Bible Study: Making A Name For Ourselves or God?
Genesis 11:1-9
Here’s a biblical narrative where the first corporate (citywide/national) sin is recorded. This was a rejection of God’s command to Adam and Eve and to Noah and his descendants after the flood to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” The resulting judgment sets the stage for the emergence of ethnolinguistic people groups and for the promise of Christ to bless the nations through the line of Abraham.
Scripture:
Now the whole earth had one language and few words. 2 And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, 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 sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused[a] the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. (RSV)
1-2 At one time, the whole Earth spoke the same language. It so happened that as they moved out of the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled down.
3 They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and fire them well.” They used brick for stone and tar for mortar.
4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let’s make ourselves famous so we won’t be scattered here and there across the Earth.”
5 God came down to look over the city and the tower those people had built.
6-9 God took one look and said, “One people, one language; why, this is only a first step. No telling what they’ll come up with next—they’ll stop at nothing! Come, we’ll go down and garble their speech so they won’t understand each other.” Then God scattered them from there all over the world. And they had to quit building the city. That’s how it came to be called Babel because there God turned their language into “babble.” From there God scattered them all over the world. (The Message)
Summary: After the flood Shem, Ham, and Japheth begin to multiply and the nations of the earth are formed. This is recorded in Genesis 10 as the Table of Nations. The one person who who is recorded as standing out is Nimrod who is called “a mighty hunter before the Lord”. Some scholars have asserted that Nimrod hunted people and not animals and therefore he was a violent and oppressive king. Nimrod built cities in the area of modern-day Iraq including Babel. He was the first person to be mentioned as ruling over a kingdom.
In this scenario the people of the earth are all united by place and language in the land of Shinar. These people decide to build a city called Babel complete with a tower reaching to the heavens. Their purpose in doing so is to make a name for themselves and to stay unified. They want strength in numbers.
God sees this city and wants nothing to do with this. It is the setting for another curse God pronounces on humanity. This is the curse of division through language. The people who were once united are now confused by each others words. They are not one people anymore. They don’t speak the same language. Because of this they leave off from building the tower and Lord scatters over the face of the earth.
Observations:
The people were following their leader and founder Nimrod. Nimrod was famous and renowned. Nimrod’s name is also thought to stem from the Hebrew word for rebellion. They wanted their city to be famous and well-known and didn’t care if they rebelled against God.
They wanted to build a tower with its top in the heavens
The tower was made of waterproof materials
The area of Babel is also the area of Babylon. Babylon in scripture is symbolic of human opposition against God
They want to make a name for themselves and they want to stay together instead of being scattered
They have strength in numbers. They have so much strength that God says they can do the impossible
God curses their communication and creates a division between the people
“but the sons of men, it should seem, were loth to disperse into distant places; they thought the more the merrier and the safer, and therefore they contrived to keep together”1
“The people wanted to avoid being scattered over the earth by establishing their own power base without any regard for God. A city enables a mass of people to live together in a small area, and it offers an environment far less dominated by the vicissitudes of nature.”2
“Nimrod also founded cities in Assyria (Asshur); this statement indicates that centers of power in Babylon extended their influence into Assytia. Thus Nimrod is honored as the first empire builder.”3
“Whereas the builders aimed for heaven their work was so minuscule that God had to come down to earth in order to see it.”4
The real motive therefore was the desire for renown, and the object was to establish a noted central point which might serve to maintain their unity. The one was just as ungodly as the other. For according to the divine purpose, men were to fill the earth, i.e., to spread over the whole earth, not indeed to separate, but to maintain their inward unity notwithstanding their dispersion.”5
Takeaways:
Leadership matters. The people of Babel were led by someone who was in rebellion against God and was all about fame and acclaim. They followed his example corporately.
The people wanted to make a name for themselves and not be scattered. This is always the temptation. We will always be challenged by the seduction of making a name for ourselves instead of God and trusting in a false sense of security.
The temptation to build the tower was a direct result of their lack of trust in God. They built a waterproof tower which showed they didn’t trust God’s promise that he wouldn’t flood the world.
When wicked people are united and on the same page they can do amazing things. The oppressive regimes of history show the horror and devastation of nations that are mindlessly united in rebellion against God.
God will not allow us to make a name for ourselves and secure our future without Him.
Missiological Implications:
We are called to trust God and his promises. The people of Babel didn’t trust God’s promise to never destroy the earth again. Instead, they built a tower to protect themselves against any future threat. Those of us who are on mission with Christ can fall into the same trap. Instead of believing God’s promise we avoid taking steps of faith. Instead, we take the easy route and the path of least resistance.
We are called to scatter ourselves and make a name for him. The trend towards megachurches and amassing people around a name other than God is the opposite of the Missio Dei or the mission of God. Our role in the mission of God is to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth with disciples. Staying in place and making a name for ourselves is disobedience.
Mission is about giving us a new language through Christ. At Babel God confused the world’s language. People can’t understand each other in numerous ways. Language, culture, race, class, and political affiliation all serve as divides. The gospel begins the process of uniting us all once again. Whether I was in Juarez, Mexico, or Addis Ababa, Ethiopia it didn’t matter whether I was fluent in the language. Experiencing the worship and fellowship of my brothers and sisters was the only tongue I needed to understand. In Christ, we speak the language of unity in the dialect of the Spirit.
Henry, M. (1996, March 1). Commentary on genesis 11 by Matthew Henry. Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Gen/Gen_011.cfm?a=11001
John E. Hartley, New International Bible Commentary: Genesis, vol. 1, Peabody, MA, United States of America: Hendrickson, 2000, 125.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, 1864, 110.