Babel 2

Genesis 11:1-9

Most scholarly commentary on this passage actually sees humour in the coming down of God and his heavenly host to inspect this work of humans. God doesn’t really have to come down to see anything, but this is an expression of the puniness of human aspiration to attain to divinity. The direction of the building may be vertical, but the spirit is horizontal; it’s a monument to humanity and as such it gets heavenly derision.

I asked in the previous post if the scattering is simply preventive punishment against such future folly (it can't be a matter of any threat to God), or whether it is instead – or also – a way God worked through human circumstances in fulfillment of his own command reiterated at the beginning of chapter 9 for the people to spread out and multiply. This line of thought comes from an elegant expression of the “it’s both” scenario by Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, who goes on to talk about the nature of true unity of people under God, to the effect that it’s not about conformity but a unity of Spirit within diversity – a much needed message for the world and, frankly, for the church, in which too much the sense people outside the church get is that people already in the church are more concerned about people adapting their way of things than getting to know and follow their God. This is doubly tragic because I know that this is not what church people intend to convey, because at heart they really do just desire for people to know God. This isn’t just about the ‘old’ ways. Newer ways can very quickly become idols. It’s the opposite of human consumables in that what’s inside is always good. It’s the container that has a shelf life.

Two more entries on this passage at a pivotal point in the Biblical story:
Wednesday: About language.
Thursday: As a prelude to Abraham and the story of Israel.

Prayer:
God, I can never come close to the reality of you on my own. We can’t even do that together. It is only because you have truly come down to us that we can know you, love you, and share life together as your image on earth. We welcome your Spirit in whom we find true unity, expressed in a multitude of ways. In Christ. Amen.