The Babel of Confusion

Genesis 11

After Noah and his family escaped the great flood in the ark, they spread out over the lands near where the ark rested.  One of Noah's sons was Ham, and he had a grandson named Nimrod.  This Nimrod was a great hunter, and a builder as well.  He founded several cities between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, one of which became Babylon.  The land where he built his cities was called Shinar.

The people of Shinar were very proud, and aspired to reach heaven itself.  No one stepped forward to say they were trying make themselves like God.  An organizational genius, their leader brought people and materials together from great distances to carry out his great plan.  He was helped by the fact that everyone, just three generations removed from the flood, spoke the same language.

The plan was ambitious, gargantuan in both its concept and its realization.  It amounted to no less than a plan to invade Heaven, by building a tower from the earth to the sky.  The day the first endless lines of carts arrived, carrying newly-fired bricks and materials for mortar, The king himself was there.  He ascended a platform built for the occasion, and at his upraised hand all the noise and hubbub at the building site ceased.

"Men of Shinar!  I, your king, have begun this day a tower that will reach the sky.  None who came before me ever dared try such a thing.  I will ascend to the very heights, to the place where God resides.  Let the work begin!"

There was a resounding cheer, and a chorus of praise for the Great King.  The work began that very day, with the digging of the foundation.  In no time, the first row of bricks was laid, and the mortar was in place for the next.  As the days passed, the tower reached higher and higher, soaring into the clear blue sky.

God was not pleased with what he saw.  "If we allow this to continue," he said, "man will believe he is able to accomplish anything, and he will think to be like us.  He will worship his own image as god.  We will put a stop to this now."

So God went down, and sent a spirit of confusion among those working on the tower.  They all began speaking in different languages, and could no longer understand each other.  There was a lot of shouting, and fights broke out.  Before long, all work ceased, and the people who so recently had worked as one went their own way.  The unfinished tower, and the city around it, were called Babel, meaning confusion.