Today we will look into the story of the tower of Babel. You know the story from Sunday school. It’s when people built a tower trying to reach heaven, and it displeased God so much that He caused them to speak different languages so they couldn’t understand each other. But is there more to the story than we learned in Sunday school? Yes, and today we will learn the story behind the story.
After the flood Noah and his sons exit the ark and God hits the reset button, setting His plan into motion once again. God tells them this: Genesis 9:1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” Does this sound familiar? It should, because this is a repeat of what He told Adam and Eve. The mandate is to multiply and fill the earth, so God’s glory will be over all the earth. But do you think Noah’s descendants listened and followed God’s instruction? Let’s see. Genesis 11:1-4 “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.” Well, they got part of their instructions right. They multiplied, that’s for sure. But did you see what happened at the end of verse 4? They gathered in a single location to build a city so they could make a name for themselves. And why did they do that? So they wouldn’t be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. The problem is, that dispersing over the whole earth is exactly what God had told them to do. This is another act of rebellion. During this rebellious act they decide to build, not only a city, but a tower that will reach heaven. Mankind has always wanted to build tall buildings. But why?
We normally assume or maybe we’ve been taught that they wanted to build a tower so that they could go up to heaven. The reason we think that is because we interpret their intentions to be what our intentions would be. That’s a principal we all need to be aware of. You believe that in an identical situation, other people would react the same way you would. The reason you believe that, is because your personality and life experience has taught you that your reaction is the “normal” reaction. But that is not true. The personality and life experience that someone else has had growing up may be the complete opposite of you. So their reaction to any given situation will be the exact opposite of you. This causes conflict, because they didn’t do what you expected them to do. Your expectation was not met. Conflict is always the result of unmet expectations. So what is our motivation for building tall buildings? We build tall buildings so we can be important. The higher our place in the building, the more value we place on the real estate, and ourselves. The penthouse is the most expensive place in the building. The person at the top of the building is the one in charge. It’s where you find the CEO’s office. It’s where you want to be, in order to make a name for yourself. And in that respect, the people who built the tower of Babel are just like us. They built a city and tower to make a name for themselves. But that is not the only reason God was so upset with them building this specific tall tower. It’s because they were not building a tower so they could go up to heaven. They wanted to build a tower so that the gods could come down to them and be worshipped. How do we know this? Here is where context comes into play. Remember, we always need historical context to interpret scripture in the context of the time it was written and through that lens.
In the ancient world, it was common practice to build what was called a ziggurat. It was a structure meant to reach into heaven and allow travel back and forth for the gods. People had a desire to regain the presence of God that was lost back in Genesis 3 when God removed mankind from the garden of eden. These ziggurat towers were built next to temples to allow easy access to the god of that temple. God is very displeased that man has once again refused to follow His instruction. This complete willful disobedience and idolatry is pretty much the catalyst for God’s next action. Genesis 11:7-9 “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.” God will accomplish His purpose, even if you don’t want to do it. OK, let’s back up a minute. Before this event, mankind was one nation of people. A nation of people that God wanted for Himself. But everyone was now gathered in one place working in unison to rebel against what He wanted. So He scatters them across the earth and gives them different languages. God has had enough of man’s foolishness and gives them over to their idolatry. He, in effect, disinherits them from His family. Deuteronomy 32:7-9 “7 Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. 8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. 9 But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.” This has been described as God’s divorce from humanity. But it is not meant to be permanent. He sets aside a portion of people for Himself. God loves His imagers and always preserves a remnant for Himself. God basically said to the people at babel, if you don’t want to follow Me, you can have it your way. I’ll turn you over to other gods. These other gods they wanted to worship were represented by the idols that they made. This is the same idea that is being described in Romans 1. Romans 1:21-23 “21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” Now, ancient people were not as ignorant as we like to suppose. When they carved an image from wood or molded one from gold, they didn’t believe there was any real power in the statue they made. What they did believe was that the spirit they were worshiping came and inhabited the statue. The statue was just a representative of their god, not the actual god. So who were these “gods” they worshiped? They were known as the sons of God. They are spoken of several times in the Bible.
Back to Deuteronomy 32. In verse 8 it says: “When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.” We see clearly that when God divided the people at Babel and spread them across the earth, He had allotted land to them according to the “sons of God.” Then in verse 9 we see that He preserved a people for Himself. Deuteronomy 32:9 “But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.” This would become the descendants of Abraham, the nation of Israel. If you’ve never seen the reference to “the sons of God” in the bible, it can be a bit of a shock to learn who they are. We always seek multiple verses to confirm a biblical truth. We see the sons of God mentioned again in Psalm 89. Psalm 89:5-7 “5 Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! 6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings (Hebrew says: sons of God) is like the Lord, 7 a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him?” But who are these sons of God? They are Elohim. You may have heard God called Elohim, but Elohim is not a title for God. It is a description of residence. All invisible heavenly spiritual beings are Elohim. So in that respect God is an Elohim...but not all Elohim are God. Let me put it this way. I am an American, you are an American and the president of the United States is also an American. But we are not all the same. The president has a citizenship that
matches ours, but He is unique among Americans because of his position of authority. Likewise, God is unique among Elohim. He is the creator of all other Elohim. These other Elohim, sons of God, that we are discussing today are created angles who were supposed to serve God as His council members. Psalm 89:5-7 “5 Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! 6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings (Hebrew says: sons of God) is like the Lord, 7 a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him?” If the other, lesser Elohim, sons of God are just false idols that don’t actually exist, why would God compare Himself to them? That wouldn’t be a comparison at all. It would be like if I’m trying to seriously say how strong I am...I wouldn’t say: “I’m stronger than superman!” It doesn’t make sense, because superman doesn’t actually exist. In the same way, God would not compare Himself to imaginary beings that don’t exist. Deuteronomy 4:19 “19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.” The ones that God warns Israel not to bow down to, are the spiritual beings, the sons of God, that He allotted to oversee the nations. These are the sons of God who are members of the divine council in Psalm 82.
Psalm 82:1-7 “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: 2 “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah 3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” 5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. 6 I said, “You are gods,sons of the Most High, all of you; 7 nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.” These council members are being judged by God most High their creator. They have lead mankind into rebellion and accepted worship that belongs to God alone. This sets up the rest of the old testament. Which shows a division and conflict between Yahweh the Most High God and the other lesser spiritual beings, who in verse 8, are called the sons of God. As well as, the conflict between Israel and all the other nations given to these spirits. This is why we see God telling Israel to destroy those nations when they come into the promised land. This is God asserting His dominance over the lesser spiritual beings...and also, His people Israel asserting their dominance over the other nations who served the lesser spiritual beings. Before we go any further, I realize that this is a concept that a lot of you have never heard in your life. And yet, there it is plainly in scripture. And not just one verse or even one passage. This council shows up in multiple passages in the Bible. Now let me clarify something...God does not need a council. But He chooses to use one. God doesn’t need us to do His will
on earth, but He chooses to use us. It’s not a matter of God needing anything, but He has chosen to work this way. It completely reinforces the kingdom concept. God is the King and He has a court. His court, His Divine Council, His Assembly are all describing how He chooses to get things done. Here is another example. In 1 Kings chapter 22, we read that God had decided it was time for Ahab to die. Who was Ahab? He was the 7th king of Israel. He’s the worst king they had. Do you know who his wife was? Jezebel. She was completely devoted to worshipping Baal and refused to worship God. As a matter of fact, she ordered that the prophets of Yahweh to be killed. Ahab was just fine with all of this. But God wasn’t. So God decides to kill Ahab during a battle, but He’s considering how to entice Ahab to go into this battle. Ahab was worried about going into this battle so he called for his prophets of Baal to advise him. All of them said that he would be victorious. But another king who was going to join him wasn’t convinced, so he asked Ahab if there was a prophet of Yahweh they could consult. Ahab did know of one guy, but he hated him. He said: “that guy never gives me good news.” So they call Micaiah, Yahweh’s prophet, and sure enough Micaiah says that he will lose the battle. Now they have a problem because Baal’s prophets say they will win and God’s prophet says they will lose. Both can’t be true, one is lying. Here’s the rest of the story. 1 Kings 22:19-23 “19 And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; 20 and the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and
another said another. 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ 22 And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ 23 Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.” So in this passage, God has passed a judgment, but He is open to ideas as to how that judgment is accomplished. He asks His council, the host of heaven. God wants to rule through His created beings. Sons of God in heaven and sons of God on earth...you and me. The story behind the story of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11, is the story of God disinheriting humans from being His personal possession and assigning them to the sons of God. But in the very next chapter we will see His plan to once again separate a people for Himself when He calls Abram. With all this talk about sons of God, what about Jesus, The Son of God? Now before we leave this subject, you may be asking; well, what about Jesus? The bible says in John 3:16 that He was the “only” begotten son of God from heaven. Am I denying that and saying Jesus was just like the other sons God, we’ve been talking about today? No, not at all. This is another situation of understanding the original language. The greek work used in English as “only” doesn’t mean singular...it means “unique.” Jesus is unique among the sons of God.
It’s the same word used to describe Isaac into old testament. Isaac was not Abraham’s only son...he wasn’t even his firstborn son. But he was unique, because he was born as a supernatural miracle from God and he was the one who was the inheritor of the covenant. Jesus was unique among the sons of God because He was God. The other spiritual beings were created beings, but Jesus is one with Yahweh. They are of the same substance. Jesus claimed to actually be God. He said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” This is what made the Pharisees so mad they wanted to kill Him. God came Himself down to earth to make a new covenant with mankind. He was willing to suffer as a man, in order to reconcile mankind back to himself. He was the only sacrifice worthy to remove the rebellion and idolatry from us. We are His inheritance, his people that He has redeemed. How will we respond to such a great, overwhelming, unfathomable love?
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