The story of the Tower of Babel is included in Scripture for a reason, right? So, Why is it there? How does the tower of Babel fit into God’s redemptive plans and purposes?

These are questions we should think to ask. In fact, Scripture is designed, according to Hebrew thinking, to invite us to ask questions.

Western thinking might assume that we just take things on faith and don’t ask questions. Or the opposite: take it at face value and dismiss it when we find problems (“contradictions”) in the text. The biblical texts, however, are inherently Hebrew (“eastern”) in their assumptions, and we lose something if we do not understand that.

God wants us to seek Him, and that includes asking questions of Scripture, wrestling with it, and finding answers to our questions. We don’t exhibit a lack of faith when we find “problems” in Scripture and ask questions. Our faith propels us forward to wrestle with the text and seek answers through study, prayer, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We can hold to a high view of Scripture and admit there are “problems” in the text. Those problems can lead us to some real gems in the answers they reveal.

God desires us to seek him and find him, as Paul says to the philosophers in Athens. (Acts17:27) Jesus, of course, promised that those who ask, seek, and knock will be answered, will find, and the door will be open to them. (Matthew 7:7) Faith is evident when we use the problems we see as the springboard to seek answers.

I recently wrote an article on the Tower of Babel story exploring some of the questions it invites us to ask, and trying on answers that are suggested by a more eastern (Hebrew) mindset than most westerners might be adopt.

One question we might ask is: why is the story there to begin with?

We might assume the story is simply an explanation for how people became scattered all over the world in different language groups. If that is all we get out of the story, though, we miss the most important meaning. If we stop there, and assume there is no more to the story, we may be missing the most important part of the story!

A Hebrew (or eastern) mind always asks, “Why?”

I resonate with this basic practice incorporated into the BEMA Podcast because of a Jewish professor I had in college. He explained one day the difference between the western and eastern approaches to Scripture. He illustrated it with the following example.

If the universe consisted of a chair in a room, people with western minds and eastern minds would approach the room differently. The westerner would measure the height, width, depth and mass of the chair. He would weigh it and measure the distance of the chair from the walls and the ceiling. The easterner (the Hebrew) would start by asking, “Why is the chair here?”

In my previous article, I discussed how the story is a chiasm (a type of poetry). A chiasm puts emphasis on the middle verse. In this story, the emphasis falls on the people’s desire to “make a name for ourselves” because “otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the earth”. (Gen. 11:4)

Why were they concerned about being scattered? Why does God care? What is God doing in confusing their languages and scattering them?

For starters, God does not break into the story, yet, when they are making bricks. We might assume, therefore, that God isn’t threatened or concerned about their development of new technology. He doesn’t break into the story until they say they are going to build a tower to make a name for themselves.

We also need to be mindful, always, of context. The context here is that people are moving away from God, away from his plans. (Moving east.) God wanted them to multiply and fill the earth, but they wanted to put down roots in the plains of Shinar (Babylon), lest they be scattered, and build a tower to exalt themselves.

God’s plan was to have them “multiply and fill the earth”. This was the instruction from God to Adam and Eve. The people who built the Tower of Babel didn’t want to do that. They didn’t want to be “scattered”. They resisted, and they put down roots when they should have been filling the earth.

Building a tower to make a name for themselves, in this context, means wanting to pursue their own plans to achieve their own ends. The concern about being scattered suggests they knew they were doing their own thing contrary to God’s plans for them. They might have feared being scattered because it would disrupt their plans to exalt themselves.

Maybe they thought God couldn’t scatter them if they built a fortified tower. Maybe they were trying to make God deal with them on their own terms, in a location they established, by a structure by which they thought they could ascend to God and control where God met with them.

Of course, God did exactly what they feared, and scattered them a against their wishes by confusing their languages.

But why? Was God threatened by them?

Um…., no. God is sovereign. He created the heavens and earth, and He created these people. They were no threat to Him. So why did God scatter them?

I believe the answer lies partly in the fact that they were pursuing their own plans in exultation of themselves. God had other plans, and God frustrated their plans that were not in keeping with His plans.

That might all seem arbitrary unless we keep asking questions and seeking answers. Why were the peoples’ plans something God couldn’t abide? How did the peoples’ plans interfere with God’s plans?

What were God’s plans?

The story invites us to give God the benefit of the doubt (and trust Him). When we trust God and in God’s story, the answers begin to unfold in the Bible.

We need to be paying attention to the arc and sweep of Scripture as we read through it. We need to pay attention to detail and note when detail appears in different places.

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The people were moving east again (symbolically away from God).

What was God to do?

In the next story, the story of Abram (later to be known as Abraham), we find God choosing a person willing to listen, willing to be obedient, willing to be selfless, and willing to trust God. God honors Abram’s faith and faithfulness to Him and says He will bless all the families of the earth through Abraham. Thus, we learn God’s ultimate plan is to bless all the families of the earth.

We also find that the blessing comes through trusting God, submitting to God and to His purposes, even when we don’t understand exactly what God is doing. This is what Abram did, and this, it seems, is why God chooses him.

Notably, God told Abraham to go to a foreign land that he did not know. He Abraham didn’t resist. He went, but Abraham didn’t put down roots even there (in the land God promised him), “For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:10)

Notice the contrast to the Tower of Babel story: Abraham trusted God and allowed God to “scatter” him. Abraham didn’t even put down roots in the land to God promised and sent him (“[H]e lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.” (Heb. 11:9)) Abraham didn’t build his own city; he was waiting for God’s city!

This is the hallmark of faith and trust in God:

“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own…. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (Heb. 11:13, 14, 15) (NIV)

God has plans in the earth, and He is looking for people who will trust Him to carry out His plans. In Act 17:24-27, Paul says,

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”

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Paul, who certainly knew his Torah, says that God did more then scatter the people; He “marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands”. God did it, says Paul, “so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him”.

So, God’s purposes in doing these things is to encourage people to seek (search for, desire, require, demand) Him and, perhaps, reach out (“feel their way toward“, in the Hebrew, to feel, touch, handle; feel after, grope) for Him. How does it work that confusing and scattering people accomplishes His purpose?

One more point, and then I will try to bring this thought process to a resolution: Jesus said the greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbor. Thus, people seeking God, loving him, and loving their neighbors are central to God’s plans.

So, again, how are these ends – that people would love God and love their neighbors – be accomplished by God confusing languages, scattering people and marking out their appointed times and boundaries?

If we trust God and trust the story, we will look for the answers.

“[A]nyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Heb. 11:6)

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Romans 8 describes the redemptive plans of God and reveals that the futility to which God subjected the earth is part of that redemptive plan. Our frustration, toil and separation from other people are not contrary to the purposes of God, but part of the plan.

Languages were confused, people were scattered, times and boundaries were set, the whole creation was subjected to frustration… in hope. The hope is that people would be motived to “seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him”. (Acts 17:27) The hope is that people would learn to Love God. The hope is that we would learn to love each other.

Something about the frustration to which the creation has been subjected, together with the eternity God set in our hearts (Ecc. 3:11) drives men to seek God. Likewise, something about the scattering, the disparate times and the boundaries that separate people motivates them to reach across those barriers and seek each other out – to learn to love our neighbors.

Jesus, or course, is at the heart of this plan. “[I]n Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself….” (2 Cor. 5:19 (ESV)) Christ is now our peace, breaking down the “wall of hostility” between people. (Eph. 2:14 (ESV))

God ultimately wants people to come together in fulfilment of God’s plans and purposes – not resisting him, nor seeking our own glory. To seek God and find Him, we must learn understand who He is, to trust Him, to love Him, to submit to His plans.

To come together across the barriers that divide us, we must learn to love our neighbors.  We must seek them out, to learn their languages, to learn their cultures, to turn our focus on them and off of us – to love them.

As I have been thinking and chewing on these things, I came across the Xiaomanyc 小马在纽约 YouTube page. Xiaoma is an American, a New York City native named Ari, a “white guy”, who loves languages. He speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, and other far east dialects, and he surprises people and connects with them by learning their languages.

New York City is a great place to do this. The reactions are priceless. In the following video, he learns Yoruba, a Nigerian dialect, and makes connections with Nigerians in New York City. Notice how they react:

It’s amazing how connecting with people in their native tongues changes things. People appreciate the effort. It’s an instant connection. Watch how speaking Navajo breaks down barriers in this video:

The last video I link below involves Xiaoma connecting with Chinese New Yorkers in Mandarin, which is surprising enough. Then he speaks to them in Fuzhounese, a relatively rare Chinese dialect. The surprise changes to instant warmth and appreciation.

These examples bring home to me the power of considering others, treating others as we would want to be treated – loving them. Few things do this as much as the effort to learn a person’s native tongue, appreciating their food and expressing genuine, heartfelt interest in their culture.

Perhaps, God knew what He was doing in confusing peoples’ languages and scattering them!

If we understand that the confusion, scattering, appointing times and setting boundaries was meant as obstacles for us to overcome, we develop a completely different perspective. Scripture links these things together with God’s ultimate plan to bring people back together in Christ – to bless all families through the seed of Abraham.

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POSTSCRIPT:

I am adding this postscript in November of 2023, while the fighting between Israel and Hamas rages in the land God promised Abraham. If we should take away one lesson from Abraham right now, it would be to recognize that Abraham lived in the promised land in a tent like a foreigner. We might say he wasn’t looking for an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly one.

Yes, God later led His people out of Egypt and instructed them to drive out the inhabitants of that land, but we need to understand what God was doing at the time and how it fits into the arc and sweep and ultimate fulfillment of God’s plans. He was creating a people dedicated to Him into which and out of which He would enter history and redeem the whole world.

Read Paul and what he says about Abraham and Moses. The covenant with Abraham predated the covenant with Moses. Jesus fulfilled the Law of Moses. Period. And he invites into a new covenant, one that goes back further than the law of Moses to Abraham.

Abraham is known for his hospitality. He treated people the way a person would want to be treated. He lived at peace with his neighbors. He wasn’t fixated on possessing the land because he understand that God’s promise was not really the land, but something else! A better country—a heavenly one!

Jesus plainly said that his kingdom is not of this world. (John 18:36) He calls his followers to live differently in this world because we are not of this world either, if we are truly in Christ and following him. Peter calls us aliens and strangers in the world. (1 Peter 2:11)

The temple was destroyed in Jerusalem never to be built again, because we are God’s temple now, individually and corporately. We don’t worship on this mountain or that mountain; we worship now in spirit and truth! (John 4:21-26)

No land on this earth is more sacred than any other land. We are waiting for that City, the architect and builder of which is God. The holy city, the New Jerusalem, will come down out of heaven. (Revelation 21:2) It isn’t a city that we can build up to God – like a tower of Babel.