Bible Story (Genesis Edition; Part I)

The Great Family & Giant Tower

To be honest, I'm kind of exhausted & tired about several interpretations of tower of Babel that always leads to the same conclusion; Don't be arrogant & follow God's order. The tower of Babel's story is so much deeper than that. And it's time for give this story a little praise, credit, and some positive reviews so that we could see that although this tower is a symbol of arrogancy of humans, it's also a symbol of autonomy & independent. Did building the tower of Babel is a violation of God's command? For me, it's still is, and what kind of violation did those guys do, let's dive a little deeper.

Most of you must've been familiar with the classic paintings of the 'Babel Tower', right? Well, to put it into the ancient world context, to make a humongous building must've need a lot of preparation, planning, and even more people to build it (Remember, there are no engines & advanced machines yet)! It must've took years to just make the structure of the tower. It must had costed a lot of time, effort, man's power, and money to build that up. It's a collective work, done by the descendant of Cain, and they had done a wonderful job.

We need to respect their will & hopes to 'make their names' as well, not because they were trying to praise their name. We all wanted to make a significance in this world, so that we could leave something good and even meaningful, when we die. It's not a bad motive, even from the ancient world perspectives(John Walton, 2016). To create meaning & significance is as important as to eat our daily meal, to keep us going & create a better future. And they have done a terribly good job, to do that. They're not just dreaming, they were actually running toward their dreams.

The second thing that we need to give credits to them, is that they also realize that they're all, flawed creatures, and they wanted to reach God, not as an act of arrogance & to challenge God's authority, but to make themselves close to God. Their realizations that they can't do anything well, without God, was also one of the main motives, why they built this tower. It clearly says that they wanted to make a tower so high to reach the heaven, not to make them can easily went to heaven, but as a bridge, that God will go down to earth & be with His creations.

And that's precisely how the ancient people understand God! They only knew that the way to be close to God, is not by climbing way to the top, but when God had decided to go down and met them. So then, what's wrong with them? They have the right motives, a pure will, and they do it properly, so why did God decided to tear them apart? Well, that's the interesting part to be explain! There's a double agenda in order to build the tower; To be close to God and to make their names.

It's a sign of impurity & deceitful of human beings that the God never liked. To build a tower, especially 'God's tower' can't be build just to 'make their names' because, if that's what happened, then we're disrespecting the temple. And, disrespecting temple, means disrespecting God, right? They were all got it all wrong, and therefore no matter how great, beautiful, and tall the tower was, God will never accept it. So that, in some ways, we could also say that humans have mocked God, by making that tower. Although they were respecting God's authority, they were also stating that they didn't need God & prefer to trust themselves.

So, what's the point of making a high tower if it's not for God? What's the point of being close to God, but in the end, it's just for a personal interest? What's the point of making a meaning in this world, if there's no higher call that will need to be pursue? I think that's the point of the story of "Tower of Babel". To understand that God has given human a great power, to make everything. Now it's up to our choices whether to make it for His good, or our own good, and be careful with our choices.