Shadowland: Beginnings: Week 16

Genesis 11

The First Antichrist

• 11:1-2 Chapter 9 closes with Noah's children and grandchildren as the sole remnants of humanity. God's instruction was to "multiply and fill the earth" (9:1). They multiplied with gusto, but balked at leaving home to fill the earth.
• 10:8 "Nimrod" means "rebel". 2 Thessalonians 2:8. "Began to be a mighty one in the earth", Nimrod is mighty. 2 Thessalonians 2:9
• 10:9 "mighty hunter before the Lord", compare "the earth was corrupt before the Lord".
• 10:10 Nimrod became the leader of the entire world - a type of the antichrist to come. He was king in Babylon - as will be the Man of Sin. Isaiah 14 (sees both historical Babylon, and Lucifer and the antichrist). Revelation 17:5
• 11:3-4 Under Nimrod's leadership, the clan does the opposite of God's instruction - as the antichrist leads the whole world in open rebellion against God. "Let us make us a name" - pride is what drives Lucifer, and is what drives Nimrod and the antichrist to lead the people to rebel against God. 2 Thessalonians 2:4 "Reach unto heaven" - "Babel" literally means "gate of God", but after the events to follow, it will forever after mean "confusion". The first Babylon establishes an idolatrous world religion, as will Babylon in Daniel and Revelation.
• 11:8 As God intervened to disrupt the one world religion and government of the first Babylon, so he intervenes to stop a similar outcome in Daniel - and in Revelation.

  Peleg was named after the dividing of the earth, and as Nimrod was a contemporary of Salah, this could refer to the dispersal from the tower of Babel. Alternatively, as suggested in Job, the continents were dividing in his day. In either case (or both), the aftershocks of the cataclysm that caused the great flood were striking everywhere - and it was crucial that the rapidly growing clan of survivors not remain in one place.

  The Hungarian myth of national origin traces their lineage back to Nimrod (who casts himself on a burning altar after his kingdom is dispersed), and has Nimrod's sons Hunar and Magya and their families actually transported to the far east from Shinar. Whether driven apart by language, or teleported, or both, the people were scattered over the entire earth.

The Birth of a Nation

• 11:10-26 This handy dated genealogy lets us make a timeline the events of Genesis through Isaac. See Abram for an alternative (traditional Jewish) interpration that has Abram born 60 years earlier, 1948 years after the first Adam was created to birth the Jewish nation. 1948 years after the second Adam was created (and born), a Jewish state was created.

  Patriarchs Timeline

  Year of Adam  Birth (~Death)
  1056 Noah
  1558    Shem
  1656 ~~~~98~Flood~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  1658    100 Arphaxad
  1693        35 Salah
  1723           30 Eber
  1757              34 Peleg
  1787                 30 Reu
  1819                    32 Serug
  1849                       30 Nahor
  1878                          29 Terah
  1948                             70 Nahor Jr / Haran
  1996                239 ~Peleg
  1997                         148 ~Nahor
  2006 950 ~Noah
  2008                            130 Abram (not first born)
  2026                   239 ~Reu
  2049                      230 ~Serug
  2083                            205 ~Terah
  2083                                75 -Abram leaves Haran (12:4)
  2094                                86 Ishmael (16:16)
  2096       438 ~Arphaxad
  2108                               100 Isaac
  2126          433 ~Salah
  2158    600 ~Shem
  2168                                   60 Jacob	(25:26)
  2168                                   60 Esau	(25:26)
  2183                               175 ~Abram
  2187             464 ~Eber
  2208                                      40 Esau takes gentile brides (26:34)
  2231                                  137 ~Ishmael (25:17)
  	NOTE: adding new data, may not add up below (need a program)
  2228                                      60 -Jacob flees to Laban
  2235                                      67 Reuben
  2236                                      68 Simeon
  2237                                      69 Levi
  2238                                      70 Judah
  2240                                      72 Issachar
  2241                                      73 Zebulun
  2242                                      74 Dinah (?)
  2242                                      74 Joseph (30:25)
  2248                                      80 -Jacob leaves Laban (31:38)
  2259                                         17 -Joseph sold as slave (37:2)
  2260                                      92 Benjamin  ?
  2272					     30 -Joseph prime minister (41:46)
  2288                                  180 ~Isaac
  2296					     37 -Famine starts
  2298					 130 -Jacob goes to Egypt (47:28)
  2303					     44 -Famine ends (45:6)
  2315					 147 ~Jacob
  2352					    110 ~Joseph (50:26)
  2354					    137 ~Levi (Exo 6:16)
  ...
  2568			Exodus (400 years after birth of Jacob/Israel)
  

• 11:28 Ur of the Chaldees - the ancestors of the rulers of Babylon in Daniels time - where the descendents of Jacob are sent back to for their disobedience.
• 11:29-30 Abram gets married, but Sarai is barren. This was possibly an attack of Satan, since God spoke to Abram revealing that he is the chosen line of the Seed. Acts 7:1-4
• 11:31 God told Abram to leave his country and kindred, but Abram stops in Haran, and fails to leave his father.
• 11:32 Despite God's command to "leave your country and your father's house" in 12:1, Abram stays in Haran until his father dies. Abram is now age 75.