The people only wanted to be famous, and not be scattered. Why be famous? Imo, they want all the people know it, and be united. In verse 4, it says "...reaches the heavens..." I don't think that it meant 'heaven' wherein God lives, as they've taught me, I believe they meant the skies, or height.
Gen. 11: 6-7
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."
Why would God, a superior being, do that?
Why doesn't He want people be united?
Can't we speak in one tongue?
2007-07-24 22:39:06 · 13 answers · asked by Asther dela fuente 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The people only wanted to be famous, and not be scattered. Why be famous? Imo, they want all the people know it, and be united. In verse 4, it says "...reaches the heavens..." I don't think that it meant 'heaven' wherein God lives, as they've taught me, I believe they meant the skies, or height.
Gen. 11: 6-7
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."
Why would God, a superior being, do that?
Why doesn't He want people be united?
Can't we speak in one tongue?
I'm using NIV, btw.
2007-07-24 22:52:39 · update #1
Because mankind was trying to be better than God. God doesn't like it when people are arrogant or challenge his authority.
2007-07-24 22:42:39 · answer #1 · answered by private 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There's two explanations of why God sabotaged the Tower of Babel:
1. The seminary version is that people disobeyed God's orders to spread out and fill the land.
2. The other view is that God was afraid of what the people might do if they got too powerful. The text implies that God was afraid of men.
Number 2 is the explanation supported by Genesis. The story of the tower is only a few paragraphs but they're quite clear what Gods motivation was. He didn't want the people getting too powerful.
Explanation 1 is spin made up by theologians that don't want to admit that Genesis says what it says.
2007-07-24 22:52:36 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
The narrative of the "Tower of Bable" is clearly only an allegorical story meant to deliver a moral message. I think the message is that overpowering pride (building the tower) displeases God and divides the people. It is not that God does not want people to be united and in harmony with each other.
Personal pride stands in the way of human unity and harmony.
2007-08-01 04:46:07 · answer #3 · answered by akoypinoy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gen 11:1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
Gen 11:2 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.
Gen 11:3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
Gen 11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
Gen 11:5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
Gen 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Gen 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
Gen 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
That is the generations of Shem who wanted to overcome God in building the tower to heaven which is impossible for them to do. Because God his people, he have decided to separate them together with his blessings that no body of them be harmed or be killed from the tower which they are making and God knew it that they will never be successful in reaching heaven.. So inorder to let them live long as God desired, he made things impossible by scattering them to all parts of the world with life. and If God will not do it on that way, all of them will be surely die.
You read and read the bible until you could understand it , if God will give you guidance to understand because it was stated on the bible that not anybody could understand the words of God in the bible. If He know that you do not have faith in him, He will not let you understand the things supposed to be understood.
jtm
2007-07-24 22:57:59 · answer #4 · answered by Jesus M 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mankind’s invisible archenemy, Satan, especially used Nimrod to set up the earthly part of the Devil’s organization. Nimrod wanted to make a name for himself, and that arrogant attitude spread to his followers, who embarked on a special construction project in the land of Shinar. According to Genesis chapter 11, verse 4, they said: “Come on! Let us build ourselves a city and also a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a celebrated name for ourselves, for fear we may be scattered over all the surface of the earth.” That venture in opposition to God’s command to “fill the earth” ended when Jehovah confused the language of the rebels. “Accordingly,” says the Bible account, “Jehovah scattered them from there over all the surface of the earth, and they gradually left off building the city.” (Genesis 9:1; 11:2-9) That city was named Babel, or Babylon (meaning, “Confusion”), “because there Jehovah mixed up the speech of all the earth.”—Byington.
That miracle—the confusion of the one human language—led to filling the earth as God had commanded Noah, and it blocked any plan Satan may have had to establish united unclean worship of himself by humans who had rebelled against the Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth. True, by practicing false religion in any form, the people were victims of the Devil, and they were serving the demons when they made gods and goddesses, gave them names in their different languages, and worshiped them.
2007-07-24 22:45:19 · answer #5 · answered by conundrum 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God wants humans to rely on HIM not on their own "ability" in the Bible the very center verse is Psa 118:8 It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
2007-07-31 02:43:41 · answer #6 · answered by cowboy_christian_fellowship 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just proof that God isn't a socialist. Too much self pride results in rebellion. Man is not perfect, and needs to know that. If mankind relies only on himself and nothing else it leads him to destruction.
2007-07-24 22:42:48 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
They rejected God's command to spread out and decided to rely on themselves and their own abilities. This collectivist conceit is with us to this very day.
2007-07-24 22:47:49 · answer #8 · answered by Keith 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they were trying to build the tower the whole way up to heaven
2007-07-30 06:21:02 · answer #9 · answered by holly B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If they would have built the tower too high, they would have died anyway from the lack of air.
2007-07-24 22:43:10 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋