So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
The Lord broke up the defiant city-building at Babel and scattered its builders abroad over the face of all the earth, leaving their city unfinished. Noah's descendants had refused His direction to disperse and fill the earth, choosing instead to stay united in one place on the plain of Shinar and to build a city with a stupendous tower reaching toward heaven. They meant to secure themselves against another flood without trusting His promise, to exalt themselves and found a universal empire for their own fame, and to replace His law with laws of their own. God answered by sending angels to confound their one language so workers could no longer understand one another, and by striking the upper part of the tower with lightnings from heaven, turning harmony into confusion, strife and bloodshed until the work stood still. Through the very means they had used to prevent scattering, His purpose to people the earth was accomplished as those who could understand one another united and went different ways, while His power to frustrate all schemes that resist His authority stands as warning not to centralize but to be dispersed to carry truth to all people.
Rebellion at Babel Judged
Genesis 11:8 concerns Noah's descendants after the Flood at the first great apostasy, when division arose and those who desired to forget their Creator and cast off the restraint of His law separated from the worshipers of God and journeyed to the plain of Shinar on the banks of the Euphrates. They had separated themselves from the faithful followers of God, rejecting Him and rebelling against Him. They had also corrupted the sacrificial system first established with Adam after his fall and taught by him to his descendants, having no faith in the Redeemer to come.
The builders deliberately resisted God's direction to disperse throughout the earth to replenish, subdue and fill it, determining instead to keep their community united in one body in one place and to prevent being scattered abroad in colonies. Their plan to remain together and avoid scattering was deliberate rebellion against God's command.
There on Shinar they built a city with a tower reaching unto heaven, of stupendous height meant to be the wonder of the world, displaying wonderful talent in its devising. It was made so high that no flood could rise to its top and so massive that nothing could sweep it away. Part of the partially completed tower was occupied as dwellings and part was splendidly furnished and adorned for idols of silver and gold praised in defiance of the Ruler of heaven and earth.
The tower was meant to secure their own safety from another deluge without trusting God's promise not to send another flood or trusting to any ark-like refuge like the boat that had been built. By rising higher than the flood waters they hoped to place themselves beyond its reach, to ascend to the region of the clouds to ascertain the cause of the flood, and thereby to make themselves independent of God. This disbelief, rebellion and pride drove the Babel project.
Their larger purpose was rebellion for self-exaltation and not for the glory of God, to thwart His purposes. They determined to found a monarchy that would eventually embrace the whole earth, with their city as the metropolis of a universal empire whose glory would command the admiration and homage of the world and make the founders illustrious. The tower reaching to the heavens would stand as a monument of their own power and wisdom to perpetuate their fame to later generations, exalting pride and the pride of its projectors. Their kingdom for their own glory would have replaced God's law with human laws, turned people away from allegiance to God, and turned future generations from God to idolatry.
They offered sacrifices not to the God of Heaven in faith but to gods of their own choosing and to invented gods to gain favor, prosperity and riches. Their superstition led to great extravagance, teaching that the more valuable the offerings the greater the pleasure of their gods and the greater the prosperity and riches of the nation. Human beings were often sacrificed to senseless idols, and many of the laws that governed these nations were cruel in the extreme, made by men whose hearts were not softened by divine grace, passing over the most debasing crimes lightly while visiting a small offense with the most cruel punishment.
God bore long with their perversity, giving ample opportunity for repentance, while marking all their devices to resist the authority of His just and holy law. He delayed His judgments and gave time for true character to be revealed for the sake of God-fearing men living among the builders who had been deceived by the pretensions of the ungodly and drawn into their schemes but would not join the confederacy to thwart God's purposes and refused to be deceived by its wonderful representations and grand outlook. He answered the humble plea of those who loved and feared Him at that time, who humbled themselves and pleaded for Him to interpose between His cause and the plans of men, for He never leaves the world without witnesses for Him.
Had the builders been permitted to go on unchecked they would have demoralized the world by their wonderful plans. Had they succeeded a mighty power would have borne sway, banishing righteousness and inaugurating a new religion. That mixture of certain religious ideas with erroneous theories and a mass of false theories would have closed the door to peace, happiness and security, banished knowledge of the law of Jehovah from minds that thought obedience unnecessary, caused the statutes which are holy, just and good to be ignored and forgotten, and substituted in place of the divine precepts laws framed to selfish hearts to carry out selfish purposes. Determined men were inspired and urged on by the first great rebel and by Satan and would permit nothing to stop their evil course or to interfere with it.
God sent angels to bring the purpose of the builders to nothing by confounding their language when up to that time all men had spoken the same language. No one understood his fellow worker, orders passed from station to station between the top and base of the lofty tower were misunderstood, material was called for which was not needed, and directions were delivered the reverse of those given. Confusion and dismay ended harmony and cooperation, work came to a standstill, and the confederacy ended in rage, disappointment, reproach, strife and bloodshed.
As evidence of His displeasure God defeated the purpose of the tower builders and overthrew the tower, the great idol-building and memorial of their rebellion. Lightnings from heaven broke off the upper portion of the partially completed tower and cast it to the ground. By breaking up their united rebellion He forced them to leave off building the city unfinished, scattering them abroad from Babel upon the face of all the earth.
Scattering's Outcome and Warning
Those who could understand one another after the confounding of their one common tongue united in companies and went different ways from Shinar across the earth, leaving off building the city unfinished. This dispersion peopled the earth, so God's purpose to fill the earth was accomplished through the very means men had employed to prevent being scattered abroad. Their scattering ended their united plan of rebellion and stopped the work that confusion and lack of cooperation had made impossible.
The scattering was a great loss to those who had set themselves against God. His purpose was that as men went forth to found nations in different parts of the earth they should carry with them a knowledge of His will, so that the light of truth might shine undimmed to succeeding generations. Opportunity to learn His requirements and the history of His dealings with their fathers remained while Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the Flood and Shem lived five hundred years. But the people had no desire to retain God in their knowledge and were unwilling to listen to these unpalatable truths, and by the confusion of tongues they were in great measure shut out from intercourse with those who might have given them light. The division of speech and scattering resulted from sin and explains why people of different nations could not understand one another, with hope for a time when nothing will hinder their communion.
After the dispersion from Babel, when people spread across the earth and stopped building the city, Nineveh was founded about that time, soon afterward. The frustrated plan shows that God is supreme, that there is a God who rules in the heavens, and that men are only men. He is able to frustrate human schemes that resist His authority and to confuse and multiply confusion, quenching ambitious projects with confusion of tongues so that those who join in such movements gain nothing but confusion. Wonderful talent had been displayed in devising a tower of stupendous height meant to be the wonder of the world, built not to trust any ark-like refuge but to secure safety above another deluge, to ascend to the clouds to ascertain the flood's cause, to exalt pride, and to turn future generations from God to idolatry, yet angels brought the purpose to nothing, messages between top and base were reversed, material was called for which was not needed, and lightnings from heaven as evidence of displeasure broke off its upper portion and cast it to the ground.
The verse teaches that God's people are not to colonize or centralize in one place but to be dispersed throughout the earth to carry the gospel to all people for missionary work. In this day God desires that same scattering for missionary service rather than gathering in one community. Creating central Jerusalem-centers for His work will lead the Lord to scatter the people from them. The abandoned great city of ancient Babylon recalls that human ambition and earthly plans cannot provide lasting security nor shut out doom.
The Lord broke up the defiant city-building at Babel and scattered its builders abroad over the face of all the earth, leaving their city unfinished. Noah's descendants had refused His direction to disperse and fill the earth, choosing instead to stay united in one place on the plain of Shinar and to build a city with a stupendous tower reaching toward heaven. They meant to secure themselves against another flood without trusting His promise, to exalt themselves and found a universal empire for their own fame, and to replace His law with laws of their own. God answered by sending angels to confound their one language so workers could no longer understand one another, and by striking the upper part of the tower with lightnings from heaven, turning harmony into confusion, strife and bloodshed until the work stood still. Through the very means they had used to prevent scattering, His purpose to people the earth was accomplished as those who could understand one another united and went different ways, while His power to frustrate all schemes that resist His authority stands as warning not to centralize but to be dispersed to carry truth to all people.
Rebellion at Babel Judged
Genesis 11:8 concerns Noah's descendants after the Flood at the first great apostasy, when division arose and those who desired to forget their Creator and cast off the restraint of His law separated from the worshipers of God and journeyed to the plain of Shinar on the banks of the Euphrates. They had separated themselves from the faithful followers of God, rejecting Him and rebelling against Him. They had also corrupted the sacrificial system first established with Adam after his fall and taught by him to his descendants, having no faith in the Redeemer to come.
The builders deliberately resisted God's direction to disperse throughout the earth to replenish, subdue and fill it, determining instead to keep their community united in one body in one place and to prevent being scattered abroad in colonies. Their plan to remain together and avoid scattering was deliberate rebellion against God's command.
There on Shinar they built a city with a tower reaching unto heaven, of stupendous height meant to be the wonder of the world, displaying wonderful talent in its devising. It was made so high that no flood could rise to its top and so massive that nothing could sweep it away. Part of the partially completed tower was occupied as dwellings and part was splendidly furnished and adorned for idols of silver and gold praised in defiance of the Ruler of heaven and earth.
The tower was meant to secure their own safety from another deluge without trusting God's promise not to send another flood or trusting to any ark-like refuge like the boat that had been built. By rising higher than the flood waters they hoped to place themselves beyond its reach, to ascend to the region of the clouds to ascertain the cause of the flood, and thereby to make themselves independent of God. This disbelief, rebellion and pride drove the Babel project.
Their larger purpose was rebellion for self-exaltation and not for the glory of God, to thwart His purposes. They determined to found a monarchy that would eventually embrace the whole earth, with their city as the metropolis of a universal empire whose glory would command the admiration and homage of the world and make the founders illustrious. The tower reaching to the heavens would stand as a monument of their own power and wisdom to perpetuate their fame to later generations, exalting pride and the pride of its projectors. Their kingdom for their own glory would have replaced God's law with human laws, turned people away from allegiance to God, and turned future generations from God to idolatry.
They offered sacrifices not to the God of Heaven in faith but to gods of their own choosing and to invented gods to gain favor, prosperity and riches. Their superstition led to great extravagance, teaching that the more valuable the offerings the greater the pleasure of their gods and the greater the prosperity and riches of the nation. Human beings were often sacrificed to senseless idols, and many of the laws that governed these nations were cruel in the extreme, made by men whose hearts were not softened by divine grace, passing over the most debasing crimes lightly while visiting a small offense with the most cruel punishment.
God bore long with their perversity, giving ample opportunity for repentance, while marking all their devices to resist the authority of His just and holy law. He delayed His judgments and gave time for true character to be revealed for the sake of God-fearing men living among the builders who had been deceived by the pretensions of the ungodly and drawn into their schemes but would not join the confederacy to thwart God's purposes and refused to be deceived by its wonderful representations and grand outlook. He answered the humble plea of those who loved and feared Him at that time, who humbled themselves and pleaded for Him to interpose between His cause and the plans of men, for He never leaves the world without witnesses for Him.
Had the builders been permitted to go on unchecked they would have demoralized the world by their wonderful plans. Had they succeeded a mighty power would have borne sway, banishing righteousness and inaugurating a new religion. That mixture of certain religious ideas with erroneous theories and a mass of false theories would have closed the door to peace, happiness and security, banished knowledge of the law of Jehovah from minds that thought obedience unnecessary, caused the statutes which are holy, just and good to be ignored and forgotten, and substituted in place of the divine precepts laws framed to selfish hearts to carry out selfish purposes. Determined men were inspired and urged on by the first great rebel and by Satan and would permit nothing to stop their evil course or to interfere with it.
God sent angels to bring the purpose of the builders to nothing by confounding their language when up to that time all men had spoken the same language. No one understood his fellow worker, orders passed from station to station between the top and base of the lofty tower were misunderstood, material was called for which was not needed, and directions were delivered the reverse of those given. Confusion and dismay ended harmony and cooperation, work came to a standstill, and the confederacy ended in rage, disappointment, reproach, strife and bloodshed.
As evidence of His displeasure God defeated the purpose of the tower builders and overthrew the tower, the great idol-building and memorial of their rebellion. Lightnings from heaven broke off the upper portion of the partially completed tower and cast it to the ground. By breaking up their united rebellion He forced them to leave off building the city unfinished, scattering them abroad from Babel upon the face of all the earth.
Scattering's Outcome and Warning
Those who could understand one another after the confounding of their one common tongue united in companies and went different ways from Shinar across the earth, leaving off building the city unfinished. This dispersion peopled the earth, so God's purpose to fill the earth was accomplished through the very means men had employed to prevent being scattered abroad. Their scattering ended their united plan of rebellion and stopped the work that confusion and lack of cooperation had made impossible.
The scattering was a great loss to those who had set themselves against God. His purpose was that as men went forth to found nations in different parts of the earth they should carry with them a knowledge of His will, so that the light of truth might shine undimmed to succeeding generations. Opportunity to learn His requirements and the history of His dealings with their fathers remained while Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the Flood and Shem lived five hundred years. But the people had no desire to retain God in their knowledge and were unwilling to listen to these unpalatable truths, and by the confusion of tongues they were in great measure shut out from intercourse with those who might have given them light. The division of speech and scattering resulted from sin and explains why people of different nations could not understand one another, with hope for a time when nothing will hinder their communion.
After the dispersion from Babel, when people spread across the earth and stopped building the city, Nineveh was founded about that time, soon afterward. The frustrated plan shows that God is supreme, that there is a God who rules in the heavens, and that men are only men. He is able to frustrate human schemes that resist His authority and to confuse and multiply confusion, quenching ambitious projects with confusion of tongues so that those who join in such movements gain nothing but confusion. Wonderful talent had been displayed in devising a tower of stupendous height meant to be the wonder of the world, built not to trust any ark-like refuge but to secure safety above another deluge, to ascend to the clouds to ascertain the flood's cause, to exalt pride, and to turn future generations from God to idolatry, yet angels brought the purpose to nothing, messages between top and base were reversed, material was called for which was not needed, and lightnings from heaven as evidence of displeasure broke off its upper portion and cast it to the ground.
The verse teaches that God's people are not to colonize or centralize in one place but to be dispersed throughout the earth to carry the gospel to all people for missionary work. In this day God desires that same scattering for missionary service rather than gathering in one community. Creating central Jerusalem-centers for His work will lead the Lord to scatter the people from them. The abandoned great city of ancient Babylon recalls that human ambition and earthly plans cannot provide lasting security nor shut out doom.