Re-building the Tower of Babel

In Genesis 11:1-9, we read the story of the Tower of Babel. Of how the people

of the Earth sought to make a name for themselves by developing new

technologies, starting with a tower that would reach into the heavens. It is

doubtful that they would have reached the heavens with this one construction

project, but they were not focused on God and His purposes, but on sin, and

they wanted to do great things for their own glory. 

God's response to them was to confuse their language, so that they could not

work together. People who ended up speaking the same language clustered

together and drifted away, and so God slowed down their ability to be united in sin.

God’s invention of other languages

somewhat slowed down their

technological advancement. And

so, with different languages, different

civilisations developed at the same

time. These cultures never really

united in purpose but mainly clashed

with one another as each strove for

dominance over the others. 

God knew that if people had one language and one focused purpose, it would give

them greater ability to unite in sin and develop sinful technologies through which

to extend their influence and drive the rest of humanity into greater sin. Multiple

languages meant the development of different cultures and ways of doing things.

Maximising the reach and impact of sin became more difficult with the confusion

of languages.

If God were able to predict that the Hebrews would turn away from Him and go into

exile, hundreds of years before it happened, He was more than able to see what

humans united in sin would have been able to accomplish.

So, humanity was given a divine slowdown to prevent them from falling into greater

sin.

We know that the first ones to sin were not Adam or Eve; it was, in fact, the devil, 

and according to the scriptures, one-third of the angelic host fell with him. 

These now demonic beings were united in sin, and the devil was their undisputed

leader. Knowing that God’s judgment was upon them, they sought a place of their

own in which to dwell and wage war against the Almighty. To understand their

structure, we only have to look at Nazi Germany. 

Hitler was the undisputed leader of the Nazis. Once elected to power by the German

people, he passed what was called the enabling law, which gave him the authority to

legislate independently of Parliament. He united the offices of President and

Chancellor and proclaimed himself to be Führer and Chancellor over Germany. He

was now a Dictator.

His next step was to make all the armed forces swear allegiance to him (not to the

constitution or to Germany), which particularly included the German High Command.

So, Hitler had political power and military power. Then he began to purge the judiciary

and all those who were opposed to him. 

Based on his early victories and the invasion of France, Hitler was hailed as a

military genius. But it wasn’t long before his military decisions were not so

brilliant, such as the invasion of Russia and his missteps when the Allies invaded

at Normandy. Hitler was sure that the invasion was going to happen at Calais, and

had moved the bulk of his army there, when the invasion happened at Normandy, 

people were too scared to wake Hitler up and tell him, so they had to wait for him to 

get out of bed before they could fully react.  He was still sold on Calais, though, as 

he said Normandy was a decoy and the main invasion was still coming at Calais.

We know that the powers of hell

have structure. Paul outlines this in

Ephesians 6:12,  and somewhere

in Hell, there is an agreement

that the devil is in charge and like

Hitler, he too has made a huge 

mistake by crucifying Jesus. 

By killing Jesus on the cross, the devil thought he was finally getting rid of God on 

earth, and his grip on the real estate was now permanent. God had given dominion 

over the Earth to humans, and humans were now in his power through sin. He and 

his cohort thought they were safe. But then came Jesus descent into Hell, the taking 

of the captives and the resurrection, and God’s secret plan was exposed. Jesus was 

meant to die; His blood was meant to be shed for the forgiveness of sin. The devil 

had been duped by God. With sins able to be forgiven, the devil was losing power 

and influence daily as people repented and believed the gospel.

Paul writes in 1 Cor. 2:6-8

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however,

not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; 

but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God

predestined before the ages to our glory; 

the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they

had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; 

The devil did not understand the secret purposes of God, and now all is lost for him.

The clock is ticking, and the lake of fire is waiting for him and his followers and all

who are unforgiven sinners. He is like the desperate convict waiting on death row,

looking at the clock, counting down the hours, knowing that his time of execution is 

coming.

So what does this have to do with the Tower of Babel? In recent years, human

technology has built a thing that is designed to overcome the language

and culture barrier, help further the effects of sin, it is called the internet. On the

internet, I can use Google or other means to translate in real time a conversation

I am having with someone who does not speak English. The ideas I want to express

to them are clearer because of the internet, and it does not take all that long for them

to understand the substance of what I am saying to them.  

Social Media is also able to reduce the language barrier, and events such as TikTok

challenges happen all over the world. People take up these challenges in the hope of

being noticed and becoming an influencer by getting people to follow their channel

as they do these challenges and other antics that usually get them into trouble. One

challenge was to try to kick in someone's door in the middle of the night and run

away. The problem is that in America, a lot of people have guns, and if they think

someone is trying to invade their home to rob or harm them, they tend to shoot first

and ask questions later.  One kid has already died doing this “prank”. But there

remains a large community of people out there who think this kind of content is

funny, and they fund it. These are people who are uniting in sin. Some influencers

who have been arrested doing such things have told the court that they were only

“pranking” the other person. As if that justifies property damage, assaults,

defamation, and many other such acts of lawlessness.

Terrorists can use the internet to communicate with sympathisers in other countries

and to set up attacks on foreign soil. These, too, are people who are united in sin. 

So in these last days, we see sin moving at projectile speed, causing incredible

damage because language differences are now irrelevant. Did you know that by 

using AI, I can make an unfactual movie that shows people doing things they did 

not do, and I can circulate that on social media? I can try to justify this as freedom 

of speech, but it is, in fact, the desecration of truth.

Sin is not a bad choice; it is the worst possible choice, and it always has serious

consequences for us, for others and for our relationship with God. God sent His

Son, Jesus, to save us because He loved us, despite our sinfulness.

Love, compassion, justice and mercy are what God gives to us in Jesus and are 

things that the devil cannot offer us in any form. The best he can offer is a 

composite package of lies that will only drive us further away from God and send us 

back to the futile work of trying to rebuild Babel. 

Rebuilding the Tower of Babel is the devil’s only post resurrection strategy. Unite 

people in focussed sin, and get them to focus on themselves. Give them a sense 

of their own self importance.

God on the other hand asks us to look to Him, believe that Jesus’ death is enough 

to pay for all of our sins, and receive His forgiveness. He will then change us to be 

like Him.

The smartest thing we can ever do is turn to Jesus and accept His free gift to us, 

forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Him.