Nothing is Impossible for Them!

Genesis 11:1–9 NLT

At one time all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words. As the people migrated to the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there. They began saying to each other, “Let’s make bricks and harden them with fire.” (In this region bricks were used instead of stone, and tar was used for mortar.) Then they said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.” But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. “Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.” In that way, the Lord scattered them all over the world, and they stopped building the city. That is why the city was called Babel, because that is where the Lord confused the people with different languages. In this way he scattered them all over the world.

Genesis 1–11:26 2. Tower of Babel (11:1–9)

Genesis 11:1–9 also mirrors the attempt of humanity in the garden to achieve power independently of God. The attempt of the Babelites to transgress human limits is reminiscent of Eve’s ambition (3:5–6). As in the tower story, the divine plural also appears in the garden account (3:22), and both indicate the divine distress over the potential havoc that the new knowledge achieved by mankind may bring about (3:22; 11:6). Broadly speaking, the setting is the same since the garden’s Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (2:14) are in the same region as the “plain of Shinar” (11:2). Following the Ararat departure, the people migrated southeast to the lower Euphrates valley. Genesis 1–11 then has come full circle from “Eden” to “Babel,” both remembered for the expulsion of their residents.

Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible 2. The dispersion at Babel 11:1–9

The motivation for building a city was to make the builders a name (cf. Ps. 14:1). The object of this endeavor was to establish a center by which they might maintain their unity. God desired unity for humankind, but one that He created, not one founded on a social state.368 They wanted to “empower” themselves. Both motive and object were ungodly. God had instructed man to fill the earth (1:28), to spread over the whole planet.

Genesis Tower of Babel (11:1–9)

It is important, however, that they are continuing the movement eastward. When Adam and Eve were cast out, a guard was set east of Eden (3:24); Cain was cast from God’s presence to the east (4:16); now after the Flood, the travelers move east.

John 10:10 ESV

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 10:10 TPT

A thief has only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow!

Jesus is the agent of wholeness, of eternal life, of secure pasture, and of release from the realm of darkness. He is, as the Samaritans confessed, “the Savior of the world” (4:42), and here he is the one who provides life to the fullest (10:10). The Greek perisson means “that which goes way beyond necessity.” John wanted all his readers to know that the gift of Jesus is life beyond our wildest dreams.

Gerald L. Borchert, John 1–11, vol. 25A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 333.

Matthew 22:37–40 NLT

Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Acts 2:1–12 NLT

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.