Genesis 11

By Babel's Tower

After God destroyed the ancient world and its inhabitants by a flood, He gave the promise that such cosmic tragedy would never recur. The earth would now be preserved by Him, and would be the stage upon which the great drama of salvation would be played. We find, therefore, in Genesis 10, a statement concerning the re-populating of the earth through the Noahic line of Shem, Ham and Japheth, with the world inhabited and subdued by different tribes and branches of Noah's line.

Genesis 11:1 gives one vital detail concerning the state of the world at this time: "the whole earth had one language and one speech". There was a common culture and a common language with which communication could be made across a variety of places and of peoples.

Aspiration

A time came, according to the Genesis story, when the plans and dreams of men involved the building of a tower. The Tower of Babel is important not simply for what happened as a result of its being built, but for the motives which lay behind the building of it. Two motives are spelt out in the text itself.

The first was the desire for a name - "let us make a name for ourselves..". The people aspired to be remembered, to become famous. They were driven to this great enterprise by the desire to be remembered. The flood had not driven sinful, self-centred motives out of the hearts of men and women, who were still absorbed in a quest for self-aggrandisment and for self-glory.

The schemes and designs and aspirations of men are fuelled still by the same desire for the glorification of self. The great issue before men is how they can live longer and how they can be remembered. We all want to be honoured, revered, remembered. We long for our actions to be recognised and applauded as something great and something of profound achievement.

The second motive was the desire for a place - "lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the earth". The tower was to be a symbol of possession, of the acquiring of wealth, of land, of property. It was to prevent them wandering as nomads over the world, to give them a place they could call their own, where their roots could go deep, and where they could be safe.

Glory and property - these were the twin motives that led to the building of Babel. They have been powerful forces in the human endeavour down through the ages, and they have fuelled many enterprises and many activities on the part of men and women.

Exasperation

But God looked at them and watched their endeavours. Jehovah saw in the enterprise the root of all sin and the root of all wrong - he saw their hearts. Others might look at their deeds and be impressed; he looked at their hearts and was unimpressed.

The passage is a reminder to us that what matters at last is not our product but our motive, not our results but our dreams. The heart of the matter at Babel was the matter of the people's heart. God saw in their action a desire to rob Him of His glory - to take the glory away from the One who ought to be honoured in all our actions, and to channel it instead to themselves.

There is a God in Heaven who judges us not as others judge us - on the basis of what we are able to achieve and able to manufacture. God judges us in terms of what the underlying and basic motives of our behaviour actually are. These at last are what matter to Him, and we ought to cultivate a view of life and work which focus solely and wholly upon HIm and the glory of His name.

Instead of achievement there is confusion. God sows different languages among the people so that the workers cannot understand one another. There is a scattering, a disunity, a discord. Sin has issued once again in frustration and loss, as it always does.

Pentecost, in Acts 2, is the reverse of Babel. There, the Spirit comes down and the gospel is preached in many different languages. There is a common language in grace that is able to save all, to save without distinction and to save fully. Thank God that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

Where is your Babel today? Perhaps you are involved in some great project that is going to give you credit and stability, and perhaps your motives focus on yourself and your own ability. If so, it is time to bring God back into your thinking and into your reckoning, in case you too will sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. He says in his word: "Those who honour me, I will honour". May that be true of us all.