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.