Goal Part II
The Tower of Babel
Now the whole earth had one language and few words, and as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."
Gods (Genesis 11:1-4) The point of this story is to show how fallen man thought, and still thinks. By contrast it also shows God's purpose for man. The key phrase is, "Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered" ( 11:4) . The instinct of self-preservation in fallen man seeks fulfillment not by trusting God, and thereby exalting his name, but by employing his own human genius, thereby making a name for himself. This was contrary to God's purpose for man and so God frustrated the effort-and has been frustrating it more or less ever since. God's purpose was that he be given credit for man's greatness and that man depend on him. This will be even more evident when we look at what God did next in redemptive history.
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