Topic: Tower of Babel
What can we learn from the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9?
1. Man naturally disobeys God.
Genesis 8:21 says, “…the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth…”
Genesis 11:4, says “they said, Come, let us make for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name…”
Today, it is the same. We can try to clean ourselves up with morality, but we are all naturally inclined, polarized to sin. Unless God moves in us, unless one has been changed by the transformation of the Gospel, no one will naturally choose God. (Romans 3:32)
2. God has the RIGHT to punish us.
In Genesis 1 God created all things, and since that is God’s record of the events at the beginning, we must agree that God owns everything and has the right to do what He wants with it. Now that may sound scary if you are prone to sin, and it is scary if God were inclined to evil, but God is not evil, nor is He inclined to it. The Bible tells us that God is good, He is merciful, and He is gracious, which means that he is by nature benevolent, just and holy. Therefore, in response to sin, to be just and Fair, and uphold His Holy name, God must punish sin.
Genesis 11:5 and 8 says, “The LORD came down to see the city and tower which the sons of men had built…So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth, and they topped building the city.”
3. There is nothing God cannot do.
Genesis 11:9 says, “Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth.”
Quite simply, God changed the languages of the people! He did what had not been done. The Bible says in verse 11:1 that the whole earth was one language and one speech. After some years, man still spoke one language. God changed all of that. A process that may have taken tens if not hundreds of years was accomplished by God in a moment.
4. God will accomplish His will.
Genesis 9:1 says, “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” And again in verse 7, “And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.”
Although chapter 11 recounts the “will of man,” at the Tower of Babel, it fell before the “will of God.” God said replenish the earth, and that is exactly what happened. Whether by mankind’s choice or through God’s providential working, it did happen. It is the same today. God has declared to us the future and it shall come to pass, with or without our approval as humans. God will directly or providentially accomplish His will.
5. Confounding the languages was an act of mercy from God.
God confusing the languages at Babel was an act of mercy in order to redirect man’s wickedness.
It has been established that mankind is naturally sinful and therefore deserves to be punished at some point in the future because of the holy, just and fair nature of God. God is gracious in providing a way to escape future judgment. He sent His only begotten Son (Jesus) to take that judgment or punishment in our place.
Isaiah 53:5-6 says, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
See you Sunday!
Dr. Scott Kallem