Spectacular Sins: And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ by John Piper

Author:John Piper
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Religion, Christian Theology, General
ISBN: 9781433502750
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2008-09-11T22:00:00+00:00

5

T h e P r i d e o f B a b e l

a n d t h e P r a i s e

o f C h r i s t

How the Judgment of God Brings

Joyful Acclaim to Jesus

“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and

let us make a name for ourselves.”

G e n e s i s 1 1 : 4

So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they

left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the

Lord confused the language of all the earth.

G e n e s i s 1 1 : 8 – 9

Our theme in this book is Spectacular Sins and Their Global

Purpose in the Glory of Christ. In this chapter, we come to

the spectacular sin of the building of the tower of Babel. Lest you

think this is too distant and irrelevant to your modern life, ask

these questions: Where do all the languages in the world come

from—and all the people groups? Are they the result of sin? Are

they a good idea, full of potential for the glory of Christ and the

joy of God’s people? Is it good or bad that there are separate,

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independent political states that are often in conflict? What does

God think of a monolithic super-state? Will he prevent one? Will

the world end with one? And personally, what is your own root

sin, and what does God think of it? What has he done to rescue

you from it? All of that and more flows out of this account.

A Perplexing Matter Answered

Let’s begin by clarifying one perplexing matter of context. Genesis

11:1–9 seems to describe the origin of languages. But careful read-

ers of Genesis notice that in chapter 10 the peoples and languages

are described already, before the tower of Babel in Genesis 11.

For example, look at Genesis 10:5: “The coastland peoples

spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in

their nations.” Then you get to Genesis 11:1 which says, “Now the

whole earth had one language and the same words.” The author

knew what he was doing. He has not forgotten in 11:1 what he had

just written in 10:5, 20, and 31 (only two verses earlier).

The solution is to recognize that the author has not put these

two stories in chronological order. He first describes the spread

of the peoples and languages in chapter 10, and then he describes

the origin of that diversity in 11:1–9. Sometimes, when you have

something shocking to say about why an event happens, you put

it at the beginning of the event, and sometimes you wait and put

it at the end of the event.

After the Flood, God had said to Noah in Genesis 9:1, “Be

fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” That’s what chapter 10

describes. It was happening as peoples and languages multiplied.

It looked like a simple fulfillment of God’s command. It looked

like obedience. Then Genesis 11:1–9 drops the bomb on us.

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