Motives and Remedy

What were the motives behind building the tower?

• They wanted to build a city and a tower to make a name or reputation for themselves
• They thought that the city and tower would form a focal point to keep their community united in that area

This was totally opposed to what God intended when He gave Noah the command to ‘fill the earth’. So their city and tower became a visible sign of their rebellion against God.

God could see the potential for ever greater rebellion in this situation, so He took control.

Therefore God created many and varied languages in order to put down this rebellion and so cause mankind to repopulate the whole earth according to His plan and purpose.

Without a common language, evil and rebellious influences and ideas would not spread so quickly. There would be a language barrier.

God could now deal with one group of people who would then be less influenced by the rest of the world.

Verse 9 tells us that this area where the city and tower was to be built was called Babel which means ‘confusion’ referring to the confusion caused by the loss of a common language.