The Tower of Babel as a Warning against Uniformity and Self Alienation

Wow. It certainly has been a while since my last blog, nearly a year to be more precise. It's hard to believe that during this time last year I was blogging to you all from over 5,000 miles away. As they say in English, "time flies." Or in Spanish, "el tiempo vuelva." Whatever your language, time never stands still. I could probably rant on and on about this topic, but I'll spare your retinas the time you'd spend staring at your computer screen reading nothing of great significance.

Anywho, to progress toward the real meat of the blog, I wanted to share some text that I wrote for my modern language seminar. We were to read Genesis 11:1-9, which I will provide for you in just a few moments so don't preocuparte [worry] too much, and were to write our own interpretation of the passage and what implications it held for us. I thought it was something worth sharing in hopes that you all could benefit from it, too. To refresh your memory, here is the passage that we were to contemplate:

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. 

Now that you've read those nine verses, the following is my reaction to said verses:

Throughout the Bible different verses and passages mean different things to many different people. The story known as the Tower of Babel, found in Genesis 11:1-9, is one of those. There, we find God’s people in a world where all nations are one with a single language. They are unwaveringly determined to erect a giant tower in order to reach the heavens, so that “[they] may make a name for [them]selves.” It is quite obvious through the Lord’s destruction of the Tower of Babel and the scrambling of the people’s language that the construction of the tower was not meant to be a part of God’s greater plan. But what significance does this possess for our lives? Or, in the words of the overused question often asked throughout our elementary and middle school days, “What is the moral of the story?” The importance here is twofold: the passage is a warning against uniformity and against self alienation from God.

The Lord scrambled, mixed up, jumbled, and confused the language of the people because they were using it in a way that allowed them to go against God’s will and plan for them. They did not question themselves because the task was so easy, as is evidenced in the sixth verse when God says, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” The unity of language among the people allowed them to build this tower. They demonstrated no doubts about what they were doing and remained steadfast in their decision to construct it. By confusing their language, God sent a warning against uniformity. There is great beauty to be found in our distinctiveness. Diversity teaches us to be tolerant and better citizens of a global world. It brings out true human kindness and understanding. It provides us with multiple points of view. It presents another perspective, different than our own. The Tower of Babel is an encouragement of our distinctiveness and clear warning against the uniformity that so blinded God’s people.

The second counsel that this passage offers us is a warning against self alienation from God. As I mentioned earlier, the people thought they could do it all on their own. Their desire to make a name for themselves in the heavens was brought about by eliminating God and moving toward an idea of self reliance. They thought that they didn’t need God. After all, they shared the same language and because of it “nothing [was] impossible.” This idea of self superiority that plagued the people was completely contrary to what God wanted for them and what he wants for us. This passage warns us that there is no meaning in life apart from God and we must be cautious not to alienate ourselves from Him.

In conclusion, the implications found in the story of Tower of Babel are ones that warn against a desire for uniformity and for self sufficiency. God confused the language of the people to create differences among the people. These differences provide us with others who have different views and perspectives than our own. In the sharing of this diversity and distinctiveness, we invoke critical thinking and reasoning to work together to solve some of life’s greater problems. However, we must ensure ourselves to include God as the director of our collaborative work, as this passage also serves as a reminder that we cannot experience success when we eliminate God from our lives and try to do it all on our own.

Well, in the famous words of Porky Pig, "that's all folks." I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope it challenges you. I'd promise not make you wait so long for another blog entry, but with this semester already kicking my butt, I don't know if I'd be able to keep such a promise. Hasta pronto (or not so pronto)!

Paz y amor,
JMF