Genesis 11:1-8, 31-12:4: “So that we can make a name for ourselves”

Presented to the Nipawin Corps, 14 June 2009
by Captain Michael Ramsay

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We’ve been packing boxes a lot lately. We fill them, seal them and put them in the garage when they are ready to go. It’s amazing the stuff that you find every time you move. It is equally amazing the number of boxes that we don’t have to pack because we never opened them the last time we moved. I noticed a sewing machine still securely in its case, untouched, complete with stickers from the movers - from three moves ago. So, of course, as none of us have used this thing in six years at least, I felt reasonably secure, after talking to Susan of course, to take it and… put it in the garage with the rest of the stuff ready to move with us. The joys of moving.

Today’s pericope (Genesis 11:1-9) has something to do with moving too. It says in verse 2 that they were moving either from the east (KJV, NRSV) or eastward (NIV) when they find a place to settle down for a while. Now, like this will be our daughters’ fourth move in their 7 and 8 years of life, respectively, I imagine that the people in the story today of Genesis Chapter 11 have moved quite a bit too. At any rate they seem to have had quite enough of it. They say to each other, Verse 4, “Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the whole earth.” They are tired of moving; they want to set down roots.

“But the LORD came down,” Verse 5, “to see the city and the tower that they were building” and He was not happy. Why wouldn’t He be happy? Was it that the people didn’t want to move anymore? Yes, that is part of it; this is one of the two significant reasons. The other reason that God wasn’t happy was that – and I think this is important – as we read in verse four, they say, “Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves.” These two reasons, I suggest are very much intertwined here; they are interrelated. The people want to make a name for themselves (pride) and they don’t want to move anymore. [1]

Last week we looked at Genesis Chapter One.[2] We also briefly touched upon ‘the fall’. If you’ll look with me again at Genesis 1:28, here we have God’s first recorded words to humankind. This is then obviously important. The very first thing that the Bible records that God says to people is here. In verse 28, God blesses them and then He says, “Be fruitful and fill the earth…(cf. Gen 9:1)”[3] and then He gives them the responsibility to take care of the wildlife and the environment. [In Eden, it was like he created the first national park, or (vegetarian?) game reserve as it were (cf. Lev. 25).][4]

God created us, humankind, and He didn’t ask too much of us – He simply asked us to fill and take care of the earth and then later of course, Genesis 2:17, it is recorded the other commandment He gave us – not to eat the fruit off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – and we know how well that turned out.

So here we are a couple of generations later and if we haven’t messed things up enough already by failing to do one of the two things He asked us to do, in Chapter 11 we are making sure that we really mess things up by failing to do the other one.[5]

And by this time we should certainly know better. God has already de-peopled Eden because of the first sin. He graciously, however, let Adam and Eve live long enough to raise their own children, the first two it seems cause them a lot of heartbreak as their one son murdered his sibling – but even then God is gracious – Adam and Eve have more children and Cain (Gen 4), the murderer, is spared the immediate death sentence.

There is even more that happens between the garden and today’s story of Babel though that the people should know about: Noah’s Ark (Chapters 6-9). God has already drowned the earth and much of mankind in His sorrow and has, in his love for Noah, not only spared Noah and his family but also bound Himself through a covenant never to destroy the earth with a flood again and - even more than that – God set his rainbow in the sky to remind us of this (Gen 9:1-17). Our God is all-powerful and our God is gracious.[6]

But even with all of this history. Even with the signature of God written with a rainbow upon the covenant and set in the heavens above for all to see (Gen 9:17). Even with all of this…the first thing He told mankind to do when He created us was to go, scatter, fill the earth and the first story recorded after the flood episode and after Noah and his sons die, the first thing it is recorded we do in the very first narrative in Chapter 11 is to dig our heals in and refuse to move. We are given the commission to go and fill the earth and instead we build a city with a tower and say, ‘thanks but no thanks God, I think I’ll decline the orders to move.’[7]

Now, of course, this has some parallels to my office, our vocation. Susan and I received our orders to move a few weeks ago, as every officer might on that event-filled day near to the beginning of May. We like it here and there are many reasons why we may not want to be scattered from you our friends, colleagues, and congregation here but nonetheless we have been asked to move further west.

I know that there are ever so often Officers that do decline to move and choose to build their lives like towers in cities in defiance of those who have told them to move. In some of these cases – who knows? – If the Lord himself asks them to stay then, of course they must stay. But, I suspect in most cases when we decide not to follow the orders to move it would be for some other reason.

It could be because we love the people we are ministering with on behalf of God and the Army and don’t want to leave them; we certainly love all of you here. With all do respect we don’t love any of you more that we love the LORD but…some may not move because they love their current ministry more than anything else and don’t want to give it up. God more than anyone knows just how much I love the various ministries He has tasked me with here: from the Bible studies to the food bank to the court room to the emergency disaster relief work to the outreach at the café and there’s so much more too that I love about the ministry here. A reporter asked me about it the other day. ‘What did you love most about your time here?’ I think I went on for about an hour in response. The Lord has blessed me with so much. Susan will really miss all of the ‘Kid’s Klub’ kids and all her ministries here. We will miss all of you and the ministry here as we do continue our journey and follow the Lord to the Southwest. Some people, however, refuse their transfer and resign their commission because they don’t want to give up their ministries.

Some people disobey orders to move because of their kids. Some people disobey orders to move because of their extended family. Some people disobey orders to move because of their health. There are many reasons to disobey orders (some that may very well be legitimate) but there is never a good reason to disobey God and God has asked us to move and God has asked the people in Genesis to move but in Chapter 11, they seem to be bankrupt of obedience. They decide, 11:4, to stay “so that they may make a name for themselves” – pride.[8]

Does this sound familiar? Remember back again to Adam and Eve and their original sin. Was it not also based on pride? Did not they eagerly succumb the serpent’s temptation when he said, Genesis 4:5, ‘you will be like God’ all you need to do is eat the one fruit that He has told you not to eat.

I wonder how many of us easily fall prey to that temptation? I remember not that long ago Susan was reading to me from one of her magazines and they took a poll amongst youngsters as to what they wanted to be when they grew up and what do you think most of them said? What do you think? Most of them said that they just wanted to be famous…they didn’t want to be famous for anything particular necessarily. They don’t want to cure cancer, fly to the moon, fight for world peace, end world hunger or the sex trade specifically – that isn’t what’s important to them. They just want to be famous. They just want to ‘make a name for themselves’ as our text in Genesis 11 says today and in Genesis 11 they want to make name for themselves by disobeying God and remaining behind after he has told them to scatter, go, and fill the earth.

Now, of course, God vetoes their request to stay and just to show that He isn’t eternally angry He gives them a bit of a going away present – he gives them the gift of tongues, so to speak (Cf. Acts 2).[9] He confuses their language. They stop building this city and they stop building this tower and they go forth and fill the earth. There is a little bit of irony here too. They wanted to stay and build the city and the tower so that they could make a name for themselves by working together and staying put and now they have been remembered throughout history for just the opposite: becoming divided and scattering.

God will fulfill His promises whether we willingly follow along or not (cf. Romans 3:3,4) and in Genesis 11, we have the story of some people who suffered the results of disobeying God and staying behind when he told them to move but the story of humankind and God’s blessing doesn’t end here any more than the flood story ended with the destruction of man’s evil plans. Just like God saved humankind from the flood and blesses the world through His covenant with Noah (Gen 6-9), if we flip to the end of Chapter 11, we see that God prompts someone to move again so that He can bless his descendents and the world through them. Terence E. Fretheim tells us that the journey of Abraham’s family from Ur can be understood as part of the migration from Babel .[10] Genesis 11:31 records, “Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.” He stopped. He started to move to Canaan, he stopped but even though he stopped, God didn’t stop there, Genesis 12:1-4:

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him….

Look at this then. Here we have it: the good news of salvation. Abram obeyed God. God said move and Abram moved and God blessed all the earth through this action. As we have mentioned from this pulpit before,[11] this is where the gospel is mentioned for the first time in the whole Bible, Genesis 12:3: “…all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.” This was God’s promise to Abraham and this is indeed Good News.

In Chapter 11 of Genesis we see the pride and the stubbornness of humankind as we plan to stay in order to ‘seek to make a name for ourselves’ instead of following God. We then see Terah, presumably a good man, start this journey but stop along the way – before he ever reaches what will come to be known as ‘the promised land’.[12] But through all of this, God doesn’t give up on us. He calls out of that same land as the defiant city and the tower of Babel, He calls out of the same household of Terah who started the journey but didn’t finish, He calls Abram and through Abram He blesses the whole world because as we know this blessing of 12:3 that ‘all the nations of the earth will be blessed’ is ultimately fulfilled with the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Salvation has already been provided for the whole world, we just have to decide whether we want to experience that salvation or whether we would rather ‘make a name for ourselves’ instead. Would we rather remain in our pride, our sin, and our selfishness? Would we rather stay and ‘make a name for ourselves’ or would we rather give up everything and follow Jesus into the promise? This is our very real choice today. Salvation was already provided for the world. The selfishness of the people of Babel couldn’t stop it. No action on the part of any of us can stop it. Salvation has already been provided for the world. Our only choice now is whether we want to experience it or not and the only way to experience it is to forget about ‘making a name for ourselves’ and instead leaving all else behind and following Jesus.

Let us pray.

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[1] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), p. 412 where he argues that the primary sin here is the unwillingness to move and the ‘making a name for themselves’ is secondary.
[2] Captain Michael Ramsay, 'The Appeal of Creation: Genesis 1, Romans 1', presented to the Nipawin Corps, 07 June 2009, available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/06/appeal-of-creation-genesis-1-romans-1.html
[3] Josephus, Antiquities I.iv.1. Cited from Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), p. 412.
[4] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Leviticus 25 1-23 in the Context of the Holiness Code: The Land Shall Observe a Sabbath.’ Presented to William and Catherine Booth College (Fall 2006), for a discussion of the importance of the land itself to the Lord.
[5] Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), p. 412
[6] Cf. John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Genesis/Exposition of Genesis/I. Introduction to the Patriarchs and the Sinai Covenant (1:1-11:26)/E. The City of Babylon (11:1-9), Book Version: 4.0.2
[7] Cf. Brueggemann, Interpretation: Genesis,(John Knox Press: Atlanta, Georgia), 1982, pp.97-104 and Michael K. Chung , ‘The Narrative of the Tower of Babel in Dialogue with Postmodern Christianity’, Presented to Fuller Theological Seminary (Fall 2005), P. 7.
[8]John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Genesis/Exposition of Genesis/I. Introduction to the Patriarchs and the Sinai Covenant (1:1-11:26)/E. The City of Babylon (11:1-9), Book Version: 4.0.2 : the builders' attempt to make a name for themselves is a central feature of the story both in terms of the internal structure of the story and its linking with the surrounding narratives.
[9] Cf. R.C.H Lenski, The Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles. (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 62.But cf. also Robert W. Wall, Acts. (NIB X: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2002), 55.
[10] Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), p. 411.
[11] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Covenant: When God is Bound: a look at Genesis 15:7-21’, Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 52, December 2007 – January 2008, pp. 5-10. Available on-line: http://www.armybarmy.com/pdf/JAC_Issue_052.pdf
[12] Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), p. 422.