THE TOWER OF BABEL

A City, Tower, and Name

In the previous chapter, we learned that all of the nations came from the sons of Noah. This week we are going to discover how they came to be spread out and how they developed different languages.

The events surrounding Babel occurred about a hundred years after the flood. The flood is 1656 years after creation. This is about 1,756 years after creation, which we can calculate by the birth of Peleg.

Genesis 10:25 “To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan.”

What was the problem with the people building this city and tower?

Genesis 9:1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

They are walking in the footsteps of Cain. Cain was told that he was to be a wanderer on the face of the earth. However, he ended up building himself a city and dwelling there, in direct disobedience to the Lord’s command.

It also appears that this tower was a means for them to be connected to heaven. Not literally connected, but connected in worship. The tower they built was most certainly the first ziggurat. Ziggurats became very common in this region of Mesopotamia. They were basically used as temples to worship false gods. Often there was an idol stuck at the highest point of the tower, and normally a temple built around at the base. And it says that it went into the heavens or it touched the heavens. The heavens refers to the heavenly powers or the gods. So here we see the beginning of all false religions. And it’s beginning is in the place that will become Babylon. This is why you so often see the connection of Babylon and false religions throughout Scripture. And according to some historical accounts, Nimrod himself was apparently deified as Marduk, the chief god of Babylon. (See Genesis 10:8-10)

Daniel 4:30 “and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?””

Revelation 17:4–5 “The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.””

Jeremiah 51:8–9 “Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; wail for her! Take balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed. Forsake her, and let us go each to his own country, for her judgment has reached up to heaven and has been lifted up even to the skies.”

Revelation 18:2 “And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.”

Revelation 18:5 “for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”

The people wanted to make a name for themselves. They weren’t interested in worshipping, serving, and glorifying the one true God. They began to worship gods of their own creation and seek glory for themselves. They wanted a city, a tower, a name for themselves, and to avoid be dispersed across the earth.

“Babel” is a term for confusion – even in English. And later on, the Akkadian name for Babylon was Babel Babylone, which they said meant the gate of God. Well, Babylon became the gate of the false gods. Babylon became a place of confusion, the gate of false gods, the home of all false religions that were spawned out of that.

The Lord Comes Down

The people had hoped to reach the heavens through their worship of these false gods, but they were incapable of reaching heaven. The true God had to come down to them.

Genesis 6:5 “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

This punishment was actually an act of great mercy. If God hadn’t done something to restrain them from being united in evil, there was no limit to the wickedness they would sink to. But God in His great wisdom, power, and kindness put a restraint on this evil through the confusion of the languages and the scattering of the people.

Proverbs 19:21 “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”

See Psalm 2:1-12....