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Genesis 11 – The Church of Babel
The Church of Babel
These “Babylonians” were building a city with a tower to bridge heaven and earth. There is so much in this short pericope where this story harkens back to creation and Eden, and then to the flood. It even foreshadows exile and captivity since Babel is Babylon. A common use today is to contrast Acts 2 with Genesis 11. Since Moses used this event to teach many lessons for his generations, let’s make our own timely analogy.
First, let’s quickly explain what happened. Most likely this tower or ziggurat was not so mankind could go up to God, but so God would come down to them. This is man’s attempt at a re-creation of Eden, a false imitation of the real thing. Can a church be a false church? Can a church be a re-creation of the Tower of Babel?
1. A church where one’s talents are used religiously but not rightly (11:3,6; 3:22).
2. A church speaking for God (11:3-4 – “let us”) instead of letting God speak (1:26 – “let us”).
3. A church building a name for itself instead of God’s glory (11:4).
4. A church built on man’s wisdom and not God’s authority (11:4).
5. A church trying to fellowship God based on man’s works instead of God’s way (11:4). Ironically the Hebrew for “bricks/lâban” (11:3) means to purify.
6. A church that disobeys the command to spread out and instead becomes secluded (11:4; 1:28).
7. A church built upon the fear of losing people (11:4).
8. A church that uses unity to do it’s own will, to do wrong (11:6).
The name Babel sounds like the Hebrew word for confusion – balal. “Let us” (11:3,4) not become a church confused upon what, how, why, and Whom we build. The Son of God came down from Heaven, re-creating the pure fellowship of Eden, commanding us to undergo a different flood, calling us out of sin’s exile, creating the church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, so that God may be glorified. Is that clear?
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