Rebels on a Stairway

I’m curious about something this morning. How many of you have used A.I., artificial intelligence, recently?

Now, I didn’t really expect a large showing of hands, because — let’s face it — most of us in the room are past the age of being early adopters of every new technology.

But now let me ask you this: How many of you have a smartphone? How many of you use Google to search for things on the internet? How many of you contact customer service when you have a problem with a bill?

If you have a smartphone, it either HAS A.I., or it soon WILL. If you use Google to search the internet, the first result to come up is usually an A.I.-generated response. And we are well on the way to having A.I. as the first customer contact most folks will get when they call a big company with a problem.

It’s amazing to me just how quickly A.I. has advanced in just the few years since the first Large Language Model was released. Even more amazing is how quickly it’s been adopted and how much trust people and institutions put in it.

Even the U.S. military has bought into A.I. I remembered a story I’d seen recently about one of Elon Musk’s companies getting a huge contract to develop A.I. for the military. I wanted to get some details for this sermon, so I did what I normally do and searched Google.

And, somewhat ironically, I’ll quote the response from Google’s A.I.: “The US military is actively integrating artificial intelligence across various branches and operations. This includes developing AI-powered tools for tasks ranging from analyzing complex data and improving decision-making to enhancing cybersecurity and supporting logistics. The Department of Defense is also partnering with leading AI companies to accelerate the development and deployment of these technologies.”

So, we’re going to allow artificial intelligence to help us with decision-making in the military. What could possibly go wrong? Most of us have seen the movies, and it’s not hard to imagine the possibilities.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not opposed to technology. In fact, I’d consider myself a fan of much technology. I love my MacBook Pro. I love my smartphone. They’re both incredibly useful to me, and I’d have a hard time living without them.

I drive a car, which was a terrifying new technology only a little more than 100 years ago. I like to fly, although the airline accountants have drained most of the joy out of it these days.

And I’d say there’s something wonderful — maybe even godly in the sense of reflecting God’s character — in the creative potential of the human race that’s demonstrated in new technologies.

All of these technologies — even Artificial Intelligence — can be used for good. They can help alleviate suffering and improve the quality of life for people around the world.

But there’s also something inherently broken about possibly every technological advancement we make: It’s that WE’VE made them. And therefore, even though they can be used for great good, they can also be used for great evil.

Airplanes can be used to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to the remotest parts of the world. Or they can be used to drop bombs on those same people. Smartphones can be used to help you stay in touch with family. Or they can be used to look at pornography. Social media can bring you cute videos about kittens and puppies. Or it can bring you stalkers and trolls looking to steal your money or wreck your self-image.

Now, this isn’t a sermon on technology. It’s a sermon on sin. Indeed, this is the fourth sermon in our series, “Sin, According to the Experts.”

But what you’re going to see in today’s passage from Genesis, chapter 11, is that this human ability to use potentially good technology for the most evil of purposes is nothing new. It goes right back to the Tower of Babel.

The people of Babel were experts at sin, just as we are. And they were experts at using technology to advance sin, just as we are. And their sin would cost them dearly, just as our sin does for us.

Turn with me to Genesis, chapter 11, and let’s see what Moses has to tell us about this people and their great sin.

We’ll see the creative spark that gave them a new technology they could’ve used for great good. We’ll see how they perverted that technology for great evil. We’ll see God’s response to them and His implied warning to us.

And maybe along the way, you’ll hear a lesson we can apply to how we look at and interact with Artificial Intelligence an the other technologies of our time.

We’ll pick up in verse 1:

Genesis 11:1–9 NASB95

1 Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. 2 It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 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. 4 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.” 5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 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. 7 “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. 9 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.

Now, the first thing we need to work out is who are the “they” in verse 2. The most likely answer is that “they” are Ham’s descendants. That’s because verse 10 of the previous chapter tells us that he settled in the land of Shinar, and specifically that he’d founded Babel.

Furthermore, they’d headed east, which in Genesis signifies moving away from the Lord and outside of His will. And that’s just what we’d expect from this man who’d been cursed for sinning so terribly against his father, Noah.

Ham was done with God.

So Ham and his descendants head east, away from God, and settle in the land of Shinar, which is in modern-day Iraq, probably in the same region where the Garden of Eden had been located.

And that’s significant, because, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Moses is making a contrast here. Babel replaces Eden. Mankind has chosen confusion over shalom.

And very quickly, we see them choosing to sin against God by disobeying His command that they multiply and fill the earth. Ham’s descendants have already begun to reflect his character. Like I said last week, apples and trees.

But they still bear the image of God, so we shouldn’t be surprised that they have a creative spark about them. And we see that in verse 3, the first place where bricks are mentioned.

They’ve developed a new technology for construction. And imagine the good things it could’ve been used for. They could’ve built strong houses and walls to protect their city. They could’ve built altars to God and turned to Him in worship. They could’ve made great art.

And maybe they did some of these things. Maybe houses and city walls were even the original purpose for this new construction technology.

So they build a city, but a great city isn’t enough for them. In their hubris — in their exalted pride — they decide to build a tower to heaven itself. This tower was probably a ziggurat, which in ancient times was considered a sort of stairway to heaven. And please forgive me if I just gave you an earworm for the rest o the day.

But remember that these people had left God behind when they headed east. They’d turned their backs on God. So, what purpose would it serve them to build a stairway to heaven?

The clue is in the next part of verse 4: “Let us make for ourselves a name.” They wanted to make a name for themselves. They wanted dominion, authority and power in God’s place.

Much as Eve had, they wanted for themselves what rightfully belonged to God. And it seems they thought they’d build this stairway to heaven and go and take His throne for themselves.

They wanted to put themselves in HIS place. They wanted to be gods.

Now, I haven’t made much of it so far, as I’ve been preaching through this series, but each of the sins we’ve covered so far is expressly forbidden later in the 10 Commandments.

Remember that Adam and Eve coveted God’s authority to declare what is good and what is evil. Cain murdered his brother, Abel. And Ham dishonored his father.

And here in Babel, we see his descendants breaking the first commandment. Remember that one? We see it in Exodus, chapter 20.

Exodus 20:2–3 NASB95

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

Now, God didn’t etch these commandments into stone until much later in history, but it’s clear in Scripture that they already were in force and that they already were understood by the people.

Adam and Eve knew they’d sinned, even if there wasn’t a written commandment against coveting. Cain knew he’d sinned, even if there wasn’t a written commandment against murder. Ham knew he’d sinned, even if there wasn’t a written commandment against dishonoring your father and mother.

And the people of Babel knew that what they were doing was sin. They knew they were going against God’s will. That was their INTENT.

Look at the last part of verse 4. Let’s build a tower to heaven and make a name for ourselves — let’s put OURSELVES in God’s place; “otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

Remember that He’d told them to multiply and fill the earth. But that’s not what they wanted. They wanted what THEY wanted, not what God wanted — which is a pretty good definition of disobedience, which is another word for sin.

They weren’t just testing the limits of their engineering skills. They weren’t explorers trying to reach the heavens.

They were rebels planning to storm the very GATES of heaven. And their plan was to establish that THEY, not God, were now in charge of themselves.

And one of the things I want you to see this morning is that this is not so different from how much of the lost world lives today.

They reject God. They reject the very notion that there is a Creator who has supreme authority over all mankind by virtue of who He is and what He’s done.

And in their rebellion against Him, they put all manner of things in His place. all kinds of false gods. Wealth and power and fame. Politics and technology and entertainment. And so much more.

And all of these things can be used as tools for GOOD. But in our brokenness, we so often use them as tools for evil. As the means by which we try to put OURSELVES on the throne of God.

And this is the great struggle of the human race. It goes back to Babel. It goes back to the days before the Great Flood. It goes back to Cain.

It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve saw the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and thought it looked like it would make them wise, like God.

They didn’t WANT God to be the one who declared things good or evil. They wanted that authority for themselves. Just like the people of Babel. Just like the lost world. Just, sadly, like we followers of Jesus when we sin.

When we choose to do the things that God has placed off-limits to us, we’re saying that we’re not satisfied with His authority.

So, we build our little stairways to heaven with the idea that we’re going to kick God off His throne and sit there ourselves. And we’ll use whatever tools, whatever technology, we can pervert toward this end.

But in the end, God is still God. He’s no less mighty and powerful than He was when we laid those first bricks. And our rebellion against Him doesn’t threaten Him in the least. But it has disastrous effects for us. Look at verse 5.

“The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.”

Now, He could surely SEE the tower from heaven. This wasn’t a trip to satisfy God’s curiosity. The point was that this great tower, this pinnacle of human engineering and ingenuity, could never do what it was intended to do.

I love what one commentator has to say about this: “Far from its temple’s top reaching up to heaven, it is so low that God has to descend from heaven just to see it!” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Ge 11:9, quoting Wenham.]

You and I might sit on the thrones of our hearts when we sin against God. But those are such insignificant and temporary thrones. They are nothing when compared to the throne of the eternal and all-powerful God.

And in verse 6, when God says, “nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them,” this isn’t God being fearful OF mankind. This is God being fearful FOR mankind. He’s concerned that if He doesn’t intervene, the people of Babel will become just as evil as they want to be.

God allows us to occupy the little high-chairs we call thrones, but HE is still God, and He will not be mocked. And He will not allow us to destroy His creation. He stopped us from doing so with a flood once, and here, he stops it with confusion.

He came down and confused their language. Where there had been one language with the same (or, perhaps, few) words, now there were many.

The people couldn’t understand each other. And the great construction project was abandoned. The people were scattered across the earth. This great monument to human creativity and ingenuity stood unfinished, along with the great city of Babel.

And I think that’s a metaphor for the unfinished, incomplete lives — the emptiness — of those who never relinquish the thrones of their hearts to God. Of those who never turn to Him through faith in Jesus Christ and His work at the cross.

You see, we are all sinners, and we’re all experts at sin, just like the people of Babel, just like people before the Great Flood, just like Adam and Eve. That’s one of the things Moses is trying to show us in these first 11 chapters of the Book of Genesis.

When Adam and Eve sinned — when they put their trust in the lying serpent, instead of the one true God — they put themselves and all who would come after them in subjection to Satan.

Sin reigned in the days after the Garden, even after the flood. And it still reigns here, today. We all are under the curse of sin, to serve it and die because of it.

And there’s no way any of us can break free from this bondage on our own. Like Cain, we’re vagrants in vagrant-land. Lost and wandering in the darkness of sin. Unable to save ourselves by anything we do.

But God loves us, and He created us in His own image to have fellowship with us. He created us to NEED Him and His authority over us, to be incomplete WITHOUT Him.

Because what we do on our own is to replace shalom with Babel, peace and contentment with confusion and chaos. HE brought life into the world. We brought death, and we continue to do so with every sin we commit.

But He’s given us a way out of this mess we’re in through repentance and faith in Jesus.

Repentance means turning from your sins, agreeing with God that what HE calls sin is sin. Repentance means to stop building all the little towers of rebellion against God and admit that He alone is worthy and righteous to have authority over you.

It means admitting that you’re a rebel and that you deserve the eternal king’s punishment for your crimes against Him.

And faith means placing your trust in Jesus. Trusting that He is who He said He is — the unique and eternal Son of God. Trusting that He is God Himself, in human flesh.

It means trusting that He will do what He said He will do: save rebels against God’s kingdom through His own sacrifice.

It means trusting that in His sacrificial death at the cross, He who was sinless bore the sins of all mankind, along with their just punishment. It means trusting that ONLY His sacrificial death and supernatural resurrection can reconcile you to the God who made you to need Him.

It means trusting that in Christ alone will you find the peace and contentment and fulfillment that each one of us so desperately needs in this life and after.

But trusting in Jesus also means giving up the throne of your own heart to God. It means stepping aside and letting HIM take that throne, letting HIM have authority over you.

That was too much for the people of Babel. And in rejecting Him, they chose confusion and chaos.

Which will YOU choose today?