Who have you prayed for?
Who have you cared for?
What has God done for you recently in your life? What has God taught you?
Man's Action
a. Man Gathers (Genesis 11:1-2)
Gathering people together seems like an innocent and fine idea until we realize that it's not what God instructed them to do. Notice what God commanded both Adam and Noah, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth ..." (Genesis 1:28 and Genesis 9:1). Noah's descendants have been obedient to the first two commands, but the third they are having trouble. How can they fill the earth when they are congregating in one spot? They too have fallen victim to the subtly of sin and direct disobeyed their Lord.If we were painting these first 11 chapters onto a canvas an observer would be able to pick up the details of one of its dominant themes: sin and judgment. These nine verses are the fifth cycle of sin and judgment in the first 11 chapters. Remember, Adam and Eve's desire to be like God caused them to be cast out of the garden; Cain's envy which inflamed his anger and lead to murdering his brother caused him to be cast out of his land; civilization became so violent and corrupt that God flooded the entire earth to get rid of it; Ham dishonored his father and a curse was placed on his descendants.Do we get the depth and breadth and length of sin? Are we beginning the waywardness of man? How he strays from having God as the center of his life to gravitating to himself and his desires as the center of his life? If we are honest with ourselves, aren't our hearts affected by lust, envy, anger, dishonor, and pride? Don't our will long be in control, be accepted, be independent, and when hurt or humiliated seek revenge?As we paint the details of this scene into our picture, the observer will notice the vivid and numerous strokes of pride. These people coming into the plains of Shinar and led by the mighty warrior Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-10) were very prideful people. It was a national trait. We will see how it served as a warning to the nation of Israel as it will to us.
b. Man Constructs (Genesis 11:3-4)
One of the things we observe right off the bat is their confidence and ingenuity. Notice the leaders confidently command people to "come" so that they can make bricks. Bricks were made of clay, water, and gravel. They just didn't set these wet bricks in the sun for the sun to dry and harden them. They used a new technique do to that: fire. This new technology quickened the hardening process and depending on their knowledge at the time might strengthen the bricks so that they may bear more weight.Once they discovered that their way of producing bricks was superior to how bricks had been made in the past, they decided that they could substitute bricks for stone. This is a huge technological advancement. They will no longer have to quarry stone and figure out a way to deliver it to the construction site, now they can just make bricks on-site and construct stuff a lot faster. In itself, this is all good. This is one of the reasons God gave us all brains.Yet, when you mix technology advancements with pride, ambition, and a spiritual quest, things can go sideways in a hurry. One of the things that these people believed is that you needed to build a stairway to heaven for mortals to ascend into heaven and commune with the gods and for the gods to have a way to descend from heaven to commune with the mortals. These stairways were often built as part of a temple and at the top of the stairways, there was a blue porcelain object that represented the celestial beings. One of these temples was called "The House of the Link between Heaven and Earth" You see they were on a spiritual quest much like many today who devise in their minds how to satisfy that deep spiritual hunger dwelling in our hearts.Not only are these people worshiping different gods, their aim in all of this tower and city building was to create a name for themselves so they wouldn't be marginalized. They thought through their efforts and ambition, they could secure themselves power, glory, and security. In certain areas of our society, do we not find the same thing? Up until this point, it's been all man and no God. That is about to change.
2 God's Action
a. God Destructs (Genesis 11:5-7)
The construction found on the earth is answered by the destruction from heaven. While a man worked hard constructing an idol that bore his name, God worked to destruct man's work to bear his name to all. It seems that the Lord was not angered with them building a city, but he was angered by how their pride, ambition, philosophy, and self-sufficiency have become the primary and central things in their lives.This idea of "nothing will be impossible with them" is the notion that humans clearly will not live within God-given boundaries. Their quest to satisfy their spiritual hunger apart from the Creator if not stopped will turn the world back into the chaos, violence, and corruption found before the flood. God in his sovereign wisdom and love for his image bearers will not allow that to happen. He will step in and protect man from himself.We can confidently conclude without going any further in the Bible that when a man is left up to his reasoning and his way, his life does not flourish. Rather, it descends into envy, selfishness, anger, bitterness, pride, violence, and corruption.
b. God Scatters (Genesis 11:8-9)
So God reversed man's idea of flourishing and fulfilled his command practically and ingeniously. He confused their language (they now babel to each other which is a play on words with the Babylonian language "babel". Their's means "gate of god") and scatters them throughout the earth to fulfill it. Once again, he sent his people into exile. He did this with Adam and Eve, Cain, and now with Noah's descendants. Looking forward he did it again when he allowed the Assyrians to ransack Jerusalem, enslave the Israelites, and move them out of Jerusalem. We are still living the effect of God scattering people. According to Ethnologue, the are over 7,000 languages and dialects currently spoken. Until Christ returns, it looks like Rosetta Stone will continue to have customers. Yet, it appears there will come a day when everyone who is in heaven will speak the same language once again. Revelation 7:9-10 records that people from every language will be standing at the foot of the throne exclaiming, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.
"So how does all this apply to us?"
1. As we have seen, disobedience is a big deal. We focus a lot on individual disobedience, so this morning I want to explore national disobedience. The descendants of Ham disobeyed the Lord and he did not the guilty go unpunished. The same is true for us today.
The further down the road we go of replacing Christianity with humanism, the further we move away from God.
At some point, God will say enough and judge us. To prevent that from occurring, one of the things we can do is pray something like this: "if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Another thing to do is to stay close to God, allow him to cover you will his armor, and flee sin.
2. These people were on a spiritual quest as many of us are today. Their hearts longed to be close to a transcendental God (or gods) so they built a stairway to heaven. This was their solution. Today, people don't build a physical stairway to heaven, but they do try to figure out how to connect to a being greater than themselves. The only true stairway to heaven is through Jesus (John 14:6). It is our job today to help people who are on their spiritual quest to get connected with Jesus in ways that they will understand. I have introduced many of those ways to you over the last couple of years ... use them.
3. Finally, know that God is ever-present. He was back then as he is now. God never left those people on the plains of Shinar, nor will he leave us in the valley of the sun. He will destroy those idols that move him off-center and judge us to protect us from ourselves. Remember, that our hearts are wicked and desperately sick, who can understand them? (Jeremiah 17:9) so call on him for he is your help in your day of trouble. (Psalm 46:1)
(c) 2022 written by David Zook
Questions by Derin Uras
The people of Babel acted in two ways: 1. they built a city, 2. they built a tower with its top in the heavens.
What was their desire in these two actions?
building a city -> security ?
tower in heavens -> praise? But to whom?
What does this say say about God how we should view security? Isn't security a good thing?
When does doing good work move from honoring/praising God to self sufficiency and self praise?
When was a time that you built a metaphorical tower of Babel? How did God "come down and confuse your language" in that moment of you life?
