(continued from the post about Peleg)
Why did God scatter the peoples at the tower of Babel? He had already commanded people to fill the earth in a positive way (Gen 1:28). But now God divided peoples in a negative way because they wanted to build a tower reaching to heaven (11:4). Technically, this may have been a ziggurat, which people of this region understood as providing a connection between heaven and earth, inviting visits from the gods. But in the context of Genesis, their action of trying to reach heaven echoes the primeval sin of trying to take the place of God (3:5; cf. Isa 14:13). Ultimately, God himself was the one to establish a conduit between heaven and earth, as in Jacob’s dream about the place where angels were ascending and descending (Gen 28:12). (In John’s Gospel, Jesus is Jacob’s ladder, the way to the Father; John 1:51 with 1:47.)
Further, the people sought to make a name for themselves, to establish their own honor (Gen 11:4). By contrast, God soon promised to make Abram’s name great (12:2). As in the case of connecting to heaven, the issue was not whether God could bless such a connection or such honor. The issue was the recognition that it must come from God, not from human determination. God chose to exalt and bless his obedient servant, not those who simply took their destiny into their own hands without seeking to obey him.
Just as God did not want the primeval sinners to seize perpetual life in their fallen state (Gen 3:22), he did not want fallen people to achieve everything within their potential reach (11:6). If we are tempted to ask why, we need only consider the past century. Technology has produced wonderful benefits for humanity that are surely God’s gift, especially in medicine, agriculture, and the like. But it has also degraded the environment, particularly conspicuously in Nigeria’s Delta, Congo’s Pool region, and elsewhere. It has produced weapons of mass destruction. While we may suggest that possessing them functions as a deterrent against aggressors, the very reason for needing a deterrent is that some people will use them irresponsibly. In other words, whereas technology itself is a blessing, it is amoral in itself—it can be used for good or for evil. And humanity’s moral character has not changed. Like the people at Babel, today we can do more and more things; despite an increasing global economy, humanity’s continuing division has so far prevented one unscrupulous empire from controlling everything (whether that be a Third Reich, a Soviet empire, ISIS, or even an absolute oligarchically-controlled consumer market).
But God’s kingdom offers a different approach to the global diversity of languages and cultures. Whereas God came down at Babel to confuse people’s languages (Gen 11:7), at Pentecost Jesus, now exalted to heaven, sent the Spirit to his people, empowering them to worship in others’ languages (Acts 2:4). The Babel narrative follows the Bible’s first listing of the nations (Gen 10); the language groups represented at Pentecost reflect a first-century updating of the same geographic spheres (Acts 2:9-11). At Babel, God scattered peoples into disunity to keep them from a dangerous unity. At Pentecost, God honors the diversity of peoples by empowering his people to worship him in all languages. That is the point, after all, of Spirit empowerment in Acts: inspiration to speak God’s message among all peoples (1:8). As Denzil Miller and others have pointed out, this empowerment further is available to members of all peoples, who thus become partners, sharers together, in God’s mission (Acts 8:15-17; 10:44-47).
In the same way, Revelation depicts an evil empire that seeks to control and exploit all peoples and languages, epitomizing a world alienated from God (Rev 11:9; 13:7; 17:15), echoing Babylon’s empire of old (Dan 3:4, 7, 29; cf. 5:19). But, as also in Daniel (Dan 7:14, 27; cf. 6:25-26), God himself would have a multicultural people from all peoples and languages who would honor him (Rev 5:9; 7:9; cf. 11:15). Babel illustrates the unity of an evil empire; God’s kingdom, by contrast, is the ultimate, perfect, eternal unity of those who will worship him.
Other Genesis posts in this series include: God’s love in creation, God’s goodness messed up, the Flood, Peleg, God’s call, and God’s promise
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