Creator, Father, King #50

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.”

NOAH WAS DEAD. THE great Flood was over. The human race was rapidly expanding, thanks to a population explosion growing out of Noah’s family.

But there was a problem. In Genesis 9:1, God had commanded Noah’s descendants to “fill the earth.” But Genesis 11:1-2 says the following: “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.”

God hadn’t told humanity to settle in one place. He had commanded them to spread out across the earth.

What’s It Mean?

In exceedingly great pride, humanity wanted to join together and make a name for themselves by building the tower of Babel (see today’s verse). They wanted to celebrate their own strength, skill, creativity, and resourcefulness. Despite the Flood and its warnings, their worship had quickly turned away from their Creator once again.

What was the Lord’s response? In both judgment and mercy, he “confused the people with different languages” and “scattered them all over the world” (Genesis 11:9), which meant “they stopped building the city” (verse 8). Mercifully, he didn’t destroy them, but he also wouldn’t let them continue this outright rebellion together against him.

This same pride of ancient Babylonia inhabits our hearts too. It’s quiet and cunning, but it’s there. No matter how old you are, where you live, or what you’re good at, your inborn human pride calls for you to settle in the Land of Vanity and Self-Sufficiency, apart from God.

In a modern-day twist on today’s verse, pride says, Come, let’s build a great monument of self-glorification to YOU that reaches into the sky! This will make you famous and will keep you from going unnoticed in the world.

This, of course, is the height of conceit. But we do it subtly, like bragging about our athletic prowess or questioning God’s promises.

Watch out for the Babel trap. Avoid constructing towers of self-flattery and praise. God says very clearly in Isaiah 42:8, “I will not give my glory to anyone else.” Whatever you build in life, whatever you undertake, do it for God’s glory!

Now What?

The next time you hear a different language, remember what happened at the tower of Babel.

Did You Know?

The “tower” that the people in Genesis 11 built was likely a ziggurat, a Mesopotamian pyramid structure of successively smaller levels with a temple shrine on the top.