Genesis 11 – January 24

We have now arrived at the infamous Tower of Babel. Genesis 11 is one of the watershed moments in global history. The events that took place here display the hand of God’s mercy. Let’s spend our time today answering a few questions about this ill-conceived tower.

Who built the tower?

After Noah and his family disembarked their floating zoo, they were given a command from the Lord to go out into the earth and subdue it. But, instead of separating into smaller clans, they all remained together in a single unit. Eventually, they became a sizable population that began to design and build cities, chiefly the city of Babel. As early as four generations after the flood, Nimrod joined all of the peoples of the earth together to work toward a singular goal: the tower.

What was wrong with building a tower?

Why is it that God was displeased with their building project? There are a few main clues as to what was going on in the hearts of these people. First, part of their purpose in building the tower was so that they could avoid God’s command to go into the world and have dominion over it. As they said, they built the tower “lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” This created a de facto singular world government under the leadership of Nimrod. This tower was a form of rebellion against God’s stated command. 

Secondly, the goal of building the tower was to “make a name for ourselves.” Think for a moment about what that means. For a group of people to make a name for themselves, they have to be making a name that they can display to someone other than themselves. They have to have someone to show off to. But, if all of the people were joined together in this project, who are they boasting to? That’s right – the Lord. They were basically building a tower to make a name for themselves before God. Why a tower? Likely because they thought that building a tower in the mountains of modern Iran would be the safest place to escape a second global flood.

How did God respond?

First, the text tells us that God “came down to see the city.” This language is designed to remind us that even the greatest projects of man are tiny in comparison to the Lord. He had to condescend to come to look at their structure. Notice the incredible grace of the Lord. Just like He promised, He did not send another flood. He did not wipe these people from the face of the earth. Instead, with a move of divine creativity, the Lord altered the minds of the people so that they could no longer communicate with one another verbally. If you have ever struggled to scale the language barrier with someone, you know how incredibly challenging it can be to get even the simplest concept across. That is still true to this day even after thousands of years of these languages seeking to understand one another and morphing to be more like one another. It is still true even with the various technologies that allow us to translate text at a whim. It should be no surprise to us, then, that one of the signs that the Lord used to authenticate the birth of the church was the reversal of this effect. In the days of the early church, the Lord gave the gift of languages (or tongues) to some people who were able to communicate a message to people in a language that they had never learned. Although that gift has ceased, it stands as a picture that God’s purpose for the church is to be unified even in the midst of a world that is divided.