April 13, 2024

Picture of Tower of Babel

—I’d like to visit a familiar event from the book of Genesis. Sometimes the answer to a mysterious question is staring us right in the face, and we just need to read carefully what the Bible says. Many Christians wonder why the Tower of Babel was built.

—I have heard many different ideas and guesses as to what was going on there. Well, by the time we get to the narrative in Genesis 11, God had already commanded mankind to “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.” We read that command to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28, and God reissued that creation mandate to Noah and his sons in 9:1—a mandate, by the way, that God has never rescinded.

—The reason why the Tower of Babel was built is stated plainly in 11:4, “And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’” You see, God was not pleased with humanity so brazenly disobeying His will to spread out over the earth. He responded in the most effective way possible to split them up—by mixing their languages. Vs. 8 states, “So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.” So, the problem with the tower was not the tower itself, but the people’s motive, their unwillingness to live according to God’s sovereign plan for mankind in relation to the globe.

—Adam Keim