Babel's Utopia (Genesis 11)

 Babel's Utopia

After the flood the people were supposed to spread over the whole world. God had said:


[Gen 9:1 NKJV] 1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.


Humanity, however, wanted something different.
Nimrod was a mighty famous man, one of the first worldly stars who had a rebellious heart. Part of his empire was Babel.

In Genesis 11 we see how this plan was conceived and what they wanted to do. It followed the spirit of Nimrod, but in a collective way:


[Gen 11:1-4 NKJV] 1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and bake [them] thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top [is] in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."


Everyone had the same language and they did not want to be scattered over the whole earth to fill it. 

Instead of that they were trying to make a huge city with a great tower. The spirit behind this is revealed in that they wanted to make a name for themselves.

God’s response was initially this:


[Gen 11:5-6 NKJV] 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the LORD said, "Indeed the people [are] one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.


We can see the collective optimism in the building of Babel and its tower.

In their mind humanity would reach new levels. They would all be together and do great things. They would be the generation that would make a name for themselves. This city would be great and amazing.

But this spirit was a spirit of national arrogance. They were going against the purpose of God and they had a collective arrogant optimism who wanted to make a name for themselves like Nimrod personally.

In almost all empires throughout the ages this same spirit can be discerned.
There is a certain optimism about the future and what humanity can achieve. Their heart is raised in arrogance, they want to make a name for themselves, be united and in the process of doing so they oppose God’s intentions.

God Himself did not deny that humanity would do much in this sense, but it was a sinful spirit of arrogance which was only the beginning. It is this kind of collective optimism that would make this world our home and which starts to look more like pride. It is a form of utopianism and idealism where humanity tries to create an utopia over here.

And thus God put an end to this:


[Gen 11:7-9 NKJV] 7 "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.


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