Thoughts on Genesis 11
Genesis 11:4 The purpose of the Tower of Babel was to make a name for themselves. Why did God take affront to this? Proverbs 18:10 starts giving me a clue. “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” So building their own tower was not righteous, or rather, they were building their own righteousness… they were challenging God.
It was the first time in history that mankind was organized into a cohesive unit, but with man as the head instead of God. It was the first pyramid scheme. Nimrod (the king at that time) is usually credited with bringing all the people together and organizing them them into a cohesive unit with one purpose. He did this by employing with what I would call an earmark or identifying feature of mankind’s society even today. With himself at the top, he gathered other men under him, that he was the boss over, who helped him in organizing the people. In turn, these men had others underneath them, continuing downwards and getting larger with each successive level. Everyone had a boss or was the boss of someone else… man, over man, over man until all were busy and working as a cohesive unit. With each higher level came greater responsibility, power, control and privilege. But it had man at its top in place of God. To accomplish this, their tools were not built on righteousness, they were built with pride and fear. They began by wanting to make a name for themselves, and they were afraid to be alone and to be scattered across the face of the earth. But scattering is just what God did. Pride is the first thing listed in Proverbs 6:16-17 that God hates, while the spirit of fear is NOT given by God (2 Timothy 1:7), it is given by man.
I am beginning to realize God may have a principle, implied but not written down. If something isn’t right, He divides it until it becomes good in His sight. This happened at day one when He divided light from darkness, it happened in all the other days of creation too. He even divided Adam into Adam and Eve when Adam’s situation became, “Not good”. He divided Cain from society, Abraham from his homeland, and instructed him how to divide sacrifices, Joseph was divided from his family for good… the survival of the famine and enrichment of the Children of Israel. God separated the animals 2 by 2 and Noah from the rest of the world that perished. He divided the Red Sea to let the Children of Israel escape to the Promised Land, HE was the One who rent the veil in two at Jesus’ death. HE used all these things and many many more for HIS reason, not ours. Division is the tool HE uses when something is not right. We have no choice in HIS judgment. It is HIS right as God… and He is still doing it today.
It may seem grievous at the time, but dividing is not a bad thing as God sees it. God keeps dividing and we keep getting another chance to get things right. Look even in more, modern-day history and see God’s hand. History repeats itself because God is refining His people. Yes, we can learn from history.
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