The Tower of Babel, Prideful Independence

You know how when you’re at the beach before you go in the ocean you look back at the land and find a waypoint so you can get back to your people?…

That’s basically what the people were doing in Babylon. But with a much loftier, arrogant goal.

This is an account, true account as all that’s written in Scripture are, about a people who thought they would find their strength in themselves, in each other. Which isn’t a bad thought!…

But instead of seeing that community as a gift from God, they were looking to it instead of God. Thinking they didn’t need God, even that they would ascend to the place of God!

We will do this same thing at times. You probably haven’t ever built a tower, but I bet you have thought that you didn’t need anything from God. That you could handle things all by yourself.

I remember a guy I met at our church in Texas named Michael. He was a big dude, so big that when he got baptized our pastor told me to get in the baptistry with him cause he wasn’t going to be able to lift him out of the water…

He knew he needed God, but he also still had this pride that he couldn’t lay down. For a long time he said that he wasn’t going to become a Christian yet because his life was a mess and he had to take care of all his problems and then he would go to God…

The Tower of Babel is a biblical account that isn’t as well known as all the stories we read in Genesis, but it’s a pretty important one! It reminds us that our pride can lead us astray. Here’s what God teaches us in this story…

God, in his grace, will sometimes interrupt our sinful plans to humble us save us from falling farther into sin.

read Gen 11:1-9 and pray

Pride fools us

In pride, we believe we deserve more, that we are capable of more, that we are able to elevate ourselves even to the level of God.

Think about it, has your pride ever gotten you in trouble? I’m sure most of you can think of a time when you thought a little too much of yourself and it got you in trouble!

When I was y’all’s age I lived in a neighborhood with a bunch of woods and there were trails all through the woods and a lot of the kids had dirt bikes or four-wheelers. There were two brothers who had a four-wheeler that really shouldn’t have been out of the garage because the brakes didn’t work on it. But it still went around and not just that, somehow other people ended up riding it a lot.

One day I was riding it and I was going up a hill but I was in too high a gear to make it up the hill… I knew what could happen if I shifted down on going up a hill, but I felt like I was a strong enough guy that I could take care of it! Well I shifted that thing down and up it went! I fell off the back of it and rolled down that hill. The four-wheeler rolled down the hill right after me, and right over me!

It could’ve been worse though, there was another boy in the neighborhood who was riding it one time and broke his femur!

Thinking too much of yourself will often get you in trouble. Humanity was thinking too much of themselves

verses 1-4

Proverbs 16:18 ESV

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

My pride literally came before a fall!

Pride tells us that we deserve more, that others owe us, that God owes us, that we don’t need anyone, even that we don’t need God!

Think about all the ways we see this today…

People who don’t think they need God…

People who are trying to take the place of God…

Pride leads to self-righteousness. Jesus tells a story about that…

Luke 18:9-14

Do you see pride in your own life? Where is it?…

We need to be so careful to stay away from pride, to recognize when it is creeping in on us. Otherwise we may trick ourselves into believing that we don’t need the one thing we absolutely do need.

But God loves us, and in his grace he will sometimes…

God humbles us

Like a good Father, God in his loving kindness will humble us and stop us from going as far into sin as we would on our own. This is a general thing that looks different in different situations…

It’s like the old Greek myth about Icarus…

Dad tried to tell him he was doing too much, but he didn’t heed the warning, he didn’t humble himself, and disaster happened.

God pays them a visit to humble them, to protect them from their own pride.

verses 5-9

Pride doesn’t lead to any kind of good that lasts. Humility takes us towards God, acknowledging our need of Him. Jesus told us that humility was the way to go…

Matthew 23:12 ESV

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

This word that is translated “Babel” here is the same word used for the city of Babylon in the rest of OT. The city of Babylon was a real place, but is also used in Scripture as a picture of evil in the world, all that stands against God. The pride of those who seek to rule themselves and rebel against God.

Chapter 18 of the book of Revelation is about the downfall of the city of Babylon. Then in chapter 19 there is a celebration of God’s people because of the defeat of Babylon.

Revelation 19:1–2 ESV

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

Are you in Babylon? Seeking to make a name for yourself in pride? Not living humbly before God?