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“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; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4
The story of the tower of Babel has always puzzled me. Why would God be concerned about a bunch of people building a structure high up into the sky?
Usually the interpretation of the passage goes like this: The people wanted to build something that would reach up to the heavens where God is. God saw what they were doing and realized that the people were accomplishing the goal.
“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.” Gen. 11:6
So, God went down and confused their language and scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. (Interesting that Scripture says they stopped building the city, not the tower. Make a note of this.)
The first problem with this explanation is that God would not care about someone trying to build a tower up to heaven, other than it would be an exercise in futility and God is opposed to wasting time and money.
God says in Jeremiah 31 that the “heavens cannot be measured”. It is not possible to reach God’s throne.
Obviously, God was not thinking about the tower reaching up to heaven where He is enthroned when He said, ‘nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them’.
So, let’s break things down. What is going on here?
The first thing to address is who the people are. You must back up into the previous chapter. This is post flood and chapter 10 chronicles all the generations of Noah’s sons. It documents all the descendants of Noah leading up to the city of Babel in chapter 11.
In other words, the people of Babel were the entire human race up to that point after the flood. That is what 10:32 says – “These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations; and out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood.”.
Notice that the verse says they were separated into the nations (in case you missed the underline).
Continuing into chapter 11:1, it says, “Now, the whole earth used the same language…”, and in 11:6 it says that they are “one people”.
What is happening in the story of Babel is an explanation of how and why the descendants of the sons of Noah were separated into the nations.
What did God command Adam and Eve in the garden? “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it;” Gen. 1:28.
And what did the people of Babel led by Nimrod, say? “let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”.
What we see in this story is the people of earth defying God and His purpose for mankind. Instead of obeying God and representing Him, they are choosing to create their own identity and purpose, and NOT be scattered over the earth.
The tower was simply going to be the center of that identity. It would be the symbol of who they are.
And it would be the focal point of their existence geographically. A sort of tether if you will. According to the Book of Jubilees, the tower, at its peak, reached a height of 1.6 miles. That is 8,500 feet, approximately!
Think of it this way, they wanted to stay together where they were, and the tower, which would be the height of 6 empire state buildings, would be a visual hitching post, so as the population grew and spread, they could always see the tower and stay together.
The tower would be the center of their civilization and it would also be the center of their identity.
Remember I said to make a note of the fact that Scripture said they stopped building the city instead of the tower – after God confused their language? I think that is just more evidence that the tower, in and of itself, was not the issue with God. The issue was that they were creating their own identity and purpose and ignoring God and His plan.
Man was created to image God, to represent His Name. God came down and confused their language to scatter mankind over the earth and fulfill the commission He gave Adam and Eve.
Nimrod, who led the people to build the tower, was an antichrist type, just as his government was a foreshadowing of a coming world government.
A day is coming soon when another man will unite the world to make a name to follow other than the Most High God. But that also will fail, of course, and then the King of Kings will set up His kingdom that will last forever.
Very soon. Hebrews 10:37
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