Babel and Pentecost

God’s Multi-lingual Answers to Rebellious Ambition

Rev. John de Hoog. Trowel and Sword, June 1995

Preamble: You may remember that in Dec. 1977 Bill Deenick wrote about the church year in his article “Annus Liturgicus” (see TSR, Jan. 1, 2024). Next Sunday, May 19, is Pentecost Sunday; another important event on the Christian calendar, celebrated as the day that the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples 50 days after Easter and 10 days after Jesus ascended into heaven. In this article John de Hoog outlines a connection between Pentecost and the attempted building of the Tower of Babel. John points out that the spirit of Babylon is rebellion – “We will displace God.  We will  rule ourselves. If we work together, we can do it!” Sound familiar? How about, “The climate is out of control. We don’t need God. We will fix it. If we work together we can do it.” Compare that with: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22).

Babel and Pentecost

“Now the  whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly. ‘ They  used  brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.‘” Genesis 11:1-4.

The claim of the tower of Babel is the claim to be independent of God.  Babel represents a united mankind, doing things their own way.  After the flood, God had commanded mankind to fill the earth (Genesis 9:1).  Mankind rebelled against that command.  Instead of spreading out and filling the earth, the people decide to stick together and build a city with a tower reaching to the heavens.

The name of that city built on the plain of Shinar was Babylon (Genesis 10:10). The name Babylon means “gate of God” in the Babylonian language. Babylon is the great symbol of human pride and self-confidence. The gate of God – Babylon.  Where we drag God down to us, or where we reach up to God. Our tower is so high, it reaches to the heavens!

Here is the spirit of Babylon, of the tower-builders.  “We will displace God.  We will  rule ourselves. If we work together, we can do it!” What leads the people to build this great city and tower?  Three things: pride, ambition and fear.

Pride was a factor. See how the development of the city comes in stages. First they discover how to make bricks, and how to use tar for mortar. Flushed with this success, the next step is to build a city, with a tower reaching to the heavens. Pride in their own achievements leads to disobedience to God’s Word.

Ambition comes next.  “Let’s make a name for ourselves.” Isn’t this so typical of the spirit of the world right down through all of history?  The project is typically grandiose.  The people describe it excitedly to each other as if it is the ultimate achievement. This is going to be it! Mankind seeks to glorify itself, to go its own way without listening to what God wants.

There is pride and ambition here. But there is also fear. “Let’s build ourselves a city so that we will not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. ”  The people were afraid of being scattered, they sought safety in concentrated strength. They no longer believed the promises God gave in the covenant with Noah. God had promised to preserve the human race on the earth.  In faith, they should have dared to spread out across the whole earth and subdue it.  That was their calling in the covenant.

They were afraid of dispersal because they no longer believed. They were no longer bound to each other and to God by faith, they no longer had true unity in God.  So they sought outward unity to give them human power.

Babylon is still being built, isn’t it? Think of modern culture in the world today. Isn’t it true that everywhere we see pride, ambition and fear as the motivating forces behind  human  society?  Pride expressed in going our own way, with no concern for God’s will. Ambition expressed in grandiose schemes to solve every problem and make the world a better place, all without even thinking of God’s way. And underneath, a basic fear that unless we stick together, unless we strive  for  unity  and  external consensus, we are doomed as a race. It’s the modern world, just as much as it was Babylon.

It’s like the wall of a house that is cracking when the foundations are sinking.  You can stick wall-paper over the cracks, but eventually they reappear. Human beings seek power and security in outward  unity, political  consensus,  a kind of superficial peace that spreads paper­ thin over the violence and hatred boiling underneath.  But it doesn’t work, does it? Deep down, people are not changed. Always the cracks will reappear.  Something else is needed.

God will not allow rebellious actions, fuelled by pride, ambition and fear, to succeed. The Lord acted decisively against the Babylon­ builders of Shinar.  “But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan will be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. ‘ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ” (Genesis 11:5-8)

The Lord comes down to see the city and the tower.  So this is the tower that is supposed to reach up to heaven! It’s almost as if the writer is saying that the tower falls so far short of heaven that God can hardly see it! He comes down to look at it. Mankind’s highest achievement is pathetic in God’s eyes! The tower of Babel stands as a monument to how impotent we are before God. The city ends up half-finished, a laughable achievement.

And yet, God takes it very seriously. Not because the tower is threatening to displace him from heaven, not because he is personally afraid of mankind’s achievement. But because mankind’s actions in Babylon go against God’s ultimate plan to preserve and redeem his people through Christ.  Here is human strength and power growing out of all proportion.  If  this continues, unbelief will soon be total.  The whole human world is united in looking to Babylon for strength and security, but that is the wrong place to look.

Do you see that God’s scattering of the people throughout the earth is an act of grace?  There is no salvation in superficial artificial consensus and unity.  Which is better, a single human race unitedly waving its gigantic fist in God’s face, or division and separation with the hope that some would turn to God? If anyone at all is going to continue to trust in God, the false unity of the culture of Babylon must be shattered.  And that is exactly what God does by confusing their language.

God gives us the meaning of what he did in verse 9.  “That is why it is called Babel – because there  the  Lord  confused  the language of the whole world. ” The people had called their city Babylon – the “gate of God”, the gateway to God. But God changes one letter in the language and calls it Babel, the “place of confusion”. God mocks the builders. You called it Babylon, I call it Babel! God will never allow pride, rebellion and a trust in human expertise to succeed (Isaiah 14:13- 15 & Revelation 18:2-5). Going it alone in defiance of God will ultimately  lead to failure and judgment.

But the hopelessness of Babel is not the last word. A new chapter in the story comes on the Day of Pentecost.  Listen to how Luke introduces the witnesses to the outpouring of the Spirit.  “Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing  Jews from every nation under heaven.” (Acts 2:5) Every nation under heaven? What does Luke mean?  Were there Australian Aboriginals in Jerusalem at the time? No!

Luke  lists  the  nations represented in Acts 2:9-11. If you consider where these places are on a map and trace them back to Genesis, you see that Luke includes in his list descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth. Luke is giving us his ‘Table of Nations’ parallel to the one in Genesis 10. On that Day of Pentecost the whole world was there in the representatives of the various nations!

What did these people all hear on that Day of Pentecost?  They heard the gospel being proclaimed in their own tongues. One gospel in many tongues. At Babel, human languages were confused and the nations were scattered. On the Day of Pentecost, the language barrier was supernaturally overcome as a sign that the nations are now being drawn back together. How are they drawn back together? By the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, who has saved people from “every nation and tribe and people and language” (Revelation 7:9). At Babel, earth tried proudly to ascend to heaven, the result was confusion and scattering. On the Day of Pentecost, the blessings of heaven descended to earth, the result now is that the message of salvation is open and available to all nations.

There is a final stage to look forward to.  Zephaniah 3:9 points us to the grand conclusion. He is speaking about the Day of the Lord. “Then I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech (or “to one speech”), that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and  serve  him  shoulder  to shoulder. ” On that day unity will finally be restored, and all of God’s people will praise him in one tongue. The international church born at Pentecost will then be complete. The point is this – only in Jesus Christ is everlasting peace and unity possible amongst human beings.

John de Hoog Revd. de Hoog is Pastor of the Reformed Church of Hawkesbury (N.S.W.)

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