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The Tower of Babel
The Bible story we call the tower of Babel is one of the first Bible stories we learn when we are young children. The word babel means confusion and this is what eventually happened at the end of the story.
After Noah had left the ark and descended down Mt. Ararat after the flood, the people grew in numbers and they had at that time one language and were one family. The people eventually decided to build themselves a tower that would reach up into heaven. In Genesis 11:4 we are told they said “Let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” The people wanted to stay together but to use their numbers to be a strong and great family. God saw the danger of the people reaching this strength in numbers. He realized that wickedness would have multiplied amongst the wicked people. He also realized that the godly people would be affected by these wicked people. God did not think for a moment that they could build a tower that would reach into heaven as they had said. They might possibly have built a tower but only 5-10 stories high. What upset God was their purpose in building this tower and that was to make themselves a name.
Their sin was the sin of pride. God had to do something to help the people not reach this goal of being prideful so God did the following in Genesis 11:7 “Come let us go down and there confuse their language that they may not understand one another’s speech.” Now the people spoke not one language but many. Problems arose because the people now spoke different languages. They could no longer work together or give one another directions in building. The people eventually group together by language and go off to live together. So what God accomplished here was his goal of the whole Earth being settled.
This lesson is a good one for us today. We must make sure in our life, our family’s life, our nation’s life that we don’t have the spirit of Babel. This means having a spirit that is full of pride, trying to make a name for themselves. How can we make sure we never have this spirit of Babel? We must first realize it’s God we want to please and impress and not others. We must let God direct our paths not ourselves. We must listen to first and foremost God’s directions which are found in the Bible. We are told in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that we are furnished with all we need. We must realize that making a name for ourselves in the world is not to be our principle goal but rather glorifying God.
We live in a society today that encourages us to do what we want, get what we deserve, make yourself a somebody. May we never be full of pride and these beliefs but rather esteem others better than ourselves. May we strive to be servants of others and not one who has to be served. Lets all make sure we are full of God and not full of ourselves. We may not be building a tower as in Genesis but we may be building a life that is full of pride. If you are you can be sure God will destroy this spirit of Babel like He eventually did to the physical tower of Babel.
