David Bahn – Reflections

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These reflections grow out of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Genesis 10-11; Psalm 12.

Genesis 11:1-9

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. ² And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³ And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” ⁵ And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. ⁶ And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” ⁸ So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. ⁹ Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

Throughout the Bible: Babylon is a symbol of human pride, self-exaltation, rebellion against God, and oppressive worldly power. And Babylon is the location of the Tower of Babel.

The act of building a tower isn’t evil in itself. I’m thinking of the the KFVS TV tower in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Built in 1960 it was the tallest manmade structure in the world. It gave us Cape folks something to brag about. And it allowed the TV station to be viewed in six states. That lasted two years when a taller tower was built in Blanchard, North Dakota. Such fame is fleeting to be sure.

But there is a greater danger than losing the claim to have the tallest manmade structure in the world. The Tower of Babel was built to “reach the heavens.” The purpose was not to broadcast a TV signal. It was to make a name for themselves and to reach God – but not the true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – or Noah for that matter. The famous Etemenanki ziggurat in Babylon, for example, was dedicated to Marduk, Babylon’s chief god.

Genesis 11 is not criticizing architecture; it is critiquing false worship and human pride. And you don’t have to build a tower to celebrate either one. Pride can be far more subtle than a self-important strut, and false worship more nuanced than bowing before a carved image. It can take the form of quiet self-reliance, moral comparison, or the assumption that we stand before God on better footing than others.

At its core, the great pride of Babel is the belief that we can reach God on our own terms. Any confidence that rests in something other than God coming to us in Jesus Christ is a form of self-worship. And thinking we are somehow better before God than others is a temptation as old as Babel itself – and just as destructive.

Let us, instead, build towers of praise to God – giving thanks for his grace in coming to us. And let us humble ourselves before a very different tower: the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He humbled himself for our sake and has the name above every name. Let his name be praised.