The Tower of Babel

After God sent the flood there was just Noah and his family left. God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them “be fruitful and multiply and spread out over the earth”. But the descendants of Noah did not listen and they settled in a plain in the land of Shinar.

Shinar was somewhere in Mesopotamia, today that would be in Syria/Iraq. In Hebrew Shinar means “land of two rivers” because there is the Tigris–Euphrates river system.

They all spoke the same language. Due to their common language they decided to make a name for themselves and built a city with a tower to reach the heaven. They started to make bricks and burn them to build the tower. The Lord came down from heaven to see the city and the tower. He knew this "stairway to heaven" would only lead the people away from God. So he decided to confuse their language that they don’t understand each other anymore and are not able to complete the tower and God spread them across the earth.

Therefore the name of the city was called Babel, because the Lord confused the language.

What can we learn from this experience?

The people who built the tower let pride control their lives. They lost focus on God’s true path for them. Sometimes in our lives it’s the same, we want to do our own things and ignore God. This pride can lead us to confusion like the people of Babel experienced through their mistake.

We shouldn’t be too concerned what we want for our lives and listen what God is telling us. 

A Talking Snake -> An Act of Rebellion -> Broken Relationships

            

In the picture from Albrecht Dürer  called “Adam and Eve” you can  see two people  in the Garden of Eden.  In this picture Adam and Eve are still innocent and don’t recognize they are naked.  Between them the snake appears and tempts Eve with the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.  Eve holds the fruit behind her back, and it looks like Adam is going to eat the fruit.  

What is the meaning of the picture?

             In the picture the snake resembles Satan who brings evil into the perfect world and causes Adam and Eve to sin.  There are three factors that lead us to sin: the world, Satan, and our flesh.  The fact that the snake was in the Garden of Eden means the snake was created.  Rebelling against Gods Word Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and has the knowledge of good and evil. By doing this it was an act of willful disobedience.  Wanting to have equal or greater wisdom than God was an act of moral autonomy. After the fall of man there are broken relationships, first between man and women.  Man and women become competitive.  Second there is also a broken relationship between man and creation for example man has to work the land.  Third the relationship between Man and God is strained. Intimacy is destroyed and innocence is replaced by shame.  After the fall Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden and they are now spiritually dead. 

What does this mean today?

Our selfishness causes us to fall into temptation just as Adam and Eve wanted to be greater than God. Our world is no longer perfect and bad things happen daily for example accidents, death and sickness. Men and women fight about who should be in charge, for example in the work field many women feel there is favoritism towards men. God and man have a strained relationship, as it is hard to have a personal relationship with Him because we can no longer hear Him or understand his plans for us.

Commentary:

http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/guz/view.cgi?bk=0&ch=3