QT 8/14/2025 Gen 11:1–9, God's way versus Man's way

Genesis 11:1–9 (ESV) —

1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people 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 dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man 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, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them 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 the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

 

NOTE: There are little hints throughout this passage of something wrong. God commanded man to fill the earth, but they settle in one place. The line of Cain seems to emphasize the construction of cities (after Cain's wanderings), and they are following that example. The use of the term "east" is usually associated with something bad happening, as in east of Eden, or Lot journey east to Sodom, or Jacob fleeing home and traveling east. It seems whether the direction is east or west, the word "east" is used in relationship to the event. They wanted to make a tower that reached into the heavens. They wanted access to the heavens. They wanted to make a name for themselves (pride). Some commentators suggest that Nimrod wanted to conquer heaven.

 

Obviously, God was not worried that man would succeed in conquering heaven. The concern has to be for man. Certainly, technology has offered many good improvements, but also has led man deeper into sin. Television, the internet, and various sorts of entertainment, have increased the sin upon the earth. Anger dominates because technology allows a person to feed their biases. And once again, increased leisure leads to sin, as it did before the flood. The confusion of the languages was for man's good, to slow things down.

 

Man tried to regain the security of the garden through human effort and technology. God's disgust with those efforts is a reminder that security is only gained through submission to God's rule. That is still true today, as hard as man tries to create a world through human effort.

 

PONDER:

1. How do I live my life -- dependence on God or on my own effort?
2. Do I recognize the traps that the enemy has laid out there to take me away from God?

 

PRAYER: xxxxx