Babel: The Rebellion of the Nations
Genesis 11.1-9
Babel is the end of a section of
Genesis that illustrates the effects of the fall. We immediately see the
degeneration of the human race. Even in the very first family there is the
terrible tragedy of a brother murdering his own brother. Eventually the world
became so violent that God was grieved he had created man and decided to send the
flood upon the earth in the days of Noah. The human family was allowed to
survive through Noah and his sons, but the sinful tendencies are still evident
in the lewd behavior of Ham toward his father. As the human race begins to
flourish again on the earth we then come to the scene at Babel. Genesis is a
book of beginnings. Here we see the origin of all the different nations of the
world. But the beginning of the nations is not a good one. And what happened at
Babel still describes the state of the nations.
Babel becomes a kind of Biblical
symbol for rebellion and opposition to God. The result of the rebellion is
confusion and division. God Himself introduced this state of confusion among
the nations of the world, which continues to this very day and is one of the
major lessons of human history. Babel is the source of all of the strife,
competition, and conflict among the nations of the world. The wicked project at
Babel represents worldliness or the world of men in alienation from God. This
is the City of Man which has continued to be reconstructed wherever men have
come together to create human society and civilization. There is also a pagan,
idolatrous, religious element in Babel. Many scholars think the tower was
actually a place of worshiping the sun, moon, and stars. So Babel also
represents all false religion. When we think of Babel we are reminded of this
crucial admonition in Scripture:
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If
anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is
in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of
life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing
away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever”
(1 John 2:15-17 ESV)
There is an alternative to the
World Order. There is the Kingdom of God. Immediately following the story of
Babel is the call of Abram and the beginning of all of God’s plans for the
salvation of the nations. It is no accident that the call of Abram comes right
after the account of Babel. The passage clearly shows a contrast between the
plans and actions of men and the will of God. Babel shows how God is managing
the world according to His own purpose. There is hope for the world but never
in the progress of mankind, which would only make another Babel.
Babel is not just a history lesson,
although it really happened. The Bible is not just interested in history for
information but for theological principles. Babel is teaching us something
about the nature of human history and God’s dealings with the human race. On
one hand we are warned by Babel not to rebel against God. On the other hand, we
are encouraged by Babel that the history of the world is managed by a
purposeful God who will not desert the human race completely.
The nations of the world have been
characterized by alienation from God. Babel provides a good model for this
condition so that we can recognize it in the world today. The basic nature of
the world has not changed. Human nature has not changed and neither has the
human condition, in spite of what the pride of modern man might claim to have
accomplished for the progress of the human race. (We should not think that any
particular nation is somehow a shining exception to the principle illustrated
by Babel. The Bible does not encourage nationalism.)
In this lesson we will consider the
account of Babel for what it teaches us about man and for what it also teaches
us about God. This will provide some foundational thoughts for the rest of this
series about God and the nations.
The world is in rebellion against
God because of man’s sinful pride. This pride is the direct result of man’s
alienation from God, which also results in a false view of the purpose of human
life. Prideful man believes that he lives to accomplish his own goals and to
create his own destiny. There is a great desire in the world to remove any
obstacles that seem to be in the way of mankind’s development and his self-made
plans for the future.
The account of Babel shows us
something about the greatness of God and His ability to deal with mankind.
God’s greatness can never be successfully challenged by rebellious man. The
story of Babel shows us a God who is not distant or passive but is present and
actively involved in the affairs of human history. However, God’s involvement
is often seen in His opposition and His judgement of mankind’s plans and the
prideful, rebellious actions of the nations.
Babel was a significant and
formative event in the history and development of human society and is crucial
to our understanding of the world today. Babel is like a spirit or a principle
that pervades human life and society. The spirit or principle of Babel has been
expressed in all of the great civilizations of human history. Babel is a model
for understanding the world.
Babel Teaches Us About Mankind
A Warped View of Life
We are seeing at Babel the effects
of sin. Sin is the underlying cause of all of mankind’s troubles. But there are
many effects of sin. Sometimes it is easier to focus on the effects and to
ignore the cause. The Bible is always trying to help us see what is underneath
of human life. The Bible never operates on the surface of things. Beneath the
surface of human life is alienation. This is how the Apostle Paul described the
state of the world apart from God:
“Now this I
say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding,
alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to
their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up
to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity” (Ephesians 4:17-19
ESV)
Our most important relationship is with
God. But alienation pervades human life. When we are alienated from God we are
also alienated from ourselves. In knowing God, I know myself. But when I am
alienated from God I am also ignorant of my true self. I don’t really know who
I am or why I am living on the earth. Life becomes a great mystery that becomes
impossible to solve. Most people spend their lives running here and there
without knowing why they are doing the things they do. Asking questions about
the meaning of life is actually something most people avoid because these
issues could possibly lead someone to think about God, which is the very thing
most people are trying to avoid.
Ironically, mankind is hostile to
the very thing that could solve the mystery of life. Sin brought a double curse:
we are sick and we are also hostile to the Cure. It is vital to see that no
cure for humanity’s ailments will come apart from God, yet the knowledge of God
is the very thing that humanity seeks to avoid and even to suppress. The people
of this world live as if God does not exist:
The fool says
in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there
is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to
see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned
aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even
one (Psalm 14.1-3; 53.1-3; Rom. 3.10-12)
The book of Genesis is tracing the
sources of human life, like a family history or a genealogy. Why are things the
way they are? Genesis addresses this question. Human life is warped because
mankind has been diverted from his original purpose. This is what was revealed
about the creation of man by God:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over
every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And
God blessed them. And God said to them, “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”
(Genesis 1:26-28 ESV)
The original purpose of mankind was
to be the image of God on earth. This image has been warped by sin. The image
of God has to do with man having dominion over the world God created, along
with the faculties to rule this creation. But man was to rule it for God, as
God’s steward or viceroy. Image can refer to a representation. Man was to be the
representation of God on earth. The earth was given to man to inhabit and to
rule. That is his domain, his dominion. God lives in heaven. But God is the
ultimate owner of the earth and mankind is accountable to God. We must report
to God, just as an employee must make a report of his work to the manager, or a
tenant must submit to the will of his landlord.
But sin interrupted this
relationship between God and man. Man refused to submit to God and has sought
to take control. This rebellion did not completely erase the image of God from
man. The image has been distorted and misdirected. Instead of serving God, man
seeks his own agenda and is thereby misusing the faculties and resources God
has given. The higher the creature the more dangerous the fall of that creature.
Monkeys do not build towers or bombs. But sinful men use their capabilities for
purposes that God did not intend or command. Babel was not God’s project.
Independence from God
We were not created to be
independent from God. Man was created for Divine fellowship or partnership. We
were to be with God and work with God. But sin means we want to be our own
Master. Behind every transgression is the desire for independence and for
control. The actual transgression is of less importance than the attitude or
the reason behind it. Every sin is like a little, cosmic rebellion. It is the
spread of that great, cosmic, ancient rebellion and fall of Satan. The English
poet John Milton said that every soul in Hell has basically said that it is
better to reign in Hell than to serve in heaven. That is, mankind prefers to
have his own way rather than submit to God. In refusing to submit to God and
wanting to be his own master, man simply becomes enslaved to his own passions.
“Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8.34). Mankind has exchanged
Masters. By choosing not to serve God we have become slaves to our own corrupt
appetites.
Anything that is not done in
submission to God’s will becomes warped. Nothing is good or bad in itself. The
world God created was good. And there are all kinds of things we can do that
are completely within the will of God. Even those human desires that we might
think to be base can often be traced back to a perfectly legitimate desire that
God put there. Whatever God put there He also meant to provide for its
satisfaction. But we sin when we seek to fulfill our desires without God. When
God’s hands are off the reins, human life goes astray. The only legitimate
activities in life are those things that seek God as the ultimate end. Any
activity of man that is not done for the glory of God will ultimately be done
in vain. All the Towers of Babel that we build must fall in the end.
The people who began to build the
Tower of Babel never considered the will of God or asked God if they could act
in this way. God was simply ignored. The people may have not even believed in
the existence of God, choosing to worship the elements of creation instead. The
main consideration at Babel was man and his will, not God and God’s will. Man
desires to chart his own course in the world and determine his own destiny. This is nothing but evil pride. Making plans
for the future does not seem to be evil. But when this is done without God in
mind it becomes sin. Consider this exhortation and warning from James, which
was given to professing Christians:
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go
into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a
profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For
you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you
ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is,
you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil (James 4:13-16 ESV)
At first, this planning for the
future may not seem like such a bad thing. In fact, many people, including
Christians, argue that God has given man free will and the ability to make his
own decisions. It is difficult to read the story of Babel and conclude that
mankind is free to do anything it wants to do. If God was unable or unwilling
to overrule the will of man, then history would look very different. The burden
of teaching in Scripture is on the sovereignty God, not the free will of man.
It has been said that “man proposes but God disposes.” Men have choices to make, either to
submit to God or to rebel, but there is no indication in Scripture that men are
free to get their way when they decide to oppose the will of God.
Another Agenda
What was the reason for the agenda
at Babel? Why was the project started? I do not think that this was an artistic
project. There was a very practical reason for building this city and the
tower. A city is a way of organizing and obtaining a collective advantage.
There is safety and power in numbers and organization. One of the highest
values in the world is security. Man always feels exposed and unsafe in the
world and society tries to mitigate this feeling. One aspect of God’s curse was
the fact that the creation would no longer provide for mankind willingly but
would produce thorns and thistles that would frustrate man’s efforts to live
and to thrive in the world. We are always fighting the elements and we do not
have perfect dominion over the created world. Man seeks an organization or a
mechanism by which to combat the elements. We come together in order to mitigate
the risk and the hardship of life in a fallen world. Man applies his power of
reasoning, a God-given faculty, and utilizes technology in order to do this,
which was also evident in the building of Babel.
But this desire for security and to
master the environment does not seem to be inherently wicked. In fact, God
commanded mankind to subdue the creation and rule over it. But at Babel we see
men taking matters into their own hands and pursuing security and dominion
apart from trust in and submission to the Lord God. We are supposed to rely on
the Lord for what we need and we are to go to Him for safety and security in
times of distress and danger. We are to seek the Kingdom of God before
everything else, and then everything else will be provided. Rather than
trusting God the world takes matters into its own hands. Jesus told His
disciples they are not to be like the pagan unbelievers of the world:
do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or
‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all
these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be
added to you (Matthew 6:31-33 ESV)
But even the pursuit of security is
not an end of itself. Why do we want to have security? What would we do if we
did not have to worry about the elements or be concerned about our basic needs?
What would we then be free to pursue? Once we managed to build a Utopia, what
would we do with it? Apart from God mankind has no higher goal than the freedom
to pursue the gratification of its own desires. In other words, the main goal of
society becomes the pursuit of pleasure. And it is the pursuit of pleasure
apart from God, or the pursuit of pleasure as an end of itself, which is always
warped and leaves us empty and frustrated.
God raised up Solomon and gave him
a certain kind of earthly wisdom in order to demonstrate the futility of
earthly things. Here is what Solomon observed about life in the world:
And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.
I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil,
and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had
done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a
striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun
(Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 ESV)
Even if we are able to enjoy all
the pleasures of the world, as King Solomon did, we will end up with nothing
but dust in the wind. Even if we got everything we wanted in this life, there
is still the reality of death that continues to frustrate our plans. There has
to be more to human life than the pursuit of earthly pleasures.
What was happening at Babel is
still happening in the world today. The men of the world are desperately trying
to remove all of the obstacles that get in the way of their plans and their
ability to secure or determine their own future. The major obstacle that must
be removed if man is going to have his own way is the knowledge of God. If
there is a God in Heaven, then His will may conflict with the plans of men and
this could ruin everything that man plans to do! What will men do if God gets
in their way? The Apostle Paul assessed the history of the nations and
concluded that these had all sought to suppress the knowledge of the true God
and so they exchanged the worship of the Creator for the things of creation.
The moral state of the nations can be attributed to the fact that
although they knew God, they did not honor him as God
or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their
foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and
exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and
birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts
of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among
themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped
and served the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:21-25 ESV)
It seems to make more sense to
simply submit to God, but this is not the way mankind has chosen. We are
rebels. Mankind originally knew about the one, true God. But to worship this God meant
obedience and submission. Man preferred rebellion. The dominant quality of the
world is rebellion against God. God is a threat to projects like Babel. And so
the Psalmist prophesied correctly that “the kings of the earth set themselves, and
the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed,
saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us” (Psalm
2:2-3 ESV). Ever since Babel mankind has continued to rage against God.
Babel Teaches Us About God
The Greatness of God
There is something very close to
sarcasm and even humor in the story of Babel: God had to come down to see this
tower that the men were building! Now why would God have to actually come down
to see this thing? The great Tower of Babel was so small to God that He could
not even see it unless He came down out of Heaven! This kind of language about
God is called an anthropomorphism. It is a way of talking about God in human
terms to help us understand something.
In this case the thing we are
understand is the greatness of God compared to the true smallness of what they
were doing at Babel, though it probably did not look small to the men who were
building it. The greatness of God is being contrasted with the relative
smallness of the project at Babel. What seems large to mankind is not large to
God. We should not be unduly impressed with the things men can do, including
our own personal projects or abilities. We need to consider the greatness of God.
Only then will our perspective be brought into proper focus. If we get up high
enough our perspective is altered, like the view from an airplane or the top of
a high mountain. From God’s vantage point, the Tower of Babel looked small. “It
is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers” (Isaiah 40:22 ESV).
God’s perspective is from Heaven.
Scripture teaches us to think about God in a certain way. He is our Father IN
HEAVEN. He is above us or far superior to us. He is a much higher being than we
are. God is not like us but is separate from us and also from the world itself.
He is transcendent. The Bible does not teach pantheism, or the idea that
everything is God, which would significantly lower God’s person relative to us
and to the world. God is higher than the world and He is certainly not a man.
God is infinitely more powerful than all of the combined strength of the human
race upon the earth. There is really no comparison between God and men and it
is foolish for men to challenge God like they did at Babel. God has no true
competition, not even in Satan, not to mention in mortal men. We have to look up to God because
He is so much greater than we are. And He has to look down on us, His mercy and
compassion being the only reason for Him doing so at all.
The Bible divides reality between
two realms: heaven and earth. The earth is the domain of men. Heaven is the
domain of God. “The heavens are the LORD's heavens, but the earth he has given
to the children of man” (Psalm 115:16 ESV). And God is always on His throne in
heaven. Men like Isaiah, Daniel, and John the Apostle all saw into heaven and
the first thing that met their eyes was the throne of God. Heaven is the
control-room for earth. God is always on His throne and nothing is out of His
control. The men at Babel thought they were in control. But they were seriously
mistaken. Men today still ignore God and believe that they are free to do what
they want. But God is in heaven. He is still looking down on the nations of the
world and all their plans. God has His own plans for the world that do not
coincide with the plans of the nations. Is there any real question about whose
will is going to prevail in the end?
Like the men at Babel, men today do
not acknowledge the greatness of God. God is not feared or obeyed. “Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of
God before his eyes” (Psalm 36.1). If people were more aware of God
their behavior would be different. When we are in the presence of someone who
is greater than we are, or someone who might even make us afraid, our behavior
is modified. We talk with more respect. We mind our manners. But wicked people
have no fear of God and that is why they feel that they are free to rebel
against God. Perhaps they think that God is not really there. Many people feel
that God is too kind or patient to do anything in response to their sin. Babel should teach us that God is not neutral
or impotent when it comes to responding to human sin and rebellion. To test the
Lord by sinning willfully and then presuming on His kindness or patience is a
very risky business, to say the least! There may be some intellectual atheists out
there who have philosophical objections or questions about God. But there are
many more practical atheists. The practical atheists are denying or ignoring God
by their actions and their lifestyles, just like the people at Babel.
We need God to exist, but men tend
to believe they are self-sufficient. The world fails to acknowledge God as the
source of everything. One of the greatest sins of the human race is ingratitude.
Thanksgiving is not just something to pray at dinner or to have during the
holidays each year. True gratitude is a humble dependence on God each and every
day, and is based on an acknowledgment of His greatness. This dependence on God
glorifies God because it means we are aligning ourselves with who God is rather
than competing with God. The men at Babel were trying to be great themselves
instead of glorifying God.
The Nearness of God
The building of Babel did not go
unnoticed. One of the great doctrines of the Bible is the omniscience and
omnipresence of God. No one can escape the gaze of the Heavenly Watcher. We
should not think of heaven or the presence of God as being far away from the
earth and the world of men. The idea of a distant, disinterested God who is not
involved in the world or in human affairs is completely foreign to the Bible. This
nearness of God is the argument the Apostle Paul used when speaking to the
pagan philosophers in Athens:
The God who made the world and everything in it, being
Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he
served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to
all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every
nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined
allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should
seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is
actually not far from each one of us, for “In him we live and move and have our
being”; as even some of your own poets have said, “For we are indeed his
offspring” (Acts 17:24-28 ESV)
But it has always been the desire
of men to escape the gaze of the Heavenly Watcher, to hide from God, like Adam
and Eve in Eden, or like Jonah running away from his calling. Since God is
spirit and is not visible to the physical eyes of men, this does not seem like
a very difficult thing to do. Does a Supreme Being even exist? If He does, then
can He see me? Does He know me? Does He even care about what I do? Even if men
accept the possibility that God exists, does it logically follow that God is
anywhere near the world of men?
Maybe God is something like an
absentee landlord. Perhaps He simply made the world, wound it up like a giant
clock, and then left to do something else up in heaven while the world runs on
its own. So much of man’s thoughts about God have been more in the vein of
God’s absence and irrelevance to human life rather than a full-blown atheism. An
absent God is convenient to our plans.
But the Bible reminds mankind that
God can always see. The Psalmist might have been talking to the men at Babel
when he said to
Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will
you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye,
does he not see? He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? He who
teaches man knowledge—the LORD—knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a
breath (Psalm 94:8-11 ESV)
At times, when we are left weak and
defenseless against the cruel forces of the natural world, we may wish there
were a higher power who could sweep in and save us. But most of the time men
are content to be free from the presence of God and therefore free to pursue
their own plans. The people at Babel did not expect or want God around, but He
came anyway, and He cancelled their plans.
The story of Babel shows us that
God is not limited to His heavenly abode but has access to the world of men,
though this ability to access both realms is not shared by human beings. We are
physical beings who occupy one space at a time. But God fills heaven and earth
and has no corporeal limitations. Augustine attempted to illustrate the
omnipresence of God with the image of a sponge floating in the ocean. While the
ocean is obviously immeasurable vast in comparison to the sponge, the ocean’s
liquid form is able to interpenetrate the sponge and fill it. In the same way,
God fills the universe while also being infinitely beyond the universe.
And so God was there at Babel in
some sense, though the people did not perceive His presence and would probably
not have welcomed God’s inspection of their project. The nearness of God is
always a reality. It is our perception of this reality that is lacking,
especially if we have moral reasons for our incredulity.
The Opposition of God
God did not come down to support
the workers at Babel. He came down to oppose
what the men were doing. God set Himself against these men and the city they
were building. The presence of God was not manifested in a fiery judgement. No
one was killed at Babel. The people at Babel did not perceive God’s presence,
but they did feel the effects of His displeasure.
Even if there was no death and
destruction at Babel, the presence of God was there to judge the people. God
judged them by opposing their rebellious project. God has introduced into human
society a principle of confusion and disunity among the people of the world so
that it becomes impossible for them to reach their goals. God has come out in
opposition to the agenda of people who are alienated from Him and unwilling to
acknowledge Him. That is the enduring lesson of Babel. “The face of the LORD is
against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth” (Psalm
34:16 ESV).
The reason God opposed Babel is
because He had his own plans for the world and these plans would grow best in
the soil that God was preparing. Who knows what kind of environment would have
been created in the world if Babel was allowed to continue and to be a success?
When a gardener prepares to plant his plants he must first prepared the soil
and clear it of anything that would be a detriment to what he wants to grow.
God was going to grow His Kingdom in the world and this meant that the project
at Babel had to be uprooted. Babel was abandoned at that time and place, though
other versions of Babel would be attempted. But only what God builds will be
allowed to stand. When Daniel interpreted the dream of Nebuchadnezzar that he
had dreamed concerning that golden image, Daniel stated that
the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall
never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall
break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand
forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand,
and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the
gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The
dream is certain, and its interpretation sure (Daniel 2:44-45 ESV)
And so shall the Kingdom of God
continue to grow in the earth. Every other kingdom, all the great projects of
human history, will become like dust blown away in the winds of time. Only the
City that God is building will stand.
