The Tower of Babel

The Corruption

God has called mankind to fill the earth in Genesis 9:1, but here we see that they stay in place.

They find this new place called, “Shinar” which could also be called Mesopotamia or Babylon.

This tower they’re building is called a Ziggurat which is a tower reaching to the heavens to invite a god down to the temple they have set up so they could worship it.

This tower would have refreshments and resting areas to “help the god” on his journey.

This is a pagan view of God. They have a picture of a god in mind who needs to rest, gets weary and hungry, and who they feel like they have to manipulate to bless them. When they say they want to ‘Build a name for themselves”, they’re wanting to be known as the people who brought God down and they only want this for the blessings, not the blesser.

What you and I believe about God affects all aspects of life.

And because that is true, we must be careful to approach the Scriptures everyday with the question of, “What does this teach me about God?”

The Condemnation

In v5-9 we see the Lord actually does come down, but not to dwell, but to destroy.

What a shame it would be to completely dedicate your life to sowing seeds that will bring forth the fruit of God’s displeasure.

v6. Mankind has been influenced by this Babylonian thought and the more they fall for it, the further they get from a view of the true God. And because this is true, and because the way we view God shapes everything about us. Once we have a false view of God, there is no telling how far we will go in our rebellion.

What we see here as God notices the actions of man is that God is not negligent of human behavior. He is aware of the just and the unjust. Psalm 34:16

Psalm 34:16 NKJV

16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

What we see here is that no matter the unity and strength of those who stand against God, they will not succeed. Proverbs 21:30

Proverbs 21:30 NKJV

30 There is no wisdom or understanding Or counsel against the Lord.

In Deuteronomy 32:8-9 we read,

Deuteronomy 32:8–9 NKJV

8 When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, When He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the children of Israel. 9 For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance.

Here we learn that when God destroys the Tower of Babel, He disowns all of mankind and begins all over again with a people not yet known. And we later learn they will be called Israel.

The Correction

In v11 we see the vanity of man bringing God down to their level. Instead of living as men made in the image of God. They want a god made to fit their own fallen image. But in Genesis 12 we will see that the way God will relate with men is by covenants that He will make with us.

This all points to Christ, who brings forth the New Covenant in His body and blood. This all points to Jesus who by His death and resurrection, unifies what the sinful pride of man divided.

And we will see this pointing to Pentecost. Turn with me to Acts 2 and notice a few words that connect it to the Tower of Babel. In v1 we read, “They were all together in one place.” in v3 we see the word, “divided” like we see in Deuteronomy 32:8-9, and in v6 we see the word, “bewildered” or “confused” just like God uses in Genesis 11.

What we see here is a full circle. In Christ, tongues once boasting in vanity and separated by pride are now unified and lit aflame to the praise of God.

We see that the hands that once built up the kingdoms of selfish pride are known put to work building the kingdom of God. Minds that once drew up plans of selfish gain are now consumed with thought of who God truly is.

Conclusion

When the concept of God becomes as distorted as it has by Genesis 11, the only path to reclaim humanity is for God to reveal himself anew

What we see in this story is a people who have diluted the powerful reality of who God is. John Walton shows a few ways we do that is by:

Redistributing Power.

People rely on what they think has power. Reliance is a state of mind. Christians tend to sort of keep God around like the British monarchy—good for show, but with little power. We may think government works best that way, but that is not how God works. We can tell where we distribute power by observing what we tend to rely on

How would our lives look if we didn’t think this way? Maybe we would be more serious about how we worship God, maybe we would find renewed devotion to doing things for God’s glory, maybe we would quit following the fads of sinful man and follow the truth of God.

Restricting His Autonomy

In ancient times the pagans thought that if they took care of their idols statues then it would please the gods into giving them favors. And even though we don’t have idols statues today, we can easily think that we can do things to make God obligated to bless us. If we think that God owes us something, we are guilty of minimizing who God is in our minds.

“God freely and genuinely tells us, “I love you”- but if we expect Him to say, “I need you”, be prepared for a letdown.”

Regulating His Power

We dilute God when we try to manipulate His power for our purposes or selfish benefit. We are a people called to be channels of His power to be a blessing to the world, but we often fall guilty to wanting to use God’s name for our plans. This is was Simon Magus of Samaria did in Acts 8 when he wanted to use the power of the Holy Spirit for monetary gain.

Do we pray, “Lord, grow me in your grace, but don’t send any storms my way.”, “Lord, change the circumstances around me, not the attitude within me.”