Genesis 11:1-9 (NASB)
1Now all the earth used the same language and the same words. 2And it came about, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3Then they said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. 4And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of all the earth.” 5Now the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the men had built. 6And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they have started to do, and now nothing which they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth; and they stopped building the city. 9Therefore it was named Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
An idea that has infected the Church and seems to be growing in popularity is that the Bible, and specifically the Old Testament, contains stories that are simply not true. Rather than taking Scripture at its word, many Christians think that a lot of the more “fantastical” stories are simply myths or metaphors rather than an account of what really happened. I do not subscribe to this belief. What is more fantastic than Jesus literally rising from the dead? If I have faith in that report, why would I doubt any of the other historical stories in the Bible? Unfortunately, the Tower of Babel is one of these accounts that gets lumped into a mythical category, along with a literal 6 days of creation, Noah’s ark or Jonah and the Big Fish. There are no myths in the Bible. The Tower of Babel is not a myth, and not only did it truly happen, but it is one of the most pivotal and important events in all of human history.
Last week when I was researching the world’s oldest civilizations, I came across an important discovery which offers conclusive proof for those who are seeking outside confirmation of the validity of the Bible. According to a research article from 2018, “Scholars have long been flummoxed as to why the language spoken by 90 percent of Australia’s Aboriginal people is relatively young—approximately 4,000 years old according to language experts” (https://www.history.com/news/dna-study-finds-aboriginal-australians-worlds-oldest-civilization).
Why is this so significant? “The Tower of Babel incident occurred around 4,200 years ago—about 100 years after the Flood but before Abraham was born” (https://answersingenesis.org/kids/bible/babel/what-time-period-was-babel/). That means that this mystery that archeologists and linguists cannot solve is actually easily explained. This Aboriginal language popped up, seemingly out of nowhere, because that is literally what happened. When God scattered all the people and gave them new languages, this included the Aboriginal people.
I believe that if researchers looked for evidence of the Bible being true, they would readily find it and find the explanations for phenomenons that they cannot explain. Instead, they build their “science” from a bias against the Bible and so they work backwards, trying to build cases proving that the Bible is false. But if we were truly open to finding the truth, we would see ample evidence for God’s account of history being what really happened.
Now that it’s established that we are working from the premise that the Tower of Babel actually happened the way Genesis 11 tells it did, why did God scatter all the people and confuse their language? And what was so bad anyway about building an enormous tower? Maybe these are questions you’ve asked yourself when reading this before. Like Noah’s ark, Jonah or Samson, the Tower of Babel is a popular story in Sunday School. Teachers like to have students construct towers out of blocks or marshmallows, and the Sunday School message is pretty simple: God punished the people for being prideful and disobedient. But is there more to it than that?
Let’s put this passage into context. This happened around 100 years after the flood. Right after the flood, Genesis 9:1 says, “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.’” It seems like the people multiplied, but they did not “fill the earth.” They stayed all together in one location. Since they all spoke the same language and found a nice place, why journey on? Verse 4 of Genesis 11 tells us, “And they said, ‘Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of all the earth.’”
It’s interesting to me that they wanted to all live together in a city. God obviously did not want that to happen. People today still want to live all together in cities. All over the world, there are large cities, crammed full of people. Some choose to live in cities because that is where they can find jobs. Others live in cities because they enjoy the amount of entertainment and restaurant choices available to them. Still other people live in the city so they can take advantage of public transportation, larger schools or social services.
Are cities healthy places to live? I think watching what happened in large cities during the pandemic are proof that they are not. Cities are full of crime. The larger the city, the more corrupt they become. Certainly, rural areas are not without their problems, but they have far less crime than cities do, simply because of the lower population density. I think crime like drug abuse in rural areas, sticks out because there are less people and so the people who are using drugs are noticeable. In cities, far more people are using drugs, but there are so many other people that the drug users do not stand out as noticeably. Disease is also more of a problem in larger cities, simply because there are more people living in closer proximity to one another. If we’ve learned anything from the past two years of the Covid-19 crisis, I would hope that we’ve learned that grouping large populations of people together does not make for healthy living. Yet over 55% of the world lives in cities, and that figure continues to rise every year. By 2055, 2/3 of the world is expected to live in urban areas (https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-05-17/report-two-thirds-of-worlds-population-will-live-in-cities-by-2050).
Just like people today, the people who “found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there” thought it would be better to be all together than to spread out like God told them to. They wanted, specifically, to build a tower whose top would reach into heaven. The consensus seems to be that the tower they built was called a ziggurat, which is like a pyramid that has steps. This happened not all that long after the flood, so were the people attempting to build something so high into heaven in order to escape any future floods? Did they think God would flood the earth again, and if so, this way they would be safe? That was one of many theories I read in researching this tower. The other theory is that it was a tower to worship other gods, and each level of the tower was a place dedicated to other gods.
N.T. Wright says that, “[…] the tower of Babel (Babylon) had been an arrogant human attempt to create a single worldwide community by human power alone when God’s plan was to call Abraham and promise him that worldwide family by sheer grace” (The New Testament in Its World, N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, p.842). He seems to agree with the traditional view of Sunday School teachers, which is it displeased God that man was arrogant and prideful enough to disobey Him and not follow His plan.
What we know from the text is, the people were saying, we want to stay together "otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of all the earth.” And as we know the rest of the story, that is exactly what God did to them. That is why this event is so incredibly significant, for from all of these people came all the people groups of the world.
As this event is one of the most important events in human history, how does this fit in with the rest of Scripture? I cannot help but think there must be a parallel here between God confusing their languages and scattering the people and what happened at Pentecost. In Acts 2:1-11 we read:
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And tongues that looked like fire appeared to them, distributing themselves, and a tongue rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with different tongues, as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out.
5 Now there were Jews residing in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and they were bewildered, because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.7 They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? 9 Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty deeds of God.”
Here, again, we see God changing the languages of people. This time, in order that the different people could understand one another. The Holy Spirit filled them and gave the ability to speak in another language. This amazed all the people who happened to be around, and they were astonished to hear people speaking their language. Peter then preached to the crowd and as Acts 2:37-42 records:
37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what are we to do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on urging them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Instead of confusing the languages in order to separate the people, here in Acts, God gave His followers the ability to communicate in the languages of all the people who had gathered in Jerusalem. Do you remember Jesus’ Great Commission He gave to His disciples right before He ascended into Heaven? Matthew 28:18-20 tells us:
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,20 teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Instead of scattering all the people at Pentecost, He gave them the tools they would need to fulfill the Great Commission. He gave them, through His Holy Spirit, the ability to communicate with people who spoke other languages, so they could go and share the Gospel message with the many people who happened to be there in this important town of Jerusalem. Then, these three thousand people who got saved, could go back to their nations and towns and tell the Gospel message there. They would carry the Gospel with them, all over the world when they eventually left.
These two events are a sort of mirror image of each other. At the Tower of Babel, the people were following their own ideas and the result led to confusion and discord and the ultimate separation of people. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was in charge and the result led to understanding, peace and the ultimate unity of people.
We see from these two examples the need for following God’s instructions, rather than coming up with our own plans. In Genesis, we see the people were not following God. Whether or not the people were building the tower to escape future floods or not, we know they were not trying to follow God’s leading, for He had not told them to stay there and build a tower. This tower was the people's own idea. He had instructed them to fill the whole world. It might seem like that first generation of people had not passed that message along to their children and grandchildren or great grandchildren and that God’s directive was lost or forgotten. But we know though, they had a fear of being scattered. It says, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of all the earth.” If they knew they were supposed to be scattered abroad, that means they did not forget God’s word; they just didn’t want to follow His instructions.
I think the Tower of Babel should stand as a warning of the consequence of sin. What would the world be like if those people had obeyed God and scattered themselves, yet retained their same language? Have you ever tried to talk with someone who didn’t speak your language? I’ve done a little bit of cross-cultural missions work, and each time I found myself wishing I could speak the same language as the person I was trying so hard to befriend. It’s hard to make friends with someone who speaks another language. It leads to a lot of miscommunication. How much of the conflict in our world is because we all speak so many different languages? This is one consequence our world suffered because of this sin.
We see the consequence of sin play out all throughout the Bible. Had Adam and Eve not sinned (nor anyone after them), we would all live in paradise with God. If people hadn’t descended into sin during Noah’s time, there wouldn’t have been a flood. It is the same here, for if the people hadn’t rebelled against God’s plan, we could all be speaking the same language. Sin always has consequences.
God, of course, can still work everything for our good. Even in the confusing of languages, He has used that for His glory in some ways, I am sure. Think of how He repeatedly said He did not want the Israelites to marry neighboring tribes of people. As Deuteronomy 7:3-6 says, “Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them: you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, and they will serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you. But this is what you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, smash their memorial stones, cut their Asherim to pieces, and burn their carved images in the fire. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His personal possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
He said that because He didn’t want His people to be led astray to worship the false gods of these other people groups. By confusing people’s languages, that would have helped to keep the Israelites separated from others. God wanted this, for He knew that the Israelites were easily led astray. He needed to preserve them to continue their lineage, for that was the family from which Jesus would be born. That was the promise or covenant that God would make with Abraham. He said in Genesis 12:3 to Abram, “And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
So while God can take things and make them be for our good, I don’t think His original plan was for the world to have many languages. That is why when we see in Act 2, the Holy Spirit descend to fill the hearts of believers, and we see the ability given to speak other languages and the unity that results, and we see a glimpse into the future that we look forward to. The future that Revelation 7:9&10 describes: 9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all the tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
When Jesus returns, all believers in Christ will gather together. All the nations and tribes, all people of all languages, will worship God together. I think at that time we will all be able to understand one another and we will all be unified together in our worship of the Lord. We will all together worship the One who sprung from the family of Abraham. The One by whom all peoples on earth are blessed. The One who loved us so much He died on the cross for us. Who opened the way for all who would believe to be welcomed into the family and be called Children of God. He is Jesus our Savior, God and friend.
Pray: Heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You. Thank You for redeeming not only our souls by giving us Your Son to die on the Cross for our salvation, but thank You for redeeming us from the wrongs that we have done. Thank You that we can look forward to the day when Christ returns and makes all that is crooked in this world right again. We can’t wait to praise You and worship You with all the believers together in unity. Until that day, please help us to follow You and obey Your word, and please forgive us when we fail to do so. We love You and praise Your name. Amen.
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