaiming of the nations. I'm here to reclaim the nations. I'm not going to bow down to Satan, the temptation. I'm going to reclaim them myself. And so he sends them out. And whenever you think about what's happening here, you have in Deuteronomy 32, 8, you have them divided in Genesis. I mean, in Genesis 11, it was 70 nations. So he sends out the 70 and they go out to preach the gospel, to heal the sick, to cast out demons. That's what he sends them out to do. And then what happens when they come back? If you remember, they come back in Luke chapter 10, listen to what it says in verses 17 through 19. The 70 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. That means we're going to these other people groups. And those demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw, look at this. Now this is all speaking about that spirit world, that what happened in Genesis 11. And he says, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions. By the way, serpents and scorpions, it's not talking about the little snakes and the little scorpions. Has anybody ever stepped on a scorpion? I have. I've stepped on one in my house. It didn't sting me, but it sure scared me. I'll tell you that. But anyway, it's another story for another time. He's not talking about that. He's talking about demons here because he even says this. He says, I've given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you.

So whenever we see this, there is a war going on. What is the war that's going on? Well, it goes back to Genesis 3.15. Remember that? What God said to the serpent in the fall? He said, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring, which the Hebrew word there is seed, and her offspring, which the word there is not offspring, it's seed. And in the New Testament, he tells us, whenever he's saying this, it doesn't say seeds, doesn't use the plural, it uses the singular. It's talking about Christ. He says, he shall bruise or crush your head and you shall bruise his heel. And so we talked about this a few weeks ago, whenever we talked about, what is it referring to there? Well, it's talking about the strike of the enemy when Jesus was crucified. He's talking about the strike of the enemy when Jesus went to the cross. It was the strike of the heel that was there. The crucifixion was that fulfillment. But whenever we go through that, the crushing of the head happened in the resurrection. He crushed the serpent's head. In other words, what happened, and you want to say from a legal standpoint, the, and boy, hang with me. If I've already confused you, well, I can't, unless you're going, we're going to keep on. All right. The fog is still going to get thick, I guess, but I hope it's making some sense. But here's, here's what you find is that whenever we come to this and we see all of these things happening is, is that in, in this, whenever God in Genesis three, the Bible says that basically Satan became the Lord of the dead. He became the ruler of death and hell of hate, you know? So whenever Jesus went, the Bible says, and took the keys. Revelation talks about that of death and hell took the keys of death. If what happened was that death was for the seed of Adam, right? Man, humans. Jesus, however, was of the seed of woman. He didn't have it. He was the second Adam, the, the, the, the new Adam, if you will, is what the Bible calls him. He didn't have that sinful nature like us. So when Satan basically just fell right into God's hands and killed him, and killed him, it was an illegal move in the heavenlies. It was illegal. And so because of that, he was defeated right there. And Jesus took the keys of death and hell and came up victorious in the resurrection and crushed the serpent's head. That's why the Bible says in Colossians chapter two, 15, it says it this way. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them into open shame by triumphing over them in him. Talking about in Christ, God did this. He disarmed him through the cross. And we talked about before it may have been whenever I was teaching on spiritual warfare is Revelation 12. Beginning in verse 7, he talks about the

war that happened in the heavenlies. When did it happen? It happened in the resurrection. When the resurrection happened, all of a sudden the enemy was crushed. The ascension of Jesus into the victorious place he was, and the Bible says in Revelation 12, verses 7-9, it says this, now war arose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down. Who is the great dragon? That ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Now whenever it says thrown down, here's what some people think, so does that mean he's roaming around here? That is not what that means. It's not talking about a physical location, but it's talking about his authority in the heavenlies was removed. He lost his authority, and the best way I know to explain it would be, let's say we have a former president of the United States. So when a person is the president of the United States currently, they are considered the most powerful person in the world. Now we can debate that all we want to, but that's what they're considered. And so a former president no longer has the position of authority he had. He still has a lot of authority, but not that authority. Does that make sense? So Satan, in that Revelation 12, what happened in the crushing of the serpent's head, Satan lost his position of authority. What you see in Job no longer can happen because he's lost that position. He still has great authority, but not in the heavenlies. Now again, think about this, whenever I taught on spiritual warfare, and I talked about this, one of the things that I learned, and I learned watching it happen firsthand, is that I couldn't defeat the enemy if I tried to. But the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 1, it says that Jesus is now seated in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion. And in chapter 2 verse 6, it says, and we, when we give our life to Christ, are seated with him, and it's not talking about us now physically located there, it's talking about our seat of authority in Christ. And so why is that? It's because of what happened here, that a demon has, they are, they have to submit in Jesus' name. They are defeated already. They know it, they just don't think we know it. So, anyway, it's another story for another time. Let's just go on to see what's happening here. So here's kind of the situation. You find the top half of this is talking about this divine reveal that takes place, is that

at Babel, you've got the rebellion, you've got the confusion of languages, you've got the scattering, you've got the disinheritance, you've got them all that way. But then you find Acts chapter 2. And what happens in Acts chapter 2? Well, you have the tongues of fire. You have this incredible move of God where there's this, suddenly this divine understanding takes place and you have a gathering of people. And so I thought, you know, this would probably be a good time to just read Acts chapter 2. So I'm just going to read from it, okay? If you've got a Bible and want to turn there. This is a pretty big deal compared to, as we're closing this out. When you think about it, in light of everything we're reading, everything we've been looking at in Genesis chapter 1 in the creation, everything we've been looking at in Genesis chapter 2 in the dominion that mankind was made, in Genesis chapter 3 in the fall, and on and on, in Genesis 4 and 5, what you have happening there, in Genesis 6 and what happened there, the flood. And then you come into Genesis 10 and there's all of a sudden, there's a table of nations, Genesis 11, the dispersion of the people in Genesis 12, God said, I'm going to bring them back. You've got all this story going on, but in there, how is he going to bring them back? How's he going to do it? Acts chapter 2, when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. This is the 120 up in the upper room. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a roar. rushing, like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them, and rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance. What languages were they speaking in? We're about to find out. Here it is. Verse five, now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, notice what it says, from every nation under heaven. What is he referring to? Genesis chapter 11, right? Why were they, you say, well, why were they all there? It was Pentecost.

And that Pentecost, they have the three festivals, Passover, Pentecost, and then the first, the in-gathering, the, I forgot the name, the tabernacles, feast of tabernacles. And in those times, Jews from all over the world came to Jerusalem to celebrate. That was the responsibility, that's what they did. And so you've got Jews that have traveled from all over the world, have come to Jerusalem at Pentecost. So they all speak these other languages, and it says, now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And at the, at the sound, talking about the sound of the mighty Russian wind, the multitude came together, and they were bewildered because each one, listen, the people went out, were hearing, were hearing them, talking about the 120, speak in his own language. And you say, well, it's just because they couldn't speak. There's a bigger thing happening here, and let me tell you why. All of these that heard in their own language could all speak Greek. That was the world's language. They could all have understood Greek, but God was saying, I'm doing something bigger here. And they were amazed and astonished saying, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? In other words, how could they know our languages? And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the residents of Mesopotamia and Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, the visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. We hear them telling in our own tongues, the mighty works of God. Now what he just did, and I didn't do this here, I'm not doing it tonight, but what he just did, Luke just did, he named the dispersion that happened in Genesis 11. Those areas, the regions, that's what he named. So what's happening here in Acts chapter two is God is saying, I sent everybody out, but because I have sent my Holy Spirit to dwell in, I am dwelling on earth in every believer through the Holy Spirit.

I am going after those nations. Does that make sense? That's what's happening here, is it's the undoing of Genesis 11. God is redeeming humanity. He is bringing them back and he goes on, let me continue, I'll stop there, says, and all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean? But others mocking said, they are filled with new wine, in other words, they're drunk. But Peter, standing with the 11, lifted up his voice and addressed them, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it's only the third hour of the day, it means 9 a.m., which by the way, you're a pretty raging alcoholic if you're drunk by 9 a.m., but that's another, anyway. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel, and he quotes the prophecy. And in the last days, it shall be, God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and female servants, in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on earth below, blood and fire and vapor and smoke. And he goes on and talks about those things, but what he's saying here. This is what he's saying. He's saying, I have now won, and I am taking back the humanity that I dispersed, but I'm doing it through my spirit. And so that's what we find here. So again, what is Jesus doing right now? Well, the cosmic war is continuing. It's already been won. Jesus has won the war, but what is he doing now? He's advancing his kingdom. First Corinthians chapter 15 verses 25 through 26 says this, for he must reign talking about Jesus until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. So what is God doing now? He's conquering nation upon nation, people group upon people group, city upon city, neighborhood upon neighborhood, coming to the good news that Jesus saves. We've joined in, in this cosmic battle that you as a believer are not simply

setting to try to hang on until you get to heaven. But you and I, the Bible says in first Peter chapter two are a Royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people belonging to God. Does that sound anything like Genesis 12? That's who we are. That we may says in first Peter chapter two, that we may declare the glories of God, that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works that he has planned for us. He is sending us out. We are his representatives. We are, the church is who God has chosen you, but it's not easy. We're not doing this. You know, we're not just going out here trying to convince people that doesn't work. That's not the kingdom. But the Holy spirit is allowing us, gives us opportunities. So you, you probably, if we just had testimony right now and you probably let the Holy spirit guide you, you would say, that's why he's put this guy that I'm working with here with me. That's why that person has come and started talking to me. All of a sudden it's going to start making sense that God is going after people. Ephesians chapter six, verse 12, though we talk about it a lot, but I want you to think about it in light of what we've been talking about this whole series. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. That's, that's what we're doing. That's who we are. I just talked this week. In fact, it was yesterday. I don't get my days mixed up sometime, but a pastor called me and I'm going through some difficulties, just not, I mean, it's church growing like crazy, but man, it's like attack after attack, after attack, after attack. And so somebody along the way happened to know me, gave him my book. He got it, read it, got my number, called me. He lives in another state and he's talking to me. And in his mind, and he, and once I, once I was able to help him, it all made sense. But in his mind, hey man, if I'm walking with God and I'm living for God and we're going after God and we're, we're seeing lost people saved, it ought to be going pretty good. And I said that, my friend is religion. That's not the New Testament. I said, this is the way I told him. Now you've heard me say this here before. I said, this is because, because there, there are some people that say, hey man, you get filled with the Holy Spirit. You get walking in the power of God and you can go do whatever. Nobody's going to bother you. And I'm like, well, if that's true, the apostle Paul was the worst Christian ever because he was in prison, half of his

ministry, beaten, flogged, but we're in a war. And so I told that guy, I said, hey man, you need to know this, take heart, get excited. God's using you. Satan doesn't mess with people who aren't bothering him. You're going after his kingdom and he don't like it. He's trying to stop you. So finally, let me finish. I just noticed that I have gone way over. Sorry. There's coming an end to this thing. It really is. is. The Bible says in Revelation chapter 7 verse 9, a great multitude that no one could number, listen to what it says, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. Do you hear that? Standing before the throne and before the Lamb. God wins. God wins. Those nations that were scattered will ultimately be gathered. The global family that was divorced at Babel will be brought back, permanently claimed. The cosmic war will be over. God wins. Amen? Let's pray together. Father, I thank you that, and Lord you have a story you're telling. Lord, I know that in our western culture mindset and in our church mindset a lot of times, we don't think about it like this. Lord, your word is so clear. I just pray for all of us, Lord, myself included, that we would just walk with you humbly. Lord Jesus, you said that those who are listening to you, that you will share the secrets of the kingdom. Lord, we're coming to listen. Holy Spirit, guide us into all the truth. Speak to us. Show us and give us opportunities, even tomorrow, tonight, to share the love of Jesus in tangible ways with people around us, people we work with, people in our family. Put in our heart people that need prayer and you just know that we're the people that will pray if you tell us to. Pray that you would entrust us with those privileges to pray for others. Lord, guide us. God, I thank you for your word. I thank you, Lord, that we're not out here just trying to get along in our own strength. Lord, you've guided us and are guiding us and we are part of something that's eternal. Encourage us in that, even in the tough days. Encourage us, Father. We're part of something big. We give you the glory and pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.