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Studies in Genesis, Let Us Make A Name, Lesson XXIV, Genesis 11
Genesis 11:1-92, 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.
Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives were given the task of being fruitful and multiplying and replenishing the earth.
It was a command of God to scatter throughout the earth that the whole earth would be filled again with the sons of God.
However in our passage we see a part of that command has been obeyed but the part of scattering or replenishing was not obeyed.
For we are told that as a corporate body they choose to build a city whose builder and maker was not God but was man.
This is the way of the human heart for the human heart always desires to promote the will of the creation, the will of man himself, instead of the Creator.
So they said: 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.
But as we see in verse 9 this was an offense to God and He therefore so arranged things that they would indeed be scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Now up to this time all the sons of Shem, Ham and Japheth spoke one language and by this they were naturally joined together.
But by one simple act, that of confounding language and giving new languages, God disposed of the problem and thus caused His will to be carried out, that of men scattering upon the whole face of the earth.
We are again reminded that God is sovereign and you cannot overturn His plans by any means.
You may cast the lot into the lap but do you not know that the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord?
Go ahead and make your decisions apart from seeking God’s will but be alerted to the fact that your plans may not come about in the manner in which you expected.
Man only proposes, but God always disposes.
So they proposed that which should bring them notice and a name that would ring out throughout the earth that they were somebody for the natural man always wants to be somebody.
So the city called Babel came into being. Babylon would follow.
This name when chosen was not defined as confusion, disorder for what city committee would propose such a name.
Perhaps when chosen the word Babel meant a beautiful bird, or a strong animal or perhaps it was named after a prominent citizen.
But because of what God did to confuse the language and to bring scattering the name Babel is now always is defined as disorder, confusion, turmoil.
But this was a beginning of a process for as Solomon wrote in:
Ecclesiastes 1:9, The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
And what is it that repeats and repeats and comes around again and again.
It is of course the desire of man to make a name for himself.
And this desire continues in the form of towers that proclaim the grandeur of the people who could erect such magnificent structures.
We remember the Pharaohs because of the Egyptian pyramids, the tallest being at Giza, with a height of 481 feet and holding that tallest title until 1300 when the Lincoln Cathedral, in Lincoln England, with a height of 524 feet came to be until the Washington Monument, with a height of 554 feet, followed by the Eiffel Tower at 1063 feet thus surpassing that structure.
But these structures that made a name for just a short time have been far surpassed by modern structures built to simply follow the desires planted in the heart by the men of Babel.
It is still let us make a name for ourselves!
All city fathers follow in this pattern.
The natural heart has nothing new in it.
So the race is on as the Empire State Building at 1250 feet is built.
New York now has the name, but Chicago also wants a name so up goes the Sears Tower, at 1450 feet whose name was not to last long, now being the Willis Tower.
But the United States who out built the world now fades in this venture for Kuala Lumpur desires a name and builds them a tower called Petronas at 1483 feet, lasting only six years as the tallest for Taipei 101 stretches upward to 1671 feet for six years until Buri Khalifa in 2010 takes the height record to new heights at 2717 feet.
So can anyone capture that elusive name now held by the United Arab Emirates?
Can anyone surpass such a record expanding height as the Buri Khalifa?
Well, the Saudi Arabian’s say they can as they build what will be called the Jeddah Tower, previously known as the Kingdom Tower and Mile High Tower.
But why call this anything other than the name of the city in which it is built for the people of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia also desire to make a name for themselves.
For this building will rise to a height over 591 feet higher than the tallest building in the world, the Buri Khalifa, in the city of Dubai of the United Arab Emirates.
Its height will be close to one kilometer high, near 3280 feet.
There is indeed nothing new under the sun for this is what the world does to make a name.
It may not be building the tallest building but it is some outward show of prowess or strength or power or intelligence which is designed to lift up so that the men and women of the world will bring honor and exaltation.
But the world’s way is not God’s way for God’s way of making a name is diametrically opposed.
For God’s way of making a name is associated with the individual but Man’s way is associated with the group.
God always deals with individuals, but the world always deals with groups.
God told Noah to replenish the earth but the result in time shows us the desire of groups, and that desire was to congregate together in cities in order to have the power of men, the power of the group.
God’s way is to make a name individual by individual in order to have the power of God.
Proverbs 22:1 should focus our minds on God’s way for we are told:
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.
This way has nothing to do with a group for this good name only comes by an individual relationship with God a relationship whereby there is a new name written down in glory.
Now God in giving commands to Noah to multiply and replenish the earth began this process by giving them one language.
So there is nothing wrong in having one language for one language could have drawn men and women together in the worship and work of God.
Just think of having one language to spread the Gospel but instead of drawing men together in the work of God men took it and used it to promote disobedience, unbelief and confusion.
God provides gifts of grace but man always turns those gifts and uses them for sinful acts.
And so God intervenes and provides another grace in order to save His creation and therefore He confounds the languages.
Now thus far in the book of Genesis city life has not been presented in a favorable light.
God told Cain to live as a wanderer but he built a city and named it after his son Enoch.
Nimrod was an empire builder and may have been the leader in the movement to settle in Shinar and build a great city with a great tower.
But all this desire of the group was an act of disobedience for God had commanded men to spread out and fill the land, not congregate in cities.
Noah had blessed Japheth telling him to dwell in the tents of Shem.
For cities promote group think and group dependence, but the rural life promotes individuality and God dependence and a desire to choose a good name rather than great riches.
But the group said there is no great name to be had by following God’s command, so come with us and we will make bricks and burn them thoroughly and build us a city and a tower.
A city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven and all who hear of this will want to come and visit and ascend up the tower and what a name that will bring for Babel!
The tourists will flock and bring much gold and silver!
This scattering all over the place is so old fashioned and so out of date and does nothing to bring us the name we deserve.
And this task of building a city and a great tower was no easy thing to accomplish and it reveals to us the intensity of men to do it themselves.
This is the same intensity passed to all men from their first parents who desired to do it themselves by partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The sinful nature comes with the desire to go it alone but God’s new nature knows the best place is to do all things near to the heart of God.
And near to the heart of God was obedience to His word but the children of that day feared obedience for their desire was to stay together and not be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
So the bottom line is that arrogance, rebellion and pride filled the minds and hearts of the city builders.
They as most do leaned to their own understanding and could not conceive of blessing and security coming as a result of the dispersion that God had commanded.
Their concept of life was in a group where they could join together and think and plan of big things like towers that reached unto heaven.
They saw no name for themselves apart from such a group caring nothing about making a name for themselves that was pleasing to God.
By living in a city all their needs would be met by depending upon other city dwellers and there would be no need to have a God.
No one builds monuments to themselves in the countryside where none will come to see.
Ambition is rewarded in the city where no dependence on God is necessary.
And the drive to be somebody and to earn accolades and applause is most pronounced within the groups of the city.
Medals and statues and awards which bring glory come to those who believe that everything they have, they have earned and are worthy of notice.
Oh how the heart of man desires to stand out.
Oh how competition for glory moves men and women and even boys and girls to perform feats of valor with long, long hours of practice and drive in order to win the prize and make a name for themselves.
So they built the city, they built the tower and no doubt had a great ceremony of dedication, a ceremony where the names were mentioned, the donors with amount of contribution given special categories of mention.
The platinum donors sitting on the stage hearing great applause and relishing every time their name was called.
The gold donors, the silver donors and alas the brass donors whose names were not mentioned but were nicely engraved on a plaque for future generations to see, at least one or two generations until no one remembered what the plaque was for and soon it found itself stored away in a dusty closet.
And even the Lord came down from His throne on high to see the goings on for we read again verses 5-9:
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.
So God deigns to investigate the affairs of men.
It is a constant that men think more highly of themselves than they ought.
Imagine the pride of those who built the city and the tower compared to what God saw as he judged their efforts.
What men thought of as magnificent and lofty no doubt God saw as puny and insignificant, but more importantly God saw an act of disobedience.
Go up in space and look down on the works of men and tell me if you can see anything from God’s vantage point for all the tall buildings end up simply as a tiny point on the landscape.
God saw disobedient men and women from his throne and He was to have none of it and therefore by the order of his mouth language was confounded and men were forced to separate into smaller groups and thus God’s command to replenish the earth was accomplished.
The Sovereign will have His way, no doubt about it.
So why do we as Paul did on the road to Damascus, why do we kick against the pricks?
Why not go God’s way which is a life of obedience to His word, a life which will always lead you to glory.
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