Spiritual Contrast Between Small and Large Cities

by Stephen Otto

Genesis 2:7 states, “God formed the man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” The word “man” was translated from the Hebrew word “adam,” and the word “ground” was translated from the Hebrew word “adamah.”

After God created Adam, He placed him in the Garden of Eden, where he became a farmer. Genesis 2:15 states, “Yehovah God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, warning them that if they did, they would die. However, Adam and Eve chose to eat from this, resulting in their spiritual death. Consequently, God cursed them from the ground from which they had been created (Gen. 3:17-19) and banished them from the Garden of Eden to the land located to the East of Eden (Gen. 3:23-24).

Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain, a farmer, and Abel, a shepherd. When Cain killed Abel, God declared, “Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. From now on, when you till the ground, it will not yield its strength to you. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth” (Gen. 4:8-12). Like Adam and Eve, Cain was also cursed from the ground; however, he was banished to the land located east of where Adam and Eve had been banished.

Genesis 4:16 states, “Cain went out from the presence of Yehovah, and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” There, the Scriptures tell us that he built the first city and named it Enoch, presumably for protection against anyone who might seek vengeance on him and kill him, even though Yehovah had prohibited it (Gen. 4:8-14).

After the flood, Noah became a vintner, a grape farmer (Gen. 9:20-21). He had three sons: Japheth, Ham, and Shem (Gen. 10:1). Like Noah, Shem and Japheth lived in tents (Gen. 9:21, 27), but the Scriptures are silent regarding Ham. However, Ham had a son named Cush, who was the father of Nimrod, whose name means “he rebelled.” Genesis 10:8-9 states, “Cush became the father of Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the land. He was a mighty hunter in the face of Yehovah. Therefore, it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter in the face of Yehovah.” The Hebrew word for “hunter” is “tsayid,” which is more accurately translated as “provider.” Many people at that time replaced God as their provider with Nimrod, who provided them with safety in large cities, opposing God (Gen. 10:10-12).

One of the cities Nimrod built was Babel. Genesis 11:1-9 states, “The whole land was of one language and of one speech. It happened that as they traveled east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. They said one to another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and tar for mortar. They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the surface of the entire land.”  Yehovah came down to see the city and the tower that the children of men built. Yehovah said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do. Come, let Us go down there and confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So Yehovah scattered them from there, over the surface of the entire land. They stopped building the city and the tower.” Therefore, it was called Babel because Yehovah confused the language of all the land. From there, Yehovah scattered them over the surface of the entire land.”

Notice that a number of Noah’s descendants “traveled east.” Perhaps they were searching for the remains of the city that Cain had built before the flood, called Enoch. The context suggests that Noah’s ark was directed by God to the West, where it landed. Afterward, Ham and his descendants, including Nimrod, migrated back to the east in opposition to God. They said, “let us make a name for ourselves,” similar to what Cain did by building Enoch.

Under Nimrod’s influence, the people built the city of Babel and its tower. The purpose of the tower was likely to ascend into the heavens as an act of rebellion against God, reminiscent of Satan and his demons' failed attempt before the creation of man (Isa. 14:13-14). As a result of their rebellion, “… Yehovah scattered them from there, over the surface of the entire land, and they stopped building the city and the tower” (Gen. 11:8).

Later, God called Abram to relocate west, from the city of Ur in Chaldea to the Promised Land in Canaan (Gen. 12:1-3). When Abram and his nephew Lot arrived in Canaan, strife arose between their herdsmen. In an effort to resolve the conflict, Abram gave Lot the option to settle either east or west. Genesis 13:10-13 states, “So Lot chose the Plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot traveled east, and they separated from each other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the plain and moved his tent as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yehovah.” Ultimately, God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because He couldn’t find ten righteous people there" (Gen. 19:23-25).

The ancient Israelites lived in an agricultural society, with their economy based on the produce of the land, ultimately provided by God. However, from approximately 1760 AD to between 1820 AD and 1840 AD, Western civilization underwent significant transformation due to the Industrial Revolution. During this period, industrial technologies greatly improved farming productivity. As a result, the percentage of the population working in food production decreased from about 80 or 90% to merely 2%. This shift transitioned the economy from an agricultural to an industrial one and caused many workers to relocate from the countryside to large cities. Most significantly, it negatively impacted family life, as many fathers and mothers left their homes to work in factories.