Genesis 11:1-4

The whole earth was of one language and of one speech. It happened, as they traveled east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there. They said one to another, “Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”

When you first read this passage, it seems like what the people decided to do was quite harmless. They decided to make city with a tower in it. Most of our cities today have multiple towers in them that reach up into the sky. We even call them “skyscrapers.” Making a city with a skyscraper doesn’t seem that bad.

They were concerned that everyone was going to be scattered all over the earth so they decided to make a central city and make a name for themselves. This doesn’t even sound that bad unless you consider what God told Noah and his family to do. We recently read that God had told Noah to reproduce and fill the earth. Instead of trusting in God and obeying Him. Mankind decided to concern themselves with things that God had not told them to concern themselves with.

All mankind was to do was to have children and spread out. Instead, mankind decided to worry about the “scatter.” Mankind was made in the image of God and because of this did not need to have a name for themselves. They already bore the image of God. Man was made by God and God told them to spread out. Evidently man thought that God might not handle the job very well.

Worst of all, mankind decided to make a monument to themselves. Mankind was intended to be a building of God, but because of our sin we decided to make a name for ourselves.

Government: Did you notice that God didn’t set up a kingdom when He gave Noah the rules? Instead, He just told them to have families and spread all out. To this very day, mankind worries about himself and fails to trust God and obey what He says. As a result, we continue to create governmental monstrosities that God is obligated to destroy for the sake of His image and for our good.