Shine the Spotlight

Read Genesis 9:1–11:32

1. At one time all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words.
2. As the people migrated to the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there.
3. They began saying to each other, “Let’s make bricks and harden them with fire.” . . .
4. Then they said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.”
5. But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building.
6. “Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them!
7. Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.” Genesis 11:1-7

We build monuments to great moments and great people. “Lest we forget” is etched on the bronze plates of more than one statue. But monuments are more than just memory aids; in building them we want, above all, to glorify something. We want to honor a person or idealize an event.

Shortly after the Flood, God made a covenant (or agreement) with Noah and his descendants. But soon the people forgot God, his goodness, his deliverance, his judgment, and his promise. And they became impressed with themselves, so much so that they decided to erect a monument—to themselves. They built their tower to glorify their greatness; it became, instead, a memorial to their (and our) greatest foolishness—human arrogance.

We can learn several lessons in this passage: (1) God is good and merciful to us. (2) God is greater than we are. (3) All humans are connected by sin.

The people in this story built the Tower of Babel for the whole world to see (Genesis 11:3-4). This tower was most likely a ziggurat, a common structure in Babylonia at the time. Usually built as temples, ziggurats looked like pyramids with steps or ramps leading up the sides. Standing as high as three hundred feet and often just as wide, a ziggurat would stand out as the focal point of a city.

Today, people may not build statues, temples, or pyramids, but they still erect monuments (achievements, expensive clothes, big houses, fancy cars, important jobs) to call attention to themselves. When used to give personal identity and self-worth, these otherwise worthy pursuits take God’s place. God gives us freedom to develop in many areas, but not the freedom to replace him.

As you read, check out the attitudes of the builders in the story, and consider any “towers” that you may be building. Tear down anything that stands in God’s place.