The Tower of Babel

Genesis 11:1–4 (ESV) Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 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. 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.”

If Genesis 1-11 proves one thing clearly it is the total depravity of man. Apart from God's Word and Spirit, human will consistently run in the exact opposite direction of His will. Notice from this plan of man how they decide to disobey ALL that God said to Noah.

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


God had told Noah to multiply and fill the Earth, Adam's original cultural mandate was reinforced. Instead, man comes together in one place to make a name for themselves.

Now God had just destroyed the Earth with a flood. So man builds a tower to the heavens perhaps to avoid a possible future similar judgment for their godless actions.

It is in the nature of man to rebel against God. This has been the testimony of the scriptures from Genesis 1 to here. Translation: You don't have a shot at obeying God without Him. Only the gracious and powerful intervention of God can create a new people who are able to walk in his ways.

In this chapter, God has the last word. For all man's boasting and dreaming to build, God has to stretch down to Earth to even see what it is they've decided to do. The tower of Babel like all other massive structures of mankind are but blips on the surface of the Earth to the God of the universe. God scatters them by confusing their language and so man will indeed fill the Earth.

But this is not God's final work. He will send a man with a Name above all names. And this man will send His word to all nations through saints given new tongues on the day of Pentecost. Instead of confusion, there was clarity, instead of the glory of man, there was the glory of God.

Acts 2:6–11 (ESV) And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 11... we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

Now 2000 years from that moment, the Church is on every continent and almost every country. The Bible has been translated in hundreds of languages with many more being made ready. Interesting that the Quran prohibits translation while Christians have worked tirelessly to make the Word of God hearable in every language possible!

In the end, those who come to Him no longer have to feel the burden of "making a name for themselves" or trying to avoid judgment. Jesus took their punishment at the cross. And for those who overcome in Christ, God himself builds a name and a tower for them:
Revelation 3:12–13 (ESV) The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’