“You thought you had it figured out”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Thursday, January 20, 2022

Genesis 11:1-9 (Forward, p. 83) CEV p. 10

It is absolutely straight-forward, yes? We have all read and heard the story of the Tower of Babel so many times that we almost know it by heart. But, do we? Let’s look at the account and see what it says—and doesn’t say. (I mention this second option because it is well-nigh possible that later commentators on the passage have elaborated on the passage with details not actually found in it.)

The issues with the passage come right in its opening verse: “At first everyone spoke the same language.” That is the key idea of the story, one that is echoed again in verses 6-9. But then, only one chapter earlier, in chapter 10, we read a disturbing and seemingly conflicting statement, not once, but three times: “These were the descendants of [Japheth, Ham, Shem], living in their different tribes and countries, each group speaking its own language” (verses 5, 20, 31). So, it would appear that the story of the Tower of Babel is misplaced, and should be placed one chapter earlier, that is, before the genealogies of chapter 10. Actually, that makes abundant sense because the genealogies don’t actually contribute anything to the flow of the story.

The succeeding verses continue with our confusion. The CEV translation reads, “At first everyone spoke the same language, but after some of them moved from the east [alternate translation, ‘to the east’] and settled in Babylonia” (verses 1-2). Actually, the Hebrew text renders Babylonia as Shinar, which may or may not be the same place at all. The Good News Bible is no less helpful: “As they wandered about in the East, they came to a plain in Babylonia and settled there.” (By the way, the King James Version rightly translates Babylon as Shinar.) But where is this place to be located? And is it a region, a general area, or is it a special location, even a particular city? Bible commentators have jumped to all sorts of conclusions about this, but here the Biblical evidence is less than conclusive, for it seems at times to say one thing and at other times another. We can guess that it is ‘somewhere’ in Mesopotamia but whether in the south or the north, we can’t know for sure.

Once settled in that area, these folks decide to build something rather permanent and to do so with local materials and with a technology that became rather customary for the area. Instead of stone and mortar they decide to use fire hardened brick, with tar to hold them together. This is rather in keeping with the vast oil reserves that were later found to exist in this area. They then decide to build a city with a tower that reaches up to the sky. This is surely reminiscent of the ziggurats made famous by many Middle Eastern civilizations, but once again scholars have jumped to the conclusion that it is one particular place or another, whereas we simply don’t know.

The idea of reaching into the very heavens themselves is echoed in many of these ziggurats, as not only as being the places where the heavenly deities would be worshipped but even being the dwelling places of these particular deities. Theologically speaking, even that poses a great difficulty; surely, that is an affront to God. However, this is never directly mentioned in our text, so it remains something of an assumption.

Here, however, as we progress along, is where the narrative gets ‘interesting’. These people wanted to become famous, to make a name for themselves, and had a particular agenda in mind. They didn’t want to be scattered all over the world. This was in direct disobedience, in direct contrast, to what God had previously ordered. In the story of creation in Genesis (Genesis 1:28), He ordered them to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with people” and then, directly after the flood, He reiterates it by saying, “You must have many children that your descendants will live all over the earth” (Genesis 9: 7). So, in building their city and the Tower of Babel they were being distinctly disobedient, not doing as God had commanded.

And so, according to this account, God decided to confound these plans by throwing a monkey wrench into their ability to communicate and work together. He mixed up their languages, imposed varying languages, so they were confused and could not understand each other. And, so they left off with their building plans and drifted apart, thereby becoming scattered across the face of the earth. (Doesn’t this reflect a reality that we know all too well from the state of our world today: when people can’t communicate, when they can’t understand each other, they inevitably drift apart and cease to work together!) So, finally, the people of our story begin, incidentally, to do as God desires.

So, what are we to make of this all too familiar, but relatively unapplied, passage? Certainly, both here and elsewhere in the Bible, Shinar is associated with disobedience and rebellion, and sin in general, but is there anything slightly more specific that we can ‘get’ from it?

Viewed from perspective of the Hebrew Bible as a whole, and from the New Testament as well, we begin to see a pattern, a pattern of ebb and flow, a repeated progression from an individual or small group to all of humankind, and back again.

-from two individuals, Adam and Eve, to the whole human race prior to the flood;

-because of the world’s sin, it was reduced to just Noah and his family, which then expanded to his three sons & their descendants;

-even with the territorial expansion post Babel, it wasn’t quite working out, so God chose one individual, Abraham, and through him, the nation of Israel, to be His instrument of salvation for the entire world;

-but again, that didn’t quit ‘work out’, so He chose just one person, Jesus Christ;

-but then, once again, through Jesus and the Church, God’s mission assumed a new character and ‘took on’ the entire world, and all its peoples. At Pentecost, and thereafter, the curse of Babel could be reversed and undone, once and for all. And, because, after Babel, they were scattered throughout the entire world, the message of salvation could go there.

So, what then is the message here for us? Firstly, that God intends His salvation, the good news of the Gospel, to go to all peoples and all nations, to the entire world, and had planned this, orchestrated it, from the very beginning. Secondly, that God values and uses all languages and cultures and speaks to them and within them. And thirdly, from the ebb and flow noted above, that He can, and does, use particular individuals and groups to facilitate and further His good news. Whoever thought that all this was what God is trying to say through this story of the Tower of Babel? That God speaks to all of humankind and even uses us, you and me, in order to do so. Amen.

Forward notes: “The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the LORD said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them’” (verses 5-6).

“After the flood, scripture tells us that the whole earth had one language and the same words. The Lord came down to see the city and tower and then decided to disperse the people and ‘confuse their language.’

“For years, I couldn’t understand why God would dismantle one singular language to make many languages, scattered across the world.

“Today, though, I view this scripture passage through the dynamics of power and privilege. God saw that folks were building a city where everyone thought alike and spoke the same language. But God desires that we value diversity, not uniformity, that we understand that our strength comes from many voices and ideas and cultures. God dispersed the people to many places with many languages so that no single language or people would tower over the other.”

MOVING FORWARD: “Can you think of examples where we use language to make others feel less than? How can you speak up?”