Thursday 27 May 2021
- Bible Book:
- Genesis
Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.' (v. 4)
Background
We often read the story of the Tower of Babel and think it is a story about the origin of our many and diverse languages. It's almost like an opposing event to that of Pentecost when the good news was spoken in many languages. But if we look at the surrounding chapters we will see that this story acts as a pivot point between what has gone before and what lies ahead.
Chapter 10 tell us repeatedly that many languages already exist in the world (vs 5, 20, 31). So we need to take the first verse in chapter 11 with a pinch of salt. The whole world may have only spoken one language, but that 'world' may have been been a single tribe that saw itself as more important than others. We can also guess that the people this story is based on were connected to Nimrod, son of Cush (10:8-10), who had their own language and we are told settled and built cities in the land of Shinar (11:2).
If we look at the stories that follows this one, we see the introduction of Abram or 'Abraham' as he will become known. Again we can find links between the verses we have today and these. In verse 4 the people here declare that building the tower will make a name for this group, yet in Genesis 12:2 God tells Abraham that God will make Abraham's name great.
As I mentioned at the beginning, this seems to be a turning point. Up to this moment we have had stories about how humans have to do things on their own and make a name for themselves using their own strength and resources (Genesis 3:1-13, 4:1-12, 6:5) often disobeying what God has instructed them. The Tower of Babel is no different. Yet from chapter 12 we begin to see what happens when humans centre themselves on what God is calling them to do and be (with a few hiccups along the way). Babel is a story of believing we can achieve greatest on our own yet what we are shown in the rest of scripture is that it is only in Christ that are able to achieve anything.
To Ponder:
- Have you ever tried to achieve something big just using your own strength? How did it feel? Was it a success or did it not work out?
- How can we make sure that we centre our lives around Jesus and his call to us?