The Tower of Babel
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Have you ever wondered why there are so many languages? How did this all start? Well that is exactly what the tower of Babel depicts for us.
If we were to look for the timeline of when this occurs in the story we would see that it is somewhere in the midst of chapter 10. Chapter 10 gives us all of the nations of the world and this is the obedience to the command from God to be fruitful and multiply. The second part is where the problem comes in, they were to fill the earth. What happens here at Babel is them not doing that.
Babel is where we get the separation of peoples and it is all sparked by pride and arrogance. Lets begin dive into the story tonight, but first lets pray.
The Story
The Story
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
Here everyone was unified around a shared language and this held them together. They lived together and they traveled together. Here they go to this land called Shinar and settle down. These details at the start begin to cue us in to what is going on. It cannot be good that everyone shares a language and that they all settle together, especially with the effects of sin.
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, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
With all of this unification they begin to innovate. They have fire hardened bricks and mortar to hold it all together. This is a major development for society up to this point and will revolutionize construction from here forward. There is so much good that they can do with with, what do they do though? They decide to build a big tower.
Now a tower in and of itself is not sinful. They could definitely build a tower to the glory of God. The problem arises with their motives and intentions. They want to make it for themselves so that they can make a name for themselves. This is to glorify themselves!
While they do these things to make a name for themselves look at what it says in Genesis 12:2 “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” This is in the next chapter and it is God promising to make Abrahams name great, not because he did some great feat. He will make his name great because he will follow him.
They also want to keep themselves from being dispersed over the whole world, this is against Gods intention for them. They are completely going against all that God wants from them.
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.
This is the best part of the whole story. They are making a tower to heaven to make their name great and God has to come down to see what they are up to. They are nowhere close to doing what they think they are doing.
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. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
God sees what is going on and says that they will continue down this path if they are all still unified. If they can all still communicate their sins of defying God and making a name for themselves will grow. Because of this God decides to confuse their language so that they all speak different languages. This disperses them over the earth.
So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 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 Lord does what he says he was going to do and dispersed the people. They left the city behind and all went their own way. Through this God accomplished his plan and they earth is filled.
Pride and Arrogance
Pride and Arrogance
Pride and arrogance are the things that are effecting these people and they are the same things that are an issue in out own lives. See it does not take long to see the heights of human arrogance because because this is such a big issue for sinful people.
So what is pride exactly? Pride is an excessive reliance on self that lacks dependence on God. Pride can be a good thing but the Bible primarily addresses sinful pride. One example of good pride is to do something and be proud of your work, of course not bragging about it. In this you are not going against your dependency on God and your thankfulness for him. I am proud of the Bible Tidbits ministry that I run, I also realize that I need God in all of it and that none of the success is from me.
The Bible says a lot about pride and now I just want it to speak for itself for a bit...
Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate.
In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him;
all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Pride is something that we have to be watchful for at all times. In a song that some of you have probably heard it says “Funny thing about pride is that you have it all your life, but the moment that you think you don’t its gotten in your eyes.” Pride and arrogance is something that we all battle and if we are not careful it can fog our vision and block us from seeing it. Before long we are completely self reliant and not relying on God.
Application Points
Application Points
1. recognize pride
1. recognize pride
The first thing that we have to do is recognize it in our lives and see areas that we could tend to be more prideful. Maybe you stand out in a certain area over everyone else, that can be a point of pride. Whether it be sports, or social media following, or any other number of things. We have to spot those areas of our lives and work to combat them. When we see these areas standing out the first thing that we need to do to combat them is to confess them and repent of them.
2. cultivate humility
2. cultivate humility
The second thing that you can do to fight pride in your life it to cultivate a life of humility. This can be doing something good even when nobody is watching or serving in an unknown way. It can also be as simple as admitting mistakes. True humility points to glorifying God and not yourself which is the opposite of pride. In this you may want to seek feedback from a friend about ways that you can be more humble.
3. learn to trust God over yourself
3. learn to trust God over yourself
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
Turn to God in prayer, memorize scripture. Quit relying on yourself and rely on God. over time you will learn to rely on him over yourself. When you immerse yourself in the Bible you will be a person who trust God because you will have so many reasons to trust him. This is not an easy thing to do at the start but I will tell you from personal experience, I trust God because I have learned to by seeing him be trustworthy to me.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Pride is a sin that the people at Babel were guilty of. They wanted to make a name for themselves and they wanted to only trust in self. Many of us today are guilty of pride, it is easy to get wrapped up in. It is easy to be blinded to.
If you have a relationship with Jesus and you see that you have pride in your life then the response is to repent. You recognize it now repent and seek to stay away from pride. Seek to live a life of humility, seek to trust God more and more.
Tonight if you are here and you do not have a relationship with Jesus but you are seeing the sin of pride in your life having devastating effects you need to come to know Jesus and I or Courtney would love to talk to you more about that.
Don’t be ruled by pride. Live a life that is humbly reliant on God.
