The 3rd period of testing is Human Government (Genesis 8:15-11:32). The length of this period is approximately 450 years and runs from Noah’s flood to the 75th year of Abraham’s life. Since man had now proven that he could not govern himself by following his conscience, God determined to give him laws with which to govern himself. Therefore, the test was to obey the laws given by God, to honestly and faithfully administer the laws, to punish those who broke them and to serve and worship God.
Why did God do this? Because man had failed so miserably in his opportunity to govern himself by his conscience, God would now force him to obey His laws or face punishment administered by others. How did God do this? He began to give man direction and rules to live by that were designed to do two things: the first was to reveal His desires for man, the second was to protect those who would be harmed or taken advantage of if man merely followed his own depraved nature. This was His attempt to teach man to enjoy His blessing and provision and to rule over others in a way that was good for all involved.
The following are examples of direction and laws given by God during this time: be fruitful and multiply and repopulate the earth (Genesis 9:1); rule over the animals (9:2); animals now approved for food, instead of just grains, herbs and vegetables as before (compare 1:29 with 9:3); eating blood of animals not allowed (9:4); do not murder (9:5-6); and execute men who do commit murder (9:6). Then, as we go through the Book of Genesis, you’ll see God adding more laws. In the next period of testing (Promise), God continues to give man direction with laws pertaining to: the priesthood (14:20); adultery (20:3-9); agreements (21:22-30); birthright (25:33-34); vows (28:10-22); inter-marriage with giants (34-35:5) and idolatry (35:1-5) among others.
What was man’s failure? The failure probably should start with Noah’s youngest son, Ham. If you follow the story found in Genesis 9:20-25, there are several things to notice that are not obvious in most translations. After the flood, Noah planted a vineyard, made wine, got drunk and was discovered lying naked in his tent by Ham. This is where it gets interesting. The word translated “nakedness” in verse 22 is erwah, and means, shameful nakedness. This is a word that is used to describe indecent or immoral behavior, not simple nakedness (eyrom). Something happened that should not have happened, even though the account does not give specifics.
However, we can know from the account who was involved. Verse 22 identifies Ham as the “father of Canaan”. Then, in verse 25, Noah (after he had realized what had happened) curses Canaan. From this we can only conclude that it was Canaan who was involved in some sort of indecent or immoral act with his drunken grandfather. We mention this simply to show a trend. Ham demonstrated a serious lack of character in that when he discovered his father’s condition, he told his brothers. If he had the respect for his father that he should have (Deuteronomy 27:16), he would have covered Noah’s nakedness and said nothing. The episode indicates that Canaan had an even greater disrespect than his father.
This brings us to the next generation. Another of Ham’s sons, Cush had a son named Nimrod (10:8); Nimrod comes from the word marad and means, “we will rebel”. But, before we look at Nimrod, if you go down the list of the generations of Ham (from 10:6-20) and compare the names to the giant races listed in Lesson 17, you’ll see that many of the giants that existed after the flood descended from him. Now, remember God’s purpose in this age was for men to govern themselves by the direction and instruction He had given for the common good and to preserve freedom to worship Him.
However, we will see that, instead, men gathered together under the rule of a vicious man to join together in a common rebellion against God. Nimrod is described in 10:8-9 as a “mighty one” and “mighty hunter”. The word “mighty” is gibbor and means, “vicious tyrant”. Both Josephus and the writers of the Targums (Aramaic translations) agree that Nimrod was, in fact, a vicious tyrant who ruled men by force and destroyed all who opposed him.
The description of him being a mighty hunter refers to the fact that he hunted down and killed any who refused to join his rebellion against God. The phrase “before the Lord” from the reference above literally means, “openly defiant before God”. The description of Nimrod indicates he was, in all probability, a giant. Nimrod’s ambition was to gather all people on the earth and unite them in open rebellion against God. He insisted that people ascribe their happiness, health and prosperity to him, instead of God.
He and his evil queen Semiramis established a universal religious system of idolatry that to this day still influences the religions of the world, including Christianity. All of the idolatrous cults mentioned in the Old Testament are forms of Nimrod’s Babylonian idolatry. This is the “Mystery Babylon” in the Book of Revelation and it is the final destruction of this worldwide religious influence that is cheered by the inhabitants of heaven in Revelation 19.
Not to get bogged down with a lot of detail, history tells us the Caesars of the Roman Empire were the custodians of Babylonianism. In 378 AD, Demasus, the Bishop of the Christian Church in Rome was elected head of the Babylonian cult and it was then Christianity and Babylonianism merged. From this, the “Christian Church” began to practice the worship of images, the veneration of saints and relics, private confession to priests, penances, scourgings, pilgrimages, and the celebration of holidays based on false, religious traditions and beliefs (Easter, Lent, etc). Yet, none of these things are instructed in the Scriptures.
God’s judgment was two-fold. In Genesis 11:1-9 we see the result of Nimrod’s ambition in the building of a great tower dedicated to false gods. The KJV in verse 4 says, “let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven”. Notice, “may reach” is in italics, indicating it does not appear in the original language. The intent was to build a tower whose top would contain symbols representing their gods and would be a center of worship to those gods.
When you follow the narrative, God tired of their rebellion, confused their languages and “scattered them abroad from that place upon the face of the whole earth”. Here, “earth” is erets, as has been explained before (habitable land, dry land). A well-known Babylonian tablet discovered in the late 1800’s describes the event, “The building of this illustrious tower offended the gods. In a night they threw down what had been built. They scattered them abroad and made strange their speech. Their progress was impeded. They wept hot tears for Babylon.”
Then (as explained in a previous lesson) to make this scattering permanent God divided the earth into continents and islands. In Genesis 1:9 the waters are gathered together in one place and “the” dry land appears. In the restoration of Genesis 1, all the dry, habitable land was in one place. When God confused their language and scattered them abroad, different people groups were formed. He then divided the earth into different land masses, permanently separating these groups. The reference to this is found in Genesis 10:25 and I Chronicles 1:19 in the genealogy of Shem, “the name of one was Peleg, because in his days was the earth (erets) divided”.
If you look at a flat map of the world, take the Middle East as the center and move everything towards that spot, you will see that the continents and islands generally fit together. Scientists know that this movement is still active in the direction away from this center and can be measured. For instance the relative distance from the west coast of the US to Hawaii increases slightly every year due to the fact that the smaller Hawaiian Islands are still moving at a higher rate than the larger North American continent. Earthquakes can be somewhat predicted by this movement of the plates beneath the continents.
The affirmation of God’s grace is seen in Genesis 8:20 where (after the flood) Noah built an altar and offered burnt sacrifices to the Lord. The purpose of this was to emphasize that all God had revealed to man up to this point regarding His plan of redemption, the coming of Messiah and substitutionary death was still valid. In the coming ages of time, God was going to keep His promises, further demonstrating His faithfulness and the reality that His grace would always be greater than man’s failures.