Transcendence

Three: Abraham's Faith

People in that day, similarly to people of today, were very ambitious. Which isn't a bad thing. It only became bad when, as generations grew, people's need to succeed caused them to compete with rather than serve God. As it was, all the people had one language. When they moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They figured out how to make bricks, bake them, and then use tar for mortar. They began to build a great city. Once they saw their ambitions were limitless they made bigger plans. They wanted to keep going in an effort to build a huge tower to reach the heavens. They wanted to build a name for themselves, so they began to build the massive tower toward the sky.

The Lord saw what they were doing and saw that it wasn't good. He recognized a problem was being achieved. Their efforts and hard work were paying off and they were able to communicate effortlessly with one another and achieve great tasks. These achievements weren't the sinful part, the greed and ambition of competing with God was their goal, they wanted to be as big and mighty as they believed He was. Because of this, God confused their language. In doing so they could not complete the work they had set out to do. Everyone ran around giving commands with no comprehension of what the other was saying. The confusion ended the work and the efforts to build the enormous tower. The place was then called the Tower of Babel because of the language confusion that occurred there. ( This is where we get the familiar present day term 'babbling' when we refer to someone who may be mumbling or speaking in a tone or voice we can't understand. )

Because of sin, after the flood God began to shorten man's years on earth. (This happened hundreds of years after the flood, but relativily speaking it was during this time - Noah and his sons lived many hundreds of years like those before him. ) 

The nations and descendants of Noah spread all over the earth. Here are some of the familiar names and clans tracing the linage from Noah to the very popular man named Abraham:

Japheth, Noah's first son, had many sons and daughters, and they spread out, each into their own territories by their clans with their nations; each with their own languages.

Ham, Noah's second son, had many sons and daughters. Through the years he had a descendant named Cush who became the father of Nimrod. Nimrod grew into a mighty warrior on earth. He was a mighty hunter, who loved adventure and danger. (Which is why you may have heard that a wild child be referred to as a 'nimrod'. That familiar reference dates all the way back to mere hundreds of years after the flood.) Nimrod's first center of his kingdom was Babylon. He extended to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Calah, and other great cities. ( These are the cities you will hear a lot more about later in the Bible - its good to recognize the clans who build these cities.) From Ham also came the clans of Luddites, Anamites, Philistines, Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, and many other clans, each with their territories, languages and nations. ( Again all of these clans will be referred to many, many generations later in the Bible ) Through the years the Canaanite clans scattered from Sidon toward Gerar, Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, and as far as Lasha. (These are famous city names built by descendants of Noah after the flood.)

Shem, the third son of Noah had many sons and daughters. Through the many generations, one descendant named Eber had a son named Joktan who had many sons spreading from Mesha toward Sephar in the eastern hill country. Eber had another son named Peleg, who had a son named Reu, who had a son named Serug, who had a son named Nahor, who had a son named Terrah. All of whom lived on and had many more sons and daughters.

Terrah, became the father of three sons: Nahor, Haran and the famous Abraham (Who is first named Abram and then sometime later is told to change his name to Abraham by God.)

Haran became the father of Lot. Haran died after he had Lot.

Nahor went on to marry Milcah and had many children.