Prompt: Tower of Babel, by Larry Elmore, by Justin Gerard
In my previous post, I shared that the right direction started with a covenant and requires ongoing warfare. In this second part and conclusion of my devotional reflection, I would like to add that:
The Right Direction ends in victory.
One interesting story after the flood is the tower of Babel. This story shows that life after the flood was far from perfect. There was defiance of God's revealed command, but God defeated the plans of those who defy him.
The story begins with the vast majority of humanity together. Verses 3 and 4 of Genesis chapter 11 report a plan which the people had. They intended to build a city with a great tower reaching to heaven so that they would be famous for all time and utterly invincible.
However, verses 6 and 7 show God's counter-plan. After investigating the city and its tower, and God saw the proud plans of the people, he decided to bring an end to the city of Babel. And so the story ends in verses 8 and 9 where God dispersed humanity over the earth.
Implications for Moses' time
Moses wanted the Israelites to apply the story of Babel’s defeat to their lives by emphasizing the meaning of the word "Babel".
The people of Babel called their city Babel, which in Mesopotamian language meant “the gate of god.” But Moses had a different viewpoint about the name of the city. Since God considered their plan as contrary to his plan, the city was not the gate of God. And the fact that God confused their language, Moses made a play of words as a sarcastic commentary on the name of the city. The Hebrew word "balal," which means “confused” sounds similar enough to babel. In this way, Moses ridiculed the city by saying that the real reason it was called Babel was because of the balal or confusion that took place there. So, from Moses’ point of view, the name “Babel” was appropriate for this place, not because it was the gate of God, but because it was a place of confusion. Through this sarcasm, Moses utterly reversed the awesome reputation that Babel had in its day. He led the Israelites in delightful laughter as he told them that the victory of their God Yahweh had made a joke out of that greatest city.
Again, for Moses' generation, this story about Babel was very important. As we know, Moses sent spies into the land of Canaan who returned with bad reports. They claimed that Israel could not conquer the land of Canaan because the forces there were too great. One aspect of these bad reports helps us understand the significance of the defeat of Babel.
Listen to what the spies said about the cities of Canaan as reported in Deuteronomy 1:28:
The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky.
It is exactly this description of Canaanite cities that we can see the connection to the tower of Babel. When the spies spoke of “walls up to the sky,” the term for “sky” is the Hebrew word shamayim, which is often translated as “heaven.” It is the same term used about the tower of Babel when it is described as “a tower that reaches to the heavens” in Genesis 11:4. In both cases, the idea was that the cities were invincible because they reached the heights of heaven.
The Israelites thought that the walls surrounding the cities of Canaan reached heaven, much like those who built the tower at Babel. However, Moses confidently declared that even though the Canaanite cities before the people of Israel may have seemed to reach heaven, they were still no match for the power of Yahweh. In the time after the flood, Yahweh moved against the greatest city known to humanity, whose tower supposedly reached heaven. Yet, this city, which was greater than any city of Canaan, was easily destroyed by Yahweh.
Implications for the New Testament time
In the New Testament, Jesus’ earthly ministry fulfilled the theme of victory in holy war. Listen to the way Paul described Christ’s victory at the inauguration of the kingdom in Colossians 2:15:
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Jesus’ death and resurrection initiated the defeat of the evil powers and spiritual authorities that ruled over the world in his day. His work of redemption made a public spectacle of them much like Yahweh had made a spectacle of the primeval city of Babel, and later had destroyed the great cities of Canaan. In this sense, Jesus not only brought deliverance through the new covenant, but he was also victorious over the spiritual forces of darkness in his death and resurrection. Followers of Christ look to Christ’s earthly ministry as the beginning of the final victory promised long ago in the book of Genesis.
Conclusion
In our life, though our situation is not perfect, and we face lots of problems and challenges, there are still sufficient reasons for us to rejoice simply because God has already given us the right direction. This direction started in God's covenant, requires continuous spiritual warfare, and ends in victory.
As we face the struggles and challenges of living in a violent world, Christians must take to heart the message that Moses gave the people of Israel long ago. In Christ, God has delivered us from the tyranny of sin, just as he delivered the ancient world through Noah. But he has also set us on a path that requires a period of conflict and struggle as we wait for the day when Christ brings ultimate victory to his people. Until that time, we know that the world in which we live is not yet perfect, but we can be sure that following Christ in his spiritual battle for the world is going in the right direction.