The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563)
It is an ancient story with contemporary parallels.
In fact, the parallels show themselves in almost every century of human history in some form or place.
The more ambitious for power we get, the more confused we become.
Thank God for that. The consequences of that not being so are disastrous.
Whether it is Babel, Babylon, Rome, or some modern equivalent, human empires come and go.
Genesis 11:1-9 (NRSV)
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 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. 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; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."
The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.
And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech."
So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
They were trying to consolidate a power base and make a name for themselves.
They were engaging in group-think, nationalistic narcissism, and ideological superiority.
The only threat to their ascent, in their view, was that they might be disbursed.
So, they engaged in a building and climbing campaign. Their goal was the heavens where they could take their seats of superiority and rule the world with their own sense of dominance and from the vantage point of their lofty position.
What psychosocial and spiritual vices propelled them? The list is long and tedious. Their was nothing in their motives that spoke to the wellbeing of larger humanity, the health of the earth, or the glory of God.
They sought to be god-men.
Their tower was no tower of love or reverence. Theirs was a tower of pride, greed, and lust.
"We are one people, one language, one culture, one race, one system of concentrated power and authority. Let us make ourselves great! Let us make Shinar great! Let us build our tower!"
This, they must have chanted as they laid brick upon brick, stone upon stone.
"Hooray for us!"
Yet, they were building a tower of confusion. What they sought to avoid was what they were creating - confusion and dispersion, and, on the upside, diversity because God's judgments always lay the foundation for redemption.
The judgment upon Babel creates a longing for the Day of Pentecost, but that comes later in the thinking.
The seeds for judgment were already well established in their spiritual and social DNA. As much as they were willing to come together for the cause, they had roots of self-serving motives in their souls. It was easy for God to confuse and disperse them with a word.
As God saw it, it was necessary.
Imagine, if you must, or simply read history to see what evil unchecked power can bring to the earth. Great suffering and overwhelming sacrilege emerge in an atmosphere of collective supremacy.
It was only the judgment of God that prevented such a disaster in those days.
It took centuries, but even Rome imploded. All human power systems do.
The bottom line is that only God is God and only God ever shall be.
Jeffrey Kranz explains more about Babel.
