Crazily enough, these verses mean exactly the opposite of what you and I have been lead to think.
The Tower of Babel
God came down and suddenly, as the workers gathered for work one morning, they found they couldn’t communicate with each other anymore. The word “confusion” only begins to describe individuals’ personal terror, shock and isolation, and collapse of their society.
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The Plains of Shinar
So the descendants of Noah’s plan to build a colossal ziggurat in order to storm the gates of heaven and take over was not a surprise for God, and it didn’t force Him to scramble for some sort of Plan B to rescue His purposes for the cosmos, or for humankind.
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Table of Nations: Japheth and Shem
Last week, I covered the migration of Ham's descendents across the Middle East and through to the continents of Africa to the west and south. This week I'll follow Japheth into Eurasia, over the top of the world and across to the other side of the globe, the Americas. Shem will settle largely in the Levant.
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Table of Nations: the Sons of Ham
Genesis chapter 10 acts as both an expansion and illustration of what Noah was prophesying
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Noah’s Prophecy
When Noah awoke and learned what had happened to him, what Ham had done to him, it isn’t Ham he curses, it’s Canaan, the youngest of Ham's four sons. I missed the significance of that the first time I read through this passage. Some commentators say this is the most remarkable prophecy in all of the Bible, showing three streams of humanity and the direction they would go, thousands of years before it happened.
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Shem, Ham, and Japheth
the motivations of the heart, when filled with love for God and others, is moved with a noble compassion. When filled with selfishness and self-centeredness, it seems there is a warping effect which contorts the heart to darkness.
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His Nakedness Uncovered
What began as a perfectly worthy work, growing a vineyard, degenerated into a complete dishonoring of his body, made in the image of God.
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Wine, Rich and Red
And so, sipping their wine, glowing from within from its warmth, warming themselves by the fire, telling stories, singing songs, the family must have felt as though life itself was, after all, quite beautiful.
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The Sign of the Rainbow
God knows life is filled with tragedy. Sin is ugly, but God is the God of beauty, and in Him you and I can overcome these things. At the end of the Bible, in Revelation, God is sitting on His throne and all around is a perfect rainbow, not half an arc, but a whole circle, heaven and earth finally made one.
