Messiah In The Old Testament Episode 34
The Post-Flood Era
The City And Tower On The Shinar Plain
Welcome to Messiah in the Old Testament. In our last two episodes we revealed to you three new Messianic Prophecies.
The first was “The Life is in the Blood.” And this was my favorite prophecy of any of them we have done so far. This was found in Genesis 9:4-6. And Messiah will satisfy the punishment for our sins blood for blood. And remember I personalize this Messiah will satisfy the punishment for my sins blood for blood, his blood for my blood. Now you can see why I find that particular prophecy, very exciting.
Number two, The Sign of the Rainbow. This is found in Genesis 9:8-17. The rainbow is a symbol of Elohim's enduring love. He will use Messiah’s sacrifice (or blood) as a remedy for sin not destruction by a flood.
Number three, Shem is the Carrier of the Name of Messiah. This is found in Genesis 9:20-27. Shem carried on the name of all of his ancestors from Adam all the way up to Noah. And also, through Shem all the righteous line of Messiah will flow through him going forward.
Now, all these prophecies were given during a period of time which we refer to as the Post-Flood Era. Now, the Post-Flood Era is similar to the Pre-Flood Era. If you remember, we had to embellish things a bit because there was very little in the Tanakh about the Pre-Flood World.
So, we reached out and found sources like Josephus and sources like the Sefer HaYashar and Rabbinical Writings. So, we found resources like Maimonides, where they talked about the Pre-Flood Era. And the book of Enoch. And we are going to do the same thing with the Post-Flood Era. We are going to find some additional references and try to fill in and give you little bit more color, a little more vibrant picture of what
things looked like after the flood. The Post-Flood era starts the moment that Noah opened the door and everybody left the ark. And then it ended with Abram and the patriarchs. So, these three prophecies that I just read to you all came during that time period. Now, there were other major events that were happening during the Post-Flood Era.
There are three pivotal events which we’re going to discuss over the next two to three episodes. Those events are very important, life changing, world changing, like I said, pivotal events. And each one of those events is associated with at least one and in some cases two or three prophecies related to that event. So, let me read [to] you the three events. The first event is the Building of a City and a Tower in the Shinar Plain. Of course, the city is Babylon and the tower is the Tower of Babel. And this pivotal event is associated with two Messianic Prophecies. Then, we have the second pivotal event which is the Dispersion of Family Groups, as Described in the Table of the Nations. And we are going to go through the Table of the Nations. And we’re going to see where every family group ended up after the dispersion. And then number three, The Division of the Earth During Peleg's Lifetime, as Described in the Messianic Line from Shem to Abram. So, I’d like to start out our episode today looking at Noah's family group. Now, of course, Noah and his wife were the progenitors of his family group. And then we know about his three sons, Shem, Ham Japheth. They went with him on the ark with their wives. So, those eight souls rode out the flood. And they are the ones that exited the ark, entering into this Post-Flood World, in this Post-Flood Era.
Now, we know that Noah, first thing he did was he built an altar and he sacrificed clean animals on the altar. And those sacrifices went up as a pleasing aroma before Elohim. Elohim was pleased with the sacrifices and that sweet aroma.
And he pivoted and swiveled from judgment mode, destroying the earth, the flood and those three phenomena that happened at the beginning of the flood, he swiveled over to blessing mode. Now, I like blessing mode
much more than judgment mode. And I hope that Elohim stays in blessing mode in my life and not in judgment mode. But, in the blessing mode, he gave two blessings to Noah's family group. He gave one to Noah, his offspring and all the animals. And then the second one was specifically for Noah and his three sons. So, we know that they probably went down off the mountain because we had the story, that we went over, where we learned that Noah was a man of the soil and planted a vineyard.
And that vineyard grew up and he harvested the grapes and he made wine. So, that whole process is probably not taking place on the top of the mountain. That process is taking place on the lower slopes. Now, I live in an area where we have a lot of wineries. It’s a popular thing now. And our wineries are all around 800 feet above sea level. They’re mostly located on southern and western slopes where you get the maximum sun and a lot of drainage. They prepare the soil so it's well-drained bed for the grapes to grow in.
So, I can imagine that Noah and his family went down to the lower levels at the base of the mountain, probably on the southern or western slopes of the mountain or even further away from the mountain. So. they travelled down off the mountain. And we know if you're going to plant grapes, you’re going to plant the seeds, grow the seedlings and then take those seedlings and get the root system hardy.
And in the current method, what they do is, they grow up a certain type of grape that is very hardy and then they graft in some better tasting, flavorful, better grapes. And they use the roots of the of the one type and graft in vines from another type. This all takes time. It takes time to grow up the vines.
You can't harvest the grapes in the first season. So, you have to wait a couple or three seasons. And then you have to the bottle the wine or [put it] in the wineskins at that time. And then it takes time to ferment. And then finally you get your wine. So, we’re talking years, somewhere,
probably 3 to 5 years. So now these three sons are probably generating their children, their offspring and these families are starting to grow.
Now, we know several things from the book of Genesis about Noah's family group. The first thing we know is the birth order of the sons. And this comes from Genesis 9:24 and Genesis 10:21. We talked about this in a previous episode. We know that Japheth was the oldest. And then Shem was the middle child. And then Ham was the youngest.
The other thing we know, is that the meaning of their names. And we went over that as well [in a previous episode]. Shem in the Hebrew, his name is MEv (shaym) and it literally means name. It is the word for name. But it's in the context of fame, glory, reputation. So, it's your name. You know, if you’re a business then it's all about your logo, about your image. So, name referring to fame, glory, reputation. And we have Ham. His name in Hebrew is MDj (cham) and it means hot or sweltering. And then finally Japheth. In the Hebrew his name is tRp¶Ry (yefet) and it means enlarge, spacious or wide open. So, we learn about their names. And we learn that Shem, his name was prophetic. Because the story of Noah's vineyard. Of Noah getting drunk on his wine, passing out without his clothes on. And then Ham going in and seeing him naked.
The story shows us their nature. It shows us that Ham was not a good son who honored his father. He dishonored his father and he was therefore cursed by Noah. He was made a slave to his brothers. And then Shem emerged as the leader. His brother Japheth was put into his tents, under him by Noah. And when Noah talked about Shem, he said “Blessed be the God of Shem.” Now, this is like “Blessed be the God of Abraham or the God of Isaac or the God of Jacob. I mean, this elevates Shem to like the patriarchs, like Abraham. He [Shem]was so righteous and so important that Noah blessed him and said, “Blessed be the God of Shem.” Shem's name, remember, it was fame, glory, reputation.
And we know that he then carried on the reputation of all of his ancestors. He carried on the reputation of Adam, of Seth, of Enosh, of Kenan, Mahalelel. All the line of Jared and Enoch and Methuselah and Lamech and then, finally, Noah. So, he carried on the reputation of all those righteous people that came before him. And he was going to continue that and carry on the righteous line going forward. Now, there's a reference that I like to read to you. And this gives a little bit more information about Shem's nature. And some of this is compatible with what is written in the Tanakh. Some of it is just, I think, is pure conjecture and I can't justify it based on the Tanakh.
But let me read it [to you]. It is found in the Talmud, Nedarim 32b:6
The Holy One, Blessed be He, wanted the priesthood to emerge from Shem, so that his children would be priests, as it is stated: “And Melchizedek king...Once Melchizedek, traditionally identified as Shem, placed the blessing of Abraham before the blessing of the Omnipresent, He had the priesthood emerge from Abraham in particular, and not from any other.
Now we’re going to talk about Melchizedek in great detail in a future episode, that is not for today's discussion.
But I will just say that the belief that Melchizedek was Shem and Shem was Melchizedek, it is ingrained in the rabbinical writings. It's interesting they all fall back on this original passage. They quote it saying that Shem traditionally known as Melchizedek or Melchizedek traditionally identified as Shem. They don’t actually say that it was, definitively. They just said that was that the tradition. I don't agree with the tradition, in that, I think Shem, or I mean that Melchizedek was a totally different priesthood, a totally different line. Now, I can agree with this passage in that the priesthood came through Shem, for sure. We know that the ancestors that would turn into the Levitical priesthood flow directly through Shem.
All the way down through the of the lineage that we are going to cover a couple episodes from now. Down to Abram or Abraham and then through his son Isaac and Jacob and then through his son Levi, Kohath, Amram and finally to Aaron. And that then would be the beginning of the Levitical priesthood. Those ancestors were certainly in Shem’s loins. And I can agree that the priesthood came through Shem and was given to Shem. Now, the passage says that Shem’s sons would all became priests. And there's this tradition that Shem created a school where he educated in all of his offspring in in the ways of the priesthood. And that he set up a house of righteousness. And that he and Noah were closely associated, etc. etc. But suffice it to say that Shem was specifically selected by Elohim, was honored by Elohim, not only to carry the Messianic Line, the kingly line, but also to carry the priestly line. Now, there's another reference I’d like to talk about in regards to Noah's family group.
And that reference is the Sefer HaYashar. Now, we quoted this before and I referred to it a little bit earlier because we quote it in the pre-flood era from Sefer HaYashar. The name Sefer HaYashar means book the right. So, literally the book of the right or book of the righteous. It’s divided into chapters, just like the Torah.
You’ve got Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and all the way up through Judges. It's like a Jewish history book. Now, some rabbis consider that the Sefer HaYashar is actually the book of Jashar which is referred to in Joshua 10:13 where it says:
So, the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar.
And second Samuel 1:18:
And ordered that the men of Judah be taught this lament of the bow (it is written in the Book of Jashar):
So, the book of Jashar (Sefer HaYashar) we know it was written in the 13th century. It is considered by some to be the authentic book of Jashar mentioned in the Tanakh. But, it has so many issues, contradictions with the Tanakh that most scholars do not assent to its authenticity. It’s an interesting book. It is good for education but it is not considered to be the authentic book of Jashar. So, there's a story that comes from the book of Genesis from the section referred to as Noach.
And that story starts in the Garden of Eden. So, here it is: Adam and Eve were living in the Garden of Eden, in perfection. They were created in the likeness, after the image of Elohim. They were given everything their hearts desired. They had fruit as far as the eye could see. They could choose any fruit they wanted to eat. They lived in absolute paradise. They ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which was forbidden. That forbidden act then caused them to fall from God's grace and caused them to be naked. Or, at least recognize that they were naked, previously clothed with the glory of God, but now naked. So, Elohim remedied the situation by taking skins from animals and clothing them.
Now, they wore those skins as they fled the Garden. They were kicked out. They were no longer able to eat from the Tree of Life. And they were destined to death. So, Adam took those garments that were given to him by Elohim and he preserved them and he saved them.
And he gave those garments to his son, or his relative, Enoch, who then gave them to Methuselah, who then gave them to Noah, who carried them through the flood on the ark. After the flood, they were stolen from Noah by his evil son Ham. Ham then took these garments and saved them and gave them to his firstborn, which was Cush. And then Cush. who had a special son in his old age, his favorite son, Nimrod.
He gave them to Nimrod. So, Nimrod took the garments and he waited until he was 21 years of age. And then when he was 21, he put the
garments on. And he found that power flowed through his garments. And he received power from Elohim. And this gave him the ability to win battles and gave him wisdom and gave him authority. And he went out and started winning all these amazing battles. There is an epic battle which the HaYashar talks about between the sons of Japheth and in the sons of Ham. And Nimrod was victorious in this battle. So, they all decided to make him king.
So, they crowned him and made him king over the nation that was there in Shinar. And then he established Babylon and Erech and Akkad and we’ll talk more about that in a future episode. Then he, according to Sefer HaYashar appointed the father of Abraham as his chief of armies. So, Terah was in this place of authority. And then there are some other interesting stories involving Abraham who was supposed to be given to Nimrod to be a sacrifice. But they [Abram and his wife Sarai] replaced him with another baby. And there are all kinds of stories. We’re not going to get into all that. I don't think they have that much bearing on our story today. But suffice it to say that Ham was not a good son. Ham was an evil son. He was rebellious and his rebellion led to a huge amount of strife amongst the nations.
Now, it's interesting listening to that story of Nimrod and the garments of Adam. If you remember, when I told you the creation story back in episode four where we were talking about the Babylonian Creation Story. And we told the story of how the younger gods and the original gods were at loggerheads with each other. The younger gods were noisy and Apsu decided he wanted to put them to death. But anyway, the bottom line is that Apsu was killed and Tiamat was angered because of it. So, she appointed a god name Quingu who was then to lead her armies in her battle against the younger gods.
Quingu was given some tablets, which were called the Tablets of Destiny. And he put them over his shoulders like a breastplate. And he wore the Tablets of Destiny. He was able to use them to control the fates. And they gave him power and authority and legitimacy and he was
able to win battles because of that [Tablets of Destiny]. And compare that Babylonian Creation Story with what we just told out of the Sefer HaYashar. I mean, a pretty amazing similarity, young Nimrod takes the garments of Adam and puts them over his shoulders. And they give him power and authority, the ability to win battles. The similarity is quite striking. And consider this, the Babylonian Creation Story was already in the ground for a good 12 to 1500 years before the Sefer HaYashar was written. So how did these stories coincide? Were there verbal stories told from rabbi to rabbi? I don't know but to me the similarity is quite striking. So, let's move on. Let's go back to Noah's family group.
We now have some flavor and interesting details of things that could have possibly happened amongst the offspring: The story of Nimrod, Shem being honored. So, let’s go back to our family group. They are still in the vineyard where Noah had his incident and Ham got his curse. We know that from there, they all took off and migrated. And eventually they ended up in the Plain of Shinar. Let me read you the actual verse [Genesis 11:1-2]:
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
.
So how did they get to the plain of Shinar?
Let's say that Mount Ararat, the volcano that is currently identified as Ararat, let’s say that was where they landed and Noah's Ark is up there on the mountain somewhere. So, how would they get to the Shinar Plain from Mount Ararat. They would have to go due south there is no East involved. If they went east, they would go down off Ararat and they would end up in northern Iran. They would not end up in the Shinar Plain. The only way to go east and get to the Shinar Plain is for them to end up somehow in the Syrian Desert. Which doesn't seem likely based on today's conditions, but maybe like the Sahara Desert where they now know that it was once a lush green plain. And maybe the Syrian Desert
was the same as the lush green land [of Sahara]. And they migrated through there and ended up in the Shinar Plain.
So here they are arriving at Shinar. And let's look at one specific word in that verse which is Genesis 11:1&2. The verse is, or the word is ‘settled.’ The word translated settled is the Hebrew word which is …wbVv¶E¥y (yayshvu) it is, the root of that word is bAvÎy (yashav). And that means to literally sit, remain or dwell. And that's exactly what Noah's family group did. They literally just sat their butts down in the Shinar Plain and stayed there and didn't go anywhere else. Now, what was their mandate? What was it that Elohim told Noah and his sons to do? All the animals to do?
Let’s go back to Genesis 9:1. This is a verse we’ve gone over in great detail. It says be fruitful. Remember the word for fruitful (Peroo). It means abundance, fruitfulness, the tree branches so full of apples they’re touching the ground. Be fruitful, increase in number. That's (Raboo) and it means to increase in number, quantity, volume, intensity, influence. In this verse it specifically says number, so we’re talking about population. So, they are supposed to increase in their number in the population. And then finally fill the earth. And fill is (miloo). And remember the sand pail so full of sand that sand is falling out as you carry it. Or the bucket sloshing water over the side. Filling up the earth.
Now, does that sound like sitting your butt down in the Shinar Plain? Is that fulfilling what Elohim told Noah and his sons and the animals to do? The animals did it right. The animals just took off and went out and filled up the earth. The people did not. And then in Genesis 9:7 it said: As for you, be fruitful (peroo), increase in number (raboo), multiply on the earth. That was the word (shirtzu). And that's where we get (sharetz). And that means teeming things. So, the verb literally means to swarm or teem. So, they were supposed to go out, take the world by storm. They were supposed to swarm the world, teem, be so fruitful and abundant that they were to fill up the earth. And they were not doing it. They were
being disobedient. When they parked their little bottoms on the Shinar Plain, they were not fulfilling what Elohim told them to do. They were acting in disobedience. So, here they are settling together.
Now, the Shinar Plain was a wonderful, beautiful, excellent place to settle down, but that was not the mandate. So, I found an excellent description of the Shinar Plain. And it's found in a book by noted Egyptologist and Assyriologist EA Wallace Budge. And I’d like to just read it for you. To me it was quite striking:
The land lying between the river Tigris and the river Euphrates (You'll notice the British way of speaking. EA Wallis was a true Brit) is one vast plain, which extends from the mountains of Kurdistan to the Persian Gulf, and has an area of many hundreds of thousands of square miles. The geological formation of the upper, northern part of this plain is entirely different from that of the lower, or southern part. The northern part is higher than the southern, and in many respects closely resembles the “great and terrible “ Syrian desert which lies to the west of the Euphrates; the southern part consists of alluvium which has been deposited by the Tigris and Euphrates and their branches during countless centuries. Parts of the northern portion of the plain are covered with a layer of desiccated and decayed stones, and after the heavy spring rains a considerable amount of vegetation springs up which affords pasture for sheep and camels. But as there never has existed any means of irrigating it systematically, it has always been impossible to grow crops on any portion of this desert land. On the other hand, the soil of the southern or lower part of the plain being alluvial is extremely fertile, and as it is watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, and the canals that “take off” from these rivers, its inhabitants from time immemorial have raised crops of grain there, and have been able to cultivate the palm with great success, and grow many other kinds of fruit trees. The vast plain runs roughly in a south-easterly direction, and classical writers called its northern part Mesopotamia and its lower part Babylonia.
Where the northern part ended in the south, or southern part began in the north, is not known, but it is tolerably certain that, speaking quite generally, the northern boundary of the southern part must have been near the place where the alluvial soil either came to an end or was not deep enough to grow crops upon. The classical geographer Ptolemy seems to have placed the northern border of Babylonia at the Median Wall It was mentioned by Xenophon in (Anabasis ii, 4, 12), which was 100 feet high, 20 feet broad, and 20 parsangs (70 miles) long.
It was built by Nebuchadnezzar II as a means of defending against the invading Medes which they were at war with. It ran from Tikrit on the Tigris River over to Hit (heet) on the Euphrates River. So, this is the Shinar Plain. Certainly, a desirable place for Noah and his boys and the family to settle, but again, they were acting in disobedience.
Genesis 11:3-4 says the following:
They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 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 and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
So, they were saying that they specifically did not want to be scattered over the whole earth. They wanted to congregate and stay together. Now, this whole concept of making bricks and building with tar, not something that we do today.
However, we still do use tar around the foundations of our houses. The last time we built a house, the whole foundation was a poured basement. And they tarred the whole thing all the way around, covered it with pitch as a means of waterproofing.
Herodotus in The Histories Book 1 Section 179 which was written somewhere around 450-430 BCE said the following:
Further, I must relate where the earth was used as it was dug from the moat (talking about the wall of Babylon, the wall surrounding Babylon) and how the wall was constructed. As they dug the moat, they made bricks of the earth which was carried out of the place they dug, and when they had moulded bricks enough, they baked them in ovens; then using hot bitumen for cement and interposing layers of wattled reeds at every thirtieth course of bricks, they built first the border of the moat and then the wall itself in the same fashion. On the top, along the edges of the wall, they built houses of a single room, facing each other, with space enough between to drive a four-horse chariot (in between them). There are a hundred gates in the circuit of the wall, all of bronze, with posts and lintels of the same. There is another city, called Is, (which is) eight days' journey (and that's referring to this city Hit where the median wall was) It is eight days' journey from Babylon, where there is a little river, also named Is, a tributary of the Euphrates river; from the source of this river Is, many lumps of bitumen rise with the water; and from there the bitumen was brought for the wall of Babylon.
So, a source of the pitch or the tar. And then there's some Assyrian tablets which are held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
They are written in Akkadian, dated somewhere around 2350 to 2150 BCE. And they detail large quantities of bitumen which were sold. So, we know from historical evidence that this book, or this verse in Genesis holds very true for early construction in the Shinar Plain.
Josephus says in the Antiquity of the Jews 1:116
But the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built (talking about the Tower of Babel), that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burnt brick cemented together with mortar, made of bitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water. When God saw that they acted so madly he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not growing wiser by the destruction of the former sinners;
So, Josephus is saying that they used the pitch to waterproof the bricks as a protection against a future flood. He thought that they were building the tower to get above the possible flood and covering it with pitch to waterproof it against the flood. Now, while they were engaged in building, the people that were working rebelled against Elohim. And this is discussed in the HaYashar, in the section Noach. And it said that the people rebelled against Elohim. They waged war against him. And they divided themselves into three parties. One party said we will go up into heaven, wage war against the Lord. The second party said we will go up into heaven and there set up our own gods and worship them. And the third party said we will go up into heaven and slay the Lord with spears and arrows. And the Lord knew all their actions and all their evil thoughts. And he saw the city entire which they were building. So, the concepts here, with this extra material we brought in, is that that the people building the tower were evil, had evil intent. They were not seeking to worship God. They were seeking to supplant God. They were acting in rebellion because they were not dispersing into the world like they were supposed to. They were just settling down in the Shinar Plain.
And I think that Genesis 11:4 says it all. And we referred to this a little bit ago:
“So that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face the earth”
They wanted to hang together. They wanted to stay in one place. They did not want to fulfill the destiny that Elohim has set for them. The evil
that they were committing was vaunting their name above the name of Elohim. Their sin was staying together on the Shinar Plain and not scattering. So, what you think Elohim is going to do in this scenario? It's kind of like in the pre-flood world where he’s looking down and all men were thinking about was evil all the time. And he’s thinking, “Okay, it's time to wipe every living thing from the face of the earth.” So, let's see what he says.
In Genesis 11:5-9 it describes Elohim's actions:
But the LORD came down to see the city
So, they provoked him enough that he came down to see what they were doing.
and the tower that the men were building. 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.
So, this is a very important concept. If men would get their act together, even today, if men would get their act together and they would work in unity instead of all the time fighting against each other and trying to bite and devour and destroy each other. If they would work in unity they would be able to do anything. Going on:
Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So, the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Now, in some Rabbinical accounts, Elohim sends this is mighty wind. And the wind blows and the tower is toppled over. And there is this giant storm that destroys the tower. Kind of reminiscent of the of the flood. The Tanakh doesn't say anything about that. In the Tanakh it merely says that Elohim came down personally. And stepped foot on the earth. And looked at their city. And then he did two things. The thing number one that he did was confusing their language.
The word here translated as confused is h¶DlVbÎn (navlah). And it comes from the root lAlD;b (balal). And this means to mix, mingle, confuse or confound. So, he just totally mixed up their languages. He mingled them all together so that the people working to build the city were not able to accomplish the task. They probably had to run back to their own tents, their own houses. And then the next thing that happened after their language was confused, Elohim scattered them.
The word scattered is XRpÎ¥y (yahfetz). And it comes from the root X…wÚp (pootz). And that means scatter, disperse or spread out. So, he scattered these people all over the earth, just like he told them to do on their own. They refused, they sat down in the Shinar Plain and built their city and their tower. So, Elohim had to convince them to do exactly what he told him to do. So, he used confusion. I'm sure there was a little fear involved. And they were running off to where they were supposed to go originally in their own little family groups that all spoke the same language. Now, I don't know what meteorological phenomena happen when Elohim stepped foot on the earth. We know a couple of references in the Tanakh where Elohim came down. Obviously, this is different than when he was walking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.
We have a reference where he shows up to Moses on Mount Sinai. Elohim came down and the mountain burned with fire and smoked. And there was lightning and thunder. Kind of like when a volcano erupts. Or maybe it was like Elijah on Mount Horeb. When Elohim showed himself to Elijah. And the mountain shook violently. And shook itself apart. And the wind blew. Maybe all of these phenomena happen when Elohim
came down. There was earthquake. There was fire. There was smoke. There was lightning. There was thunder. And you can imagine, if all that is happening, how the people would scatter like roaches. I mean, they would just try to get out of there. They would just be so afraid of what was happening to their city to their tower, that they would just run in all directions.
Now, just like our Creation Stories from around the world and our Flood Stories from around the world, there are also Tower of Babel Stories from around the world. I’m just going to go over two of them. There's many of them and I’m not going to take time like I did with the other stories. I don't think the Tower of Babel is quite as important as those other stories. Let me just give you two of them.
The first one comes from a tablet which was found in the Library of Ashurbanipal. It was one of those cylinders. And they were hauled off to the British Museum and they were translated. And there was a publication [by] George Smith in 1880. He published a book called The Chaldean Account of Genesis. And he writes in detail the inscriptions that are on one of the tablets. And if you want to look up the exact writing, it's found in his book on pages 163 to 165. I’m just going to read a little bit of it. This is starting on line 7 on the first tablet.
COLUMN I.
7. ….of Babylon he hastens to the submission,
8. [small] and great he confounded (on) the mound.
9. Their walls all the day he founded ;
10. for their destruction (punishment) in the night
11 ….he did not leave a remainder.
12. In his anger also (his) secret counsel he pours out
13. [to] confound (their) speeches he set his face.
14. He gave the command, he made strange their counsel
15. ….the going he inspected it.
16 ….he took (selected) a shrine.
So, George thought that this was a reference to the Tower of Babel. And I agree with him. I mean how can you ignore the language of he hastens to the mound, the tower. And he scrambles their language. He confuses the people. [This is] clearly a picture of what is described in the Tanakh. Now, there is a story also that comes from the Aztec culture. And it’s a story of a giant named Xelhua. Xelhua survived the mighty deluge. And after the deluge he decided [that] he was going to build a pyramid. So, he orders that bricks be made and the pyramid be built. And so, he has all these slaves building the mound for him. And the pyramid is going up. It’s reaching into the clouds. And as it reaches the clouds, the other gods started getting angry and deciding to stop this pyramid from being built so man didn't have [gain] access to the gods. They started hurling stones and fire [from heaven] and started killing people. And the activity ceased and the pyramid stop being built. So, interesting to see how these stories, just like the creation and flood stories, are endemic in all these cultures: talking about the giant pyramid, the giant mound, the giant tower.
So, let's talk about the Messianic Implications of this story that I just told you. The Shinar Plain, the building of the city and the building of the tower, this is a symbol that represents the very first test of Elohim's promise to man. And remember the rainbow, that he would not destroy the world with the flood, would not destroy mankind as a remedy for sin. He might've been tempted to. Just like in the Pre-Flood Era where he said I’m going to wipe mankind out. I'm really tired of the rebellion. I’m really tired of their disobedience. And the same thing could be said for this episode. But he, instead of coming down and wiping them out, he stepped foot. I'm sure all these you things were happening, the phenomena we’re talking about. And he confused and scattered, but did not destroy. He did not take out mankind. He did not destroy mankind. He just forced man to do what he'd already instructed him to do. So, his restraint from destroying mankind shows us that he really means his word, that his words are true. And this points us to Messiah who is going
to be the remedy for sin. Messiah’s sacrifice, Messiah's blood is going to be the remedy for sin, not the destruction of the world. Now this is just an extension, built on two previous prophecies that we've had. Let’s go over them real quick. Remember Elohim's pivot from destruction to blessing when we were talking about the sacrifice of the clean animals, the sweet aroma that went up before Elohim.
And Elohim said: “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
And remember, this was a promise that he was not going to destroy the world, destroy mankind, that man was going to be allowed to do his rebellious stuff. And Elohim was going to preserve the earth and allow him to walk out all of this stuff. And this pointed us directly to Messiah. Messiah would then be able to come and rectify the situation instead of using destruction.
And then the sign of the rainbow. The sign of the rainbow is a sign of God's enduring love, God's promise not to use destruction as a remedy for sin. He will use Messiah’s Sacrifice instead. And then today's prophecy, the city and tower in the Shinar Plain represent the first test of Elohim's promise not to use destruction as a remedy for sin. He will use Messiah’s sacrifice instead. So, the Tower of Babel and the City of Babylon points us to directly to Messiah.
Now, the second prophecy, in order to reveal that, I want you to think about the description that we just had of Babylon, the Shinar Plain and what happened when Elohim came down. So, tuck that in the back of
your brain. And now I’d like to do another story to compare against that story. This story is actually found in future references that were going to get to. Messianic Prophecies that point us to Messiah when he comes and he establishes his kingdom on the earth. And he is going to sit on his throne, in his temple on Mount Zion. From Mount Zion he will rule the world. The law will go out from Mount Zion. And men from all nations, all cultures, creeds, they will all come there to worship him.
And the references I'm referring to Isaiah 2:2-4, Isaiah 51:11, Micah 4:17, which is very similar to Isaiah 2:2-4, and then Joel 3:16 and 17. These are just some very basic, simple ones. There are many others that are a little more complex, pointing to this same event.
So let me read Isaiah 2:2-4. And remember we’re comparing this story with our other story.
In the last days the mountain of the LORD’S temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
So, let's picture in our mind these two scenes. Let's start with the Plain of Shinar.
Let’s like go over like an aerial view, like a drone view. We’re going over the city where the construction is going on. We look down and we see there's all kinds of houses and tents and buildings surrounding this
giant construction site. We know the construction site was happening on the Euphrates River, on the bank of the Euphrates River.
They were digging a moat around it, building a wall. There's all this activity going on. So, we look down and we see how they're doing it. They’re digging out the dirt, the mud from around the wall, just like was described by Herodotus. They’re taking the mud, they’re taking it up and mixing it and turning it into bricks. They’re molding the bricks. They are letting the bricks dry, taking the molds off. And then when they get enough bricks, then they put the bricks in the oven and fire up the oven. And they burn the bricks. And then the bricks become solid. So then, this steady supply of bricks that are feeding into their building projects. And then there is a steady stream of pitch coming from up north, the eight day’s journey that he talked about.
And there’s also many places around where it’s described in these ancient tablets that they harvested the pitch. So, there’s plenty of pitch around. So then, they use pitch for mortar and are building the walls. They’re building buildings within the city. They’re building this giant Tower of Babel. And all this activity, it’s just hubbub. People are working feverishly to get their beautiful city done. I'm sure they’re very proud of their accomplishments. They are saying, “We are making a name for ourselves. We are going to be exalted and honored above Elohim. It's about us, not about him.” So, Elohim looks down and decides he is going to do something about it. So, Elohim comes down. So, we see Elohim coming down from heaven. He steps foot on the pavement of one of the streets, somewhere in the city.
And when he sets foot, all these phenomena are taking place. There is fire. There is smoke. There is lightning. There is thunder. There is this massive earthquake. There is wind. And I imagine this tower started shaking and tumbling and coming down. And people are running and screaming. They're just going crazy. And then Elohim does his first thing. He confuses their language. So, now they can’t even talk to each other. They have to sort themselves out. So, instinctively what are you going to do? You’re going to run back to your house, run back your tent,
run back to whatever building you're living in. And all of your relatives all end up there in the same place. And you find out oh, we’re all talking the same language. And then Elohim does his second thing. He scatters. So, then he puts the fear of God in them and they just all grab their stuff and they just take off. And they scatter in all directions. Now, contrast that picture with what we just read. So now, let's think about Jerusalem. Let's think about where Mount Zion is. Let's think about, okay, I’m going to come up from the Jericho Valley.
I’m going to go up the Jericho road. And I’m going to go up to Jerusalem. And as I'm coming up the road, I'm going to see the Temple. I’m going to see Mount Zion. I'm going to see the City of Jerusalem. Mount Zion is pushed up. Isaiah said that it's raised up above the other mountains. It’s higher that all the other hills. So, here's Mount Zion, this towering mountain and on top of it is the Temple. And Elohim has placed Messiah there in the temple. Messiah is reigning. And Messiah is putting out his law.
And people are streaming in from everywhere, from all the four corners of the earth. Instead of being scattered, they’re being gathered. And they all come together. And the reason they want to come together is because they want to hear what Messiah is saying. They want to get in on the blessings. They know that Messiah is judging between the nations, settling disputes. He's creating peace. They're taking their implements of war and turning them into implements of cultivation. And so, instead of chaos and scattering and confusion, now everybody is coming together under the banner of Messiah. And there is no longer any confusion. In fact, in other verses we’re going to read that they all came to Zion singing and celebrating and dancing. What a glorious time it's going to be. Now, those two pictures, obviously, are totally opposite. They are an antithesis of each other. But, if we take this story that we told today, the story of Babylon and the Tower of Babel, this is an anti-type that points us to Mount Zion. Instead of the scattering, confusion and chaos, now it’s coming together and blessing and good stuff instead of bad stuff. And the Tower of Babel points us to Mount Zion and the Temple of the Almighty, the temple where Messiah is going to sit. For those are the
two prophecies. Now, next episode we’re going to go over what happens and where all these people scattered off into the world, where all these people groups ended up. And we are going to go over what is called the Table of the Nations. So, join me next time.
Thank you for watching our show today. We hope that you enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Now, after watching this episode you might be saying to yourself, “Who is this Messiah that Dr. Smith is talking about?
Is he talking about the Christian Messiah? Is he talking about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary. And then lived a blameless and holy life on the earth, And then was tortured and crucified. And after he died he then was resurrected from the dead after three days. Then after people witnessed this, he was then taken up bodily by Elohim into heaven from the Mount of Olives.
Or is Dr. Smith talking about the Muslim prophet Isa. Isa Ibn Maryam, the messenger, who was sent by Allah to bring a message to the people. The Quran says he that lived a holy and blameless life, was born of the virgin Mary. He fulfilled all the Jewish prophecies in exact accordance. But one difference, instead of being crucified, he then was taken up by Allah into heaven before the Romans laid hands on him. And he awaits there now in the fourth heaven where at the end of days at the day of judgment he will be revealed to all.
Or is Dr. Smith talking about the Jewish Messiah? The Messiah who has not yet been revealed, that the entire Jewish world is waiting for his revelation. Now, the beautiful thing is that you can hold to any of these beliefs. And we can all still learn together about Messiah. We can learn about our Christian Messiah. We can learn about our Jewish Messiah. We can learn about our Muslim prophet Isa who will be revealed. It doesn’t matter what you believe. You can even be an atheist or agnostic and still learn from this program about Messiah. Now, I have to admit I
am a Christian so I approach things, obviously, from a Christian point of view. And I promise you, as we reveal these prophecies, which I believe have all been fulfilled through Jesus Christ. Or will be fulfilled when he comes back, returning in the clouds in the same way he was taken up. I believe that all of this is true, but I promise you I will do my very best to present these prophecies from a neutral point of view. And try to keep my Christian bias to a minimum. Obviously, it will pop up from time to time but I will try to stay only in the Tanakh and try not to get into the New Testament very often. Now, if you want more information about Messiah, we have resources for you.
We have a website which is findingmessiah.org. Now, on that website you are going to find several resources. You will find links to all the videos, all the episodes that we have created so far. You will find links to download the transcripts of any of these episodes. And then you will find a section where you can get more information about Messiah through frequently asked questions. And then there is a section for donation. If you want to come alongside our ministry at Finding Messiah.
Now, there’s going to come a time in this series where you are going to be confronted with the question: What are you going to do with Messiah? Who do you believe Messiah is? Which of these Messiahs do you believe Dr. Smith is talking about? And Messiah will become real to you if you look at all the information presented and come to your conclusions. So, join us as we continue our journey through the Old Testament Scriptures looking for all the Messianic Prophecies. And join us next time as we reveal those to you.