![]() ![]() He said to Himself (God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) that man was capable of accomplishing anything he set out to do when they were all gathered together. God came down for a visit (Genesis 11:5). Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.” God’s Visitation Romans 1:21-23 “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans chapter one speaks very clearly to this fallacy: They felt like they could elevate themselves to the same level as God. This was a people who wanted the same thing that Satan tempted Adam and Eve with: they wanted to have the knowledge of God. Yet they wanted to make a name for themselves that would make them equal with God. They had heard stories of how God operated. Their grandfather had a personal relationship with God. ![]() The story of the Tower of Babel took place about 100 years after the flood. Who were they trying to impress? Besides the family of Noah, who else was there to make a name for themselves for? They knew God. The Bible also says that they wanted to make a name for themselves (Genesis 11:4). In Hebrew, the word that is used for this city is “balal” which means “confusion” or “mixing.” And this too is a theme we’ll see again.The Tower of Babel. The Babel narrative definitely contains some corrective disbursement, but the connections God originally introduced via families seem to progressively overflow onto others. And God commissions this family to turn outward, focusing on the whole of the earth again, by bringing blessing to all the families of the earth through them. Instead, God embeds his Creation intentions in a new gathering of humans. The story then of course does not conclude with these great tower builders serving as agents of power on the planet. He turns them back to an outward course–one of building tribes, of caring for the earth’s many parts, of bearing God fruitfully. And so, to re-purpose them for good, God stops their work and forces them to spread out across the earth. In surrendering to selfishness, they distorted God’s intentions for them. Rather than care for the world, they wanted to dominate it. They moved away from reflecting or being sacraments of God to each other and instead aspired to build a civilization that they hoped would position them as God’s equals. Instead of being fruitful and turning outward in care for the whole of earth and its inhabitants, they began turning inward, living for their own benefit, absorbed in their own self-interest. He stops their construction work by literally making it impossible to communicate with each other.Īnd language doesn’t seem to be the only thing that is confused. The people’s identity as image-bearers also seems to be muddied. Unlike in earlier creation when God is shaping spouses from ribs, at Babel God seems to divide people, not unite them. I was always confused by the story of the Tower of Babel then. But people’s ability to sustain good was (and perhaps to some degree still is) dependent on them working together to fill and tend to the earth.Īdd to this that God created people to live as companions, and that new generations were birthed into family units, and you can see why I grew up thinking of God as a being who brought people together. And in gifting the earth to the care of humans, he probably intended for it to continue in this good state. God evaluated creation and called it good. Threaded through this discussion is the idea that God, and those who bear his likeness, are in the business of good. The last few Wednesdays I’ve been slowly explaining why I see connectedness as a core value of the Christian faith. The Problem With the Tower of Babel Story ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |