Rise & Fall: The Tower of Babel

Last week I decided to finish up the series on king Solomon, so today we are going to look at a story from the book of Genesis. A couple of months ago we covered creation and the flood, but we stopped there. Today’s is the next recorded event in scripture, after the story of Noah. I’m sure most, if not all of you have heard of the tower of Babel. It is a pretty well known story, yet it only consists of 9 verses in all of the Bible. This is one of the first stories that we hear, once we come to know the Lord. Even people who do not regularly go to church, if they have any understanding of the Bible at all, know the story about the Tower of Babel. This event is what many Christians believe was the cause of the different languages we see, all across the globe; but there are many lessons that we can learn from this account, even today, some 3 or 4 thousand years later. So, let’s go ahead and pray, then we will dive right in.

PRAY!

Dr. Gordon Wenham is senior professor of Old Testament at a well known University in England, and he served on the translation oversight committee for the English Standard Version Bible.

If the message of Genesis is essentially one of redemption, Gen 3–11 explains why man needs salvation and what he needs to be saved from. Chaps. 1–2, in describing the original state of the world, also describe the goal of redemption, to which ultimately the world and humanity will return when the patriarchal promises are completely fulfilled.

Gordon J. Wenham

First, let’s talk about some context to the story, then we will go through and talk about the details, then we will take the principles and apply them to our lives.

The book of Genesis can be broken up into a number of sections, but the 2 that are the most helpful to us today are the

Pre-Abrahamic period (Before Abraham appeared); Genesis 1-11

Post-Abrahamic period (During and after Abraham appeared) Genesis 12-onward

As most of us know, the first few chapter of Genesis is all about creation, the fall of man, then onward to:

Noah (Genesis Ch. 6-10)

God saves humanity through Noah, who then goes on to have 3 sons. Chapter 10, the preceeding chapter to what we are looking at today is about how Noah’s family grew and the region in which they settled. So, after the flood, Noah’s sons began populating the earth…and that is where we come to Genesis Ch. 11. Let’s go ahead and read the account, then I will back up, talk about some of the common ways that the story is viewed, then we will break it down.

Genesis 11:1–9

Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

OK, I want you to ask yourself this question:

Why did Moses include this story in the book of Genesis?

It is sandwiched right in between the account of the flood and God calling Abraham . People have been asking that question for generations. Some believe that Moses told it, in order to explain the different languages that are on the earth…and that is one possibility. If you believe that, then, do you think that is the primary purpose that Moses included the account of the tower of Babel, or, is there some other reason. Some read this story as a warning against technology ; or a warning against pride. Maybe the account is about all of those at the same time, or maybe it’s about something else entirely, with those things I just mentioned being the secondary points. Remember, and I’ve talked about this before, the Old Testament, especially the first 5 books, were written to a very young Israelite nation that had just escaped slavery in Egypt. It was Moses’s job to reacquaint the people to Yahweh, the one true God that had selected them, above all others to bring salvation to the world. These accounts and stories were intended to teach the Israel about the character of God, and to chronicle the history of God’s chosen people. Stories like the tower of Babel were intended to serve as a warning of sorts. In other words, Moses did not include this account simply because he like to write, in fact writing back then was a major undertaking. When we read these short accounts in scripture, we tend to go over them quickly, trying to sus out the main idea. Sometimes that is OK, but other times, the main principles are more difficult to pull out of the text and it requires work to get there.

I do want to quickly address the somewhat confusing timeline of this story.

Obviously, the tower of babel takes place in ch. 11 and opens with the notion that everyone on earth had the same language…which is fine, except, if we back up just a bit, and go back to chapter 10, where we can read about where Noah’s sons settled, we read:

Genesis 10: 5

“From these the coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.”

In ch. 10, the author says that Noah’s kids spread out all over the place, each one, according to his language. Then just a few verse later the Bible says:

Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

How can chapter 11 be true if the same author just said that Noah’s kids spread out, each according to their own language? Both of those can’t be true, right?

Not right. There are 2 very easy ways to explain this seeming contradiction.

That the story of the tower of babel took place before Noah’s kids spread out, each according to his own language.

That still puts the story after the flood and before Abraham, so the same basic chronological order, but perhaps, time wise, it should be before Noah’s kids spread out. This explain the language thing and the fact that Noah’s kids “scattered,” like it says in Ch. 10. This explanation has nothing to do with questioning the inerrancy of God’s word, but it doe shift a few verses around, only affecting the timeline.

2. The use of language in the O.T.

The second way that this has been explained has to do with the language that the O.T. authors use when describing a large geographic area. We see it multiple times in the O.T., where the author will say “the whole earth.”

Daniel 2:39

““After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.”

This prophecy is believed to have been fulfilled when Alexander the Great defeated Babylon. His kingdom was certainly large, but it did not cover the entire earth, as we know it today. We must understand that the “whole world” to a guy like Moses is much, much different than “the whole world” to us. So, the second way to explain this seeming contradiction is to say that the author, when he says “the whole earth” was simply referring to a large geographical area.

So, either one of those simple explanations can explain the supposed problem. I’ve talked about this before, but when we come across something like this in scripture, a long time Christian may simply bounce past the problem because we have put our faith in God and His word and therefore, need no explanation. Part of that comes from the long held notion that it is wrong to ask tough questions about God’s word. I strongly believe that is one of the major disconnects between the Church and the world. The world is not afraid to ask the tough questions, that tends to offend us and subconsciously threaten our faith, especially when we do not have an answer for the critique. Do you think that in order to serve God and have a Biblical worldview, that a person must suspend all common sense and critique? That we must blindly follow what our favorite guy on YouTube says, just because he claims to know what he is talking about? The guy on YouTube seems very confident and I like what he says, it fits with how I look at the world, so therefore it must be true, right!

Let me share my heart with you for a second and give you a little insight into what pastors are taught in seminary, this is insider knowledge…so keep it a secret! For my ordination, I had to preach a sermon in front of the big wigs, the executives for the entire state of Illinois. These are the people who run the entire Illinois A/G. Well, I preached my sermon, then I had to sit for critique. One of them looked at me and said, you want to be careful when you use personal stories or talk about your own experiences, because when you are up there preaching, you must consider yourself the smartest and most knowledgeable person in the room. This notion of coming across confident and knowledgeable was and is drummed into us. That notion is fed to every pastor coming up through the ranks…that when they are preaching, they must come across as though they have all of the answers, else people won’t want to follow them. Laura was in the room when this person said this to me. We talked about it privately afterwards, how neither of us agreed with that notion. I think many young pastors may privately disagree with that notion, but the longer they serve, the more they become like that.

There is an old saying:

“The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.”

This is a very true statement that everyone, regardless of what profession you are in should constantly remind themselves of. Now, we are not sure who coined that phrase, but it is so true. If my studies have taught me anything, it’s that my ignorance is astoundingly wide and deep. If I think I know a little something about a subject, I find someone who makes me look like amateur hour. Next to God, we are all in that position. It is a humbling notion for sure, but it is important to keep in mind when talking about the Bible.

As I said, the story opens up with the author trying to convey a sense of what things were like at the time, when humanity decided to build the tower. The language here gives the idea that people were united, together, both geographically and in their language, and the people were trying to find an area to settle and build a city. Now, if the story were to stop here, it would seem that everything is good, right? The people are all together, in unity…which scripture tells us is a good thing, right? These people were looking for a place to settle down and build a life for themselves and their families. Nothing untoward going on. So, the people begin to build the city by building bricks from stone and tar, this was a very effective method of building and made for very strong structures. But the story continues:

“Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

So now we are getting some insight into the people’s motivation for wanting to build the city, and more specifically a large tower…that will “reach into heaven.” This right here is another example of the figurative language I was talking about earlier. We have to remember the time period that the people were living in. There was no electricity, no elevators or escalators. No giant cranes to hoist things way up high. For these people, a tower that could reach to the heavens would have been no more than 400, or a maximum of 500 feet high.

For example, the oldest of the 7 wonders of the ancient world is the great pyramid in Giza. When it was built, it stood at (481 feet),The base and three sides each measure 755 feet each. the Great Pyramid was the world's tallest man-made structure for more than 3,800 years.

(Show Pyramid Photo)

On the other side of the world, down in modern day South America we have the Temple of the Sun. The Inca's used the structure but did not actually build it. In fact, they thought that only their gods could have build the thing, as it was so huge. The pyramid rises 216 feet (66 metres) above ground level, and it measures approximately 720 by 760 feet at its base. We have no idea who built the structure.

(Show Inca Photo)

Obviously, our buildings today are much larger than these ancient structures. The current tallest building in the world is, as of August 2023, is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It stands at (2,717 feet).

(Show building comparison)

“Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

The great pyramids at least give us some concept of what would have been considered big back then. So, the people got together and want to build this city and this tower to make a name for themselves! In other words, they wanted to become famous and be well known! It seems that humanity still hasn’t changed, right! But here is the question....why did they want to make a name for themselves and become famous? Because they were full of pride, that’s how this story is normally presented. The people’s pride caused them to want to build a temple to God. The way it was told to me as a kid was that the people wanted to become more like God and therefore made a temple. Perhaps that is partly their motivation, but in reality, at least in this situation, their motive for wanting to build the temple is clear, the author makes it plain, so we do not need to guess what their motive was. It says, let us make a name for ourselves, otherwise...

we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.

But wait a second, their primary motive doesn’t appear to be pride at all, nor does it appear that they simply want to be more like God. Now, I’m not saying that those motives weren’t there, perhaps they were, but Genesis 11 clearly states their motive for wanting to build the city and the tower. We normally take the phrase, “and let us make a name for ourselves” and ascribe that as their motive, but that is not why they wanted to build, the seeking fame was a means to an end…so they wouldn’t be scattered.

Allen P. Ross is Professor of Divinity who taught at the Dallas Theological Seminary.

The predominant idea of the account is not the tower of Babel but the scattering.

Allen P. Ross

This puts the story of the Tower of Babel in an entirely new light, or at least it should. I think for many of us, it is easier to read this story and simplify it by saying that the people were prideful, they loved technology and wanted to rule over themselves. Again, perhaps those things are there, but the primary idea here, the people’s fear of being scattered is something that we may have a hard time understanding in this day and age; but Moses’s readers would have very much understood the fear of being scattered. We will talk about that in a bit, but let’s keep going.

Now, starting in verse 5, God enters the picture:

The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

OK, so now God has come down and is taking a look at the city; A good question to ask yourself is: at this point, is the Lord more concerned with the actual buildings, the city as a whole and this famous tower, or is God more concerned with the people? I don’t think it’s a far stretch to say that God is less concerned with the construction of a building or buildings and is more concerned with the people. This again is why context is important in God’s word, and it’s why I stared with a general timeline. This account happens right after what? The flood, that’s right. We know it’s not too terribly long after the flood, meaning a few hundred years, because of the timeline that the Bible lays out. The last major event recorded in scripture is God promising Noah that He would never again destroy the world.

Genesis 8: 18-22

“So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by their families from the ark. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. The Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. “While the earth remains, Seed time and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease.””

God promised Noah, that despite the fact that mankind is inherently sinful, He will never again wipe out all life. Just a couple of chapters later, we see humankind, all gathered together, building a city, fearful that they will be scattered. God comes down to see that the people are all in one accord, with no intention of spreading out to populate the earth. Not only that, God knows us, better than we know ourselves, God knows the destructive potential of humanity. Not only that, but if we go forward to Ch. 9, one of God’s instructions to Noah and his sons were to “fill the earth.” God desired not for mankind to be all huddled up together.

Genesis 9: 1

“And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”

Also, and as an important side note, after the flood, and God promises to not destroy all living things again, God reaffirms His love for His creation, specifically mankind in general.

Genesis 9: 6-7

““Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man. “As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.””

Genesis 9: 16-17

“When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.””

This is important, as it goes against the notion that God only loves certain people. God is saying here, post fall, that despite the fact that humanity is now flawed, God still recognizes that we all are made in His image. This is a VERY important distinction and one that must be taken into account when reading scripture.

So, again, God comes down to the earth and sees the destructive potential of all of these people together, and decides to do something about it.

In this section, God points out his own reasons for wanting to confuse the people and scatter them. God said:

Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.

God is not saying here that he wants to prevent humanity from accomplishing good things that honor Him. The Lord is referring to the destructive potential of humanity, the very thing that caused the flood. In other words, God is saving these people from themselves, yet they do not even realize it. This goes to another notion about the account of the Tower of Babel, the fact that God is punishing these people because of their pride. Of course they had pride, and we will talk about that in a couple of minutes, but that is no the primary reason. God’s design for mankind was to “fill the earth,” not to all huddle together, living in fear that something bad might happen. In fact, like I said, God is saving them from themselves.

It reminds me of the parent who smacks their child’s hand if they put it too close to the stove. No loving parent would allow their child to touch the fire, so, to save the kid from something they don’t even understand, we react.

Now, finishing up the story,

Genesis 11: 8-9

So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

In these couple of passages the author repeats the idea that the people were scattered, which again, was their main fear. The fear of being scattered was the primary motivation for building the city and the tower and wanting to “make a name for themselves.” The people wanted to stay together. So, God confused their languages and dispersed them to the four corners of the globe. Again, in these passages we see the term “the whole earth” used 3 times; twice in reference to the people scattering and once in reference to God changing their language, so as to confuse the people. For these people, their worst fear came true. God scattered them abroad.

This area was the site of the future nation of Babylon.

Just as the events that proceeded this account are important, what happens right afterward is important as well. We don’t have time to cover it in depth, but I do want to mention it. So, the flood happens, God reaffirms that humanity is made in his image and that despite humanity's penitent for sin, God promised to not destroy the world again. Then the Tower of Babel happened, where people were not following God’s command to “Fill the earth,” instead, they were all huddling together out of fear. So, God scatters them…and the very next thing, he begins to establish a covenant with Abraham, which will eventually become Israel, out of which comes the Messiah, the savior of man kind. When we look at the events in God’s word from that perspective, we can see how God’s plan for humanity come to fruition.

Imagine if your kid or grand kid came home from school with a black eye. You ask how that black-eye got there and they tell you that they fell down and bumped their head. That might sound plausible; but what if they come home with another black eye the next day. I’m pretty sure, or at least you should do what you need to do to find out what is really going on.

When we read through the story of the Tower of Babel, in fact, whenever we read through any part of scripture, sometimes we are OK with just a surface level explanation and most times, we can find some truth in that. You know why I love God’s word so much? The Bible is such an amazing book, on one hand, anyone who can read can pick it up and learn about the character of God and His plan of salvation for man; on the other hand, some of the smartest people who’ve ever walked the earth have studied it for decades and are still unable to fully explain its complexities.

The Tower of Babel is a perfect example of this principle, we read it and certain things jump out to us, so we take those things. Nothing wrong with that, but there are things in the text that require some work to understand. Just like the kid who continually came home with the black eye…he did fall down, but it’s because someone pushed him down the stairs.

So, how can we take this story and apply it to our lives?

Similar to the story of Solomon, where God’s grace and God’s judgment are working together in perfect harmony, in the story of the tower of Babel we see the principle of unity vs scattering. Let’s look at each very quickly, then we will be done

We typically view the notion of scattering as a negative and unity as a positive. The tower of Babel somewhat reverses this notion. The people were in unity, but it was not a unity based on God’s will for humanity; therefore God scattered them, which again, was according to God’s will, despite the fact that the people viewed it as a punishment, but like many things, looking back, God was actually helping the people avoid their own destructive tendencies. This scattering was in line with what God commanded at the time.

The will of God for you and I is to live in unity, at the same time, we are called to “go into all the world and preach the gospel,”except, we can make the same mistake that the people did back in Genesis 11. We build our churches and they act as a barrier to the world and to those who don’t think like us. Whether it’s the fear of wolves coming in amongst the sheep or our inability to control things just the way we like, our fear is what drives our unity…our fear make us want to be self-reliant, all the while we are building our tower, we will even dedicate the tower to God, but in fact, we fear being scattered.

Psalm 127:1

“Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain.”

The good news is that the Lord is just waiting to start construction! He is just waiting for us, to not be in a hurry and wait on Him. For that to happen we must, M U S T change the way we think about church and the gospel. The Lord would not have given us the command to go out into all the world unless he properly equipped us first. The Holy Spirit and a genuine love for people is all that we need.

Matthew 7: 24-27

““Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.””

Our unity must be built on the sold foundation of God’s will and God’s plan and not on fear or contempt for either the world or for other people. If the churches goal is to isolate and bemoan the state of the world, that is not the solid foundation of God’s will and God’s plan to preach the gospel. Unfortunately, many churches have set themselves up as adversaries to the world that surrounds them, with the idea that if people want to experience the life changing Grace of God, they need to come to me.

Will some people be offended at the very notion that we believe in right and wrong? That we believe that Christ is the only way? The way we truly feel about the world and those who are lost is revealed in our words, when we talk about them. This is what I’m talking about when I say that it appears as though we have unity, but in fact, we are steadily building our tower, because we are not motivated by love for one another.

I want to be a part of the unity that is based upon the will of God and His plan for humanity. I do not want to have a false unity based upon fear. I pray that you desire the same.

Joe to come up and speak!