The Book of Genesis
Part 20
We must pass now from the study of the Deluge to that of another great historical crisis, the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9). If in the Deluge we have a manifestation of the grace of God in the midst of the penalty of sin, in the Tower of Babel we have a demonstration of the government of God in spite of the power of sin. Let us examine this historical event carefully.
THE RACE: The race at this time apparently was still one, and was characterized by a oneness of language. The entire population was (lit.) of one lip and of one kind of words. Moreover, mankind lived in a nomadic manner journeying from place to place. As shepherds and as herdsmen frequent movements were necessary. In their journeys they eventually reached the plains of Shinar, the plains in which Babylon was finally built.
THE RESOLVE: “Go to, let us make us a city.” Man now determined to abandon his tent and his nomad life, and to build houses and a city in which to settle permanently, and by which to protect himself. He apparently resented the idea of being scattered abroad over the earth to multiply and replenish it (Gen. 11:4).
THE REBELLION: “Go to, let us make us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven.” It would seem that there was a twofold object in the building of the tower; the first, religious. It is thought by some that this is the tower which Nebuchadnezzar tried to rebuild, as one of his inscriptions relates. Professor Sayce suggests that Bab-El means the Gate or House of God. We know that Babylon afterwards became one of the worst and most idolatrous cities. The second object in the raising of the tower was self-aggrandizement, “Let us make us a name.” Such is man in his thoughts when left to himself, he degrades God to an idol, and he exalts self to a god.
THE REACTION: “The Lord came down to see the city and the tower.” “And the Lord said, … Let Us go down, and there confound their language.” What a picture we have of man when unrestrained in his imagination and in his efforts! When man attempted to raise himself in his sin, God descended in His judgment, and God forced man to do exactly what he did not want to do, “So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth.”
It is not at all difficult to see how quickly dissension caused by the confusion of their language would result in this dispersion of the different families.
One cannot ignore the memorial to this confusion that stretches from Genesis to Revelation. Babel and Babylon long remain in the record of Scripture. They are not out of sight until the final overthrowal of Babylon, politically, religiously, and economically in the Book of the Revelation.
THE RESULT: “In all things He must have the pre-eminence.” The breaking up of the human race introduces a new method in God’s dealings with man. This was the first indication that God was making choice of a peculiar people, a special family and nation which might serve Him as a channel through which He might reveal Himself by His Written Word, and by the incarnation of His Son.