THE TOWER OF BABEL

THE TOWER OF BABEL

Genesis 9:18-11:19

A new world lay before Noah and his family when they stepped out of the ark. Over time the number of people grew and grew until the earth became as full of people as it was before the flood. From the mountains of Ararat, where the ark came to rest, people went into the valley of Mesopotamia and lived on a plain in the land of Shinar.

“Let us build for ourselves a city,” the people said after they reached Shinar. They wanted the city to have a tower whose top would reach to the sky. They thought it was important that they make a name for themselves, “Otherwise,” they said, “we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” And so the people went to work.

Then something happened that the people had not expected. God came to see the city and the tower. He did not talk to the builders, and they probably did not know that He had been there to look at their work. But God was not pleased with what He saw. He knew that the people would become more sinful if they finished the giant tower. They were already thinking more and more about their own work and less and less about the God who gave them the strength to do their work. Soon they might completely forget God and worship what they made instead. So God decided to stop them.

Until this time all the people in the world spoke one language. But God suddenly caused them to speak different languages. The people of one family could not understand what their neighbors were talking about. As a result they could not keep on building the city because the workers could not understand one another. Then they all moved away from one another and were scattered everywhere. This was the very thing they thought building the city would prevent. The unfinished city was named Babel.