Reflection Genesis: The Tower

Our reflections follow the Bible Month 2024 book of Genesis. In particular we’re going to look at some of the places the stories take place and what we might learn from these.

The Tower

“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; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’”
Genesis 11 v4

We’ve already seen that our choices and actions affect the natural world. We try to impose ourselves on it, say that our desires are more important than the considerations of other beings, and bend it to our will.

Here we see what happens when people coming together because they want to ‘make a name for ourselves,’ to declare their own importance rather than acknowledge God. The tower may also have been a way to escape a future flood- despite God’s promise that this wouldn’t happen again- or to try to predict the future using astrology. They were choosing not to rely on God’s provision but to try to control the world and put themselves in charge.

Rather than coming together they found themselves spreading out across the world, perhaps learning that it’s better to rely on God than on themselves. It’s a lesson we all have to be reminded of sometimes!