A Problem not solved by BRICKS S1e66 Gen11:1
We are going back to just before the “table of nations” and the spreading of humanity across the whole earth. Why did they spread out? Tower tells us.
Staying together, one place, building a tower to reach heaven
Migrant people become stationary, city built and city bound. Then heaven
Setting is in SHINAR, Babylon. Plain, build a mountain, idea that dieties dwell on high places. Heaven seemed closer. Was a Ziggurat temple Etemenanki. Temples at the top. Temples not to one true God. The wrong God here. Zodiac.
“Babylon: the pride of the East. Judgment of God on pride and idolatry.
The Tower of Babel
11 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.(EVIL, not accomplishment) 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.
Make a NAMe for ourselves. Identify ourselves with this. Renown and reputation wrapped up in this. WORSHIP of other Gods that did not create them. Sets the scene for God to disfavor “the Nations” to favor Israel, in order to favor all the nations.******
God came down. “Lord came down to see” always done in judgement. Irony here of build up. 300’. But futile relatively. Problems that man has are of sin and death. Not solved by bricks.**** Let US go down. Divine council? Trinity? Scattering. Confusing. Thwart in this regard. This is not the way. This is not the way to ME.
COST OF this rebellion. Disunity of the nations. Those who have set their minds and hearts against and above God now have God set His will against them in the confusion of languages. In Babylonian literature Bab-ili meant “the gate of God”. In Hebrew Balal means confusion. Hebrew name Babel sounds similar.
Conclusion: 1. Problems of pride and idolatry. of humanity across the whole earth. Why did they spread out? Tower tells us. 2. Let’s be ambitious in yielding, in service, in worshiop of HIM, not us.