Genesis 11:1-9: The Tower of Babel

Genesis 11:1-9: The Tower of Babel

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Genesis, and today the next passage we come to is Genesis 11:1-9. It says,

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. 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, we find it written than “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Help us to view your word that way this morning—not merely as an interesting subject for study or as a helpful resource for various situations but as our very life. May we experience it as that, through the ministry of your Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. 

Several weeks ago, I was playing my 9-year-old son Caleb in a game of chess, and things didn’t quite go as I expected. Now, I don’t think I’m exceptional at chess by any means, but I’ve played the game a lot and have done pretty well, so I consider myself to be a pretty decent chess player. Yet, Caleb also has been playing chess lately and is even in some sort of instructional chess club online. So, the two of us decided to play a game against each other. And, in this game, I wasn’t deliberately trying to let him win. I may not have been thinking through each and every move as much as I would have if I were playing against someone I considered to be a formidable adversary, but I wasn’t deliberately making any foolish moves, either. I was making what seemed to be the best moves available after a brief moment or two of consideration. 

However, around the middle of the game, Caleb started to pull ahead of me. So, in response, I started trying harder. Yet, he continued to maintain his lead, despite my efforts. So, I began to try even harder. And eventually, he ended up winning. My 9-year-old son beat me fair and square in that game of chess. And I’ve gotta say that that was a bit of a humbling experience. Of course, I could rationalize it and say that I wasn’t really trying my absolute best earlier in the game, but that doesn’t change the fact that I ended up losing a game that I was genuinely trying to win. 

And as I reflect on that humbling experience, I believe it’s fair to say that it was my pride that led to my downfall. My prideful overconfidence in my own abilities led me to start the game in a rather laid-back manner and ultimately to lose a game that I might otherwise have won. And, of course, that’s not the only time pride has led to my downfall, either. It’s happened more than I care to admit. As Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” And we see a similar pattern in our main text this morning as well here in Genesis 11. 

Verses 1-4 tell us, 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.” 

So, the goal here was for these people to establish a city and build a tower that would serve as a monument to their own greatness. They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens.” Of course, “the heavens” are understood to be the dwelling place of God. So, these people were intentionally trying to achieve what amounts to divine glory or a divine status for themselves. They even say, very candidly, “let us make a name for ourselves.” It reminds me of the Garden of Eden, where the serpent told Eve that by eating the forbidden fruit, she could be “like God.” Similarly, in Genesis 11, I believe it was this same basic desire to be like God that was motivating these people to build a tower. 

And, not only that, I believe that same desire continues to be present in the human heart even to this day. For example, one of my children—I won’t say which one—has been known to have a bit of a bossy personality. This child likes to be in charge and tell other people what to do, and we frequently have to remind this child that they can’t just boss other kids around. So, one afternoon, this child was alone in their room during what was supposed to be naptime, and we overheard them talking. And as we listened more to what they were saying, it turned out that they were actually bossing around their stuffed animals. Those stuffed animals were getting a very strict lecture about the importance of doing something. I forget what exactly it was, but our child was really giving those stuffed animals a good talking to. And I thought to myself, “That is one power-hungry kid. We won’t let them boss around other kids, so they have to resort to bossing around their stuffed animals.”

And I believe that illustrates how the desire for power and, more generally, the desire to be like God is present in the human heart even to this day—from the most power-hungry corporate CEO all the way down to the youngest children. And we can certainly see this ambition exhibited in Genesis 11. So this tower of Babel, as it’s called later on in the passage, is very much a symbol of human ambition, human pride, human independence, and human autonomy as people pursue glory for themselves and seek to establish their own destiny without any regard for God. As the poet William Ernest Henley so memorably put it, “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” That’s a great description of the spirit of Genesis 11. 

In addition, keep in mind that what’s happening in Genesis 11 is also directly contrary to what God had told humanity to do. In Genesis 9:1, God had told them to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” But in Genesis 11, what do we see them doing? Instead of filling the earth and spreading out in different areas, they’re clustering together in a single city. They even say at the end of verse 4 that they desire to establish this city “lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” Presumably, they’re thinking that clustering together in this city will make them more secure. So, not only are they pridefully seeking glory for themselves, they’re also pridefully seeking security for themselves apart from God. 

We then read about how God responds to their prideful rebellion. First, in verse 5, it says, “And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.” And I love the subtle mockery of how that’s phrased. These people were striving to build, in their own words, “a tower with its top in the heavens.” Yet God has to “come down” from his heavenly dwelling in order to even see this tower that was supposedly so impressive. Now, obviously, God wasn’t literally unable to see their tower from heaven since, in reality, he’s all-seeing and all-knowing. The point, though, is that their tower is so unimpressive and so far from having its top in the heavens that, figuratively speaking, God can’t even see it from heaven. I just picture him slowly coming down from heaven and being like, “Now where is that tower? Hang on, guys, I can’t quite see your tower yet. Umm…where’d you say it was?” 

Then, in verses 6-9, God continues mocking them—or at least speaking in an exaggerated manner of their accomplishments and their potential. He then confuses their speech, so that they begin to speak in different languages for the first time and can’t understand each other. And this results in them being dispersed over the face of the earth, as God originally intended. 

So, to distill all of this down into one central idea, God thwarts humanity’s prideful attempt to exalt themselves in rebellion against their Creator. That’s the main idea of this passage. God thwarts humanity’s prideful attempt to exalt themselves in rebellion against their Creator. 

And, as we’ve said, this prideful impulse to exalt ourselves and function independently from God is still present in the human heart to this day. You know, we might not be building a literal tower of Babel today, but there are still plenty of ways in which humanity collectively seeks to exalt itself and function independently from God through various forms of human achievement. I think of the massive progress in science, technology, medicine, and other similar fields that’s taken place in the past hundred years or so. This progress is undoubtedly a gift of God and, at its best, can be a form of worship to God as we seek to take dominion over creation in obedience to God’s command. Yet, unfortunately, that’s not the motivation for much it. Instead, much of this progress is driven by a desire not to exalt God but to exalt ourselves and to build what amounts to a modern-day tower of Babel that displays human achievement and fosters human autonomy. The idea’s basically, “Look at what we can do apart from God. Look at how great we are.”

And, of course, we exhibit this prideful tendency to exalt ourselves not only collectively but also individually. Within every human being, there’s a desire to lift ourselves up and take for ourselves the glory that rightfully belongs to God alone and function independently from him. In fact, in the unredeemed heart, at least, we might even say that this desire’s dominant and functions as the driving force behind all other sins.  

Yet, even for those of us who are Christians, let’s not imagine even for a moment that we no longer have this tendency toward prideful self-exaltation. It might not be quite as obvious or dominant, but make no mistake: pride is still present within our hearts. Not only that, I believe we can safely say that it’s far more present than we’re even aware of. 

So, I’d like to give you a list of some manifestations of pride in our lives that often go undetected. My hope is that identifying these manifestations will help us to repent of pride wherever we discover it and cultivate the humility that facilitates a closer relationship with God. And I’ll just go ahead and say that there are 10 items on this list, so we’ll have to go through them rather quickly. Ten manifestations of pride that often go undetected.

First, a preoccupation with finding fault in others. In doing this, we minimize our own faults and sins as if they were no big deal and instead focus on whatever’s wrong with other people, holding them to a much higher standard than the standard to which we hold ourselves. Maybe you’ve even being doing that as you’ve been listening to this morning’s sermon—thinking about the reasons why so-and-so needs to hear this sermon rather than why you need to hear it. By contrast, Christians who are humble understand that they have so much to focus on in their own hearts and lives and therefore don’t usually think all that much about the hearts and lives of others. 

Second, pride is manifested in us being unteachable. Though we’d never say it out loud, we sometimes assume that we know it all—or, at the very least, that we’re so superior to others that we can’t possibly learn from them or benefit from what they have to say. One subtle way this shows up is when someone else is expressing their opinion or viewpoint about something, but instead of listening to them, we’re already planning our own response in our minds. We also might find it difficult to admit when we’re wrong about something even when there’s ample evidence of our being wrong. 

This leads into the third manifestation of pride, which is a refusal to ask forgiveness. There are few things that require more humility than both admitting that we’ve wronged someone and also going a step beyond that and saying, “Will you forgive me?” Yet, so often, those who are blinded by their pride can’t see their need to do either of those things. 

Then a fourth manifestation of pride is functional independence from other Christians. To put it bluntly, not being involved in a church is incredibly arrogant because you’re assuming that you don’t need other Christians in order to live a healthy Christian life or to serve Jesus faithfully. You don’t need their accountability, you don’t need their spiritual gifts, and you don’t need their friendship or encouragement. Instead, you’re entirely capable of doing just fine on your own. That, my friend, is pride. Humility involves recognizing your need for other Christians in your life within the God-ordained structure of a local church. And it also involves deliberately pursuing relationships with those Christians in a way that goes beyond Sunday morning—possibly through a Community Group or something that has a similar function. 

Fifth, and closely related, pride is manifested in an unwillingness to submit to God-ordained authority. God has ordained certain authorities to promote our welfare—parents for children, husbands for wives, government authorities, bosses at work, and, yes, pastors. Yet, there are many who have such a high estimation of themselves that they don’t believe they need these authorities. They wonder, “Who could possibly have more wisdom or make better decisions than me?” And even if they might submit to many of these authorities outwardly simply because it’s more convenient to do so, they nevertheless inwardly struggle to accept the fact that God has placed these individuals over them. Or, with regard to pastoral authority specifically, they don’t even join a church at all—again, because they see no need for any spiritual authority over them since they’re so capable of taking care of themselves. All the spiritual leadership they’ll ever need is already right there within them.

Sixth, pride is manifested in prayerlessness. You know, it’s one thing to think that you don’t need other people, as we’ve been talking about. But how much more arrogant is it to think that you don’t need God? —which is exactly the assumption we make when we neglect prayer. We assuming that we’re able to handle things on our own and that we don’t need God’s gracious help and empowerment or his working on our behalf. By contrast, humble Christians know how desperately they need God every single moment and therefore make daily prayer the priority it needs to be. 

Then, a seventh manifestation is seeking to draw attention to ourselves. Maybe we do this by shamelessly boasting about our accomplishments. Or, probably more often, we’re a little more clever than that and find ways to insert certain facts about ourselves into conversations with others—like maybe our educational achievements or our career achievements or the impressive people with whom we associate. I think that’s called “name-dropping.” Or maybe we purchase an expensive house or a fancy car or overpriced clothing with the motivation of drawing attention to ourselves. Or maybe we’re more spiritual than that and frequently talk about how we avoid making those kinds of purchases so that we can give more money to God’s Kingdom. Pride is often a very sneaky thing. 

Eighth, and closely related, is being overly concerned about what others think of us. Let me ask you this: How many of the decisions that you make a daily basis are made based on what others will think of you? Probably more than you might think. How much of your energy is spent striving to be highly regarded by others or trying to gain their approval? Being a people-pleaser might seem like a humble thing at first, but it’s actually a symptom of pride because the focus is ultimately on us and our reputation and our status. 

Then, a ninth manifestation of pride is selective association. Basically, we prefer to associate with some people rather than others because they’re highly regarded from a worldly perspective. So, we choose to have dinner with the big-name attorney rather than the lowly waitress, or maybe we invite the wealthy business owner over for a cookout instead of the call-center attendant. And the reason we do this is because it strokes our ego whenever “important” people acknowledge us. Also, simply spending time with those people allows us to view ourselves as being in that “higher” league rather than in some “lower” league. And we might do all of this without necessarily even being conscious that we’re doing it, but it’s nevertheless a symptom of pride. 

Then, finally, a tenth way pride is manifested is through a lack of gratitude. And maybe that lack of gratitude is so pronounced that it overflows into complaining or grumbling about our circumstances. Our unspoken assumption is basically, “I deserve better than this.” That sense of entitlement is lurking in the shadows of our hearts whenever we complain. And, even if we don’t complain, we can still be functioning in that sense of entitlement. The telltale sign is always a lack of gratitude. 

So, in light of these ten things, let me encourage you to confess your pride to God wherever you’ve discovered that it’s lurking. Admit how deceived you’ve been about your own heart and ask both for God to forgive you and for his transformative grace to be at work within you so that your prideful regard for yourself can be replaced with a humble regard for God. 

And that actually brings us to an eleventh manifestation of pride. I said there were ten, but there are actually eleven. Think of it as bonus. Yet, in all seriousness, this eleventh manifestation is actually the most dangerous and deadly of them all. Pride is manifested in a refusal to cry out to Jesus for rescue from your sins. Just as people who think they’re healthy are often inclined to avoid going to a doctor, people who think they’re spiritually okay aren’t very inclined to look to Jesus for rescue. After, why would they? They’re doing just fine on their own. 

Yet, the problem, of course, is that we’re not doing fine at all. Hopefully, if we’ve seen anything this morning, it’s that pride is way more pervasive in our lives than we usually assume. And the same can be said of sin in general. The fact is that we’re more sinful that we can even understand. We just see the tip of the iceberg of our sin. And problem goes right down to our very hearts. The outward sins we commit are merely symptoms of a disease that’s infected our hearts—the disease of sin. 

Yet, the good news of the gospel is that there’s hope for sinners like you and me. God’s sent us a Savior in the person of Jesus. And Jesus is the only one who can rescue us from our sin, including all of the manifestations of pride we’ve looked at this morning. And the reason he’s able rescue us from our pride is because he humbled himself in the most radical way imaginable.  

The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 2:3-8, 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 

You know, in just a few weeks, we’re going to be celebrating Christmas. And Christmas is a wonderful time filled with cherished traditions and enjoyable gatherings and a lot of really good food. Yet, let’s not forget what Christmas is all about. It’s about our Savior, “who, though he was in the form of God,” was willing to “empty himself” in the sense of laying aside his heavenly glory and actually taking “the form of a servant” and being “born in the likeness of men.” Think about that. 

Spurgeon writes, “You and I can have no idea of how high an honour it is to be equal with God. How can we, therefore, measure the descent of Christ, when our highest thoughts cannot comprehend the height from which he came? The…height from which he came is inconceivably above our loftiest thought. Do not, [therefore], forget the glory that Jesus laid aside for a while. Remember that he is very God of very God, and that he dwelt in the highest heaven with his Father; but yet, though he was thus infinitely rich, for our sakes he became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be rich.” 

Yet, that’s not all. As Paul goes on to tell us in verse 8, Jesus “humbled himself” even further “by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Again, in the words of Spurgeon, just as “the height from which [Jesus] came is inconceivably above our loftiest thought,” “the depth to which he descended is immeasurably below any point we have ever reached.” We can’t even imagine the physical agony of the cross, let alone its shame and humiliation. Yet, that’s what Jesus endured for us. Notice that the text says he “humbled himself” in this way, not that he “was humbled.” He humbled himself! He voluntarily chose to allow this horrific incident to happen to him. He saw the wretched condition we were in, so he said to the Father, “I’ll go. I’ll go to rescue them.”

So he did. Jesus humbled himself not only by becoming a man but by suffering and dying on the cross. The reason he did that was to suffer the penalty for our sins. That includes our pride and every other sin we’ve ever committed. Jesus paid the debt that we owed. Through his humble self-emptying, Jesus made atonement for our prideful self-exaltation. As an author named Jaquelle Ferris has observed, “The God-man emptied himself of all he deserved to save us from all we deserve. He who was entitled to the highest honor forfeited it for our eternal good…. Because of his humility, we can be forgiven of our pride.” 

So understand that, no matter how pervasive pride or any other sin has become in your life, there’s forgiveness and rescue in Jesus. He died in your place and then victoriously resurrected from the dead and now invites you, even this morning, to renounce your pride and put your trust in him to save you. That involves humbly recognizing that there’s nothing you can do to rescue yourself. No matter how good of a person you try to be or what kinds of changes you try to make in your life, you won’t ever be able to earn God’s favor. Instead, you have to humble yourself and come to Jesus with the empty hands of a beggar and receive what he offers as the free gift that it is. 

Because, make no mistake: the day’s coming when Jesus will return not in lowliness or humility but in power and majesty. And on that day, he’ll triumph over all human pride. You see, just as in Genesis 11, God dispersed the people who were building the tower of Babel and put an end to that project of prideful self-exaltation, the Bible says that something similar is going to happen in the future, yet on a much grander scale. You see, the name “Babel” in Genesis 11 is the same Hebrew word as the word “Babylon.” It’s not that difficult to see the similarity of those two words, “Babel” and “Babylon,” in English, yet they’re actually the same exact word in Hebrew. 

And, as you may know, Babylon’s mentioned throughout the Bible, not only in the Old Testament but also in the New Testament, specifically in the book of Revelation. And Babylon’s always presented as a city set in rebellion against God. Whenever we encounter Babylon in the Bible, it’s always hostile toward God and antagonistic toward God’s people. And it all comes to a climax in Revelation, where Babylon represents an evil world system, controlled by the Antichrist, that carries on the legacy of the tower of Babel through its prideful self-exaltation in defiance of God. 

Yet, as see vividly displayed in Revelation 18, Jesus will triumph over Babylon in a final and decisive way. Babylon will be absolutely humiliated and put to open shame. As we read in Revelation 18, 2 “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!... 5 [F]or her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities…. 9 And the kings of the earth…will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, “Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.” So, that will be the fate of Babylon and the end of those who pridefully exalt themselves in rebellion against God. And in the place of Babylon will be the heavenly city, “new Jerusalem,” as it’s called in Revelation 21, where God’s people will dwell with him and worship him for all eternity, finding their joy not in being praised themselves but in knowing and praising God. So which city will you be a part of—the earthly city, Babel or Babylon, that’s swiftly destroyed or the heavenly city, new Jerusalem, that’s eternally blessed? 

You know, looking once again at Philippians 2, Paul’s teaching about Jesus doesn’t end with his humble obedience but with his glorious exaltation and triumph. Paul writes in verses 9-11, 9 Therefore [because of Christ’s humble obedience] God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And, friends, that’s presented not only as something that should happen but as something that will happen. One day, every knee will bow before Jesus Christ, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord. So you can either humble yourself now or be humbled by Jesus in the future. Either way, you’re going to bow before him and confess his lordship. The only question is whether you’ll be doing that from heaven or from hell.