A Bunch of Babblers

A Bunch of Babblers– The tower of Babel

Genesis 11:1-9 Now the whole earth had one language and one [a]speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and [b]bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called [c]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.

The tower of Babel was a post-flood rebellion against God by Noah’s descendants. The resulting judgment of this rebellion accounts for the variety of languages and people groups seen in our world today.

Remember back when I preached about Cain? He defied God’s holy command and went to build his own city. The city of God v. the city of man. In the tower of Babel, we have the beginning of  satan’s cosmic plan, a one world, man-made rebellion that is alive and flourishing today.

The sin of the people of Shinar was the desire to dominate the world and their own destiny apart from the Lord through man-centered organizational unity, power and great accomplishments. The purpose was based on pride and rebellion against God. God destroyed this effort by confounding the languages. 

In the language used in this chapter, God was disinheriting the nations, and we will see in the next few chapters of Him adopting one nation to display His name, in Him choosing Abraham through which came the nation of Israel and ultimately a people in Christ. 

The tower of Babel marks the time the human race turned completely from God to idolatry, sorcery and astrology. We read Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Babylon

Isaiah 47:12-13 12 “Stand now with your enchantments And the multitude of your sorceries, In which you have labored from your youth— Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you will prevail. 13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; Let now the[a] astrologers, the stargazers, And [b]the monthly prognosticators Stand up and save you From what shall come upon you.

The spiritual condition of man is described in Romans 1:21-28, as a result of God giving them up to the impurity of their own hearts.

Romans 1:21-28  because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like [a]corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their [b]women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the [c]men, leaving the natural use of the [d]woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

Babylon represents a world system of rebellion, an antigod establishment that is building a kingdom for themselves, writing their own commands and laws, calling good evil and calling evil good.  

The tower of Babel takes place about 100 years after the flood. Noah was likely still alive at this time. Many historical writings describe the Babylonian leader Nimrod as a warrior of great stature and supernatural strength. Similar reports also describe Nimrod as a self-absorbed tyrant plagued by bitterness over the flood and God’s judgment.

Nimrod was the great-grandson of Noah, coming through the line of Ham. As Nimrod began his reign, he and his followers had one overriding goal for their new territory; they wanted to ensure the security of their community by building a prestigious landmark to make a name for themselves. Fueled by pride, the people preferred to “make a name” for themselves and build a city with a high tower, enabling them to remain together in defiance of God’s command. 

They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city”. The heart motivating the construction and the materials used for the tower of Babel show that it was not only disobedient to God’s command to fill the earth, but also a demonstration that man did not believe God’s promise to never again flood the earth. A waterproof tower was made to protect humanity against a future deluge. Using baked bricks and asphalt for mortar, men built a tower that was both strong and waterproof, even as Noah used the same material in waterproofing the ark. Later, the mother of Moses used the same material in waterproofing the basket holding Moses.

This was a strong statement of self against God. When they said let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens. It was their city, not God’s, and their goal was the heavens. When they said, lest we be scattered, it was in defiance of God’s command to spread out over the earth.

Babylon is both a literal and spiritual place of rebellion against God.

Revelation 17:3-6  So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of [a]her fornication. 5 And on her forehead a name was written:

MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS
OF THE EARTH.

6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.

Babylon appears over 250 times in the Bible, representing both a literal ancient Mesopotamian empire that conquered Jerusalem and a symbolic, apocalyptic force of evil, idolatry, and opposition to God. 

Babylon is an historical oppressor of Israel (OT): Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Judah in the 6th century B.C., destroyed the First Temple, and held the Jews in captivity

And a symbolic enemy (NT/Prophecy): In Revelation, Babylon represents a worldwide system of false worship, immorality, and persecution of believers, often seen as a metaphor for a revived Roman empire or end-times evil.

Symbolically Babylon represents- Pride and Rebellion. Babylon embodies the human desire for power, wealth, and security outside of God’s authority.  It is described as the “mother of prostitutes”, representing the root of idolatry and spiritual deception.

Revelation 18:23-24  The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived. 24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.”

The spirit of Babylon is alive and well today.  Economically, politically and spiritually Babylon is seducing the nations away from the truth of God and His Word. The whole account of what happened at Babel with its anti-God dictator, its organized rebellion against God, and its direct distrust of God’s promise was an example that humanity didn’t improve morally or in relation to God since the flood. Time, progress, government, and organization may make humanity better off, but not better.

What does it mean to you?

1. Whom do you trust?

 How we talk, live and build reveals whom or what we trust in. The world trusts in everything else but God. They trust in themselves, the government, health care, etc. The people building the tower trusted in themselves to provide for themselves, and even to the point of making sure they survived if another flood came. They had no faith in the promise of God.

Noah’s faith and trust in the Lord was not passed down to all his descendants. Parenting fail. We are all apart of a family tree- what will yours look like? Why didn’t Ham tell his children about the flood and the safety God provided? How can you go through something so big and devastating and NOT tell your children of the goodness of God? Of His deliverance and salvation?

Matt and I are first generation Christians, we have changed our family tree. If I fail to pass my faith onto my children and grandchildren, then I have failed. Yes, people ultimately have a choice to serve the Lord or not, but I have a responsibility to make my faith sure to the next generation. 

2 Timothy 1:5 when I call to remembrance the [a]genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.

This verse highlights a spiritual heritage, showing how godly examples in the home greatly influenced Timothy’s faith. Your home life needs to match your confession. WE have a responsibility to pass on our faith to our children, to guard their hearts and minds, to keep them safe from Babylon’s influence. We are citizens of another country.

WE have a kingdom culture that is not of this world. (expound) PASS THIS CULTURE ON

Your first ministry is your family. If you are too consumed with making a name for yourself, making money, or “living your best life now”, you will fail to teach your children the tenets of Scripture. 

Fathers- teach your children to love the Lord! To read their Bibles, to pray, to tithe, to serve, give and to not forsake the gathering. Teach them holiness and to turn from sin and unrighteousness. Mothers, stop fighting your husband when he disciplines the children. Stop undermining his authority. You are the vine.

Stop teaching them to pursue things that don’t matter. The percentage of people who play sports professionally is extremely small, less than 1% from high school to pro and fewer than 2% of all NCAA athletes go pro, but there is 100% guarantee your kids will stand before Jesus and give an account of their lives.

2. Beware of pride.

Pride prompts men to build things to promote their own name. As children of God and citizens of His Kingdom, we are called to a submissive relationship with our Lord and Savior—our King. Sin takes over whenever we build upon any other foundation. When exercised apart from God’s sovereign rule, independence becomes arrogance—honor becomes pride—and autonomy becomes idolatry.

The heart of pride, is the heart of Satan- “I will ascend”. 

Isaiah 14:13-14  For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’

It should be noted that satan was cast down for not what he did, but what was in his heart to do. 

Tozer said this about pride,

“The desire for honor among men makes belief in Christ impossible.”

“In every Christian’s Heart, there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne till he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross, he remains on the throne. Perhaps this is at the bottom of the backsliding and worldliness among Gospel believers today. We want to be saved, but we insist that Christ do all the dying. No cross for us, no dethronement, no dying. We remain king within the little kingdom of man’s soul and wear our tinsel crown with all the pride of a caesar; but we doom ourselves to shadows and weakness and spiritual sterility.”

“Nothing that comes from God will minister to my pride of self-congratulation. If I am tempted to be complacent and to feel superior because I have had a remarkable vision or an advanced spiritual experience, I should go at once to my knees and repent of the whole thing. I have fallen victim to the enemy.”

Pride is spiritual high blood pressure- the silent killer. Our heart needs to be constantly checked and examined regularly for pride. If you cannot be corrected, you have pride. If you always have to be right and want your own way, you have pride.

3. Beware of Babylon’s influence.

The tower’s structure is key to identifying Babel’s actual sin—The fact that Noah’s descendants chose to build a ziggurat-style tower, showed that they had allowed paganism to invade their heritage of faith in the One True God. Ziggurats were structures intended to provide stairways from the heavens to earth to provide a convenient means to reach heaven.  Babel means “confusion”. The Greeks added and ending to Babel from which we get the word Babylon. The later Babylonians didn’t like the meaning confusion and divided the name in an ungrammatical way to interpret it as Bab-el, “gate of God”

Babylon embodies the human desire for power, wealth, and security outside of God’s authority. It is in our television programming, ads, social media, government, schools- It is teaching autonomy, a self-governance apart from the laws and commands of the Lord. It is idolatry of self- “I am my own god”, we are seeing this largely in the school system and the government taking away parental rights, kids can decide for themselves to mutilate their flesh

Modern-day towers of Babel are still being constructed—mankind continues to reach for the heavens and God, on their own terms, by their own means, using their own skill. 

Remember Babylon is a SYSTEM. The world is telling us what is good and what is evil. What is love and what is hate. The world doesn’t get to tell us these things- God does. 

4. God intervenes in the affairs of men. 

Unity among wicked men produces wickedness. The Superbowl half-time show was a great illustration of Babylon’s influence for unity. On the outside it looks like “unity and love”, but the lyrics and the dancing were horribly obscene. Many were fooled by the outward appearance, not even understanding the language. You may say, “crystal you don’t understand, you are not Puerto rican.” I am American and a woman, but neither JLo, Beyonce or Katie Perry represent me. Christ represent me and other Christians. I have more unity with Mugi than those women. He doesn’t look like me, sound like me, come from the same place I come from- but we are unified by the blood of Christ. We are citizens of the same country. 

Babylon is pushing a narrative that is antichrist. WE reject it. God tells us what unity looks like. God tells us what love is. NOT Babylon 

But here is the salve- unity among believers produces a great and powerful work of the Lord!!

Praise the Lord! Consequently, the day of Pentecost, when tongues of fire were seen and the languages were once more confounded by God, He was restoring what happened at the tower of Babel, redeeming all nations back to Himself through Jesus Christ. These 120 believers were unified- one mind one place

Acts 2:1-12  When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all [a]with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them [b]divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own [c]language in which we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and [d]Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” 12 So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?”

We see in this the same language used at the tower of Babel when God “confounded the languages” used in the Greek to describe a restoring of something that was lost. God brings the nations back together, opening up salvation for all men, through His Son Jesus Christ, using language as a sign of His approval.

Unified prayer in the house of God opens the heavens for God to intervene on our behalf.

2 Chronicles 7:13-15  When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.

One mind- glorify the Lord, His will be done, Lord have your way

One place- gathered together in the house of the Lord

Our prayers rise to the throne room, He hears, He answers and HE heals