The Tower of Babel

Introduction

Opening Illustration - Tick: Recently my family spent a few days up in Michigan. My kids loved running around in the woods. Absolutely beautiful this time of year. One thing about the woods in Michigan, is that it is a common place to pick up a tick. A small little bug that can grip ont you, nearly invible. But if left unchecked can cause severe illness, and some cases death. And so every night, you have to check your skin to make sure there are no ticks clinging to you. Pride is a like a tick, a parasite. Pride is subtle and oftentimes very invisible in the human heart. You can pick it up and not even realize its no you. But if left unchecked it can make you very sick spiritually. And if truly left on its own, it can kill you.

Personal: Where have you had to battle with the sin of pride. Do you know the common places that you are prone to be tempted with pride? Might pride have a hold on you more than you’d care to admit?

Context: We are continuing our sermon series through the book of Genesis, and today we come to the Tower of babel. We have moved through the account of the life of Noah, and the flood. And as we enter chapter 11, we are eager to see how humanity fairs after God’s restart through Noah and the flood. Today, as we study the account of the tower of babel we will see that: Pride climbs to heaven but Grace brings heaven down.

Meaning & Application

I THE SHAPE OF PRIDE

Our study today begins by examining The Shape of Pride. By this, I mean to analyze the ways in which pride manifests itself in the human experience.

Nimrod: While our text today begins in chapter 11, the story of Babel goes back just a bit further. We cannot understand Babel without understanding a bit of the man who founded the city, Nimrod. Chapter 10 is often spoken about as the Table of Nations. There are a total of seventy nations that are listed as coming from Noah. Many of these nations would become well known enemies of the people of God throughout the Old Testament (Canaanites, Philistines, Jebusites, and Amorites). The truth is, all seventy of these nations fell into Paganism and false worship. In the middle of the Table of Nations, there is a parentheses, verses 8-10. The parantheses tells of one particular descendent of Noah, named Nimrod.

Genesis 10:8–10 “Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.”

Rebel: The name “Nimrod” literally means “rebel.” Nimrod was a rebel against God. He was a type of anti-Christ, a figure who revolted against God, and sought to establish his own Kingdom, according to his own principles.

Mighty Man: Three times in this text the word “mighty” is used to describe Nimrod. The image that we draw from this is that Nimrod, when the text says that he began to be a “mighty man” is that he began to be a subjector of people. He was interested in conquest, in imperialism. And he was successful. And the beginning of his kingdom was in Babel. He wanted to rule over men. That is the background to our text.

Pride Drives the Story: In verses 1-4 of our text today we see that pride is driving this entire story. The sin of pride and self-reliance is the foundation upon which the Kingdom of Nimrod, the city of Babel, was built.

Genesis 11:4 “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.””

We see three aspects of pride in this little verse.

#1 Pride Revealed By Our Affections: First, is what we might call the pride which is revealed through our affections. The affections are the delights and the desires of the heart. The affections can be used for good. Every Christians should have their affections stirred for godliness! Yet here, we see Nimrod’s affections were stirred to glorify themselves. “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its tops in heaven.”

Whereas in later years when Jerusalem was established as the headquarters of God’s people, the city and the temple would be built for God. Here Nimrod and his men set out to build this city “for themselves”. And the tower would have its top “in the heavens.” Their affections are to be like God, to dwell where God dwells, on their own accord. They are not content to be God’s creatures, to be under his sovereign and providential hand. They strive against this, and seek to be their own Gods.

How does this play itself out in ordinary people’s lives.

Pride of Leadership: We see it in the pride of leadership. I know have wrestled with this demon personally much over the years. When you are stewarded with responsibilities to lead, it is easy to feel the glory that comes with success. That is glory that only God is owed, and yet pride sneakily captures shares of it for one’s own affections.

Pride of Position: We see this in the pride of position. Each of us have a different lot in life. Some have more money, while others have less. Some have higher rank in social prestige, while others have less. Some have more education while others have less. We think of all the ways mankind has dreamed to rank ourselves. Rather than seeing our lot as coming from God, owed entirely to God, we capture a share of the glory for ourselves.

Pride of Piety: Pride revealed through our affections can even be revealed in the pride of piety. Piety is a beautiful thing. It is godliness. Every Christian aims at pious living. But it is possible to be very pious and know it, and to glory in your piety.

To all of these various ‘prides of affection’ we are given a holy slap by John the Baptist, whose affections were simply stated:

John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.””

#2 Pride Revealed by Other’s Perceptions: Second, we see Nimrod had a pride of other’s perception. He says “Let us make a name for ourselves.” They are motivated by popularity. They want the name of Nimrod to expand. They want others to come to plains of Shinar, and to say “What an incredible man, and what incredible people these must be.” They are interested in how they are perceived by others. And they want to be perceived as extraordinary.

Again, if we compare to the City of God, under the people of God, Jerusalem existed to make God’s name great. When God gave Israel their laws, he told them the reason for those laws. He said:

Deuteronomy 4:6–7 “Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?”

It is incredible, when we get honest with ourselves, how the pride of other’s perceptions can creep into our lives. Again, let me list a few ways.

Pride of Honor: When others praise you for something you have done, how easy it is for the heart to swell with vain conceit, considering what others think of you.

Pride of Clothing: The pride of clothing. How practical this is. The clothes we wear, and the reasons we wear those clothes, oftentimes can subtly be filled with what others will perceive about us.

Pride of Children: The pride of children. How embarassed we feel when our children misbehave in public, because of that deep thought of “what will others think about my parenting.” Pride.

Pride of Learning & Knowledge: How about the pride of learning and knowledge. If you are someone who is quite read, you get to a place where you realize you know more than most people on quite a lot of topics, it can get to your head. And its all about what others think of you.

To this we think of the description of Christ in Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53:3 “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

#3 Pride Revealed through Our Rebellions: Third, we see the pride of rebellion… All sin is rebellion to God. Nimrod and the builders of Babel were in direct rebellion to God. God had commanded and his sons very specifically in Genesis 9:1.

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

Noah’s sons were to continue to spread out. To fill the Earth. But Nimrod wants to gather, to collect. He wants to build a mighty city in his own name. In so doing, he is directly stating, “I want nothing to do with God’s law. I will be a law unto myself.”

All rebellion to God’s law is pride. It is the belief that we know better than God. It is the belief that we have outsmarted God, and that his ways are not ideal, our ways are better.

Refusal to Bow to Christ: When men refuse to bow the knee to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, they are in rebellion to God. This is nothing more than pride. He is king whether we state it or not has no affect whatsoever on that reality. He is the conquerer of death. He is the ultimate supreme ruler. Refusal to bow the knee to Jesus is simply pride swelling.

We have thus far seen the shape of pride as it is seen in Nimrod’s desire to build a kingdom for himself. Pride revealed through our affections. Pride revealed through other’s perceptions. And lastly, pride revealed through our rebellion.

II THE INSANITY OF PRIDE

Now, let us consider the folly of pride, perhaps even the insanity of pride. To this we turn to verse

Genesis 11:5–7 “And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 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.”

This scene is begins with nearly hysterical language. Here we must imagine, the greatest assemly of men the world had ever known, led by the greatest imperial king the world had ever known at that time, Nimrod. He was out for conquest, and he was successful. And for years they came together and build a city, with a tower higher than any tower previously even considered. We can imagine, as with many other ancient building projects that this took time, and maybe even years to construct and labor. The planning was immese. The stone and the timber had to be carted in. The labor was immense. The food needed to feed all those working men was immense.

Building a Highrise: Years ago I was living in an apartment downtown when the Trump Tower was being built. And I remember one floor after another being built. The view and the skyline slowly adjusting, as each layer got added to the next. First, the scaffolding, then the concrete and foundational bars, then thenWith this tower that Nimrod was constructing, his aim was heaven. He wanted to sit above every person, and to look down upon them.

#1 Came Down: And then in verse 5, in the midst of this we read, “And the Lord came down…” I love that language. What a contrast to Nimrod who is laboring step by step to get up. Through sweat and toil and men’s labor. And the Lord simply comes down. The Lord need not build a tower, or a set of steps, or a ladder. He simply comes down from the very place where Nimrod aspired to sit. See the absolute folly of Nimrod’s plans.

Illustration - Basketball with Mira: It’s a bit like when I play backyard basketball with my daughters. We lower the hoop down to seven feet or so, to make it easy for them. They’re all learning how to dribble a basketball. And the three of them will use all of their effort to try to find a way around me. They pass, they run. They drop the ball, and pick it up. Finally, one of them throws a ball up and there’s a high percentage chance that it doesn’t go in. And sometimes what I’ll do if I’m in a particularly sarcastic mood is I’ll grab the ball and stand with the ball high above my head where they can’t reach it. About three feet from the hoop. And I’ll look at them and say, “What, are you trying to get this in there. All you have to do is this.. Swoosh. Multiply that by a billion, and you have the folly of Nimrod trying to build a tower to heaven, and God just coming down.

#2 Confused Language: Then God just disrupts their plans, and he does in the most unique and brilliant way. He introduces languages and dialects to the people, so that they’re building projects cannot go forward. He disrupts their unity, by disrupting their language. By doing this, he utterly ended their plans. Not only was the building project over, but the empire was over. Nimrod’s kingdom functionally came to end. He was the first King in all of history who ever had to try to navigate a Kingdom where dozens of languages were spoken, and the disunity that follows.

Illustration: Perspective on Pride: When I speak of the Folly of Pride, what I mean is the absolute foolishness that lies underneath our proud thoughts. Let us get perspective on pride for a moment. Imagine for a moment that you have been whisked away into John’s book of Revelation. And you are in the scene in chapter 4 where Christ is seated on his throne. John says that Christ is described as both the Lion of Judah, and the Lamb that was slain. He is all powerful, because He is God, and he sustains the universe by His Word. But He is also meek and lowly, for he is the lamb that was slain, in love for you and for me. The only right you have to be in the presence of that throne, is because His blood was shed for you. He is your conquering hero. He is your Savior. Around his throne are twenty four elders who bow in heavenly adoration. Before him are the cherubim and the seraphim which ever sing his praise. On his right hand side is the arch angel Michael who you see bowing on his knee, with his sword laid flat as if in presentation to Christ. And behind him millions and millions of angelic host in awe at the one who is seated on the throne, in awe at his writing of history, in awe at His love. And then you look at before you, you see people, ransomed by his blood from every nation, and tongue, and tribe. Each and every one of them full of joy and overwhelmed at hte reality of their heavenly experience, beholding their Savior with their eyes. And then you hear with your ears his voice, and as he speaks it as is if all of the noise of million’s angels wings suddenly stop their fluttering, as every ear listens. And his voice is strong and powerful, and yet somehow dripping with love and direction.

Can you imagine in that moment leaning over to the guy next to you, and saying “You know, when I was alive on Earth, I was really smart, and I read a lot of books… And you know I was pretty charitable, yep people knew me.”

The Devil: It sounds outrageous, but that’s what pride is, all of it. Every little proud thought, when put in perspective next to the preeminence of Christ, you realize how foolish and utterly wasteful proud thoughts are. It’s not only foolish, but it is wicked! It was in fact the Devil whose chief sin was pride. The Devil, as far we know, was an archangel of sorts, chief among God’s spiritual creatures. Arrayed in emeralds and saphire, in heaven second only to the Son Himself. But the Devil was not content to be in subjection to the Son. His heart grew proud within him. The Devil saw his own beauty, He saw his own rank, and believed that he was something to boast about. The Devil’s heart grew so full of pride, that he warred in rebellion against God and against his angels, believing his own lies. Even now, with his utter defeat by Christ at the cross, and the reality that the nightmare of Hell and the unceasing anguish of the Lake of Fire is his ultimate destiny, he does not cease from his pride. He will never bow to the Son.

Building a Kingdom: Pride is insane and it is wicked. Because with every proud thought and every proud motivation, we take for ourselves what is to be reserved for God. Adoration is God’s alone. Nimrod sought to build a kingdom with himself at the head. And we, with our own small infractions of pride in our own hearts do the same. Pride attempts to build its little kingdom up to heaven. This is insanity. And if we’re very honest, we all struggle with this. It’s there in my heart. I see that nasty little tick clinging to me. When I think on my pride I can’t help but relate to the Apostle Paul’s words:

Romans 7:15 “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”

What is the solution?

III THE SOLUTION TO PRIDE

Lastly, I want us to consider the solution to pride. In verses 8-9 we read the following:

Genesis 11:8–9 “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.”

These last two verses, while on the surface seem as though they are simply repurcussions for Nimrod’s sin in his proud ambition, are actually dripping with grace. The answer to the question of how do we deal with pride, is going to be that we immerse ourselves in grace until pride looks foolish.

Where do we grace in these verses. I think there are three clear strains of grace on display in this passage:

God’s Restraining Grace First, God graciously restrained Nimrod’s pride from having its full effect. He ended the evil which was Babel. The confusion of the languages and the spreading of the people was a gracious act of love, from a Holy God, protecting humanity from where it would go if left unchecked. Church - God is a restraining God. It might seem that the world at times is out of control, but it is not. On any given day, God has restrained tens of thousands of sinful motivations that might have been disastrous. We see his grace in restraint.

God’s Redirecting Grace: Secondly, we see God’s grace in his redirection. When the text says he spread them over the face of the Earth, that is language similar to what God originally told Noah to do in Genesis 9:1.

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

So notice the order of events. God gives Noah a gracious command of what to do. Noah’s successors sinfully reject that command and decide to do things their own way. They fall into deep rebellious sin. But God in his mercy comes down, and spoils their plans and redirects them into God’s original plans. Our God is a redirecting God. His Word will come to fruition one way or another. When the devil tries to bend the lines that God has made straight, God laughs and uses the bent lines to accomplish his purposes with an even greater beauty. If we find we have played the role of Nimrod, and broken God’s way. If we find we are covered in sin! Know that there is Redirecting Grace! Undeserved favor. God can take your broken track record and use it for his glory, if you surrender it to him fully and faithfully.

God’s Redeeming Grace: But lastly, and most importantly, is God’s grace in redemption. Let us not forget the words from verse 5 that serve as a pointer forwards to God’s redemptive grace,

Genesis 11:5 “And the Lord came down…”

This is not the last time the Lord would come down to destroy the works of his enemy. For in the person of Christ Jesus, the Lord came down again. Our champion Christ, did not just look at the city of pride from a distance, but he marched into it as a humble servant seated on a donkey. He destroyed the city of pride, not by conquering through strength, but by allowing its wickedness to fall on him. He willingly became its greatest victim. But through His death, God redirected Satan's plans and used them for utter glory. Through his death, Christ brought heaven down. Through his death he paid the wages of sin, and now stands offering grace upon grace to any and all who will receive it. Pride climbs to heaven but Grace brings heaven down.

Tongues: The book of Acts records the reversal of Babel. In God’s great beauty, after Christ’s resurrection and ascension, the disciples were gathered together, and all the nations were present in Jerusalem. And as the disciples began to preach the Gospel of forgiveness of sin, we are told in Acts 2 that:

Acts 2:5–6 “Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.”

Pride is Exhausting: This is the electrifying beginning of God’s Kingdom. A kingdom not built on human pride, but built on the grace of God. Free and undeserved grace. The Kingdom of Babel is a counter-narrative to the ultimate Kingdom of God. One is built on pride, the other built on grace.

Pride attempts to build our little kingdoms up to heaven. Grace brings God’s kingdom down

Pride conquers through strength. Grace conquers through sacrifice.

Pride is a parasite that ever demands more of your life. Grace freely bestows what you could never earn.

Pride is exhausting because it is never satisfied. Grace is restful, because its free.

Pride is Satanic because its chief is the Devil himself. Grace is Christian, because its chief is our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pride left unchecked will destroy your soul and keep you from God. Grace let in, will unite you with God, and save your soul.

Closing

Test Yourself: Examine yourself Church. Discover what little remnants of pride lurk in your heart. Discover what little rebellions to God you’re still harbor, what towers you’re still building. You may be a saved Christian, but that tick of pride can be making you sicker than you realize. Let me give you five questions you might ask yourself.

Do I desire to be seen as godly more than I desire to be godly?

Do I secretly rejoice in praise for spiritual things?

Do I compare myself to others in the church?

Do I have a healthy and godly perspective on my own frailty and the shortness of my life? [This question can quickly reveal how grand we think we are]

Do I often repent in my prayer life with God? [If there is very little repentance, it doesn’t mean there is very little sin, it simply means there is very little honest reflection before a Holy God]

Final Words: Today we have examined the story of the Tower of Babel, and we have seen the corrupting and twisting effects of pride on a person and on a civiliziation. And we have compared that over and against the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom built on undeserved grace. The great antidote to pride is total surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Christ, who emptied himself and took on flesh, becoming a servant, in order to love you and redeem you. This is the way.