Genesis 11: people trying to be gods...again
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| Credit: asmuSe | Pixabay |
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
The first part of Genesis 11, up to verse 9, could be described as the end of the 'primeval history'. From chapter 3 onwards we have seen how human beings have rebelled against the order set out by God, crossing boundaries and wanting to be gods: from Adam and Eve and the fruit (Genesis 3:6), to Cain who murdered his brother (Genesis 4:8), Lamech who committed polygamy (Genesis 4:!9), and the breaking of boundaries between humans and the spiritual realms (Genesis 6:1-4). Even after the flood, wickedness still remained, and although building a tower seems innocuous in comparison to murder, the general story arc suggests that this is the peak. In the depths of wickedness, God starts his plan for salvation, beginning with Abraham.
So, what was the problem with building a tower?
Like when Adam and Eve ate fruit in the garden, it is not the action by itself, but everything it embodies: it's purpose, motivation and effect. This was not a tower in order to store grain in order to ensure no one went hungry in times of drought; it was not even a monument intended to honour God and in some way reflect his glory (although one could still question the wisdom of such a course of action). In contrast, this was the reason the people came together to build the tower:
“Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
The people wanted to reach heaven and make a name for themselves. Not content with living as stewards in God's wonderful creation, they wanted to 1) have the power to break into heaven - i.e. to go beyond human limits and exert their technological power over creation, and 2) to have all the renown. It is from these two desires, which can be summed up in the single desire: to be gods, that all sin and violence stem. Our desire to make a name for ourselves is what causes us to shove others aside in our quest for greatness, either individually or corporately - whether that be other people, or even the glory of the earth itself. Likewise, the desire to cross the boundaries between earth and heaven, to have power over all things, to define right and wrong, is what causes us to believe we have the right to decide who gets to live and who has to die.
There's a very interesting conversation between Hercule Poirot and a certain murderer towards the end of a certain Agatha Christie novel. The murderer is a generally upstanding and respectable man, he's not even too fussed about fame or money, and he thinks he genuinely wants the best for his community. He happens to also be a very significant figure in Britain's financial systems and plays an important role in their stability, and so his 'community' (i.e. that which he has a responsibility and influence over) could even be described as the whole nation and further afield. He commits murder in order to preserve a secret that would ruin his career and reputation, and when the great detective finds out the truth, he requests that this truth be covered up, for the stated reason that the world needs him. The conversation goes like this:
Poirot: You are a man of great natural honesty and rectitude. You took one step aside - and outwardly it has not affected you. Publicly you have continued the same, upright, trustworthy, honest. But within you the love of power grew to overwhelming heights. So you sacrificed four human lives and thought them of no account.
Murderer: Don't you realise, Poirot, that the safety and happiness of the whole nation depends on me?
Poirot: I am not concerned with nations, Monsieur. I am concerned with the lives of private individuals who have the right not to have their lives taken from them. (Note 1).
Like many of Christie's murderers, this murderer came into disagreement with the God-fearing Hercule Poirot over the act of private murder, regardless of the arguments put forward about the good it may apparently serve. Like so many, including those recorded in the Bible, he becomes affected by the power and wants to take the place of God, deciding who should live and who should die. We might, perhaps, be reminded of David when he committed murder in order to marry Bathsheba, because he wanted to, and because he could (2 Samuel 11).
There is also a secondary motivation behind the building of the tower: otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the earth. At first glance this appears to simply be a fear that being scattered will compromise their power and ability to 'make a name for themselves'. There is little doubt that this is part of the story, however some commentators also make the further point that this represents the replacing of God in order to bind community together, with technology.
People have to have a vision and mission in order to be united together. It's why it's vital for businesses and other organisations to define these things, along with objectives and values, as not only does it ensure that all activity is aligned to the purpose, but also enables individuals to have a sense of purpose in their own work. It is the reason why the NASA janitor famously replied to J F Kennedy's question about what he was doing with the words: 'I'm putting men on the moon'. It's also the reason why the church member doing the accounts, organising the coffee, or ensuring all the risk assessments and safeguarding processes are in place, can say I'm building God's kingdom just as much as the preacher.
And hence the people involved in building the tower of Babel would have also been united around a mission: those preparing food for the workers, the labourers, the administrators and the architects alike would have been able to say: we're making a name for ourselves and building a tower to heaven. However, this was a community bound together, not by God (and the God-given relationships with each other, which would have seen each person looking not only to their own needs but to others as well, and loving each other as individuals made the image of God), but by a human endeavour, or in essence, a thing - the technological feat that was the city and the tower.
We have an economy that, while effective in providing a large number of people with jobs and enabling the goods and services we all need to be circulated, is dependent on the production of 'stuff' and the need to consume. We can produce things quicker and cheaper than ever before - if someone from 250 years ago were to see what we have available, they would be forgiven for thinking that there would be no need for poverty or deprivation. But rather that only producing what we need and each individually working less (and hence sharing the labour so that all who are able can earn a living), we simply produce and consume more and more. The impact of this on God's creation, communities and our own individual physical, mental and spiritual health is profound.
Finally, we need to address God's response to this event. He says:
“If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” (Genesis 11:6-7)(Note 1: from One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, by Agatha Christie)
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