Genesis 11:1-9
The Tower of Babel
1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called 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.
Confusion followed the ambitious pursuit of sinful man to once again seek to become like God (Genesis 3:5). Men still wanted to usurp the authority of their Maker, this time by building a tower high in towards heaven as if to climb up there with him as the deceiver had done (Isaiah 14:12-13, 14) and tempted Eve and Adam to agree to which brought sin into the world. Here there was unity and peace among the desc of Noah and his sons until the itch to reach back up to be like God was given attention and scratched with the desire to make a name for themselves above all others on their way to ascend to heaven on their own efforts. They also wanted to band together to keep their power and renown to others by this work. The LORD, however, saw this as the insurrection against divine authority it was and put a stop to it. Like when Adam and Eve had taken the forbidden fruit and then might have next eaten of the fruit of the tree of life and live forever in sin (Genesis 3:22-23), here man was about to gather their forces to ascend heavenward and make themselves as powerful and equal to God as a warning to others as well. The LORD therefore had to break up this effort by scattering them all over the earth and making their languages incomprehensible to one another to stop the collaboration of sin and make them trust Him again to understand (Hebrews 5:14) by listening to His word for direction in humility and submission. Their effort to build a city into the place of God’s throne and temple was stopped abruptly and they went their way to be in this state until the Seed promised to Eve (Genesis 3:15) who is the Messiah and Christ would come to restore under as observed at Pentecost (Acts 2:5-6, 7-8, 11, 17-18) when they were for that moment able to understand all of one another’s languages spoken in the multitude. This was a foretaste of things to come in eternity and a present reminder that seeking humility in learning from God and serving Him was the answer, not pride and self-will to become like Him in authority instead of in the character of His image portrayed to us by His Son to imitate (1 Corinthians 11:1) and not attempt to overtake as the evil one would have us do. The place of this towering pride was called Babel which means “confusion by mixing” similar to the word used for how the LORD confused or mingled their language into incomprehensible languages mixed up among them to stop their sinful pursuits. Confusion of communicating these rebellious ideas stopped their sinful pursuit of desiring to become like God to usurp His authority again as in the original temptation instead of heeding His word and commands in submission to His divine authority and plans for man. His love stopped their pursuit of sin.
No comments:
Post a Comment