Free Bible Commentary
“Genesis 11:1-9”
Categories: Genesis“Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.’ And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, ‘Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’ The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
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“The story is basically the same in both cases: ‘man's defiance of God.’ The setting, however, is different. The first Fall occurred among the flowers and fruits of Eden; the second one came in the bricks and asphalt of the city. Therefore, we see nothing less in this event than the Second Judicial Hardening of Adam's race, the first resulting in the Flood, this one resulting in the call of Abraham and the commissioning of a ‘Chosen People,’ by means of whom God's purpose of Redemption would still be achieved.” (James Burton Coffman)
“The whole earth used the same language…” (verse 1) Since all people on earth came from the same family and shared a common ancestor in Noah, it only makes sense that they spoke the same language. It has been estimated that 100 years or so after the ark landed on one of the mountains of Ararat, the concentration of the world’s people traveled “east” to “a plain in…Shinar and settled there” (verse 2). Shinar was the great flatland located in southern Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers upon which Nimrod built the first cities after the flood. “The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.” (Genesis 10:10)
“‘Come let us make bricks’…and they used brick for stone… ‘Come let us build for ourselves a city’…” (verses 3-4) This endeavor not only seems to be harmless but admirable and positively productive. The people had a mind to work and set their hearts to industriousness. They set about perfecting the skill of brickmaking from molded, sundried clay because of the lack of stone for building in the area. But, unfortunately, not all advancement is truly progress in the eyes of the Lord. Their first indiscretion was deciding to settle in one place, which was in direct contradiction to the command the Lord had given them to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:2). Their next transgression, and the real underlying character flaw that propelled their rebellion, was pride.
“Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name.” (verse 4) Possibly their intentions for building such a tall tower was to provide protection against another potential flood, or maybe they had idolatrous intent to draw closer to the host of heaven by building a “ziggurat” to worship the celestial luminaries. That information is not divulged, but what is evident is that they desired to make a name for themselves instead of calling on the name of the Lord. In their arrogance they wanted to uplift themselves and their own self-importance instead of elevating the name of the Lord and raising Him up to his proper place of prominence in their hearts. “Generally, the Bible regarded tall towers as symbols of human arrogance, as, for example, in Isaiah 2:12-15, and Ezekiel 26:4,9.” (Nahum Sarna)
On the nature of the tower, Nahum Sarna observed: “The reference is certainly to the ziggurat…, the lofty, massive, solid brick, multistaged temple tower that was the outstanding feature of most Mesopotamian cities and dominated their landscapes… This type of architecture seems first to have developed in Babylonia in the third millennia B.C.E in the dynasty of Akkad (ca. 2360-2180 B.C.E). Its function, it is generally agreed, was to symbolize a mountain. The sacred mountain played an important role in most religions in ancient times. Rooted in the earth, with its head lost in the clouds, it was taken to be the meeting point of heaven and earth and, as such, the natural arena of divine activity. On its heights the gods were imagined to have their abode.” This being the case, the text does seem to imply either idolatry or a feeble and misguided attempt to draw closer to the Lord of all Creation.
“Otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” (verse 4) This statement and determination was made in direct defiance to God’s command to go and repopulate the earth. When we know the Lord’s directives and intentionally choose to do just the opposite, we essentially put ourselves in the place of God. This is the height of rebellion against a good and benevolent God. “Let US build… let US make for OURSELVES a name… Otherwise WE will be scattered…” Their focus was set completely on themselves and their own perverted desires, and that self-centered concentration drove them further and further away from God’s good graces and protection.
“The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.” (verse 5) “This speaking of God in terms that are related to the conduct of men was most natural, there being, in fact, no other way that knowledge of the true God could be conveyed. This is called anthropomorphism; and this passage is loaded with it. Significantly, while man was boasting of his tower to reach heaven, God could not even see it without making a trip down to earth! Despite the fact that God sees everything continually throughout the whole universe, this manner of speech is superlative as an exposure of the foolishness and wickedness of men.” (James Burton Coffman) It also speaks to the justice and fairness of the Lord, indicating that He would not pass judgment upon the deeds of men without a thorough “investigation” and knowledge of the situation.
“Now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.” (verse 6) The Creator did not fear man as a rival but was concerned for their present and future wellbeing. If they stuck together as thick as thieves in this ungodly endeavor, the limits to their evil thoughts, plots and desires would have been nonexistent. God wasn’t alarmed by the thought that they would achieve the heights of heaven to rival His own unlimited power. He knew that no evil thing which they purposed to do would be impossible for them, and there would be no end to their egotistic schemes.
“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” (verse 7) The people of Babel said, “Let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven” (verse 4). But God thwarted the intentions of their hearts by saying, “Let us go down and confuse their languages…” No human strength and effort can match the will and power of the Almighty Creator, even when the entirety of the world’s population sets its will against His. Only He has the ultimate power to build up and tear down strongholds. Again, the peoples said in verse 4, “Let us make for ourselves a name,” but, in a twist of irony, the only name their renowned city received was “Babel” or “confusion”.
“The Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.” (verse 9) The Lord’s will be done! Just as Jonah discovered it was impossible to “flee…from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3) and thwart His plans, so these arrogant schemers learned the same, hard, preventable lesson. I was also struck by the inverse similarity of this event and the establishment of the church recorded in Acts chapter 2. God divided men with strange tongues at the tower of Babel and scattered them from there, but He brought them back together at Pentecost in Jerusalem when men of different languages from all over the globe heard the Gospel preached in their native tongue (Acts 2:8-11).
Please read Genesis 11:10-26 for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
- Louie Taylor
