Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

As noted in Genesis 11:6-7: "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.'"

God knew that the building of the tower that the people had undertaken was motivated by pride (glorying in the work of their own hands), and by their desire to control their own lives, in disobedience to God's direction and guidance to Noah and his sons to fill the earth (Genesis 9:1). If this had been allowed to continue, it would have degenerated into the same sinful state of affairs that originally had caused God to send the Flood. 

Since God had already promised to never again destroy all life on earth (Genesis 9:11), He chose to deal with the situation by confusing the people's language, so that they were no longer universally able to communicate with one another, which limited their power, frustrated the plans that they had undertaken, and caused them to scatter in language groups throughout the earth.

April 25 2019 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jack Gutknecht ABC/DTS graduate, guitar music ministry Baptist church

I like Mr. Maas' answer that men built this tower because they were proud and that they wanted to CONTROL their own lives. I would add that they probably wanted to CONTROL God. Ray Steadman hypothesizes, 
Unquestionably there was a plaque somewhere attached to it that carried the pious words, "Erected in the year xxxx, to the greater glory of God." But it was not really for the glory of God; it was a way of controlling God, a way of channeling God by using him for man's glory. That is what man's religion has always sought to do. It is a way of making God available to us.”

They wanted to SHARE God’s glory, but God has said, 
KJ21“I am the Lord; that is My name. And My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images.” Or, as the Contemporary English Version states,
CEV “My name is the Lord! I won’t let idols or humans SHARE my glory and praise.”

Steadman continues, “Man does not really want to eliminate God. It is only sporadically, and then only for a relatively brief time, that men cry out for the elimination of God. Atheism is too barren, too pessimistic, and too morally bankrupt to live with very long. The Communists are finding this out. No, we need "dear old God," but let's keep him under control. Do not let him get out of his place. "Don't call us, God; we'll call you." This is the fundamental philosophy of society. It is the tower of Babel all over again.”

April 25 2019 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report