The Tower of Babel

A job from God. After the flood, God blessed Noah's sons and said, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (9:1). God wanted families to spread out and live all over His world. A mighty man. “Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth” (10:8). Nimrod was strong and famous, and he was a builder of cities. Before the Lord. He was “a mighty hunter before the Lord” (10:9). That means in front of God. Nothing Nimrod did was hidden from God, and nothing you do is hidden from Him either. Where it began. “The beginning of his kingdom was Babel” (10:10), in the land of Shinar. Shinar is the flat land between two great rivers, which we call Babylonia. One language. “Now the whole earth had one language and one speech” (11:1). Everyone could understand everyone else. Settling down. The people found a plain in Shinar, “and they dwelt there” (11:2). Instead of spreading out as God had said, they gathered in one place and stayed. Doing the opposite. They were not lazy. They worked very hard, but they worked in the opposite direction from God's word. What we learn. God's word is always for our good. The safest place to be is right in the middle of doing what He says.

The command behind the story (9:1, 7). God's first words to Noah's family after the flood repeated His words to Adam: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” Filling the earth was not a punishment. It was a blessing and a job. Nimrod (10:8-10). Nimrod came from Cush, in the family line of Ham. He is the first man called a gibbor (say: gib-BORE), a mighty one, after the flood. His kingdom began with Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh in Shinar, and he went on to build Nineveh in Assyria (10:11). Babylon and Nineveh later became the capitals of two empires that fought against God's people. Before the Lord (10:9). This phrase means in God's sight. Many Bible teachers believe Nimrod led the people who built Babel, since his kingdom began there. God watched every step he took. One lip (11:1). The Hebrew says the whole earth had one saphah (say: sah-FAH), one lip, and the same words. The people could share every plan without a single misunderstanding. They dwelt there (11:2). As they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in Shinar and settled. In verse 4 they say why: they wanted to stay together and make themselves great. Why it matters. Sin often looks like staying put when God says go. The builders were busy and united, but busy in the wrong direction. Doing a great deal is not the same as obeying God, and unity is good only when it gathers around Him.

After the flood, God gave Noah's family a job. He said, “Grow in number and fill the earth.” God wanted people to spread out over the whole world. But as the families grew, the people stayed close together. Staying together felt safe to them. A powerful man named Nimrod ruled cities there. His kingdom began at Babel. The Bible says he was a great hunter before the Lord. That means the Lord saw everything he did. God sees everything we do too. Real safety does not come from big cities or strong leaders. It comes from obeying God with our whole heart.

God told Noah's family to fill the earth. But the people wanted to stay together. Nimrod built big cities. God saw it all.

Clever builders. “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar (11:3). Shinar had almost no stone, so they baked mud into hard bricks. Asphalt is a thick black tar that held them together. A city and a tower. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens” (11:4). A name. Next they said, “let us make a name for ourselves.” A name means fame and honor. They wanted the whole world to look at them. Not scattered. They also said, “lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” That was the very opposite of God's command to fill the earth. Let us, let us. Three times they said, “let us.” Not once did they ask God what He wanted. Pride. “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Haughty means stuck-up. Pride is wanting the glory that belongs to God. A better name. Soon after Babel, God promised Abram, “And make your name great” (12:2). People cannot build a great name for themselves. God gives it. What we learn. Your skills are gifts from God. Use them to make His name great, not your own.

Bricks and asphalt (11:3). Southern Mesopotamia has clay and natural tar but little stone. Kiln-baked bricks were the strongest building material the people had, and the asphalt sealed them like glue. Archaeologists have found baked brick and tar in the ruins of that land's oldest cities. Come, let us (11:3-4). The Hebrew word havah (say: hah-VAH) means come on, or let's go. The people say it twice. God answers with the same word in 11:7: “Come, let Us go down.” The builders' plan and God's plan meet head to head. A tower whose top is in the heavens (11:4). Many Bible teachers think it was a ziggurat (say: ZIG-uh-rat): a tall temple tower of stacked layers with stairs to the top. People in that land built ziggurats as places where they believed heaven and earth met. A name for ourselves. Name in Hebrew is shem (say: SHEM). A great shem meant glory, honor and a lasting place in people's memory. The builders wanted a name they had made themselves. In 12:2 God promises Abram, “And make your name great.” Babel tried to grab what only God can give. Lest we be scattered. Their fear was being scattered, and their answer was a city that held them together without God. Philippians 2:3. “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.” Selfish ambition is exactly what built Babel. Why it matters. Pride is the oldest sin. In Eden the serpent promised, “you will be like God” (3:5). Babel was the same pride in brick and tar, and every attempt to climb up to God by our own work is another tower of Babel.

The people had a big idea. They baked bricks to make them hard. They used tar to stick the bricks together. Making bricks was a good skill from God. But they used it for a proud plan. They said, “We will become famous.” They wanted everyone to think they were great. They did not want to spread out like God said. They never once asked God what He wanted. Being proud means wanting the praise for ourselves. God gives us our gifts so we can praise Him. When we use them for Him, we find real joy.

The people built a tall tower. They wanted everyone to say how great they were. But God is the One who is great.

Came down to see. “But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built” (11:5). The people meant their tower to reach heaven, but God had to come down even to look at it. Next to God, the greatest thing people build is small. God sees. God did not need to come down to learn anything, because He knows everything. Coming down to see means He looked closely and judged fairly, like a good judge who looks at all the facts. What God saw. “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do” (11:6). Their pride was only beginning. No limits. God said, “now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them” (11:6). If God let them go on, their sin would grow bigger and bigger. Let Us. The builders said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city.” God answered, “Come, let Us go down” (11:7). Many Christians see a glimpse of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in God's Us, just as in 1:26. Kind judgment. God's judgment at Babel was also mercy. By stopping the plan, He kept people from becoming worse than ever. What we learn. We can never climb up to God. The good news is that God comes down to us.

Down to see (11:5). The builders aimed for a top “in the heavens,” yet the Lord came down to see it. Isaiah says God sits above the circle of the earth and its people are like grasshoppers before Him (Isaiah 40:22). The tallest tower was tiny in His sight. Sons of men (11:5). The builders are called bene ha'adam (say: beh-NAY hah-ah-DAHM), the sons of Adam. However grand their plans, they were creatures formed from the dust (2:7). God examines. Coming down does not mean God was unaware. It is the language of a judge visiting the scene before giving his verdict. God came down to Sodom in the same way (18:21). He never judges without full knowledge. Nothing withheld (11:6). United human pride has no natural limit. Confusing their language was a brake on evil, and so an act of mercy as well as judgment. Let Us (11:7). God answers the builders' havah with His own: “Come, let Us go down.” The plural matches “Let Us make man in Our image” (1:26). Many Christians see here an early glimpse of the Trinity: one God in three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, working in perfect unity. True unity. The builders were united around themselves. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are united in love. Jesus prayed that all who believe in Him would be one, as He and the Father are one (John 17:20-21). Why it matters. No one climbs up to God. In Jesus, God came all the way down: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

The people thought their tower would reach the sky. But the Bible says the Lord came down to see it! To God, their giant tower was tiny. God is greater than anything people can build. The Lord saw that the people were proud together. If God let them go on, they would do worse things. So God stepped in to stop them. That was fair, and it was also kind. God said, “Come, let us go down.” Many Christians see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit here. The God who came down at Babel later came down in Jesus.

The tower was tall to people. But the Lord came down to see it. God is far greater than anything we build.

Scattered. “So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city” (11:8). Ceased means stopped. Babel. “Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth” (11:9). Babel sounds like the Hebrew word for confused. God's plan stands. The people built so they would not be scattered, and they were scattered anyway. “There are many plans in a man's heart, Nevertheless the Lord's counsel—that will stand” (Proverbs 19:21). The memory verse. “Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it” (Psalm 127:1). In vain means for nothing. Babel shows what happens when people build without God. The nations. Genesis 10 lists the families that came from Noah's sons, “everyone according to his language” (10:5). Babel is where those many languages began. Pride divides. Proud people cannot get along for long. Pride pulled the builders apart, and it still pulls families and friends apart today. God's answer. After Babel, God called Abram and promised, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (12:3). Through Abram's family Jesus would come, to bring people from every language back to God. What we learn. Build your life with God and on His plan. What we build for ourselves will not last, but what God builds stands forever.

Scattered (11:8). The builders said, “lest we be scattered” (11:4). Then the Bible says, “So the Lord scattered them” (11:8). What people build to protect themselves from God's will cannot stand against it. They ceased building. The tower was left unfinished. Jesus once spoke of a man who began to build a tower and could not finish it, and everyone mocked him (Luke 14:28-30). A life built without God ends the same way. Babel and balal (11:9). The Babylonians said their city's name, Bab-ili, meant gate of god. But 11:9 ties the name to balal (say: bah-LAHL), the Hebrew word for confuse or mix up. The city that called itself the gate of god became the place of confusion. Pride scattered. Mary sang that God scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts (Luke 1:51). Babel is the first time we see Him do it on a world scale. The nations (10:5, 32). The families of Genesis 10 spread “according to his language,” and “from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood.” Babel explains how one family became many peoples. God's next step. Right after the family line of Shem (11:10-26), God calls Abram and promises that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (12:3). Babel is God's judgment on human pride; Abram is the start of God's rescue for every nation. Toward Pentecost. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down, and people from many nations heard the gospel “in his own language” (Acts 2:6). Many Christians see Babel turned around there. Why it matters. God scatters the proud, but He gathers the humble to Himself through Jesus.

The Lord mixed up the people's language. They could not understand each other anymore. So the people stopped building the city. They moved away to many new places. God's plan to fill the earth happened after all. People can make plans, but God's plan always wins. Pride had pulled the people apart. But God had a plan to bring people back together. Soon God would call a man named Abram. Through Abram's family, Jesus would come to save people of every language.

God mixed up their words. The people moved far away. They stopped building the tower. God's plan always wins.