Tower of Babel
After the flood, Noah’s three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth gave birth to children on the earth, and they multiplied. At that time, their lives and reproduction period were longer than the modern people, so the number of people on the ground increased by multiples quickly. At that time there was a man named Nimrod, and Bible called him a brave hunter. He built big cities in many different places. A city of Babel was built in the Plain of Shinar among of them.
Genesis 11:1 says people all over the world spoke the same language at that time. Verses 3 and 4 says, ”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. 4 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, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth’”.
They had a plan (Nimrod may be was directing this project , although Bible does not directly say that was related to him) to build tower that can reach to the heaven (1) spread their name. (2) prevent them from being scattered all over the earth.
Genesis 11:5 says” And YHWH came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.” Jehovah God came down and see their city and tower “6 And YHWH said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do now will be not impossible for them.”.
God knows that this is the beginning of them. They can do what they want, nothing is impossible for them. And then God says “7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech”. Then, God confused their language.
After that Genesis 11:8,9 says, ”So YHWH dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there YHWH confused the language of all the earth. And from there YHWH dispersed them over the face of all the earth”. After that they stopped building the tower and dispersed over the earth.
Why did God confuse their language? One explanation is that they violated God’s will. Because God’s will is to scatter people all over the world, but they didn’t want scatter, then God confused their language and made their plans fail. That’s true. God’s will is let all people disperse over the world, that I understanding, but something makes me have a question mark which is…
The question is if God didn’t confuse their language in tower of Babel, I believe that they will also be dispersed over the world finally, but maybe the time will be longer and the speed is slower. Because when people become more and more, and that place is not enough for them to live, they would be forced to find another place to live. So, if they would spread over the world finally, then Jehovah God no need to confuse their language. Why God confused them, Bible mentions the main reason clearly in Genesis 11:6 says ‘YHWH GOD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be not impossible for them.” ‘
So Jehovah God said the above main reason why He confused people language, that is “this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be not impossible for them”. One question, is that God afraid people that they can do any what they propose? Absolutely not, for God is Almighty and He is Love. Please think about our world today.
Now we use “World Integration” to describe today’s world, which means many international companies or big consortium make business all over the world. They want to grow their business bigger and bigger, the profit higher and higher. How can they achieve that? One method is monopolistic market, that means they squeeze out business accompanies. Then they can control the price and the market, they can gain as much money as they want by raising the price what they want. How about the small company? They are driven out of the market.
How to gain profit higher and higher? Another method is squeeze employee salaries and vendor profit. Because they are much bigger enough, they can do what they want by performing economic coercion. For employees who have no choice for changing are forced to accept and continue the work. For vendors are almost the same situation, they can only accept the bad payment terms otherwise would lose their business. If God did not confuse people’s language, maybe the “World Integration” that squeezing people would appear much earlier, maybe earlier than Jesus came into the world.
God knows that after Adam and Eve sinned, and even after the Noah’s Flood, people were always thinking evils. Genesis 8:21 says “for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” So you can imagine that what they will propose to do? Evils, because evil are in their mind. If we study the history, we will find that people were very cruel in ancient time, they killed and robbed people’s wives, property and children, they killed people using extremely cruel methods.
Please consider their background, the people have their farms to make food or catch fish themselves, they can go and live anywhere they want, they will ask “why I need to obey the king to build what he wants?” One question, how can the ruler control his people to obey him at that time? The most direct and simple way is to punch them if they don’t listen to him. If they still not obey him, he will kill them and maybe using the cruelest methods to make other people also scared, then those people would listen and obey the ruler.
So why did God confuse their language, He is not afraid people but worry about people(us), He knows that those rulers will hurt the people deeply and they will live in a horrible world in the future. If their mind full of good and willing to do, God will be happy and appreciated. But if these people full of evil then God is worried, He is worried about us. So the wise God confused their language. This makes the ruling power not centralized to the one or a few people, and the another good effect is many different cultures of this world created to make the world more colorful and beautiful. We praise you our God, you are Almighty God with love, good, wisdom and power. Amen.
On the other hand, Genesis 11:2 says “2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.” Genesis 10:10-12 says ” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and 12 Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the ‘great city’.” Bible says that city that building the Tower of Babel is the ‘Great City’
Let’s prayer
Our heavenly Father, you are full of Love, Good, Wisdom and Power, we thank to you that you consider our natures and remember we are dust, you can see anything we can’t see, so we believe and trust you, not only you can see and know what will be happened, but also you are Love. You love us know what is good for us. Thanks God. May all give Praise, Power, Thankful and Glory to you and Jesus Christ. Amen. Prayer is also in Jesus’s name. Amen.
Views: 339
Comments are Closed on this Post