From the Flood in 2370 B.C. to the birth of Abraham in 2018 B.C.

After the flood, JHWH expressed the wish that the descendants of Noah's three sons would spread all over the earth so that the whole planet would be inhabited in the course of time.

For about 100 years, people conformed to this wish of their creator. But around 2270 B.C., a group of people who were still living between the Euphrates and Tigris decided to ignore God's command and stayed together permanently in a town. A man called Nimrod served as the leader of this group of people. The Bible states very clearly that he was an adversary of God and His intentions. Nimrod became the founder of the first town that is mentioned in the Bible as well as the first kingdom headed by a human.

Nimrod and his subjects did not want to lead a life dedicated to honoring God. They were out to become mighty men and to make a great name for themselves. With these ideas in mind, they decided to build a tower which was so high that it would reach up to the living place of God: heaven. In those days, all people still spoke one and the same language. God decide to make the building of this tower impossible by confusing the language of the people working on it. All of a sudden, people started to speak all sorts of different languages and they could not understand each other any longer.

The name of this first town built by people was Babel. In those days, this town was situated about 80 kilometers south of a place of which everybody knows where it is situated: Baghdad.

In the centuries following the building of this first town and this first kingdom, many towns and kingdoms were built in the area between Euphrates and Tigris on one side and the river Nile on the other side. No one in these towns worshipped JHWH or tried to contribute to the realization of His intentions with the earth and with man. People invented different religions characterized by ideas and practices that were very far detached from the true worship of the true creator.

There were constant political and military tensions within the towns and kingdoms and between one town or kingdom and another. These tensions often led to armed conflicts and even complete wars in which the political and religious leaders worked closely together.

The story about Nimrod and the tower of Babel is the only Bible story that tells us important events which happened in the first 350 years after the Flood.

Then, in 2018 B.C., something happened that gave the Bible story an extremely important turn. In Ur, a town situated on the Euphrates, not so far away the Persian Gulf which is so well-known these days, a man was born who was determined to do nothing but God's will. The name of the man is Abraham.

(It is very worthwhile to read the story about Nimrod and Babel and the tower of Babel in the Bible itself. It is to be found in Genesis 10: 8 - 12 and 11: 1 - 9.)