The Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to Genesis 11:1-9.

We’ve finally made our way out of the flood account and we’re back on metaphorical dry land as we continue in our series through Genesis: the Book of Beginnings. After the global flood, in the historical narrative of Genesis, we witnessed two sinful events occur almost immediately after the flood; and yet, through the genealogy that we read through last week, we realized that despite sin, God’s plans never fail. Despite our own sinfulness, God can still use us and He can still grow us, and He can still mature us—we simply aren’t powerful enough to stop God from doing whatever He pleases in us, through us, and for us.

After last week’s genealogy, we jump into an event that significant—its so significant that it changes the world completely, which is saying something because we just witnessed another event that changes the world completely. This time, the change isn’t in the form of God’s wrath, but it does scatter the people across the lands and it changes the way people communicate on this side of eternity.

Now, I’m sure you’ve heard sermons about the Tower of Babel several times, so my encouragement whenever we jump into a passage that’s extremely familiar remains the same—don’t think you already know everything about the Tower of Babel and don’t allow your preconceived notions about the Tower of Babel to cloud what the text says. Rather, let’s look at this passage for what it says and then understand it from a Christological perspective together.

But first, let’s read the text together:

Genesis 11:1–9 ESV

1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into three small pieces: (1) The Sin of the People (1-4), (2) God’s Response (5-8), and (3) The Result (9). What I’m hoping for us all to understand by the time we’re finished this morning, is two-fold (1) I want us to understand the historical nature of what’s happening and how that affects us today and (2) I want us to fully understand what the sin that caused God to disperse the people was and how detrimental it is for us today. Ultimately, today’s sermon will warn us of the detrimental effect of disobedience towards God and the significant sin of pride.

Prayer for Illumination

The Sin of the People (1-4)

Our text starts by giving us some background information and in conjunction with what we’ve already read, we can sort of narrow down when and where this happened.

So, we already know that this happened after the global flood—however, we aren’t really told how long after the global flood this occurred—and we know approximately where this event occured.

Assuming that it took a few generations for the population to build up into the city described in v. 4 after being left with only Noah, Ham, Shem, and Japheth and their families, we could guess that this is maybe 100 years or possibly up to 150 years after the flood.

And we know that this occured in the land of Shinar, which is where ancient Babylon will eventually be (around modern-day Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait.

We also learn from v. 1 that there’s something unique here—something that we don’t really experience today—in that the city that they live in shares a common language.

I say that it’s something unique because even in Central Pennsylvania, we don’t have to go far to hear other languages spoken alongside English.

If you take a quick drive down the mountain—in State College you’ll hear Chinese, Spanish, Korean, and various other languages—the majority of people in the area speak English as well, but you never have to go far to find someone who struggles with English because it isn’t their first language.

In the land of Shinar, 100 years after the flood, everyone spoke the same language, which, as you could imagine, would be very helpful, but unfortunately, because there wasn’t a language barrier, there was a significant issue.

The text continues and we immediately see the sin of the people. In vv. 3-4, we read this “And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens.”

Let me pause just briefly,

None of this is the sinful part of the historical narrative.

The fact that they decided to make bricks wasn’t sinful.

The fact that they used bitumen to piece those bricks together wasn’t sinful.

The fact that they wanted to build for themselves a city wasn’t necessarily sinful—though, if you do remember, God did tell them to spread after the flood, but, just as long as the majority spread, the city itself wasn’t city.

Even the fact that they decided to build a tower with its top in the heavens wasn’t sinful.

If these issues were the sinful parts of the narratives, then by virtue of God’s unchanging nature, they would still be sinful today—making bricks would still be sinful, using bitumen as morter would still be sinful, building a city would be sinful, constructing a tower would be sinful.

But these aren’t the sinful issues at hand, rather it’s what they collectively say together at the end of v. 4 that is sinful.

They make a statement at the end of v. 4 that does two things, (1) it reveals their heart and (2) it openly rejects God. They say, “Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

In this statement, we see the sin of pride—that’s what it means to “make a name for ourselves” in this context. It’s the idea that we ought to puff ourselves up—whether that’s for the purpose of having other people praise us or for another purpose. They want to make much of themselves.

We also see in this statement, which is the result of their pride, a rejection of God and God’s command—remember, at the end of the flood in Genesis 9:1, God reminds the remaining handful of people to “be fruitful and multiply,” which was really just a reiteration of what God had told Adam and Eve and really all creation in Genesis 1-2.

The whole point was for mankind to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue all of creation—what we see in v. 4 of ch. 11 is a rejection of that concept of them filling the earth, “let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the earth.”

There could be all sorts of reasons as to why they didn’t want to be dispersed—it could’ve been for self-preservation, it could’ve been because they saw themselves as being stronger together, or whatever else they could’ve come up with, but the reality is that their motive for wanting to stay together really didn’t matter because it was simply a rejection of what God had told previous generations to do—it was disobedient and thus, it was sinful for them to make that decision.

Ultimately, the problem is that rather than obeying God, they decided that what they desired was better—their desire was really that they could puff themselves up and really, it was an attempt to live apart from God—if they could make a name of themselves, if they were strong enough, if they were smart enough to build this tower, if they could do these things, why would they need God?

Seeing it in this light helps us to understand why God’s response is so drastic. It wasn’t the building of a tower that was wrong nor was it the construction of a city that was incorrect. It had nothing to do with making bricks and sticking them together with bitumen, it all had to do with their motive for doing these things. The sin was that they wanted to separate themselves from God, they wanted to build themselves up, ultimately, they didn’t want God and that’s revealed in how they build this tower and how they build this city and how they choose to do all this despite God’s command. So, His response, though it might seem drastic, makes sense. Let’s look at vv. 5-8.

God’s Response (5-8)

Genesis 11:5–8 ESV

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

God comes down to see this city and the tower and He has a concern, which we see in v. 6—because they have one language, God points out their ability to continue in the way that they’re headed.

And again, note that His concern isn’t based on whether they can build up cities or construct a tower.

We know this because to this day, we still build up cities and we still build towers—if God’s concern was about them building cities and building towers, don’t you think that He would’ve prevented mankind from having the ability to build these cities and towers?

Instead of confusing languages, He could’ve limited our ability to use creation to build these things, Instead of confusing languages, He could’ve caused us to not be able to do math or understand physics.

And yet, his answer to the problem isn’t to prevent our ability to build up cities or construct a tower, but rather to make it harder for us to communicate with each other.

His concern is that if there aren’t any communication issues, mankind won’t be slowed down in its continuation towards degradation and sin.

Remember, the problem isn’t that they built a city or tower, but rather, the problem is their reasoning for building a city and a tower—they didn’t want to obey God, they wanted to puff themselves up, they wanted to make a name for themselves.

They ultimately wanted to be their own people—and in that respect, it mirrors the people before the flood. They wanted to be their own, they wanted to do whatever they pleased, they didn’t want what to obey what God had told them to do.

And just like the people before the flood, who also didn’t have a communication problem, they would’ve found themselves continuing in their sin and degradation quicker than what we could even imagine.

So, God’s response to this issue is to confuse their languages and force them to separate and spread—ultimately, God’s response to their sinful actions is that of judgment.

He is judging them for their sins by forcing them to do what He commanded them to do in the first place.

V. 7 sees God speaking amongst the Trinity, “Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

The plural nature of the wording reminds us that God is One in three and three in One.

In addition, note a level of irony here—the intent of the builders of the tower was so that they could be in the heavens (that they would be like gods); and yet, the one true God still has to descend to come and see the tower.

God comes and judges them for their sins by confusing their languages, which prevents them from continuing to work together.

You might ask, “why doesn’t He just stop them from building and disperse them, why does He confuse their languages?” And the answer for that is that the problem isn’t that they built a city, the problem isn’t that they built a tower, but rather, there’s a significant heart problem amongst the people—and if they remained unified in their sinful attitude against God, they would continue in their sin and reject God.

Whereas God commanded that they be fruitful and multiply and spread around the earth, man, in his sinful pride determined to reject God, disobey His command, and stay as one unified body against God.

Allen Ross, “The sin of the Shinarites (people in a plain in Shinar) appears to be immense pride. They said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves. This was open rebellion against God, an independence of God. Humility is often equated with trust and obedience, and conversely pride is related to independence and disobedience. Here the people came together to strengthen themselves and in pride to make a reputation for themselves lest they be scattered over the face of the whole earth. This appears to be in direct opposition to God’s command to spread out and fill up the whole earth (9:1). 11:5–9. Their desire to enhance their unity and strength had potential for the greatest evil, according to the Lord’s evaluation: If … they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Thus what they would not do in obedience (viz., scatter over the earth, v. 4) He did for them in judgment” (Allen P. Ross, “Genesis,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 44.)

So, God comes and inacts judgment against them by confusing their languages. He forces them to disperse over the face of all the earth, “and they left off building the city.”

Or, in other words, despite their sin and the disobedience, God’s command for them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, did actually happen. Even if it required the confusion of languages for it to actually occur. The last verse then summarizes the text in two sentences.

The Result (9)

Genesis 11:9 ESV

9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

The Bible closes off this historical narrative by giving us the name of the city—that the city’s name is Babel.

Babel is derived from the Hebrew word balal, which means confusion.

That’s why the text emphasizes the idea that it was named Babel because God confused the languages at that location.

You might be interested to know, that the word translated as Babel is also translated later in the Old Testament as Babylon, which if you know your biblical history is a very wicked nation that is regularly seen as an enemy of God.

This city is named Babel because that is where God confused the languages.

And it’s the confusing of the languages (along with the fact that God dispersed the people), that then spread mankind throughout the world.

People who spoke similar languages would cluster as they dispersed—those who spoke completely different languages would move further away from each other; whereas those who shared similarities in their new languages would join up together.

Ultimately, what this whole account reminds us of is the simple fact that God is sovereign and He interacts with His creation.

He’s sovereign in that even though the people wanted to reject Him, even though they wanted to puff themselves up and be independent, He still had ultimate control in what happened.

He interacts with His creation in that He very literally came down to assess the situation, judge their motivation, and enact judgment upon the people for their sins.

The account of the Tower of Babel explains a lot of different things for us—the origin of different languages and then different people groups, the confusing nature of different languages and why it’s so hard for us to communicate across language lines.

But ultimately, the language issues aren’t the primary focus of the text and that’s where our application comes in.

Application

While there are plenty of things that we can learn from a passage like Genesis 11:1-9, I think we can all tell what the primary issue at hand is. Whereas it is good to know that mankind originally had one language and the same words, while it’s good to know that these people lived in the land of Shinar and that they wanted to build a city and tower “with its top in the heavens,” the primary issue is in why they wanted to do these things, which is found in v. 4, “let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

The primary idea at hand is that despite God’s multiple commands to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, the people after the flood simply didn’t want to. Rather, they chose, in their own pride, to try and live apart from God—again, it wasn’t the issue of them constructing a large city or even a large tower, but rather their reasons for doing so—to make a name for themselves and to prevent themselves from being scattered over the face of the earth.

Or, in other words, they wanted to empower themselves to the extent that they wouldn’t need to obey God because they, in their pride, didn’t think they needed God and ultimately they simply didn’t want God. And that’s where our application is—there’s really two ideas present in the Tower of Babel account: (1) disobedience to God always results in confusion and destruction and (2) you always need God even when you don’t want Him, the key is to increase your affection for Him so you recognize your need for Him. So, let’s talk about those two ideas:

Your disobedience of God’s commands will always result in confusion and destruction (5-9)

As Christians, we tend to put a priority on God’s grace, which we ought to because it is through His grace that He saves us. However, sometimes what’s left out when we prioritize grace is Jesus’ own statement that “if we love Him, we will obey His commandments.”

Out of love, we ought to obey—now, we could spend a exorbitant amount of time trying to figure out what every single command throughout the Bible is, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing to do or we could remember how Jesus sums up the Law—to love God and to love one another.

With that in mind, what it really means to disobey God is to not love Him as we ought.

John Piper, “Underneath all the misuses of money, sex, and power is this sinful heart-condition—this depravity. My definition of sin is this: any feeling or thought or action that comes from a heart that does not treasure God over all other things. The bottom of sin, the root of all sins, is such a heart—a heart that prefers anything above God; a heart that doesn’t treasure God over everything else, and everyone else.” (John Piper, “Your Sin Is Not What You Think,” The Gospel Coalition (May 18, 2016), https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/your-sin-is-not-what-you-think/.

Or, in other words, our disobedience towards God is sin and sin is the result of not loving God like we ought to love God.

And the reality is, that when we don’t love God the way we ought to love God, the only result is ever that of confusion and destruction.

As Paul says in Romans 1, in sin, we elevate the creation above the Creator and the result is that we love the creation more than the Creator, so then we justify our willingness to disobey God, when in reality, we ought to love God so much that we want to obey Him in all things.

In our sin, we do exactly what the people in Babel did—we try to puff ourselves up, we try to make a name for ourselves, we try to live apart from God and the reasoning for it is that we don’t love God as we ought.

The affections of our heart are misplaced and it’s our misplaced affections that cause us to want to live life by our terms rather than by God’s.

Jonathan Edwards makes the argument that it is when our affections are right, that we stop trying to puff ourselves up and we stop trying to make a name for ourselves, and we stop trying to live apart from God because we choose to walk in obedience to God’s Word instead. (see Jonathan Edwards, A Treatise concerning Religious Affections (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996).)

The problem is that when our affections are wrong, we can justify all our sins because our lives will be that of confusion and destruction.

If you find yourself in a time in your life where you’re finding it difficult to obey what God has said, you really need to check your heart because you are loving something more than you love God—your affections are wrong.

And just like the people in Babel, you’re trying to live your life apart from God in disobedience to His commands because your affections are wrong.

You need to check your heart and be sure that you’re growing in your affection for and of Him—otherwise, your life will be nothing but confusion and ultimately destruction.

And honestly, the reality is that your lack of affection for God is why you think you don’t need Him, when in reality, you need Him far more than you realize (1-4).

It is only when your affections are misplaced that you even entertain the idea that you might not need God.

It is when your affections are misplaced that you lose track of just how much you need Jesus and when you forget your need of Jesus because of your misplaced affections, you will continue in a path of confusion, destruction, and really sin.

The reality is, that you need Jesus more than you ever think you do and you’ll never recognize your need for Him as long as you’re choosing to love other things, other people, and really anything more than you love Him.

When you choose to desire something other than God, you will only ever find yourself lost:

That could mean in a spiritual sense—meaning, you just don’t know Jesus yet (in which case you need to repent and believe).

Or, it could be in a metaphysical sense—you don’t understand life and how you fit in because of your desire for something other than God (of which you need to repent—turn back to Jesus).

When your affections are misplaced, you will be lost and you will think you don’t need God and you will continue to wander rather than follow Jesus.

You need to check your heart and be sure that you’re affection for Him is growing—otherwise, your life will be nothing but confusion and ultimately destruction.

Really, what we learn from Genesis 11:1-9 is that when our affections are misplaced—when we don’t want God as much as we ought and we start to think that we no longer need Him—the result is our own disobedience against God. And anytime we choose to disobey God, we always find ourselves in confusion and potentially destruction.

But Jesus makes it possible for our affection in God to grow, which allows us to see our desperate need for God. It’s Jesus’ sacrificial atonement on the cross that makes it possible for us to obey Him and in our obedience to Him, the confusion and destruction of sin dissipates because our focus is on Him and Him alone.

Pastoral Prayer