1
¶ And the whole earth was of one
language, and of one speech. 2 And it
came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the
land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them
throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city
and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest
we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
This entire clan of likely brown-skinned, brown-eyed
people spoke one language, which is defined in context as speech. We are now
back to their departure from the ark and the early movement of their families. But, they were resisting the command given in Genesis 9:1 to repopulate the earth empty of people. Disobedience to God is a dependable character flaw of all mankind.
Just like after Acts 1:8 the early Jewish Christians
did not leave Jerusalem after the Holy Ghost was received as they were told to
do and had to suffer persecution to get the impulse to obey Christ’s command
and go out, these people are afraid of being divided up. They decide to embark
on a building project and establish roots where they are in the land of Shinar.
The power to name is a power indeed as we saw by Adam’s authority to name the
beasts of the earth. It establishes political authority and if you don’t
believe that just tell a citizen of Belfast that he lives in Ulster if he’s an
Irish Nationalist or Northern Ireland if he’s a Unionist. Depending on the
political sentiments of the hearer you might get a bloody nose or worse.
Their goal is, primarily, either to actually reach the
abode of God, which may have been understood as a possibility, although that
implies a level of stupidity on their part that is not likely, or that may have
been a metaphor for just an incredibly tall building as an emblem of their
unity. They will also build a city. We have already been told that Nimrod was
in charge of building Babel, which is named in the next passage. So, Nimrod, of
Ham’s family, is the first great empire builder whose ambitious plans come to
God’s attention.
Note here how the metaphor is used in other Scripture.
Deuteronomy
9:1 ¶ Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass
over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than
thyself, cities great and fenced up to
heaven,
Daniel
4:22 It is thou, O king, that art grown
and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.
Jeremiah
51:53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should
fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her,
saith the LORD.
Keep in mind that the word, heaven, refers to the
atmosphere above us and what we call Outer Space, as per the first chapter of
Genesis, and not only the abode of God.
It is possible then that this reference is the majesty
of the building project they decided to work on to keep them together. The Inca
Empire of South America, for instance, used great government funded road and
building projects to assert their authority and keep people occupied under that
authority, even building roads to nowhere or multiple roads to the same remote
village.
Go
to is
used three times in a very short space here as an idiom meaning, “let’s go,”
which is evident in the context of verse 7 coming next. It states a call for
group action, a group being two or more. In 7 it will refer to the three parts
of God; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. In Genesis 38:16 it will
refer to Judah speaking to Tamar, thinking that his daughter-in-law is a
prostitute.
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