Satan did not know the God of Eden had started the process that would narrow down the fight between God and Satan to a physical struggle between a God created nation (Israel) and all other nations. Nor did Satan know God would eventually narrow down that struggle to a physical betrayal between (Luke 22:3 keyword: Judas) Satan’s man (Matt. 3:16-17 & 17:1-5) and God’s own physical Son, Jesus. And through Jesus’ death a church would be born where the battle between God and Satan would be waged spiritually and sometimes physically by Satanic religions that led nations.
(1Cor. 2:6-8 keywords: would not have crucified) Satan would use men to physically kill Jesus and unwittingly provide the sacrifice for sin that would make a way for mankind to achieve eternal salvation. (Rev. 12:5-9 keywords: neither was their place found any more in heaven) Satan would also unwittingly cause his own permanent expulsion from heaven (Rev. 20:10) and ultimately his own eternal punishment in fiery torment!
It was a time of remembering and reflection for Noah as he sat there on his porch watching the citizens of Nimrodtown bury their dead and gather their meager possessions in preparation for their scattering. He was tired, so tired he thought he would die and he was pleased when Shem came over from his house and briefly embraced him; “I love you Father.”, “I love you Shem.” Shem quietly took a seat and sat silently.
It was that kind of relationship, they could count on each other in any situation, they both knew when words were unnecessary and that was part of their communication. Noah loved Shem as a Father loves a son but there was a more unique bonding because each had the ability to know what the other was thinking. Even though silent they were a great comfort to each other.
They both needed all the comfort they could get. (Gen. 10:1-6) Noah had lost 2 sons and their progeny today and (Gen. 11:11) Shem had lost several of his children and their progeny. (Gen. 11:10-20) All the First Borns had lost some children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and on to every other living generation of their progeny, they had lost them to Nimrod’s seductive, false god worship. There was an awful sadness permeating every heart, every house, every yard, every street, even the air hung heavy with gloomy sadness there in Noah’s town.
They both sat silently on Noah’s porch, tears flowing down their faces, wetting the fronts of their shirts. They had both held their newborn children, touched their little faces, given them tiny bits of sweets and watched their little faces light up with the joy of discovery, they had touched their tiny chests and felt their tiny lives surging in their heartbeats, they had worked hard to give their little ones the best lives they could and each man, Noah and Shem, had felt the heart bursting joy of fatherhood.
They had both held their new born grandchildren and thanked the beautiful God of glory, the God of Eden, the Lord God whom they had never seen, that their lineage would go on. They had both loved their great grandchildren. They had both thought about the departing members of their generations and loved them until their choking loss seemed as if they could never breathe again.
They had held the babies. They had fed them their first messy bites, they had cleaned their dirty butts, they had held them, doctored them, prayed for them, tenderly touched them and loved them and they had spent hours of their days teaching their generations as they grew. They had both seen members of their generations fall under the spell of Nimrod and they were both suffering the suffocating sorrow of loss.
They were both tender of heart as a new hatched dove is tender of flesh and those tender hearts were broken, yet they loved the Lord God more than all else, they would not bend, they would not break and they would not change. Both Nimrod’s side and Noah’s side had made a choice.
(Prov. 15:3) Invisible, God sat there with them, (Luke 19:41-44 and John 11:33-36 keyword: wept) (Eph. 4:30 keywords; grieve not the Holy Spirit of God) spiritual tears poured down His spiritual face, His spiritual shirt front was also wet and His heart was broken within Him for they were His children too! God looked through His tears at the tear blurred features of Noah and Shem’s faces and silently whispered; “I love you my brokenhearted, faithful children, you will be with me.” (1John 4:8 & 16 keywords in both: God is love) Love hurts! How badly have you hurt the folks who love you? (2Pet. 3:9 keyword: longsuffering) How badly have you hurt God? How badly have you been hurt?
Noah looked at Nimrod’s tower and thought about how Nimrod had used slime (bitumen) for mortar to hold the bricks together and it thus held Nimrod’s tower together; “Its odd that Nimrod would discover the very same substance, pitch (bitumen), to hold his tower together that I used to keep water from leaking into the ark and killing us. I wonder if Ham told him?” Think about it. (1John 2:2) Jesus’ blood was shed for all the people in the whole world and His blood holds together God’s offer of salvation from their particular Babel. (1John 1:7-2:1) Then that very same blood keeps sin from leaking into the lives of saved people (Christians) and killing them! Was it a prophesy? You decide.
Invisible to all but God; Satan was right there with them and he was delighted by their broken hearts and their tears; “I wish I could hold their physical hearts in my hands. I would slowly squeeze them and watch their bodies writhe in pain! I’d watch them clutch at their chests. I’d watch them turn grey and gasp for air and I’d watch them die. I don’t care what it is they try to do I will ruin it, I’ll destroy them and all they do!” Had Satan been able to see the Lord God’s cold, baleful stare at him Satan would have shuddered to silence and stood shrunken with fear. But it was not yet time for him to see that.
As these 32 different language speaking groups left Shinar, spread and grew in numbers, they sometimes split apart, sometimes several times, into separate tribes because of food shortages (famine), disagreements, simple wanderlust and etc. Each group that split off developed their own language. Example: The written English of 1,000 years ago is hardly legible to an ordinary English speaking person of today. The King James Bible was translated into English only 500 years ago and English speaking people of today, 5-4-14, have problems with reading it.
AND: Please consider the differences between American English and British English that have occurred over about 300 years, then consider the differences between the dialects of Cajun English, Ebonics English and Massachusetts English. Similar yet different languages are now grouped into families of languages because a family of languages are related languages that originated from one language. Example of very broad, encompassing family languages: Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Altaic, Austro-Asiatic, Niger-Congo and etc.
When those various bands left Shinar and the tower named Babel they had also lost their ability to write! Even if they could have somehow been able to write through some type of muscle memory they couldn’t have read their own writing because whatever language they spoke would have been different and their writing would have been as meaningless as a barnyard chicken’s scratching. Far into their future those who rose to powerful, intellectual societies developed their own type of writing to express their thoughts, business, worship and etc.
Example: Egyptian, Babylonian, Sumerian, Hittite and etc. Except: Noah and his family kept the original, Garden of Eden language and its clay tablet writing and from that Hebrew tongue and some of the other languages of the tribes that settled in Mesopotamia would evolve the Chaldean language! Of course Satan would see to it that the scholars got it backwards.
Those bands who did not develop writing depended on oral tradition handed down from one generation to another to explain their past as a people. Example: The Cree Indians in Canada had an oral, tradition based story of creation and of a great deluge (flood) when missionaries first visited them. I will not go any further into this subject because it gave me the boredom crazies to get this far. If you wish to explore the subject the internet has another elephant rupturing load of information available. The point is made that all languages first began at Babel.
It took several generations, sometimes hundreds of years, for those tribal societies to develop writing. All these scattered bands took their false gods with them from Shinar and Nimrod’s tower. Over time they each developed a sophisticated religion comprised of many deities (gods) and an afterlife paradise (heaven) and an underworld place of punishment that fit their own tribal desires, beliefs, observations and presumed needs.
They also took Noah’s teaching and preaching of an evil spirit but they lost the name Lucifer along their way! The only way to preserve their various religions was by writing or oral traditional stories handed down from generation to generation and as “need” arose they changed or added to their gods and beliefs. BUT: They all started with oral tradition and the distortion occurred as it changed from generation to generation, except for Noah and his family!
Again: As writing developed in some societies and oral tradition developed in the other societies the stories they had learned at Shinar concerning God, creation, an evil spirit, the flood, a place of punishment and heaven had long been assimilated into whatever beliefs and system of deities they had accumulated and developed.
As Christian missionaries spread out over the world every society they encountered had its own story and characters in their own religious beliefs, either written or oral, concerning a god, the creation, the flood, an evil spirit or spirits, a paradise and a place of punishment. In the present day at least 500 different stories concerning the creation and the flood have been documented. The point is made that all religions and their concept of God originated from Babel.
NOTE. Have you ever wondered; “Did God just let those tribal people who, for generations, lived and died in their tribes all over the world just fall through the cracks and go on to hell because they were not born in the church age?” They were made in God’s image just like you and me; body, soul and spirit (eternal life that has nothing to do with breathing and heart beating). Do you really think God is that sloppy, cruel and unfeeling? Of course you don’t! If you wish to see how God gave them the same opportunity to accept salvation as you and I please see the one-article commentary Is God Fair? for the Biblical answer. END OF NOTE.
Noah thought back to all he had seen. He’d lived in the pre-flood society and had been one of the pre-flood First Born Sons. That caused him to think of the wooden chest that held the clay tablet records which told the story of man all the way back to the creation of man (Part 9). Noah remembered when he was 30 years old and the First Borns had taken him to the Adam cave. They had shown him the clay tablets that held the record of God and man.
His eyes filled with tears when he remembered the reverence the First Borns had shown when his father Lamech had read the record of Adam’s first memory when he had opened his eyes and the face of the God of Eden was only 3 hand spans from his face and he knew the God of Eden had given him His Breath of Life (Part 7).
The clay tablet record kept by the First Born Sons kept God’s record of dealing with man true as to what really happened (the first 5 books of the Bible written by Moses). The other 32 groups of people (tribes) based their beliefs on stories handed down from generations past which were based on idolatry and vague generational memories of creation and etc. That has not changed!
His thoughts about the First Borns back before the flood caused Noah to remember when he was 195 years old and his father Lamech and his grandfather Methuselah had organized a caravan and had taken him on a great journey far to the north (modern day Turkey). Lamech had told him an unbelievable number of people had spread out over the whole world from mankind’s beginning in what is now modern day Northern Israel (of course they didn’t know how big the world really was and they didn’t know if any of them had crossed oceans).
Stories had come back to Sethtown that to the north several scattered towns had gotten together and built a great religious center where many people from that region gathered twice every year to worship their false gods and Lamech and Methuselah were taking Noah to see that religious center.
Methuselah had quietly told him; “Noah, in reality you have no idea how far our people have gone nor what they have accomplished. You have been in the Sethtown area your whole life and you need to know the world is much bigger than you can imagine and the battle we wage for the God of Eden is much bigger than you can possibly understand. The God of Eden will judge us, the vast majority of our people will perish in that coming judgment (the flood) but we must still struggle with all we are to save what few we can.”
At that time in Noah’s past, when Noah was 195 years old, neither Methuselah, Lamech nor Noah knew of the coming battle with Shaqar-Owr (False Light) and his false teaching in the Jezreel Valley (Part 8). So they went “to the North” to find what they would show Noah. When they had finally arrived they were all astonished by the immensity of the worship center. The priests who attended the structure were only too glad to show them the power of the gods they worshipped. Pride in their great achievement exuded from the very pores of the priest’s skins as they took the “country bumpkins” on the grand tour.
Huge T-shaped stones mined from a local quarry almost one-half mile away, some taller than 2 men, had been brought to the sacred site and were used as pillars. They were enclosed in a pattern of 24 separate chambers housed in either circular or oval walls. The floors were of polished lime much like the Romans would do in the far, far future.
The real jaw dropper was that these priests had also discovered how to make brass and iron. They defended their “secret” of brass and iron and would only permit the use of their priest produced tools by the workers. It was part of the priest’s mystique. With those tools their artisans had carved into the T-shaped pillars bias relief representations of lions, boars, foxes, birds, insects and etc. and many strange symbols that related to their type of worship. After the grand tour the priests prepared a delicious meal served with sparkling wine. The “country bumpkins” ate like starved wolves.
It was far into the night when they finally retired. The next morning when the priests started explaining their religion and attempting to proselyte them into converts the 3 stalwarts of the God of Eden loaded their donkeys and headed south. Around their many campfires on the way back to Sethtown they had many discussions about what they had seen and there was much speculation about how many types of towns, cities, cultures and how many worship centers the progeny of Adam and Eve had established; “Who knows how far away from Sethtown“.
They had not known the huge worship center and others like it all over the world would be buried by the God of Eden with His flood. The 3 men would have been shocked beyond reason had they known that, far after the flood, in 1994 archaeologists would start excavating the worship center they had just visited and they would name it Gobekli Tepe (Turkish for Potbelly Hill). Potbelly Hill, God surely buried it well when His flood put a hill on it!
Of course, ever resourceful, Satan would inspire an unknown author to write a book named The Urantia Papers that contains many weird concepts concerning humanity and its origins from outer space. That book, using a combination of religion, science and philosophy, would be ready (published 1955) with all the answers about who built Gobekli Tepe and others like it as soon as archaeologists discovered or will discover them. Think Stonehenge too!
(Eccl. 1:9) “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
Check out other ancient civilizations like the Minoan, Atlantis, Mayan, Osirian, Han China and etc. A few of the pre-flood ancient civilizations were destroyed by volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and etc. but most were destroyed by the waters of the flood or events like those above that were caused when the fountains of the earth were broken up to help cause the flood.
(Gen. 7:11 keywords: the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up) (Part 10). As the post-flood tribes from Babel spread and grew they started the same thing all over again! Noah’s closely guarded clay tablet record was the only true record of God’s creation and its aftermath and God had a particular destination for them Noah could never have comprehended. Noah would have asked; “Who is Jacob and Moses? What is Israel? What is a Bible? What in the world is a Church?” if he had been told why a clay tablet record was being kept!
Thinking about the clay tablets caused Noah to think about his grandfather Methuselah and the clay tablet recorded story he told Noah that Adam had recounted to him. (Gen. 2:7) On the day of his creation Adam had awakened on the top of a small mountain (Moriah, the present day Jewish temple mount, Part 1) then (Gen. 2:8) “And the Lord God had planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed (Adam)”.
(Gen. 2:19) That’s the place where God had created all the animals and birds and had walked with Adam while Adam had named them. (Gen. 2:21-25) The garden in Eden is where God had presented Adam his help meet, Eve. Tears trickled down Noah’s face and words trickled through his thoughts; “Somehow we always manage to mess everything up.”
(Remember: The garden in Eden was gone so part of Eden was also gone. At the end of paragraph 4 below you may very well see the flaming sword that guards the Garden of Eden with its tree of life!) You can view these maps on the internet and it is worth your trouble if you are curious. From the map of the Fertile Crescent by Norman Einstein:
Noah didn’t have a map and he didn’t know what was left of Eden lay in a great crescent that began where the land of modern day Iraq and Iran starts at the tip of the Persian Gulf. It lay in a gentle curve northwest that covered some of modern day Iran and all of Iraq. Then Eden included most of Syria, touched Turkey and started curving back south to touch almost 620 miles of the Mediterranean Seacoast. Then:
Eden covered all of Lebanon and Israel, part of Jordan, and the whole of Lower Egypt on into Upper Egypt for nearly 930 miles. The whole length of what was left of Eden is roughly 2,575 miles long and most of it was around 300 miles wide except where it narrowed down as it followed the Mediterranean Sea coast. What was left of Eden contained about 800,000 square miles of land. But: Since part of Eden is gone just suppose Eden had lain in a huge irregular circle that also swung an equal arc south from the Persian Gulf, crossed the Red Sea and joined the other end of the crescent in Upper Egypt! That would have added at least another million square miles!
Source: Owl and Mouse Map of the Indian Ocean: Think about this. The present-day Arabian Sea protrudes off the northern Indian Ocean like a fat, tapered finger between India on the east and Oman and Yemen on the west. The Persian Gulf extends like a much smaller finger off the extreme northwest tip of the Arabian Sea and extends 615 miles to where the Persian Gulf stops and the landmass of Iran and Iraq start.
The Red Sea extends off the southern end of the Arabian Sea and lays northwest between Egypt on the west and Saudi Arabia on the east. The Red Sea travels 1398 miles northeast to Lower Egypt where the man-made Suez Canal travels 120 miles to connect the red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. All these landmarks encircle a huge tongue of land now named the Arabian Peninsula.
What if this whole “tongue” of land laying between the Persian Gulf on the north and the Red Sea on the south and between the Indian Ocean on the east and the Mediterranean Sea on the west is the “original boundary” of Eden? AND: Either way, circle of land or tongue of land, what if that southern Arabian desert region contained the garden of Eden (Gen 3:24) and that burning desert is the flaming sword that prevents man from finding the tree of life in the Garden of Eden? That tongue of land would have increased the size of the land of Eden to roughly 3 million square miles! Three! God’s number of completion. You decide.
At that time when Noah was leaving the ark he did not have a map and he did not know how that land so far away from him lay but Noah did know one thing. Noah did know Eden defined: Strong’s #5727 & 5729: is to be soft and pleasant in pleasure and to live voluptuously.
Noah’s thoughts jerked back to the present where he was looking at Nimrod’s tower and he knew something else too, he wished this awful day would end and he could go back to the garden in Eden and be with the Lord God of Eden. Modern man, in his unbelief and ignorance, would call the remainder of Eden the “Fertile Crescent”.
Noah didn’t know how far the probable 1 and 1/2 half billion descendants of Adam and Eve had gone as they spread out from Northern Israel (Part, 4, 5 & 10) before the flood. Noah knew there was just something special about the Fertile Crescent (what was left of the land of Eden) and it drew him like metal filings to a loadstone. Noah didn’t know the Lord God was patiently, carefully, tenderly guiding his steps right back to where He wanted him to be.
Of course the thoughts of Eden draws us all because all people have the desire to get back to the garden in Eden. The problem arises when, just like Nimrod, man thinks he can start his own religions or philosophical concepts and force God to accept man on man’s terms. (Acts 4:10-12 esp. V.12) IT WON’T WORK! Read this->(Rom. 3:23-26) “Because all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God” and only Jesus is the propitiation (the atoning victim) for our sins so we can be redeemed (redemption: defined: liberation procured by the payment of a ransom) back to God (the God of Eden).
(Rev. 21:1-7 & 22:1-7) That is why we have a zillion different concepts of how to follow a religion to get back to Eden (heaven, nirvana, Wairua, utopia, Right View to follow the Noble Path, paradise, Tian and etc.) (Gen. 3:16-24) OR we foolishly try to create our own Eden through science, medicine, political correctness and societal/political engineering by philosophical reasoning (Gen. 3:17-19) right here on this cursed earth in our cursed lives. And we always fail!
(Gen. 8:3-5) Noah thought back to when the ark had first bumped land on Mount Ararat far to the north. The ark had floated and bumped for several days as the waters receded then it came to rest on a plateau of that mountain. Noah did not know the top of the mountain looked toward what would someday be named Armenia to the northeast, Iran to the southeast and Turkey due west.
All that did not matter to Noah. What did matter was that something within him drew him due south. It took a long time for them to walk their tiny flocks south, ever south. They camped, fished, hunted, fed their flocks, had babies and for part of a year they raised a season’s crops on the eastern shore of a beautiful lake that would be named Lake Van in the far future.
Noah had not known that another lake which would be named Lake Urmia lay southeast in a nation that would be named Iran. They were twin lakes, at least 200 miles apart, laying in two different nations, separated just like the world’s population was separated at Babel, separated just like major religions of the world are separated today.
They had finally reached the land of Eden (the Fertile Crescent), they traveled further and further south but Nimrod had gradually taken over with his false gods religion and (Gen. 11:2) moved them from the east, moving south and west to Shinar which was located in the lower western region near the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. Noah knew they were supposed to travel to the east but he was forced to follow Nimrod to try to rescue his people from idolatry.
And now here they sat on the plain of Shinar, looking at the monstrosity Nimrod had built, looking at the terribly empty plain with their hearts broken within them and wondering what to do next; “Well Shem, gather the First Borns, we need to consult the Lord God as to what we must do now.” “OK Father.” and Shem stepped off the porch. “Shem.” Shem stopped, turned and waited.
With a slight grin Noah pointed his finger at him; “Be a good boy!” Shem smiled, nodded ascent and turned back to his task. It was a private joke. It was Noah’s way of acknowledging and complementing Shem because Shem was a mature, strong, intelligent, trustworthy man who could be counted on in any situation.
(Gen 8:20-22) While Shem was gathering the people Noah thought about his first worship service immediately after they had exited the ark. The other 8 survivors of the flood were afraid because the Lord God favored Noah. They knew the vast population of mankind had been destroyed by the flood and they had been spared only because of their obedient to God relationship with Noah.
They were afraid to help and while they watched (V.20) Noah build the altar, 12 stones stacked just so. They watched while Noah took of every clean beast and every clean fowl, slaughtered them and offered burnt offerings on the altar he had built. (V.21-22) God was pleased and had accepted Noah’s offering.
(Gen. 9:1-17 esp. V.11 & 16) Then the Lord God had made a “rainbow” covenant with Noah, which included all of us, that He would never again destroy all life on earth that breathed through their nostrils with a flood.
There on the porch of his house that was built on the vast plain of Shinar Noah sadly shook his head; “Later on my Lord God told me to tell Nimrod to come to Him and stop the foolishness of worshipping false gods and I did, over and over and over, but they would not listen and now for the second time the whole earth’s population has been judged and we are scattered. Well, that’s better than being drowned!”
Noah got up, stepped off his porch and went toward the barns and fenced lots to start gathering the clean animals and birds he would use in their worship service of asking.
After the singing, worshipping, placing the burnt offering and praying Noah told them to pack their possessions, gather their animals and get ready to travel to the east and south like they were supposed to from the beginning before Nimrod and Satan had led them astray. Noah came from the barns where he had been packing into carts the tools, seed, rigging for their draft animals and the endless array of things; you know how it is when you are moving, 101 things to do, think about and remember. That was when Noah found Naamah, his beautiful wife, standing in the yard, looking at their house, silent, wounded, her tears pouring down her cheeks.
Silently Noah stepped to her, silently stood hip touching hip with her and tenderly put his arm around her. “Noah, I don’t want to leave my beautiful, beautiful flowers, our home, this home is us, it feels like we are leaving us behind. We’ve loved the babies of all of our generations here, we’ve doctored them, we’ve–.” and she started sobbing. Suddenly, for the first time, Noah realized Naamah was an old woman.
He still loved her with all his being and she was the beauty of his life but he had forgotten she was 82 years older than him and these events and this impending move had literally broken her heart (Part 9). As men do he hadn’t taken into account she had also lost 2 sons, numerous grandchildren, great grandchildren, great, great grandchildren and on.
Noah abjectly apologized and unconsciously tried to blame it on God; “Naamah, the Lord God of Eden, well, ahem, when He took from man and made the woman it made us alike and yet terribly different too. Basically a man is very practical and uses reason and muscle to work, overcome and achieve his ends. A woman is much more emotional and shows those emotions while she works, overcomes and achieves her ends.
Ahem–” Noah realized how lame he sounded and hushed, then he tried again; “Naamah, I have failed you terribly. I am sorry from the bottom of my heart. I did not take into account that your loss is as great or greater than mine. But we do have Shem, his First Born sons and a lot of their family members.”
Noah realized that sounded pretty lame too and he hushed. Naamah turned and pressed herself against him, hugged him as he was now hugging her and her tears became a cascade while sobs convulsed her body. His own tears fell into her hair, worked down her forehead and mingled with her tears. Their hearts were one and their tears were one, 2 lonely people grieving bitterly, their hearts broken, painful things within them.
The beautiful, glorious, (Psa. 111:4) gracious, compassionate Lord God of all glory, (James 5:11) was filled with pity and tender mercy as He stood there with them. Spiritual tears also poured down His spiritual face because of their agony and He whispered to himself; “My child Naamah, soon your tears will never fall again, it will shortly be your time and I will gently take you with Me to a special paradise (Luke 16:22-23 keyword: Abraham’s bosom) that will one day be named (Heb. 11:8-17 & James 2:23) to honor one in whose blood will be your blood.” Neither of them knew Naamah would never complete this trip, but God did know and that is all that will ever count.
Shem and one of his great grandsons came walking toward them, he locked eyes with his father and Noah noticed Shem’s face was wet with tears too. Without a word Shem turned, he touched his grandson’s shoulder, they walked up the path to the porch and started picking up pots of flowers. Shem’s grandson whispered; “How did you know?” “I just know.” And they loaded Naamah’s flowers on a cart that would be pulled by a donkey. Shem’s great grandson would many times tell his own numerous progeny about the tenderness of Shem’s expression and how his own tears also cascaded down his face. It was a time of sorrow.
They were going far into the interior of a place called Mesopotamia. Satan was jaunty as he traveled with Noah and also with all the other scattering groups at the same time. After all, man’s tears and sorrow were what really made him happy, well, almost as happy as when men ignorantly worshipped him through their false gods and mythological figures; “This is a great day, Noah’s group is broken hearted, Nimrod has already told his group it’s all Noah’s fault and the rest of them are calling on their false gods and idols to get them out of the trouble those very same gods got them into in the first place! Yipeee! Yahoooo! Hurrah! Hurrah for me!” The continuity of Satan was in full swing.
NOTE: (Gen. 11:20-26 first sons ages at fatherhood added together = 161) Only this statistic means anything concerning this article. (Gen. 11:20-26) From the time Noah left Shinar and Babel until the time Abram was born was 161 years, remember, the scattering took place about the middle of Peleg’s life. Think about these 2 examples of the progress in population growth and technological advancement that can be made by intelligent people in a very short time.
In 1620 102 people landed on Plymouth Rock which was the founding of the 13 American Colonies. In 1781, also counting the relatively small amount of immigrants, 161 years later, around the end of the Revolutionary War 1.6 million to 2.5 million people lived in America (depending on the census source). See how fast a population can increase?
In 1853 premium firearms were muzzle loader, cap and ball, black powder weapons. In 1969 Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in the Apollo 11 space craft. It had taken only 116 years, (45 years less than 161) to progress from black powder powered musket balls to rocket powered space travel. These events do not apply to these 33 groups of prehistoric people but the pattern of progress does. They started with less, they didn’t go as far as Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, but they went a long way in a short time. Examples of pre-historic civilizations according to archeological investigation; Minoan, Rama Empire, Osirian, Uiger, Han China and etc.
Bold, adventurous, inquisitive, intelligent, tribal people who work together can quickly procreate and progress toward developing a culture, society, civilization, dynasty, a world power or whatever. Example: Until the late 19th century unbelievers used the Hittite kingdom to disprove the truth of the Holy Bible because no archaeological evidence of Hittite existence had ever been found. Then archaeologists found a store of 10,000 clay tablets describing the Hittite Empire!
On some of those tablets written, in their writing, were commercial bills of lading that were orders and receipts for iron and brass implements the Hittites manufactured and sold to other nations. Later on archaeologists also found clay tablets in Egypt that recorded trade relations with the Hittite nation. Tribalism is still alive today; example: Mafia, motorcycle gangs, street gangs, fraternities, secret clubs and organizations and etc. The tribal concept is “Us for Us” and “Us Against Them”.
The Hittite military extensively used chariots in battle. Archaeologists discovered in its heyday the Hittite Society rivaled Egypt and controlled a swath of land from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea including what is now Turkey, Northern Syria and part of Mesopotamia in the east. They were descendants of Ham through Canaan. I won’t belabor the subject, you can look up any of the ancient Biblical societies and see how quickly they seemingly came “from nowhere” and became world powers in their part of the world.
The point I’m making is how fast those few groups, the progeny of Shem and Ham, who chose to migrate south and east, out of the 33 groups disbursed from Babel, populated the Middle East and Northern Africa. (Gen. 10:1-5 keyword: Japheth: defined: Strong’s #3315 & 6601 expansion, enlarge, make roomy) Most of Japheth’s descendants (V.5 keywords: By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided) went north and west and Japheth became commonly known as the father of the Gentiles. Also: From Adam and Eve’s entry into this earth until the flood was 1656 years.
SO: The post-flood population probably increased as fast or faster than the pre-flood population when you consider 2 people started the pre-flood population in the world after their expulsion from Eden and 8 people started the post flood population! END OF NOTE.
On their journey to Ur Noah awakened one morning and as normal Naamah’s back was snuggled into his torso. His arm was around her when he awakened, she felt strangely cold, and an awful, awful shock tore through Noah. He pulled at her, rigor mortis had started and he started crying out; “Naamah! NAAMAH!” Noah knew she was gone and he screamed and screamed. When Shem got to him Noah was in shock.
They buried Naamah there and placed her precious flowers on her lonely grave in a strange, lonely land. Noah hugged Shem and thanked Shem over and over for bringing Naamah’s flowers. Noah was heartbroken, the rest of him was gone, in his opinion the best part of him, and he was alone. Noah wished with all that was within him that God had seen fit to let him go too and that was when he realized the Lord God had more for him to do.
The little band of travelers, going where they knew not, stood there weeping. They had all lost their Mother and their high, wailing, keening grief rose and rose into the nothing of the great, far nothingness of the endless blue sky. Satan was more frustrated than he had ever been. Satan hated Noah, he hated Noah’s face, he hated Noah’s soul, he hated Noah’s tent, Satan hated everything that had to do with Noah and God had hedged them about!
Satan knew, oh how he knew, they must be grieving their hearts out but Satan was not allowed to look, he was not allowed to drink of their pain, sorrow and grief, not one sip, not one drop! (John 11:33-36 & Luke 19:41-44 keyword in both: wept) The Lord God of Eden, the Lord God Who had come from a place called forever, stood unseen there on the low rise of ground with them beside Naamah’s lonely grave and His spiritual face was also flooded with spiritual tears because He loved them. (Psa. 18:30 key: God is perfect and 1John 4:8 & 16 keywords in both: God is love) Love, pure love, perfect love weeps with the sorrow of His people’s tears and their broken hearts.
For weeks Noah would see one of the women at a distance, her head would be turned a certain way, or her hair would blow in the wind a certain way and she would look like Naamah. Hope! Hope like white-hot lightening would flash through him and a wild, thrilling gladness would race through him and set his heart pounding; “There’s Naamah! It was a bad dream! I knew it!” Sometimes he would raise his hands toward her and sometimes he would even take a few quick, glad steps toward her before the woman turned and Noah would recognize her.
Then reality would fall on him like an avalanche of huge, cruel, sharp, shattering stones and Noah would be crushed by brand new, appalling, bursting, breath caught grief all over again and his hot tears would pour down his face. They truly had been; “And they twain shall be one“. It took many months for Noah to completely accept that Naamah was gone and Noah accepted something else too.
Luke 16:22 keywords: Abraham’s bosom) Noah knew the God he and Naamah served would not let them down. He knew he had placed Naamah’s body into the ground but the essence of Naamah, her soul, her person had left her body and Noah knew the tender-hearted God of Eden had been there to receive her.
(Luke 16:22 keywords: Abraham’s bosom) Noah knew the God he and Naamah served would not let them down. He knew he had placed Naamah’s body into the ground but the essence of Naamah, her soul, her person had left her body and Noah knew the (Psa. 119:156, Psa. 138:2 & James 5:11) tender-hearted God of Eden had been there to receive her. If you do not believe it read the one-article commentary Is God Fair? on this website then read the two-part article I Have Experienced Christian Physical Death located in the menu of the commentary The Holy Spirit & You on this website.
For many days Noah did not know much of anything except he hurt so bad he thought he would die and he would give all he owned to see his Naamah just one more time. Reader, go home and kiss your loved ones, hug them, touch their faces and their hair with your fingers, tell them how important they are to you and tenderly love them. What you do and say to them the next time you leave each other might be your last goodbye! One day the word will come that they are gone and, if you could, you would then give all of your tomorrows for just one yesterday with them.
Noah and Shem’s clan settled near Ur of the Chaldees in the land of Mesopotamia which was located in the delta where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers ran into what is now called the Persian Gulf which is part of the Indian Ocean. That delta where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers ends compares very well to the delta in America where the Mississippi River flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Of course, at that time, those places in America had not yet been named.
Over time the country of the Chaldees built up as other settlers came to southern Mesopotamia. They founded their tribes, clans, cultures and societies and built their cities. They sometimes intermingled with each other, they intermarried and sometimes they fought each other. Neighbors sometimes fought each other, sometimes families fought each other and sometimes tribes fought each other.
They bought from and traded with each other. They brought their idolatrous practices with them and those religions also grew and grew. It was a lot like it is today. It was the same old story as before the flood. (Eccl. 1:9) “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
Over the years Ur of the Chaldees became a large prosperous city. The rich delta dirt made it an agricultural gold mine. Its proximity to the system of rivers that made up the Tigris and Euphrates River Basins made it an ideal shipping and trade center. Its ready access to the Persian Gulf and on into the Indian Ocean made Ur a hub of international trade. The inland people brought their wares to Ur and from there they were shipped all over that part of the world. The items the inland people wanted but could not obtain were easily bought or traded for at Ur. Ur was an important import/export center.
(Gen. 10:8-10) Nimrod had moved to the east of Babel and started his own town. Later, still smarting by the confusion that had destroyed his empire, Nimrod moved to prosperous Ur in the Chaldees, took over that city and he named it Babylon (Hebrew word: baw-bel: defined: Strong’s #: 894: confusion). First and foremost, Nimrod was a tyrant and a warrior. He started building other cities and bringing people under his dominion. (Gen. 10:21-22) One of Shem’s sons, Asshur, had forsaken Shem’s way, cast his lot with Nimrod and idolatry, he became his cousin Nimrod’s right-hand man (Gen. 10:11-14) and helped Nimrod build his early Babylonian kingdom.
(Gen. 10:13) Nimrod’s uncle, Mizraim, (Gen. 10:6) his father Cush’s brother, added his part to Nimrod’s kingdom by fathering sons who built cities and fathered tribes and clans. Mizraim and Cush were both sons of Ham. (Gen. 10:14 keyword: Philistim) The genetic heritage of the giants had successfully crossed the flood in Ham’s wife’s genome, had been passed on through her and Cush’s son, Mizram, to their grandson (see this one: Gen. 10:14 keywords: out of whom came the Philistim) Casluhim and settled in a place where (Gen. 21:32) a tribe called the Philistines (Philistim) would originate.
In the far future: (Num. 13:33) The genome of the giants would spring forth and the giants would terrorize the Israelites, (Num. 14:1-38) turn them away from the Promised Land, and cause them to wander in the desert for 40 years!
Noah and Shem preached against idolatry, they held as many members of their families as they could to the old faith in the God of Eden but it was a losing battle. Satan was furious that he could not enchant, lead, teach, delight, or trick Noah and Shem. His strategy was as old as time, take out the leaders and the rest are yours.
Noah and Shem would not bend, break or budge and that held the true worshippers of God together. (Job 1:7 & 2:2) Occasionally God would call the angels to give account of their activities and Satan’s answers were always the same (paraphrased); “Aww nothin’ much, just piddlin’ around on the earth.” Its hard to imagine anyone, even an angel, thinking they can lie to God!