Genesis 11 | The Tower of Babel
Genesis 11 wraps up what we call the pre-patriarchal period of Old Testament history. The chapter extends the genealogy of Shem to include Abram, the father of believers (Rom. 4:16). From here the story’s pace slows and its scope narrows. With Abram God’s covenant becomes, for a time, concentrated on the Jewish people. Contrary to the frequent mandate that God’s people should be fruitful and multiply, Abram’s wife “Sarai was barren; she had no child” (Gen. 11:30). This is an unexpected detail in a genealogy; the information could be called “anti-genealogical.” But it is preparing us for the miraculous birth of Isaac and, after him, Jacob (Gen. 25:21-28), Joseph (Gen. 29:31; 30:22-24), Samson (Judges 13:2-3), and Samuel (1 Samuel 1-2). God promised that a seed of the women would crush her enemy, the devil. But again and again God must open the womb of the Eve’s descendants. This important theme is carried into the New Testament in the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:7, 36). Finally, Jesus himself was born to a virgin, a natural impossibility. The Lord alone causes the barren ones to rejoice (Isa. 54:1; Gal. 4:21-31)!
This chapter also records the prideful actions of the other stream of humanity. Even the catastrophic flood did not check the pride of sinners. Instead of trusting in heaven’s God they planned to build a tower to the heavens. Instead of dispersing “over the face of the whole earth” to populate and subdue it, they defiantly congregated. So the Lord confused their language, preventing cooperation in their evil intentions. “And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth” (9). In the Lord’s reasoning, “better division than collective apostasy (cf. Lk.12:51).” But this is not God’s permanent vision for the race. At Pentecost God collected into his church people from where the frustrated builders scattered. And Pentecost merely previews God’s full gathering of nations. He will change their speech into “a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord” (Zeph. 3:8-9).
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