Genesis 20
A little boy was overheard talking to himself as he strutted through the backyard, wearing his baseball cap and toting a ball and bat. "I’m the greatest hitter in the world," he announced. Then, he tossed the ball into the air, swung at it, and missed. "Strike one!" he yelled. Undaunted, he picked up the ball and said again, "I’m the greatest hitter in the world!"
He tossed the ball into the air. When it came down he swung again and missed. "Strike two!" he cried. The boy then paused a moment to examine his bat and ball carefully. He spit on his hands and rubbed them together. He straightened his cap and said once more, "I’m the greatest hitter in the world!" Again he tossed the ball up in the air and swung at it. He missed. "Strike three!" "Wow!" he exclaimed. "I’m the greatest pitcher in the world!"
Pride is something else isn’t it? I mean, pride is a strong force that can blind a person to reality and take them down paths of life that they were never intended to go down.
Remember Saddam Hussein? Now that guy was a man full of pride. So much so that he was actually proud of his pride! A man who thought of himself as a type of reincarnation of the ancient king of Babylon King Nebuchadnezzar. He thought he was untouchable and thumbed his nose at the world community for decades! And for a time, he did pretty much whatever he wanted, no matter how cruel and sick and evil. But eventually that pride was his downfall and the last time we saw him his pride couldn’t loosen that noose around his neck.
Ironically, Iraq, or ancient Babylon, has always been a region of pride and that’s demonstrated in Genesis 11 where we see the people living in direct disobedience to the Lord all because of their pride. Tonight we’ll be looking at the Tower of Babel that was built by pride.
But what is pride? I mean, we’re proud of our kids when they live well. We’re proud to be an American citizen. We’re proud of our favorite football team. That’s good pride.
But there is an evil side of pride. A pride that seeks to exalt ourselves over God. A pride that makes us arrogant. A pride that makes us self-centered. The Bible talks a lot about this kind of pride and how it turns people away from the Lord. I would define sinful pride as:
“An inflated ego that’s based on self-achievement instead of God-enablement.”
That’s the kind of pride that turns a person inward instead of God-ward. So please turn to Genesis 11 as we begin tonight.
[Read Genesis 11:1.]
Now remember, Genesis 11 predates Genesis 10 chronologically. Genesis 10 shows us the generations and family lines of Noah and indicates that the languages and consequently the people groups were divided accordingly. Genesis 10 shows us why that happened.
After the flood it was just Noah, his sons, and their families that were to repopulate the earth. God was giving humanity another chance to exist. They all were together and shared the same language even as the generations were coming forth. But something happened along the way – man allowed pride back in and the results were dramatic.
I. Man’s pride turned him away from God
And pride will always do that. Pride will always turn us away from God because pride is an inflated ego that’s based on self-achievement instead of God-enablement.
Pride convinces us that we can do things on our own. Pride convinces us that we know everything. And pride convinces us that we deserve acclaim because of all we know and can do. This is the kind of pride that’s displayed in the people here.
1. Man’s pride turned him away from God to make his own plans
[Read Genesis 11:2.]
Now that sounds harmless right? I mean, they found themselves some nice land, a good place to raise a family, beautiful landscape, and they decided that they would settle there. But that wasn’t the plan according to God.
[Read Genesis 9:1.]
God expressly kept them alive so they could repopulate the entire earth – not just one region of it. But somehow their pride convinced them that their plan was better than God’s.
[Shaking baby and then getting puked on illustration.]
In the same way our pride can turn us away from God to make our own plans.
2. Man’s pride turned him away from God to make a name for himself
[Read Genesis 11:3-4.]
The city and the tower they were building were not as much for habitation and civilization as they were to be monuments of their own achievements. They were self-congratulatory reminders of just how wonderful they were as a people.
Now we learned last time that this is where Nimrod began his kingdom. A kingdom of ego, a kingdom of brutality, and a kingdom of paganism and false religions. It’s highly possible that he could have been the driving force of building this city and this tower.
There’s also written accounts of the ancient Babylonian city being built in the same fashion as indicated here but having been built by the gods as an expression of pride. Towers, or ziggurats, are thought to have been first built there in Babylon. These are great towers built with steps so that one could climb to the top where there would be a small temple there that was used to worship your gods.
One Babylonian account says such a tower was built for the ancient worship of Marduke and that every brick laid for the tower was inscribed with his name on it. It’s also said that this ziggurat reached to the heavens.
The tower mentioned in Genesis 11 was probably built first as a symbol of their achievement and eventually used for pagan worship. Especially as the fame and power of Nimrod rose. But there’s no doubt this tower was built to call attention to their own greatness.
It reminds me of all the Hollywood awards shows that do the same thing. The Oscars, The People’s Choice Awards, The Tony’s, The Grammy’s are basically all of Hollywood telling all of Hollywood just how great they are. I guess the fame and the money just aren’t enough. they’ve got to remind themselves over and over and over again just how amazing they are!
People today are so into themselves. Everyone’s trying to make a name for himself. You even see this in the Christian community with our own ‘Christian’ celebrities. And don’t be naïve, many people in ministry positions are more about making a name for themselves than they are about pointing all the glory to God. Just listen to the way that people talk and you can tell. Do they talk more about their own past accomplishments or God’s current accomplishment? Man’s pride will turn him away from God to make a name for himself.
But guess what else happened when man allowed pride back into the picture?
II. Man’s pride brought the judgment of God upon himself
[Read Genesis 11:5-7.]
The judgment of God was coming all because of their pride. God had told them to follow Him and to fill the earth with humanity. They turned away from Him and decided to do their own thing. So judgment was coming.
In some supernatural way the Lord came down from Heaven and separated the people by language. They all for a time spoke with one voice and one language, but that would be a thing of the past.
We don’t know just how He did it. We don’t know how many languages He divided the people into. But it seems that it was a sudden thing that caused a lot of confusion. One day they’re all together building this great city and were all so proud of themselves. The next day they can’t even communicate with one another.
I wonder if when the Lord saw that man had turned away from Him and had become full of pride He saw man going back to how he was before the flood - a culture typified by sin.
[Read Genesis 11:6.]
Think about that for a minute. Humanity unified, yet full of pride, would be able to accomplish anything it set its mind on doing. Anything! No matter how sinful. They would have been able to do things back then that we’re just now being able to do. Think about it. What if 4,000 years ago they were able to master:
- cloning - sex-change operations
- weapons - mind-alteration/drug use
- abortion - immorality
Unified man full of pride had to be dealt with or this second chance for humanity would end quickly. And when you think about it, this judgment of God was actually an act of mercy as God would continue His plan for the redemption of mankind even though it was obvious that man didn’t appreciate what God had already done for him.
God had brought man through the flood, yet man thought he didn’t need God anymore. “Thanks for the boat ride Lord. I’ll call you if I need anything. But don’t hold your breath.”
Man’s pride brought the judgment of God upon himself. And not only did man’s pride bring him God’s judgment:
III. Man’s pride brought him what he feared the most
[Read Genesis 11:8-9, 4.]
What did man fear the most? The false sense of security that their human unity brought. Again, something that’s a result of pride.
These people thought that if they stayed together as one great people then they would be safe and invincible. They would take care of each other and everything would be great.
God had told them to go and fill the earth with humanity. He would be with them. He hadn’t steered them wrong yet. He was the faithful, Almighty God. But they were sacred to trust Him and separate from each other so they let their pride win and they stayed together. But what they feared the most is what overtook them.
So many people think that if the world was just unified it would be such a better place. But for the world to be unified we would all have to water down our beliefs that make us distinct when it comes to our culture, our religion and our philosophy. So if it’s all watered down, then where’s the truth? It’s lost!
For instance, a Muslim and a Christian can’t be unified. Because the only way to unify them would be for each to drop their beliefs that make them Muslim or Christian. So you wouldn’t have a Muslim unified with a Christian. You’d have a mixture of the two and therefore the truth would be lost in the compromise. Right plus wrong doesn’t equal right. Right plus wrong equals wrong every time!
For man to think that the unity of humanity is the answer to all our problems is someone who thinks that man has all the answers and solutions for our problems. What pride!
God is the only One that can unify man. God alone! Once we all believe in God then are we unified. Unified in our belief, unified by the Spirit, and unified in purpose. And one day this unity will be complete when we worship Him face-to-face again with one heavenly language. The effects of the Tower of Babel will be reversed and man will once again speak with one language. What language will that be? Probably Hebrew, but we really don’t know, nor does it matter. What matters is that only God can unify man through His Son Jesus Christ. To think that we can do it ourselves is pure pride. So for now, man is divided.
You know this is a pretty bleak way to end this passage. I mean, here we go again with man and his sinfulness. It’s like when you clean up the living room and five minutes later your kids have messed it all up again. God destroyed all of sinful man, save Noah and his family, and just a couple generations later man goes right back to the way he was before the flood.
But God would not be stopped in His plans to redeem man even by man himself. So He divides the people and scatters them all over the face of the earth. And out of those scattered people God would raise up a man, and through him a people, who would form a nation, who would bring forth the Savior. Next week we see the beginnings of this plan and how it all started with a descendant of Noah’s son Shem – the man named Abram.
