Title Genesis 11:1-9
However, special mention must have been made of “language” among the words repeated in 10:5, 20, and 31 of tribe, language, region, and nation. Because even though they have the same ancestor, their descendants continue to prosper from generation to generation, and as the region where they live spreads, various small tribes, regions where each tribe lives, and countries formed by each region according to their regional characteristics and environment What happens is that it can be considered as a very natural thing that needs no explanation, but an explanation of the reason may be required for the change in the language used. So I think that explanation is presented in today's text that follows soon. In verse 1 of the text, “there was one language and one word in all the earth” is an introduction to explain why the originally one language was divided into several languages. Today's text, however, has important religious implications beyond just a historical account of the origins of language diversity.
In the story of today's text, people tried to build a city and a high tower, and God stopped it. The people wanted to build the city and the high tower so that they would not be scattered all over the earth, and God stopped the construction in order to scatter people over the whole earth. People were able to build cities and tall towers because they were of one people and one language, and the construction was stopped because God had confused their language so that they could not understand each other. So what does this story mean for us today?
Here, we need to reconsider what the story of the Tower of Babel really intended, and what its primary meaning, if not the only meaning, would be. We need to pay attention to the passage in verses 8-9 that says what God has done as a result. In verses 8-9, which concludes the story, it is repeated back and forth that "the Lord scattered them from there over all the face of the earth." In connection with this, we read in verse 4, "Come, let's build a city and a tower so that the top of the tower touches the sky, so that we can make a name for ourselves and avoid being scattered over the whole earth." It should be noted that this was intended to avoid scattering. From this point of view, people did not want to be scattered, and God caused them to disperse is the primary content of this Tower of Babel story.
As you can see from verse 2 of the text, the area where people built the Tower of Babel was the plain of Shinar. This Shinar plain was very fertile. When they moved to the East and came to this land that looked so good, they were no longer scattered. They built a mighty nation in that fertile land, and built great and high castles and towers to live in a state of power. They forgot the mission to fill the entire earth that God had given them new permission. He came to love human comfort more than God's will. This story clearly shows us the image of a human being who easily forgets God's will when we taste material abundance.