Genesis 11:1 Now the whole earth had one language and one 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 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 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. (NKJ)

I think we have only a little understanding of the vast ramifications of this simple sounding nine verse event. It sounds like some people were acting obnoxious and God went down and changed their speech. And because of that act, they couldn’t get along and quit the project they were working on. The story sounds quite funny when you try to imagine what it was like to go to work that day on the big tower they were building. Benjamin walks up to Reuben and says, "would you pick up that group of bricks and hand them to me, please?" Reuben ignores him and keeps on working. Benjamin says again, "hey, earth to Reuben, pick up the bricks." By this time Reuben realizes that something fundamental is happening in their relationship and looks at Benjamin with a concerned and quizzical look on his face. "The bricks, buddy, the bricks. You know the bricks? Pick them up." Reuben’s response is, ";lkj ;alkj ;oij s;oifj poqiej oij ;oiaj ;leijr ." And he says it with the emotional context of "who do you think you are, speaking that gibberish to me with such a condescending attitude?" Benjamin’s response is, "what has happened to you? You act like you are from a different planet. Yesterday you were normal, today you are weird!"

I imagine that if we had a video of that day, we would roll on the floor watching the shocked interactions of these people as they tried to sort out what was going on. People just changed. Their best friends, all of a sudden, started acting strangely. And they didn’t know what to do because they couldn’t talk about it. The only talking they could do was with the few who spoke their language. No one else understood. It probably went down in history as the strangest day at the office.

And what happened? What are the results? Let me see if I can describe the event in three categories that point out the seriousness and significance of what happened. Babel was the location for an unprecedented transformation in history, where the earth changed from one family into a world of mutually exclusive nations. Verse nine ends with "from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth." Where did the American Indians come from? Babel. Where did Chinese people come from? Babel. Where did all these "primitive" tribes come from? Babel. Where did you and I come from? Babel.

A. The Command was to scatter. Genesis 9:1 says: Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth." Genesis 9:7 " As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it." God intended that the people move out in all the directions of the compass and fill up the earth.

To begin with the entire human family moved together, down from Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey into Iraq, to the fertile valley bounded by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. They came to the land of "Shinar" described in 10:10 as the location of Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh. Today it is known as "the Persian Gulf." It was a land of incredible fertility and productiveness, since it was well watered by the twin rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates. Shinar real estate was easily the best property they had seen in their journeys It was there that this fateful decision was made to make Iraq their permanent headquarters

Remember we are talking about one family here. The first verse of chapter 11 indicates that the entire population was of one "language" and one "speech." The word "language" is the word "lip" and denotes the action of speaking, the pronouncing of words and connecting them into sentences. Everyone was doing it the same way. The word "speech" is the word, "word" or "words" which point to the substance of the language, the vocabulary, the materials that the lip uses when it verbalizes. They all used the same dictionary. The New Living translation captures the thought: At one time the whole world spoke a single language and used the same words.

B. The choice was to settle down and build. They decided that the best thing to do was to build a city with a tower "unto" heaven. Verse four summarizes their decision: "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." The New Living Bible translates it, "Let's build a great city with a tower that reaches to the skies-- a monument to our greatness! This will bring us together and keep us from scattering all over the world."

The plan involved at least three parts: (1) A large and imposing city and tower. This would not be the normal type city that grew accidentally, but it would be planned like Columbia, MD, with every part designed to enhance the picture. The tower would dominate the cityscape as a monument to their capabilities. The tower reaching to heaven, or "tower unto heaven" suggests a tower not only reaching unto heaven, but a tower dedicated to the heavens, a religious symbol, a place of worship of the heavens. (2) A name for themselves. They wanted notoriety. The huge city would put them "on the map," literally. (3) Protection from being scattered." You would expect the opposite given the natural human desire to explore and travel, and camp, and study new regions. Perhaps the reasoning was that building the city would get most people involved in a project so that they would not want to wander out. Thus the choice was based on disobedience to God’s clear command. God had said, "scatter." The family decided to permanently live in Iraq.

Verse 3 describes the practical outworking of the plan: "We are going to have to start a brick making industry." "Go to" = "let’s go build a BRICKS WORKS which can give us fired bricks. We will need to build brick kilns to fire the bricks. We are going to have to develop an "asphalt" operation." There was much to do and it would involve the participation of everyone.

Question: why build a city and a tower? Why would they want to restrain their David Livingstones and your Christopher Columbuses and your Davy Crocketts and your Magellens and restrict their exploring natures to a construction project? Some have suggested that they were afraid another flood would come and they wanted something tall enough to withstand the height of the water. I think these people were smarter than that. They knew God’s "rainbow" promise that He would never again flood the earth. There had to be something far more serious here. I believe that the building of a tower was connected to a religion, a new religion that was very nicely, very gently substituting something else for God’s authority – man. Archaeologists have discovered more than 2 dozen of these "babel towers," called ziggurats in the region of Babylonia. Here’s the striking observation they have made: every one of them is a place of worship. Actually the very word, "ziggurat" or ziqquratu is a Babylonian word that denotes a sacred temple tower and means a "pinnacle" or a "mountain top" (Unger’s Bible Dictionary, 114). The ziggurat at Ur, for example, the place where Abraham was born and grew up was dedicated to the god, Nannar. The ziggurat at Borsippa, some 10 miles southwest of Babylon was dedicated to the god Nebo (Unger, 115). I think that this tower at Babel, likewise, was designed as a place of worship.

Henry Morris suggests that the tower was presented to the people as a mark of true religion. It would symbolize the glory and strength of the God in heaven. It would contain a temple with an altar at the base of the tower where men could offer their sacrifices to God. The signs of the zodiac would be etched into the ornate ceiling and walls of the temple calling out the great story of creation and redemption (Morris, 270). "The impressive beauty and sacred purpose of the tower would, in the reasonings of the people, surely please God and more than compensate for the fact that the entire project was contrary to God’s commandment and would glorify human achievement rather than recognize human frailty and divine salvation" (Morris, 270). It would be in reality, "Babylon," the "gate of god," (which is what the name, "Babylon" means).

C. The Leader of the rebellion was a great man. Where did this unified decision to disobey God come from if they are all one happy "God-fearing" family? Noah was still alive, wasn’t he? Shem was there, since it was only about 100 years after the flood. What has happened in 100 short years? We have to go back to chapter 10 to pick up on the man who became the leader for this movement, NIMROD. Do you remember him? He is one of the "sons of Cush." Cush, a son of Ham, from Shem, Ham and Japheth fame, the three sons of Noah, had 6 sons of his own, and Nimrod was apparently the youngest of the six. He is described in amazing terms in 10:8-12: Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD." The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.

This man grew to be a "mighty warrior" on the earth and was so impressive that he set the standard. He was the one to which other great people were compared. Apparently it was an honor to have it said of you that you were "like Nimrod." He became a leader, perhaps even "the leader" of his time. He obviously had incredible energy and ability to lead and direct people. You can tell that in the cities that he organized and developed. He built four cities on the Euphrates river and then he went north about two hundred miles and built four cities on the Tigris river. And these weren’t any, small, "3 acre cities." Babylon was one of the greatest cities in the world. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire. Nimrod had enormous talents. How would you like to "build" Bowie? What would be involved in building the city of Bowie? Doesn’t it sound too complicated to even want to think about it? And yet Nimrod did this at least eight times. He was perhaps the greatest empire builder the world has ever known.

But was he a "good" guy? Or was he a "bad" guy? It’s kind of hard to tell from the first reading of the text. But there are several indications that Nimrod was not a "good" guy, but instead the one who led the people into false religion.

Take his name, for example. "Nimrod," means "let us rebel!" On the other hand, he is called a "mighty hunter before the Lord." How does "rebel" fit in with "a mighty hunter?" The key is probably in the word "hunter," which can be translated by the word "tyrant," a mighty tyrant before the Lord. "Tyrant" seems to fit his name better. He was a "warrior" in the sense of fighting to do his thing, rebelling, dominating others. He was a "hunter" in the sense of hunting people, searching them out and persuading them to obey his direction. He goal was to build his own rule because 10:10 speaks of the beginning of his kingdom. He was into building his kingdom, and the first four cities are described as the "beginning." This means that his kingdom included at least eight cities, two of which were great cities of history.

Thus, it looks like Nimrod was not only "bad," but that he was a leader in his form of sin. The Jerusalem Targum says: "He was powerful in hunting and in wickedness before the Lord, for he was a hunter of the sons of men, and he said to them, ‘Depart from the judgment of the Lord, and adhere to the judgment of Nimrod!’ Therefore it is said: ‘As Nimrod the strong one, strong in hunting, and in wickedness before the Lord’" (Quoted from Morris on Genesis, 252).

Martin Luther says that the phrase "a mighty hunter before the Lord" indicates that he was attacking the Lord. He was a mighty hunter against the Lord. Luther says, "he not only wanted to be mighty in government, but he also wanted to rule in religion; he invades it and exercises tyranny over it, just as the pope does today" (Genesis, 197). He was into making a name for himself as the "greatest." Everything he accomplished was apparently motivated by his self-centered aim. At Babel he saw the potential of the situation. If everyone scattered, they would remain weak. But if they could unite themselves the possibility existed of establishing "a strongly centralized society which, with controls over resources and occupations, would soon be able to produce a self-sufficient civilization capable of similarly controlling the entire world" (Morris, 268). "A self-sufficient society, integrated under a powerful and brilliant leader, would be a society no longer dependent on God. And this was Nimrod’s aim" (Morris, 268).

This week we have been reminded again of the immense importance of a leader. We have mourned together the passing of Ronald Wilson Reagan. What a tremendous blessing he was to our nation. Here is part of the introduction to the 14 page spread this week in Time magazine, by Nancy Gibbs: "Hope is an infectious disease, and Reagan was a carrier. The country he courted and finally won over in 1980 was a dispirited place, humiliated abroad, uncertain at home, with a hunger for heroes but little faith that they could make any difference. But you can, he told us. I am not the hero, you are. "Let us renew our faith and our hope," he declared in his first Inaugural Address. "We have every right to dream heroic dreams." And he would serve as Dreamer in Chief" (32-34).

Listen to this introduction of another piece by Richard Lacayo and John F. Dickerson: "Ronald Reagan utterly remade the American political landscape. Even Bill Clinton, as adroit a politician as America has known, had to conduct his entire presidency in the confined political space in which Reagan placed him. It was because of Reagan that Clinton had to promise to end welfare as we know it. It was because of Reagan that he spoke the fateful line, ‘The era of Big Government is over’" (51).

And why did he have such a powerful impact? Because he was more than an actor. He was more than words and rhetoric. His life possessed character. There was integrity, there was a determination to do what was right, what was to be a benefit for someone other than himself. As George H. W. Bush said, "I learned about principle, I learned about kindness, I learned about humor. Ronald Reagan was unfailingly courteous to the people around him, thoughtful to the little guy, the elevator operator, the butler at the White House" (62).

What have we as Americans done to deserve such excellent leadership? Country after country in the world has suffered under Nimrod-type leadership while we enjoy the benefits of a leader like Ronald Reagan. Why? "America, America, God shed His Grace on thee." Have you thanked Him for the marvelous blessings your country has granted you?

A. God saw something else in the project. 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.

The fact of the matter was that the people were "one" (one race, one purpose), and they had one language or lip. They understand each other’s thoughts and language; communication was 100%. No misunderstanding had slowed down the interchange of their thoughts and plans. "This is what they begin to do" suggests the beginning of something significant. God could see the ultimate end of this decision; it might have looked small and insignificant at the moment, but He knew the gigantic (and horror filled) end to which it was headed. And what was the end result that He could foresee? "now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them."

In other words, some kind of power breakthrough was near. Apparently if they had been able to finish their planned tower, they would have created a unity and a power base that would have greatly expanded their ability and capability. Something was about to happen. That tower signified TEAM EVIL, in a new, vastly more significant way. This is not just Evil Kenevel, but Evil Concentrate. They were on the verge of something BIG. Their accomplishments for evil were going to become super sized.

B. God’s actions. What God did seems very simple. "Let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." He simply added misunderstanding to their family and relationships. He simply switched the principles on which languages were formed, and gave everyone another set of vocabulary words. "Go to, let us go" (7) reflects the decision of the Lord, in a sense duplicating the decision of humans in verse 4, "go to, let us build." We see here the council of the Almighty, deliberating the future of man’s rebellion.

And what happened to family members when they couldn’t understand one another? Everybody viewed everyone else as STUPID! "Here I am speaking the King’s English," they said, "and these guys just look at me and don’t move. Yesterday they understood my directions. Today they look and stand there as if what I am speaking is weird. And they talk back to me in a gibberish that makes me think that something happened to them mentally." A huge problem arises. Have you ever been in a foreign land in the middle of a group of people speaking something you don’t understand? What’s your reaction? You don’t know if they are talking about you, and laughing about your ignorance. You don’t know what they are doing. You don’t know what to do when you are standing in front of them listening to them. You can’t pick their brain, you can’t understand where the other person is, you can’t make plans together. All the happy habits of family life fail. Instead, misunderstanding. With misunderstanding comes suspicion and mistrust. And your basic desire is – GET OUT OF THERE! It’s uncomfortable. It’s threatening.

The end result is to separate and go your way. Find someone you can speak to and retreat to your own piece of real estate to make your own plans and have your own fellowship, with "people who can talk to you." You take your cattle and sheep and move them to a separate location, you do business with different people who speak your tongue, and you gradually move apart.

It’s not necessary to believe that all 70 basic languages were created that day, or the 5000 or so languages and tribal tongues that we find today. It was the process that was created, a process that has developed into trade languages and tribal tongues that have changed and developed over time.

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 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.

A. City building stopped. The grand plan ground to a halt. The workers union couldn’t stay together because they couldn’t understand each other. The project managers couldn’t get anyone to do what they wanted because none of the workers understood them. So the city and tower stood unfinished as a monument to man’s pride and ambition. And the unfinished city and area was given a name which sticks until today – Babal, which is defined in verse nine as "confusion." The word probably is onomatopoetic, it gets it’s definition and sound from the real sound of the city – just a babble of unintelligible voices. It’s like the word "buzz," or "hiss" where the very sound suggests the sense of the word. From Babel we get our name, "Babylon." Actually the name, "Babylon" is the improved version of Babel. The name, Babylon is normally assumed to be derived from the Accadian word, babilu, which means "gate of god." I think these two definitions are very interesting because they picture the opposing forces at work in the origin of Babylon. God made the area "confusion" by His judgment on man’s attempt to become great, while man pictures his work as building the "gate of god." Thus the city Babylon, and the country, Babylonia all came out of the original event at Babel.

Babel thus is the seat of rebellion against God; it is the seat of man’s attempt to do his own thing, to worship his own way, to build his own name, to create his own empire. It stood as a monument to the rise of the religion of "man," the religion of "we are gods," "we can do whatever we want." And the title that God wrote over the entire enterprise was one word, "confusion," "babble." It had nothing to do with worship, it had nothing to do with pleasing God. It was nothing more than mankind’s confusion.

B. People scattered by language groups. Since they couldn’t understand each other, they couldn’t work together, they didn’t trust each other. So they just moved away, each with his own language group.

According to Henry Morris, geological expansion was probably rapid. The population grew quickly since longevity was still high and it was advantageous for each family to have as many children as possible. The stronger, more industrious, more intelligent tribes took over the better regions and soon became great nations. The weaker and less ambitious families were pushed further and further away from the larger centers of civilization, and were probably forced to colonize new regions entirely.

As a result of this language separation, we find the formation of NATIONS, and all that goes with national interests – wars, fighting over real estate, etc. It’s quite an interesting thought to realize that all the nations of the world have spread out from Iraq. That country was indeed the cradle of civilization, in terms of the source of all the nations. This process of migration and cultural development did not take long ages, as evolutionists imagine. Rather the entire world was inhabited within a few generations at most. Increasingly in recent years archaeology has confirmed that civilization appeared suddenly, in all parts of the world at virtually the same time. And the date is usually 5000 to 6000 BC (275).

As each family migrated away from Babel, they developed their own distinctive culture as well as distinctive physical and biological characteristics. Since they could communicate only within their family unit, they were marrying within their family unit. It is well known genetically that variations take place quickly in a small inbreeding population, but much more slowly in larger interbreeding population. Thus in a few generations, distinctive characteristics of skin color, height, hair texture, facial features, temperament, environmental adjustment, and other unique features could come to be associated with particular tribes and nations (276).

The striking feature to remember about all of this is that it was all language generated.

All the different nations in their different locations, all the different colors and types of people, even sizes and unique physical characteristics, all the different temperaments and attitudes of coping with their environment, came about because God changed the language.

C. Babylon still exists as a symbol of man’s greatness. And where is Babylon on a world map? It is the country of Iraq, about 55 miles south of Baghdad. Think of the significance of this city in history. What was the first country to conquer Israel and Judah in their disobedience and take them into captivity? Babylon. And where did Nebuchadnezzar live and die? And where did God introduce Himself to Nebuchadnezzar through Daniel? Where did Alexander the Great die in 323 BC? Hammurabi (1955-1913 BC) was the sixth and greatest king of the first Dynasty in Babylon.

Don’t think that what we are doing in Iraq is insignificant. It fits into prophecy. And if I could give a little Schuppe false doctrine, let me describe the way I think things could possibly go in the future. America has received by God’s grace a president that is rather unbelievable, given this day and age. He is a Christian and walks with God. He shouldn’t have been elected, because his opponent seemed to have more votes. The president, directed by God, sets out to disrupt terrorist networks and the seat of terrorism. And in the process goes after Saddam Hussein as one of the parts in the Axis of evil.

He liberates Iraq and is enabled by God to set up a form of Government which, whether or not it functions very well as a democracy, nevertheless, frees Babylon for growth and development similar to that which America stirred in Japan after World War II. As a result, in a very short time, Babylon becomes one of the top cities in the world, the head of commerce, the head of the mercantile industry, especially as the fortunes of America go down and commerce moves east. But more than anything else, Babylon becomes the headquarters for something of great significance – THE RELIGION, the religion of Nimrod, its founder, the one religion that is going to bring all the religions of the world together into a united notions. It’s the religion of HUMANISM, the religion of human empowerment, the religion of the deity of man. And the one fly in the united ointment of this universal religion is Christianity, which specializes in the simple fact that man CAN’T do it, because all humans are sinners and have gone astray and have turned to their own individual ways. God alone has the answer to man’s need.

Revelation 17-18 go into quite a bit of detail about a city in the future that is introduced as a "woman" who is a "prostitute." She has committed adultery with the kings of the earth, she has gotten the inhabitants of the earth drunk. And this woman has a title on her forehead in Revelation 17:5 that says, "Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth." She personally was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus (17:6). Thus there is a city in the future, named "Babylon," which will attack believers and wage war against the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. As we speak the city of Babylon is being rebuilt. Saddam Hussein started rebuilding it in 1980 and viewed himself as Nebuchadnezzar II. What Babylon the Great is going to do in the future is continue what Nimrod and the people at the tower of Babel began. The confusion of tongues was only an interruption in man’s plans to take over the world his way.

So keep your seat belts fastened. I think we will see more of Babylon in the future. Watch the world come together more and more through the web, through TV and satellite technology. And watch these many different religions come together under the banner of humanism. As they do, the "odd man out" is going to be YOU, if you name and proclaim the name of Jesus Christ. Expect it. Enjoy it. Stand up for Jesus Christ, because it won’t be long.

06/13/04, BBC am