“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.And they said, Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
4 sermons cite this verse
… let's build a tower. Let's get up to the heavens. Let's go up there and try to bring God down. In fact, in Genesis chapter 11, verse four, it says, come, let us build ourselves a city so that we even make a name for who? For ourselves. God sees this plan and he's like, oh, oh, wait up, wait up. This ain't about my kingdom anymore. This is about them. They're trying to establish their kingdom. And he had given humanity instructions, go forth and fill the earth. They wanted to build their kingdom right there and then. So God does something. He actually comes down and he says this, verse 7, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. Verse 8 says, so the Lord scattered them from there all over the earth. So God confuses them and makes them speak other languages. They can't finish the project, so they get scattered everywhere. the ziggurat is man's attempt to go up to meet and bring god down to manage the blessings the ziggurat of us is about our name our will to make the gods do what we want how many times when you pray when we pray we say god bless my plans open the door shut the door prosper me do this for me fix my truck that's an actual prayer i prayed once the transmission was slipping and i was like lord you could do a miracle fix my truck turns out i just needed to change the transmission fluid it was all good right …
… bake them thoroughly. They used brick instead of stone and tar for mortar. Then they said, 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 face of the whole earth. But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. And the Lord said, if as one people speak the same language, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. So the Lord scattered them all over the earth and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. So what happens is, again, in the Old Testament we're seeing the judgment of God come upon these people in their prideful arrogance and disobedience to God's mandate to make His glory known and mandate to multiply throughout the earth. …
… They used brick instead of stone and tar for mortar. Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise, we will be scattered all over the face of the whole earth. But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, if as one people speaking the same language, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth and they stopped building the city. that is why it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. If you are taking notes today, I've titled this talk, The Right Reaching. You see that they're reaching in this story to build something massive, to build something ambitious. And there is a wrong way and there is a right way to strive and to reach for what God has for us. And let me just tell you, there is also a wrong reach. Anyone that's over 40 and has ever pulled a little something says amen. Yeah, yep. A little stretch, a little extension. You know, the stretching and the reaching is, it's a real thing …
… that is to say, so that they would be strong, and they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. And they said, Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name. Otherwise, we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. They knew they were supposed to be scattered over the face of the whole earth. That was the creation mandate. That was God's order to them in the original creation. But they were rebels against God. They did not want to do that. They wanted to stay together. And so they decided that they would build a city, and they would build a tower, and they would make a name for themselves. The Lord came down, verse 5, to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do. And now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. …