The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9)

2022-08-19

After Noah’s family left the ark, they were told, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 9:1), which is the same command as given to the first humans in Genesis 1:28. However, they did not obey God. They stayed together, even as their extended family of eight grew to an enormous group. Disobedience leads to consequences.

One descendant of Noah, Nimrod, became a prominent person among them and started a kingdom in Mesopotamia called Babel (Genesis 10:8-12). The large group, united together with a single language, decided to build a city and a tower to reach to heaven:

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. (Genesis 11:4)

What “name” were they to make? A name can be a reputation, or power or authority (see discussion). This was going to be a monument to themselves, with much the religious connotations as you would expect. You can see that the motivation is to rebel against the Lord’s command. This is a declaration of independence against God.

The Lord’s response is to come down and see it. Being omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, He would not need to. However, we see that God comes down to be a witness to testify against them, that they would have no excuse. This is similarly done in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:21).

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. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. (Genesis 11:6-7)

They could never reach God with any tower. Why does God say, “nothing will be restrained from them”? They would be unrestrained in the evil they could do. What happens hereafter is as much an act of mercy as it is judgment. The word “restrained” here is used of walled cities elsewhere. The people would shut out God and theoretically make their own way of life apart from God.

So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. (Genesis 11:8)

Since they did not obey His command to fill the earth, God forced them by confusing the language.

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. (Genesis 11:9)

The name “Babel” is based off this word “confound”; the confounding of language forced them to disperse across the globe. This Nimrod continued to create kingdoms after the failure of Babylon, but these were nothing like this tower.

When in missions school, the professor noted that when God confused the languages, He did a very good job. The diversity of sounds and grammar is mind-boggling. It takes years of studying and living amid native speakers to become fluent in a language.

The name Babel is the same name as Babylon used throughout the Scriptures. A kingdom of Babylon would rule over the known world centuries later, even conquering the Lord’s disobedient people. In the future, a “Mystery Babylon” will also have world domination before the Lord destroys it. A vestige of this tower, which is thought to be a ziggurat, can be seen throughout Mesopotamia as well as in the Americas. Perhaps even the shape is also reminiscent of the pyramids in Egypt. More on that in a moment.

There will be a reversal of Babel one day. We see a foreshadowing of this at Pentecost: “And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?” (Acts 2:8). And again, “For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent” (Zephaniah 3:9).

Languages and Nations After the Tower of Babel

God created the languages at the time of Babel. Over time, these languages evolved into many modern languages and dialects.

Nations were created. Everyone today descended from Noah’s three sons, and because their children likely intermarried, we are all likely related to all three sons. With each nation came language groups, and those language groups stayed together to form nations. “By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations” (Genesis 10:5).

Evidence of Babel Around the World

Towers, step pyramids, ziggurats, and similar structures around the world are evidence that Babel involved the ancestors of all around the world. Like the cultures around the world that recalled the flood and have their own flood stories, many also have their own tall structures reminiscent of the Tower of Babel. Step pyramids can be found in Central America and Peru. Earthen mounds can be found in England and in the Americas. Ziggurats are found in the Near East. Pyramids are found in Egypt and Nubia. China also has earthen pyramids. These are mostly found to be structures for religious purposes.

Human Race vs. Racism

When you believe that the entire modern world descended from a single ancestor, first Adam and then Noah, all racism should disappear. “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation” (Acts 17:26). God created every nation at Babel; there is no one nation intrinsically better than another. The question is whether a nation serves the Lord.