Reversing Babel

“Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid” by Jonathan Haidt

“We might have just handed a 4-year-old a loaded weapon.” - Chris Wetherell, Developer or the Retweet Button

We have weaponized the frivolous.

We have chipped away at trust.

We have fragmented society.

We have deputized online mobs.

“The story of Babel is the best metaphor I have found for what happened to America in the 2010s, and for the fractured country we now inhabit. Something went terribly wrong, very suddenly. We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.”

The Wrong Solution: Build a Better Babel

Genesis 11:1 ESV

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

Genesis 11:2 ESV

And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Genesis 11:3 ESV

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.

Genesis 11:4 ESV

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.”

Genesis 9:1 ESV

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Babel was an act of rebellion.

Genesis 11:5 ESV

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.

Genesis 11:6 ESV

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.

Genesis 11:7 ESV

Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

Babel was success at failure.

Genesis 11:8 ESV

So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

Genesis 11:9 ESV

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.

Confusion and division are judgments of God against rebellion and pride.

Acts 2:1–4 ESV

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Acts 2:5–7 ESV

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. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?

Acts 2:8–11 ESV

And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

Acts 2:46–47 ESV

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Unity is a work of God. There is no godless unity.

Psalm 127:1–2 ESV

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.

1 Corinthians 3:9–11 ESV

For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

In personal life and in public life, there is no successful blueprint for Babel. There is only Christ Jesus.

Application: We have to stop talking like there is a secular solution to sin.