Tower of Babel
The whole earth was of one language and of one speech. The people journeyed from the east, and they found a plain in the land of Shinar. And they dwelt there.
The people (one to another): Let us make brick and burn them thoroughly.
So, they had brick for stone and slime for mortar.
The people: Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach to heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
What had God told Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:28) and Noah and his family (Genesis 9:1) to do? Be fruitful and multiple and fill the earth. But the people stayed together. They didn’t want to be scattered over the face of the earth (rebellion), because they wanted to make a name for themselves (pride). They would show their strength and power by building a tower to heaven. Maybe they would even show that they didn’t need God.
The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.
The Lord: Behold, the people is one, and they all have one language; and they begin to do this. Now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Let us go down there, and confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
So, the Lord scattered them abroad from there upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Therefore, the name of it is called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from there the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
“The Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth.” That was what God had intended – that they fill the earth. But that’s what the people didn’t want. They wanted to band together and show their power and make a name for themselves.
God separated the people by families and nations. (vs 9) Again we are told that God divided the people by family and nations. Remember Genesis 10 told us God separated the people after their families, after their languages/ tongues, in their lands/countries, and in their nations. (Vs 5,20,31).
Notice “race” is not mentioned. God speaks only of families, languages, countries and nations. Man came up with the idea of races distinguished by color.
Genesis 3:20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
Acts 17:26 God has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth…
Revelation 14:6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.
Genesis Encounter 