THE  TOWER OF BABEL
Genesis 11

This story caps off the “Pre-history section, as I have called it. When we encounter Abraham in the next chapter, we hit a period where we can discuss dates. But another purpose of chapters 1-11 is to set up why God called Abraham.

In short, sin had avalanched. From Adam and Eve disobeying by eathing the fruit, sin got worse as one of their sons killed the other. Then we read of Lamech's bragging to his wife that he had killed a man for merely wounding him and will avenge himself seventy times seven. Finally, before the flood, humans had become so wicked and sunk so low we read, “every imagination of their hearts were only evil continually.” Thus the flood.  But even after the flood, evil reemerged, and in Noah's family of all places. Of course, it spread from there.

Finally, we come to the Tower story, which we will examine in more detail in a minute. But this one is different. In most of the previous stories, God has offered mercy with punishment. Banned from the garden, Adam and Eve received fur coats. Doomed to wander endlessly, God protected Cain with a warning mark. Even in flooding the world, the Lord provided an Ark.  And after the Flood came a rainbow. But after the Tower there is punishment with no sign of mercy. Yet all the rest of the Old Testament is that sign. Next week's lesson could be called, “Abraham to the Rescue!”

Now let's look at the story.

Men traveled in the East. Often in the OT the East is away from God, or outside of the Lord's territory. Remember that from Palestine, East is desert, wasteland, perhaps a source of the original chaos coming back in.

A group of people decided to become THE people, the most outstanding on earth. Of the seven deadly sins the church created in the middle ages, Pride was number one. Indeed, many maintain pride is the root of all sin, placing oneself above God's will and commands. Pride certainly led them to build a remarkable tower.

Diversion: Buildings seem important to humanity as signs of achievement. The pyramids of Egypt, the Colosseum at Rome, the Parthenon. In our day a presidential contender keeps pointing to the Trump Tower and all the other buildings with his name on them. The wealthy oil state of Dubai constructed the tallest building in the world, not so different from Babel!

For some reason, the pyramid shape affected the ancient world. In Mexico and other countries of Central and South America we find various types of pyramids. These often seem to represent mountains, lifting priests closer to the heavens to offer sacrifice to their gods. Egyptian pyramids were tombs for the Pharaohs and other royalty. The tower at Babel was likely a pyramid similar to others found by archaeologists in that general area. They were “step-pyramids,” built in levels with a “step-like” rise between each level. They may have been meant to represent a mountain to climb to heaven literally. (Remember Jacob's ladder, or stairway to heaven. He may have slept beside the ruins of such a tower.) These towers or pyramids were called ziggurats or ziqqurats.

Another possibility that some suggest was the tower was part of a wall that surrounded the city. This would be a watchtower that would make an approaching army visible for miles, the the tower would be an impressive defensive structure. The base of such a tower was found at Jericho. Ashes within it were dated by radio-carbon to 9000 BC!

“Come let us build...” Here is the idea of unity and cooperation. This is a worthy project for us as a people. If we pitch in together, we can do this. Certainly cooperation is a need for all great accomplishments. But remember, a noble effort can be undermined by a wicked motive.

Now the Lord comes down to see what His creatures are doing. They are building to the heavens, but they are so far from the divine realm that God has to stoop over to see what they think they are doing. His coming down, underlines the futility of their pride.

The Lord's statement is certainly cynical as He speaks of nothing being impossible for them. Of course, even without the limitations He was to impose, man's finiteness limits fundamentally our possibilities.

So their language is disturbed and scattered. For the Christian Pentecost reversed the scattering to unite the followers. Think about the importance of language. We wait eagerly for babies to talk. In training for a career, the lingo of the job becomes distinctive. A mechanic uses different words than a nurse. Think how electronics have added to our vocabulary. And remember lost people may not understand church talk!