The Tower of Babel Genesis 11:1-9

The Tower of Babel represents man’s collective endeavor to assert his autonomy from God.  Babel is the precursor to Babylon, the city of man which is set against the city of God.  The story foreshadows the many atheistic and collectivistic states throughout history.  Even today, members of CPC have lamented that they don’t feel ‘at home’ in American society.  The pressures of secularism and paganism in education, government, and entertainment can feel inexorable and ubiquitous.   

The good news of the story is that “God shatters the monolith Babel.  This judgement reveals God’s faithfulness to his plan of salvation.  For the LORD here breaks up Babel, a monolithic antigod kingdom, in order to begin his kingdom on earth anew with Abram and Israel and through Christ with his church.  The evil empire will not control the whole earth, but nations will oppose each other, thus allowing room for God’s kingdom, like yeast (Matt 13:33) to penetrate the world.”[1]

God scatters the nations at Babel because God intends for His kingdom to encompass them all.  This promise of God providing a light to the nations is made to Abram and Israel.  It finds its fulfillment at Pentecost in which the Spirit “allows the regenerate people to hear and understand one another.  The spirit alters the effects of their languages from deconstructing the community to constructing the new community of the church.”[2]  For the church of Jesus Christ, Pentecost reversed the judgment of Babel.

[1] Sidney Greidanus, Preaching Christ from Genesis: Foundations for Expository Sermons (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 135

[2] Bruce Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary (Carol Stream IL: Zondervan, 2001) 184