GENESIS

Chapter 11

If you don’t have a Bible handy, click this link for Genesis Chapter 11 .

Chapter 11 starts off with everyone speaking the same language – not unusual as they all came from the same family.

Verses 1 – 4: Tower of Babel – making bricks to build a tower to heaven. Also note that they did not want to be scattered (verse 4)

The people were going down the wrong road . . . again. God had promised that He would never flood the earth again. So, He did something different.

Verse 5-9: Everyone spoke the same language until God changed it. Then they were scattered over the face of the earth.

Babel sounds a lot like babble – when someone is babbling, you can’t understand what they are saying.

God then focuses on Shem’s line (Shem honored his father and covered him – see chapter 9).

Verse 10-26: Genealogy of Shem

• Shem
• Arphaxad
• Salah
• Eber
• Peleg
• Reu
• Serug
• Nahor
• Terah

Terah's sons:  Abram, Nahor and Haran.
Verse 27: Haran’s son is Lot
Verse 29: Abram marries Sarai; Nahor marries Milcah (his niece)

Verse 31-32: Terah takes Abram, Sarai and Lot and goes to Haran. Note: the name Haran differs from the place called Haran

Discussion:
What would it be like if your siblings all spoke a different language?
What would it be like for the family to split and go off in different directions?
There were no maps or roads – how would they find each other later?
Why do you think they wanted to build such a tower?
Were they trying to reach God another way?
Were they going the same route as Adam and Eve?
Was their pride getting in the way of their relationship with God?
Do you have a family member that is walking with God but the rest won’t?
Or, do you have a family member that isn’t walking with God and the rest are?
Which family member are you?
Has a relationship with God caused a split in your family?

Activities for Children:
Using legos or blocks build a tall tower. See how high you can go. Could a tower ever reach to heaven?

Have each child make up their own “language” and then have them try to talk to each other in their own language. Is it fun or frustrating?

Coloring Pages:

To print out the coloring pages: Click on the image, select copy image, then paste the image onto a document (such as Word). You can make the image smaller or larger – then print.