seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Genesis 11:1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 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.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 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. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 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.
This is the link to the commentary. I found it quite interesting this morning.... It sounds like all the preachers I've heard. It mentions the Trinity because in verse 4 God says "let Us".... Why couldn't it just be God and His Son? Oh well, I don't always agree with the commentary... but I know it helps me get a handle on the story.God gave humans "choice". They can choose to do good, or they can choose to do otherwise. God gave them choice so He has to deal with their wild ideas.
In these verses... Humans learned to manipulate their surroundings. They could take mud, straw, and water and create something like rock. However, this rock could be molded so it is easier to work with. But we've all played with blocks... if they are built too high... they will topple. So, these people must have had some engineering smarts.
This is where the "imperfect" man shows himself to be smart but imperfect. I'm pretty sure the men who were running the Babel project were just as smart as those building the Mayan project. Perhaps they were the predecessors to those who engineered the Pyramids and Stonehenge and Easter Island. They developed their engineering skills. They weren't perfect. They were evolving their "choice".
Why worship God from here... when we can get to there and "be like god"?
And... These verses might explain the presence of such places as Stonehenge and Easter Island. "God scattered them" but the engineers were still itching to build something better than a tent.
I was taught, from these verses, that through cooperation, humans can do anything. The only way God could stop them from putting their smarts to work against God's plans was to cause them to argue. So.... God confused their language. They stopped understanding each other... and that made them willing to leave the project.
On a side note.... I think this is where the humans like the Mormons [that maritime people] left the rest. They could set out to sea, enjoy the gentle rocking of the waves... and get away from the arguments.
It says here, that God scattered the people. I can't see Him plucking families up and placing them elsewhere. I'm sure that shift would have caused a historic story that would be tracked. That would be too easy.... lol. I'm pretty sure God gave Angels orders to "talk" to the humans and make them think they decided to do this on their own. That would be "subliminal" right? We know "subliminal" works... We use it all the time to get people to buy products.
Humans, through cooperation, are indeed capable of anything. God gave them a logical brain. They can figure things out. They can flirt with the truth. They can manipulate their surroundings and build great projects. They can build the hierarchy required for a major project.
Humans have also figured out how to manipulate human language to make a lie sound like the truth.
According to an online search, the Tower of Babel was in Babylon... which is now Iraq.
This is the story of....
The Tower of Babel
