The Tower of Babel story demonstrated unity without God. Even though God had instructed them to scatter over all the earth, they rebelled and refused to disperse. The whole purpose of building this tower was to make them famous and keep them from having to scatter.
Their goal unified them in their project. It would have taken many people to make the bricks, fire them, and assemble them with tar. We see an amazing example of unity and peace as they built. Unfortunately, they were serving the enemy as they rebelled against God.
Unity as a Goal
In our divided culture, we put a high value on unity. We know even Jesus prayed for unity the night before He was crucified. John 17: 11 Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are.[1]
Paul also urged the Corinthian Church to be unified. 1 Corinthians 1: 10 I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.[2]
Unity is important. However, in the above examples, it is unity in faith as they follow Jesus. This was not the case in our story. We can see that God desires unity as we follow Him. But He knew humankind’s disposition toward sin even as He never promised to bring a flood again.
Genesis 8: 21 And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the (Noah’s) sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood.[3]
Better Division than Apostasy
The flood had destroyed the sinners but not the sin. The foundation and purpose of the tower were evil, yet God had promised never to destroy the world again. What was His solution? Genesis 11: 6 “Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! 7 Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.” [4]
Even though God values unity, it was better to divide the people than to have them fall away from faith and trust in Him. By confusing the language, they wouldn’t be able to understand and communicate with each other. This alone would stop the project. More than likely, family groups that spoke the same language would begin to move out and populate the whole world. This was God’s intention all along.
The people tried to build the Tower of Babel in unity without God. This ended in confusion; the name Babel is a Hebrew word for confusion.[5] We want to be in unity with our Triune God. As we follow Him, He will unify believers on their faith journey.
To learn more, listen here:
https://podpoint.com/light-of-christ-church-podcast/human-ambition-humbled
[1-4] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Tyndale House Publishers.
[5] H894, Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.