They said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.”
Genesis 11: 4 (NLT)
In the opening chapters of Genesis, God lays out his plan for humanity. In the opening chapter we find this instruction for Adam and Eve to "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it." Sadly Genesis goes on to recount man's departure from this plan. By chapter 11 mankind is in full-scale rebellion to the way of God.
I have always been taught that the sin of Babel was to try and build towards Heaven. That the tower itself was threat to God - as if some construction of human hands could somehow assail the very dwelling place of God. Recently, however, I have come across a different view. It is not the building project which God opposes. It is the coming together. Verse five tells us that God said "Look. The people are united...". Their fear is his intention. That they should be scattered. The outcome, God's intervention, is to find another way to fulful his intention. If the people won't spread out of their own accord, then he will scatter them.
The same is true for the church. In Acts 1 Jesus tells his disciples they will be his witnesses in Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the Earth. When they stay in Jerusalem, persecution bubbles up to scatter them. It is as they scatter that the gospel is spread and the church grows.
The temptation remains today. We love our festival gatherings, and large churches. But the call of God is the same. Go into all the world and make disciples. It is not until we scatter that we will see the fulness of his blessing.
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