Why Babel had to stop

Acts 2:1-18 Genesis 11:1-9
THE CONDITIONS PRIOR TO THE BUILDING OF BABEL
Genesis is a book of beginnings. The world is being repopulated after the flood. Men have a common language. There are over 3000 languages and dialects now, they have a common root, a common language, linguistic experts agree on this. A common language is a cause of unity before God A common language helped life but can also promote disobedience. It was misused before God.
THE CONCERTED EFFORTS OF MAN
Nimrod was a leader of this. A ziggurat or temple was at the centre of it. It was a technological marvel – all such pyramids are. Ziggurats were built of brick because there was no stone. They used tar because of a lack of mortar. Archaeologists have uncovered these, the base of one was 90 square metres. When humanity works together great goals can be achieved. Great good can arise but great evil also. What was wrong with it?
a) Settling in the valley of Shinar was an act of disobedience. They had been commanded to spread out not collect in cities. They would be blessed as they scattered. Babel would become Babylon. They thought collected life together was safest, life on their own terms. It was a settlement of disobedience. You won’t find security in people and buildings but in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no short cut to security.
b) Starting to build a monument to themselves was without God. The world is filled with people who wish to achieve something. It was for themselves not God. People still mark out achievements with high buildings – people are trying to build higher and higher buildings. There is nothing wrong with high buildings but Babel was for themselves. People have a deep seated desire to achieve for themselves. God wants us to achieve for Him.
c) Central to this was the aim to create a religious centre. Nimrod knew people needed religious motivation to overcome the scattering of people. The Bible traces all false religions to Babylon. Revelation sees it as the parent of all false religion. ‘The tower that reaches to the heavens’. It was a symbol of religions. The project was presented as true spirituality, whilst really directing away from the true God. Astrology and the signs of the zodiac come from here, it replaces submission to the living God with submission to chance. Today people believe in this idea of fate, it is satanic, it is false, it is a dead end and it brings people to despair. From this arose a whole system of idolatry based on astrology and occultism.
THE CONTROL OF GOD – verses 5 to 8
The tower was but a dot on the ground to God. God was going to destroy it. God performed a miracle in the minds and vocal cords of the builders. He confused their language so that now, and brought confusion and an inevitable scattering. It was a catastrophe for the world overnight. It was impossible for people to work together. People called it Babel (later Babylon) – confusion city. God’s will came to pass, we cannot defy God’s will. Men lose because God’s will will be done.
THE CONCERNS OF GOD – verse 9.
a) Mankind needs God to intervene and expose human folly. Resistance ends in frustration. If God did not, rebellion would become confusion. Man wants to achieve independently of God. We try to fix problems such as AIDS without reference to God. We have the philosophy of Babel today, unbelief and godlessness. The law of God is proved by the misery that eventuates when it is disobeyed. See the misery that comes from permissive sexuality. We need to be right with God.
b) Mankind would have great potential for evil if they finished this. If they went ahead with their plans for one world government, one man-made religion and one centralized system of information and technology, they would be capable of anything no matter how terrible. To limit human power, language was confused and people scattered. People have been kept in tribes and nations. God limits technological progress to limit damage. Centralised power has done great harm in the hands of Mao, Stalin and Hitler. Louis XIV (‘Louis the Great’) believed in one king, one law and one church and he inflicted great harm on the evangelical church.
c) Mankind needs to see religious unity without truth is dangerous. Unity is not the highest good, but purity and obedience to the Word. You cannot have a false imposed unity in the name of making peace. Biblical religion is based on obedience to Biblical truth.
d) Mankind will face the same danger that faced the early world. Revelation describes the final Babylon as in opposition to God. Human power is kept in check, it will be given free reign in the last days under the one called the Anti-Christ. it will collapse under the weight of its own sin and God’s power.
e) Mankind’s only hope is to find the Enduring City. Feddes says: ‘Only God can rescue us from ourselves. Our hope for transformation is in Christ not human effort. Only God’s city can save the world or transform a human soul forever. That city draws people together in Christ. God sent his Spirit on Pentecost, and a spiritual reversal of Babel began. Since then God’s kingdom has continued to unite people in Jesus. One day every tribe will be united in speech. Build your life on Christ and never be disappointed. The blunders of history are valuable only if we learn from them. Do we put our trust in each other and human progress as the men of Shinar did? Or do we put our faith in the Lord Jesus as God commands. Acts 2 describes a true unity based on the work of the Lord Jesus. Trust in this.