And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
We are very familiar with this story. Men who came together and imagined that they could build a tower to bring them to the gates of heaven. Why would they do this? The answer is found in Genesis 6:6-13, is the story of the flood. Where God instructed Noah to build an ark. In essence, these men of Nimrod were seeking to find a way of escape from a future flood. They had known what happened in the flood, so they decided they were going to build a tower in case God does this again. This way they believed they could escape His punishment. This was pretty daring of these people. How crazy to think they could build a tower that would reach heaven.
The thoughts from this passage are that they took matters in their own hands to find a way to enter into heaven. They were determined to get there by their own works. They did not believe God and his promise to never flood the entire earth again.
The reason God brought the flood in the first place (Genesis 6:6-13) was because the earth was filled with violence, men’s hearts were corrupt continually, with the exception of Noah. How was the earth filled with violence? What does it take to commit an act of violence? ANGER, HATRED. If you hate your brother without a cause, you have committed murder (Matthew 5:22, 1 Jn. 3:15-17). Murder is an act of violence. What was there a lot of that was going around? A lot of hatred, a lot of anger. You cannot have an act of violence without a lot of anger and a lot of hatred. This is what was going on in those days. The Earth was filled with men hating one another. It is very interesting that these men sought to build a tower that would reach unto heaven. Why? They are trying to avoid another flood. If this happens again, they would be prepared.
These men had two options. Option 1: Repent from their wickedness and there would be no flood, no need to send judgment. Option 2: Build a tower, don’t feel like repenting. They would rather build a tower because that way they could do their own thing and just in case God tries to execute judgment again – they would be able to save themselves in their tower. They were determined to find a way around: repentance, judgment, and doing the will of God…AND still get to heaven. We might say then, this tower was a symbol of men seeking a way around their responsibility to God. If there is one this God asks us to do, how would you sum it up? Love one another as you love yourself. When you don’t do this, then the opposite is hate and anger. In essence, they wanted to find a way around love, loving our neighbor…they wanted to continue doing the things they want to do, walking in the same way.
The word violence in Genesis 6:11, literally mean “unjust gain”, cruelty, damage, injustice, oppression, unrighteousness, violence, wrong or wrong doing. This was the imagination of men’s hearts. Imagination is something we typically enjoy. They were enjoying and reveling in being angry or hating. This must have been a pretty bad condition. Imagination means mind (Isa. 26:3).
Are we tower builders today? Are we seeking alternate routes to heaven? Who led this tower building event? Nimrod. What does Nimrod mean? Rebellion. Is it possible that we could be guilty of building our own towers to reach heaven while at the same time not wanting to do what God has asked us to do? 1 John 4:20 God says you need to love your brother to get into heaven. Is it possible for us to try to find ways around that? God demands that we love one another. The opposite of love, is hate. We can’t say I don’t love you, but I don’t hate you either. Jesus said, ‘he wo is not with me is against me, he who does not love me, hates me’ (Matthew 12:30-33).
God calls us to certain things. 1 John 2:3-4, look at how many people in the world are looking for alternative ways to get to heaven without keeping His commandments. There is an entire world out there that says ‘yes I want heaven, but don’t talk to me about keeping God’s commandments…that’s legalism’. We don’t need to keep His commandments, but I still want heaven. Romans 13:8 talks about keeping the commandments and it is summed up in one word…LOVE. Love is the path to heaven. There is no other way to heaven.
The Bible tells us God is love (1 John 4:7-21). John 14:15, tells us what to do if we love God, but the building of the tower was a way for people to get around love. We want heaven but we don’t want to get there in God’s prescribed way. 1 Samuel 15:23, for rebellion (Nimrod’s name) is the sin of witchcraft…what does witchcraft mean? Sorcery. In that world of spiritualism when a spell is cast on someone – they are trying to possess the mind. What the Bible is saying is that when we are rebelling against God it is as if we are possessed. Satan wants to possess us. We don’t have to be foaming from the mouth to be possessed.
By the way, all of us should be possessed. Let’s get down to it, all of us are possessed. We are either possessed by the Spirit of God, or we are possessed by the spirit of the enemy. We belong to someone one way or the other. Isaiah 14 tells us of someone else who wanted heaven, and in a large degree more than many people want heaven. His name was Lucifer. Remember what the Bible said about him, “I will ascend above the highest of the clouds, I will be like the Most High”. Lucifer wanted the highest position and place in heaven. He wanted to ascend, just like Nimrod, just like the men who built the tower. Lucifer wanted a way to the throne that did not require the character of God.
This same attitude of Lucifer, this disposition still exists today in our minds and in our hearts. Because when we seek to find a way to save ourselves outside the will of God, we are doing the same thing these men did. In fact, Jesus tells us in John 10:1 any other way, by their own devised methods, makes one a thief and a robber. Here is a question? What did God do to their tower (Gen. 11:6-7)? They came down and confounded their language. God came down and stopped their project, whether the liked it or not and did it for their own good. All of us have built towers at one time or another. God sees our tower building. He sees that sometimes we deceive ourselves with our tower building, and God says he is going to come down to us to stop our building project. We need God to come down and stop our building projects to help us realize we cannot work our way to heaven, cannot get to heaven outside of God’s will, there is no alternative path to heaven. God comes down to destroy our towers to save us from ourselves.
The first thing He did is confound their language so they could not understand one another. He comes down, and He confounds our language and we no longer understand what the world is saying…we are confused with its messages. God totally wrecks what we think is a good building. His hope is that we will look up. His hope is that we will surrender to him. His hope is that we will invite him in. He is knocking at the door. We can build our tower all our life, but it will be in vain. Sin makes us crazy.
There is a parable in Luke 14:28-29 Jesus speaks to our building efforts and tells us they are futile. We do not have enough to build a tower to heaven. The distance from the earth to the sun is 92.96 million miles and it is nowhere near what it would take to reach heaven. The bottom line is we will still not reach heaven even if we spent a billion years building.
Jesus came down to destroy our towers. John 3:15 tells us just as God came down to destroy towers, beloved Jesus came down…all the way down to this earth to destroy our towers. Matthew 1:21 Jesus will save us from our towers, from our sins, form our edifices. Why did Jesus do this? Because He knows the carnal mind is enmity with God. Why? The mind is not subject to the law of God and it is where we love to build our towers. Christ came down to destroy our towers, our carnal mind, because we often use it to seek and find a way(s) around doing what God asks us to do.
Not only did he come to destroy our towers, he also came to bridge the gap. Jesus said I am the way truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father yet by Me (John 14:6). He was saying your towers won’t get you to heaven, the only way you can get to heaven is through Me…I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. He might as well have said ‘I am the tower’. Before Jesus came down, He knew he was going to build a tower by which men would be able to reach heaven. Before He came to this earth he had to sit down and count the cost. ‘If I be lift up, I will draw all me unto me’ (John 12:32). That means, when Jesus draws all men…that means all are being drawn to heaven…unfortunately not all will follow. This is the tower that Jesus came to build. The Bible says Jesus not only came to destroy our towers, our concepts, our way to get to heaven, but also came to bridge the gap and he would do it through LOVE (Ps. 18:2, 61:3, 144:2; Prov. 18:10).
In the Old Testament, what did they use to build that tower? Stone, slime, and mortar. It sounds disgusting. What was Jesus going to use to build His tower? LOVE. In Nehemiah 8:4-6, the word tower, the word translated as tower – is here translated as “pulpit of wood”. Jesus on the cross of calvary, that was his ‘pulpit of wood’. The sermon preached was love (John 3:16-17). What did they do when Christ was building this? Many did not believe the He could finish it! There is no way Jesus would have enough love to love those who hate him, spit on him, mocked him, and who said and did all these things against him. Did He have enough love? YES (Luke 23:34). Beloved, that is why Christ cried out on the cross ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30). It was a demonstration that love will always find its way around all combined forces of the enemy, and Jesus says that is what he wants us to have.
I am the way the truth the life. This is my pulpit of the cross. And I want you to know that this pulpit of the cross was low enough that every man could reach it. This cross, not more than 10-12 feet, is so powerful it extends all the way to heaven. That is the bridge, that is the tower, that God calls us to build. It is God’s love that fills the gap which stands between heaven and earth. When He cried out, “It is finished”; He demonstrated that love is greater than hate. Mercy is greater than anger. Forgiveness is greater than anything else. God says look at what you put my Son through and He still loves you.
Remember when Jacob was running for his life? The Bible says when he laid down to sleep, he laid His head on a rock. Then he had a dream and saw a ladder with angels descending up and down on that ladder. The ladder was a symbol of the work of Jesus Christ, and his work was best demonstrated at the cross. The cross is the ladder whereby you and I can ascend into heaven. God is love and Love came down. Love came down in order that we might find the right way up. So, the only way up is love. If I hold bitterness, animosity, and hatred for anyone; and yet I still want to go to heaven – I am building a tower and that tower will not get me anywhere.
Revelation 20:9 tells us that at the end of time the wicked go up on the breadth of the earth’ to try to capture the New Jerusalem. Many think that all of these people in this final army are super wicked, obviously there will be some of those, but there will be many in that group of people who always wanted heaven. Those who were genuinely concerned with their salvation, but allowed bitterness, anger, hatred, and unforgiveness to reside in their hearts. I don’t want to be in that class or group. Let us look at what Jesus did for us, for we were in that crowd because it was also our sins that crucified Him (Romans 5:6-8). The fact that He still loves us today is absolutely amazing.
Through Shem, Comes Abram, and Eventually the Messiah
There is one more important truth in this chapter. It is found in Shem’s genealogy. Genesis 11 traces the lineage of Noah’s sons and ultimately focuses on Shem. Abraham is born of Shem’s line. Israel proceeds from the family tree of Abraham and eventually through this line the Messiah is born. Centuries in advance, God had a plan for Abraham and his descendants. God is never caught by surprise. Just as he is planning for your future today, will you surrender to his plan for you?
For more detail on Genesis 11:10-32 see post titled: Genesis 10 – Table of Nations