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Nimrod – The Man Who Tried to Build the Tower of Babel
What do you think happened after Noah’s flood was all over? Did Noah and his children live new lives without any sin? 
You might think they would never sin again after that all the wicked people in the whole world had been destroyed by the flood. 
And you would think that God’s promises noted in the beautiful rainbow, that He put in the sky, would cause Noah and his family to love God with all their hearts, all their souls, all their minds, and all their strength.
But remember that black sin that was in Adam and Eve’s hearts! Do you remember the effects of sin we demonstrated by putting ink in the bottle of water? Remember how a few drops of black ink polluted all the water, teaching us that all men are totally depraved, or that every part of man’s nature is polluted by sin! Well, that sin was in Noah’s heart too, and it was in the hearts of each person who came out of the ark. All eight people who came out of the ark were sinners by nature. It wasn’t long, therefore, until more and terrible sins were committed by Noah and his children. So, there was a new world, but people had the same old sin problem in their hearts. 
That sin is in every person’s heart today. Sin is even in the hearts of little babies that are newly born. They look so innocent while sleeping in their tiny cribs, but within their tiny doll-like frame is a nature that will grow to resist God.
About 100 years after the flood when there were many more people living in one big group or nation, some people wanted to go in different directions to live, farm and seek homes for themselves. But one big man did not like people dividing up. His name was Nimrod. 
The Bible says, Nimrod was a mighty one in the earth. He was a big bully. He wanted to control everyone. Big, tough Nimrod did not believe. He thumbed his nose at God. He fought against God’s ways and wanted to make a name for himself. He wanted to organize his own religion and his own way of worship.
So, to gain power over the people, he started to build an enormous tall tower that reached into the sky. It got the name, The Tower of Babel. Nimrod, the big bully that he was, expected all the people in the world to follow along and join in his heathen worship. He wanted a single world-wide religion where all people bowed down to the god of the stars and such mysterious things. 
But this was wicked, for God hates false worship. Nimrod, this mighty man, wanted to have a religion without God. He wanted people to serve him by making bricks to build a false tower for false religion.
Remember how the first commandment says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” And remember that God guards His own name with jealousy. That means, God becomes furious with anger when anyone gives honour to anything, or to anyone else. We must worship God only, as the one true and living God.
The tower that Nimrod wanted to build was probably like a pyramid. It had countless stone steps ascending high into the sky. On the top of that tower, sin was committed against the true God, for a false idol-god was worshipped. 
Their worship was not right for they followed their own imagination. They dreamed-up whatever they pleased by themselves, and didn’t even try to please God. We are not to do this. Christians must worship God according to the Bible. If the Bible does not say it, then we must not do it.
 
The B-I-B-L-E,
Yes, that’s the book for me,
I stand alone on the Word of God,
The B-I-B-L-E.
The B-I-B-L-E,
Yes, that’s the book for me,
I stand alone, on the word of God
The B-I-B-L-E.
 
Nimrod threw away the truth and took all the honour to himself. That is sinful pride. Never do that, for God will always judge pride.
When all the people were busy building the tower of Babel and preparing for their false worship, God came down to see their evil works and was not at all happy. He was red-hot furious. God could not allow it to continue. So, what did he do?
Well, the people were working together building the big, tall tower. They all spoke the same words, or the same language to give commands and guidance in the building. So, God decided to confuse their language. He caused them to speak many different languages. The result was that when someone said pass me that brick, the person would reply, What did you say? Pass me that brick. Then the person would give up a piece of string. Or, if the builder asked for a hammer, he got a bunch of straw. It was like an Irish man going into a Japanese shop and asking for a bag of turf! The owner wouldn’t have a clue what was said to him.
There was terrible confusion on that building site and people got so upset with each other that the work on the tower had to stop. People could only speak to a few other people of the same language. So before long people formed separate groups according to their own language and they went off together to find a separate place to live. That’s how nations with different languages were started.
That tower project that fell into confusion got the name Babel, which means confusion. When a little baby speaks little silly sounds, we call that babbling. Babel means confusion of sounds or languages.
God’s gift of languages is very powerful. Men can talk to fellow men and God can talk to men. We also can talk to God to worship Him. To help us worship Him, God wants everyone to have the Bible in their own language. We have an English Bible, but the first Bible for the Old Testament people was in Hebrew the New Testament, for New Testament people, was written in Greek.
God has given us this gift of language so He can talk to us and give us messages in His word, the Bible. The gift of language is a great blessing for we can hear God’s messages and listen to His voice teaching us how to love and serve Him.
Dogs and cats, cows and horses do not speak words or learn how to read. They may follow sounds, but they could never learn the alphabet to learn a language, but you can. God has given you that gift because God created you to hear his voice and to worship Him.
Did you know that Jesus is called God’s Word? God gave that title to the Lord Jesus because Jesus is our teacher, and we are to listen to Him. He is our Shepherd, and we are his sheep. We are to listen to His voice so we may follow Him.
God the Father said it himself, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him” (Matthew 17:5) Christians want to hear the Lord’s word and they want to obey His word, for this is how we prove that we are his disciples.
Believers in the Lord Jesus say, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11). True believers in the true God only worship in the name of the Lord Jesus, for He is God’s only Son who always leads us to the Father.
Ian Goligher. December 13, 2020 Based on Genesis chapters 10 and 11.
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