At one time, the whole Earth spoke the same language. It so happened that as they moved out of the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled down.
They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and fire them well.” They used brick for stone and tar for mortar.
Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let’s make ourselves famous so we won’t be scattered here and there across the Earth.”
God came down to look over the city and the tower those people had built.
God took one look and said, “One people, one language; why, this is only a first step. No telling what they’ll come up with next—they’ll stop at nothing! Come, we’ll go down and garble their speech so they won’t understand each other.” Then God scattered them from there all over the world. And they had to quit building the city. That’s how it came to be called Babel, because there God turned their language into “babble.” From there God scattered them all over the world. (The Message)
At first glance, the Bible reader may wonder what the big deal is about people coming together to build a tower.
A mere cursory look at the text might seem as if God is having some sort of divine anal-retentive moment of control. After all, the people are just trying to get some work done; it’s not like they’re going to somehow invade God’s privacy with a very tall tower.
But that’s not what was going on, way back there several millennia ago. Something more subversive was afoot, and the Lord was completely savvy to what was happening.
The previous chapter (Genesis 10) presents a rather orderly spread of the burgeoning humanity across the earth – which is consistent with God’s original blessing and mandate at the creation of people:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.” (Genesis 1:28, MSG)
Yet, here in Genesis 11, people have intentionally stopped discovering the earth. It appears they are more curious about heaven. So, they amassed themselves together and decided to move vertically rather than horizontally across the world.
There seems to have been a great deal of human ambition that was eyeing an assault and takeover of the divine realm, instead of busying themselves with their God-given human realm. Another way of putting it is that they were irresponsible – not caring for creation – but more concerned about having some leverage on God.
Ambition, in and of itself, is neither good nor bad; it’s where that ambition is aimed. And the early people were directing their sights up rather than out – trusting in their human ingenuity and technological abilities to achieve autonomy for themselves.
Because God created humans in the divine image and likeness, people were (and still are!) amazing creatures who can accomplish incredible feats of achievement in whatever they set their minds and hearts to do. Yet, in the case of constructing a tower (or ziggurat) humanity was ignoring their mandate to care about the earth and its inhabitants. Instead, they were working their own will to build a name for themselves, apart from God.
So, the Lord stepped in by confusing their common language so that they would have difficulty communicating with one another. On the surface, it might seem that God was being capricious. But examining just a bit deeper, we can observe what would happen if people threw off their responsibility to the planet and all of its creatures.
The entire world could be subject to terrible inattention. Much like a backyard garden that becomes overrun with weeds due to neglect, the whole earth was in jeopardy of falling into a system of evil that would care nothing for its abundant life and intricate ecosystems. In short, the earth could be ruined.
If this sounds eerily like what we humans are doing today, its probably because that is precisely what we are doing – putting a collective stiff-arm to God and doing whatever the heck we want in exploiting the earth for our own human purposes.
Never mind that entire species of fish and animals, along with flora and fauna and forests and wetlands and grasslands are being harmed and destroyed by so called human ingenuity and technological advance.
It is our own arrogant pride and hubris of abject selfishness, in setting up ourselves as masters of the universe, that brings us to the edge of an environmental holocaust – not to mention fighting amongst ourselves about who will be in charge and in control of it all. We’ll engage in wars and atrocities if that’s what it will take.
Therefore, the Tower of Babel is a symbol of all that is wrong – not right – with humanity. Until we can unlearn our ancient ways of arrogance and injustice, ignorance and lack of awareness, and recover even older ways of caring for one another and the earth, then we will find ourselves being broken by the divine gravity of judgment which exists whenever people choose to defy the order of the world.
In many ways, primeval history remains alive in our daily current events. Yet, it can change. But it will take a heavy dose of humility and confession of guilt to begin undoing the harm we have imposed on others and on our world. And it will take a return to Eden, to the responsibility of creation care, and of healthy relational connections with both other people and God.
Every one of us is culpable – whether we have been directly involved in systemic evil, or not. We all have participated in and benefited from our privilege as human beings living on this planet – sometimes to the extent of turning a blind eye to the great needs of the earth and its inhabitants.
So, what will you do about it? Who will you turn to? Where does your ultimate trust rest? Are you willing to work for good, to be merciful, just, kind, and loving in a pursuit of right relationships with God, others, and the earth?
Sovereign Lord and Creator, renew our spirits and cleanse our hearts. Renew our minds and transform our lives. Renew our cities and rebuild our ruins. Renew our world, in your name we pray, Amen.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 