Hillside Laughter

JUDGMENT: the account of the building of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11
(some comments summarized from David Atkinson, The Message of Genesis 1 – 11).

When a community steps outside of the ways of God, we encounter:

• the spread of disorder
• various forms of confusion
• fractured relationships
• failure of communication
• increased isolation

We see in this passage

• the beginnings of civilization
• the growth of technical skills

and the implications of

• sufficient architectural and mathematics skills
• sufficient political will for a corporate endeavor

There is a continuation of the violation of the boundaries set by God, which have already been seen in the cases of

• Adam and Eve (disobedience; Genesis 3)
• Cain and Abel (murder; Genesis 4)
• Lamech (arrogance and vengeance; Genesis 4)
• Corruption (Genesis 6)

Humans are not to grasp what is God’s.

“Our human sin is when we fail to recognize that God is God, and we try, both individually and corporately to take God’s place” (Atkinson, 178).

See Isaiah 14:13-15 — Isaiah makes the same point against the king of Babylon.

It is not that technology in itself is bad. The problem is the technological pride and technological culture that develops when we come to understand ourselves as

• technologists
• constructionists
• makers
• and as homo faber – the man who makes

Science gets swallowed up by technology.
God is no longer at the center; constructionist man tries to place God’s autonomy at the center.
Propaganda and ideology are used to generate the feeling of community. These become substitute social ties which attempt to replace God as the lost center. God steps in and allows disintegration and frustration to take place.

In all of this “. . . we are left wondering how grace will take the initiative” (Colin Smith).

There is however the hope of a restored community. The person around whom this hope (covenant) focuses is Abraham.

God takes the initiative with Abraham.

(Heb 11:8-10 NIV) By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

G. Campbell Morgan suggests that the tower of Babel is the story of “the mystery of lawlessness” that operates repeatedly in human society and history. It continues to cause brokenness and enmity until it is finally destroyed as noted in Rev 18:21.

(Rev 18:21 NIV) Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again . . . ”

In the final scene of the story of salvation, the prideful and fractured city of Babylon is finally replaced by the Holy City.

Using the words of Revelation, Frederick Edward Weatherly (1848-1929) writes in the final stanza of his great anthem:

And once again the scene was changed,
New earth there seem’d to be,
I saw the Holy City
Beside the tideless sea;
The light of God was on its streets,
The gates were open wide,
And all who would might enter,
And no one was denied.
No need of moon or stars by night,
Or sun to shine by day,
It was the new Jerusalem,
That would not pass away,
It was the new Jerusalem,
That would not pass away.
“Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
Sing, for the night is o’er!
Hosanna in the highest,
Hosanna for evermore!
Hosanna in the highest,
Hosanna for evermore!”

. . .  TLT