Pastor Scott
Jonas
Genesis 11
The Tower of
Babel
I hope you
are studying Genesis along with me. You
can follow along with our Daily bible readings.
You will see a pattern emerge. Gift,
Sin, Grace. Gift, Sin, Grace. God gives a gift to human beings. They abuse that gift, we call that sin. That comes with consequences. But God saves the day by his mercy and
grace. Gift, Sin Grace.
We say that
in Genesis 1-4. Gift: All of creation was a good gift to Adam and
Eve. Sin: the first couple abused God’s generosity by
using it for their own selfish purposes.
They were kicked out of the Garden and forced to live a hard life apart
from their creator. Grace: The Lord does not take their life but is
patient and promises a Savior to make all of creation right again. Then there is the same pattern in the Flood
story. God told people to fill the world
and care for this gift. But they instead
filled the world with sin and violence which meant that God had to bring the flood
in order to stop the violence. This
breaks God’s heart. But God in his
mercy, promises to never flood the whole earth again. Noah and his Family are saved and the world
is on a better path.
Today. Genesis 11.
After Noah, the world is given a second chance. He again tells them to spread out and fill
every land. It is a present to new
generations. It has been wiped clean of
the violence and savagery. But over time
the new generations create new sins.
Instead of destroying each other they decide to with one voice to join
forces against God. The Lord must create
another path. He transforms their one
language into many so they can’t organize greater and greater evil. They will not be unified again until the
savior comes.
When God
initially gave the earth to Adam and Eve he said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the
earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And
God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the
face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have
them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the
heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the
breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.”
Then after the Fall Sin and the
Flood, God told Noah and his sons, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the
earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the
earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the
ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every
moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green
plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life,
that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from
every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require
a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever
sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. 7 And you,[a] be fruitful and multiply,
increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.” Do you see the contrast between before sin
and after sin? Everything is more
complicated.
Gift, Sin, Grace. The Tower of Babel Story starts in the plains
of the land of Shinar, the Mesopotamia valley.
People were supposed to spread out over the whole earth, but they
don’t. The go to the nearest plush
valley and stake a claim. They don’t
want a mission from God; they want a cushy life like back in the Garden. They refuse to go to the ends of the earth in
order to steward the earth. They want
control of their destiny. God wanted
them to spread out so people could have a bounty of resources on every
continent. Instead they bunch up around the first best water source. The rest of creation will have to fend for
itself.
So they ignore the words spoken to
Noah, “Go and fill.” They do the
opposite. “Go and build” makes you
visualize bands of people spreading out.
Instead they stop and build upwards.
They needed a rural society to produce plenty of food. But they started an urban society that would
fail. God gifted them a new technology,
the brick. Instead of making a house for
every man woman and child they went to work on a Tower.
It was probably more of a
pyramid. The Ziggurat pyramids are known
from Ur, Babylon and other Mesopatamian cities.
This architecture dates back to the 3rd millennium B.C. Why a tower or pyramid? They say in the text, “Let us make a name for
ourselves lest we be dispersed over the whole earth.” It’s curious.
Some speculate that they were trying to build a tower up into the
heavens where God lives. In this theory
they wanted salvation by force than as a gift from above. This might be true but the Hebrew word for
Heavens can be translated sky, stars or where God dwells. Another possibility is that they wanted a
monument to their own magnificence. A
final possibility is they wanted flood insurance. If they don’t trust God to keep his promise
then a Tower is the perfect tool to avoid God sending torrential rain, killing
all of your people and dispersing their bodies to the ends of the earth.
God gives
them a new technology, the brick. Before
bricks, buildings could only be one story high.
Must have imported huge oven. Bitumen
as mortar. Imported from far away
Ususally used nothing or simple mud. Not right kind of stones or trees. But now they could go much higher. Like all gifts from God, this new technology
can be used for good or for evil. They
could have use to God’s glory, building houses for every family. But instead they use it to make a name for
themselves. They go against the Lord’s
will and think only of themselves.
Think of all
of the technologies mankind has received from God. How have we used used it as a society? How have you used it as an individual? The automobile? New drugs?
The computer? The discovery of
genes? What’s another new technology
that can be a gift from God of can be used for evil?
So they
build a tower, to thumb their nose at God.
Let’s see you send a flood bigger than our tower! They are trying to God proof their
lives. What do we need God for if we
have the latest technology? That is
actually the modern Gospel. Technology
will save us. You see it in most
movies. It was in the movie Black
Panther, “If we create an advanced society full of cutting edge technology then
we won’t need God or faith.” Those are
antiquated, outdated notions.
God realizes
all this. They refuse to listen to his
original words, “Fill the earth and take care of it.” They refuse to learn from the fall of Adam
and Eve. They don’t want to follow Noah
instead they have to learn everything all over again. It seems like every generation has to realize
the same serious lessons.
Creation
needs another breaker. Remember a
breaker is when a system needs a limit so an emergency stop gap is built. A Sin breaker was built that limited the
lifespan of humans. Otherwise they would
have created too much damage. A Sin
breaker was built that brought the flood, so violence would not destroy
humanity both the righteous and the unrighteous. Now a sin breaker is built that turns the one
language of humans into many. This curbs
the efficiency of evil. They can’t
organize for bad and for good as their heart desires. This too is a sad day. This too must break the heart of the creator.
So the Lord
dispersed them from there to all over the face of the earth and they left the
building of the tower and the city, which was called Babel. They were given a gift, a new technology
called the brick. But they used it for
sinful purposes, to avoid following God’s words. The world is in need of Grace.
Sometimes in
the Bible, the grace comes much later.
In this story it would take thousands of years. That is how patient is the Lord. This story, the tower of Babel is sometimes
presented in Pentecost. After, Jesus
Ascended into Heaven then something happened.