A City and a Tower

Genesis 11:1-9

1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

After the flood in Noah’s day, there was only one language in the whole earth.

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.

Shinar was located in an area later to be known as Babylon.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

This structure that they were about to build was planned without God and would be built with poor materials. It was doomed from the beginning, but the plan and the materials seemed right to the people at that time.

“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man,

but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

(Proverbs 16:25)

4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

The people’s intent was to build a city and a tower out of their own imagination and for their own glory. But God tells us about a different city and tower:

“For he looked for a city which hath foundations,

whose builder and maker is God.”

(Hebrews 11:10)

“The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength,

in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation,

and my high tower.”

(Psalms 18:2)

“Whose top may reach unto heaven”. Men were attempting to reach God by their own intelligence and labor. Many people are attempting this today.

“Let us make us a name”. This city and tower were to be for man’s glory, not God’s.

“From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same

the LORD’S name is to be praised.”

(Psalms 113:3)

5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

When man’s unity is against God, God is against man’s unity. God confounded (confused) their language so that they would be separated from one another and unable to fulfill their ungodly plan.

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Babylon is where the tower of Babel was built. It symbolizes man’s methods to reach God. Someday this city and all that it represents will be destroyed by God. Those who have trusted in its greatness and glory will see their own folly.

“And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone,

and cast it into the sea, saying,

Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down,

and shall be found no more at all.”

(Revelation 18:21)

But God has prepared a new city for those who have received his Son as their Saviour:

“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,

coming down from God out of heaven,

prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

(Revelation 21:2)

God wants you to be a citizen of this city.