Or, The Confusing Catastrophe of Men Making Men in Their Own Image
Scripture: Genesis 11:1-9
Date: February 28, 2016
Speaker: Sean Higgins
My favorite novel is That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis. It’s the third book in what’s typically called the “Space Trilogy” but I prefer the “Ransom Trilogy,” Ransom being the protagonist in all three books. While there are many planetary influences and supernatural elements in this final book—the primary reason why George Orwell hated it—the central conflict is not between men and aliens but rather between man and man’s arrogance. An assault on the future of humanity comes not from extraterrestrial forces but from humanity itself.
The leading institution in THS is called, with vicious irony, the N.I.C.E., the National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments. The NICE unites scientists, a psychologist, a reverend, politicians, professors, bureaucrats, journalists, and a police force in order to enable real progress. For example, men don’t need to be punished for breaking the law, they need to be “reconditioned.” If they die in the process, nothing is lost. Much is gained, in fact, toward the development of a better human race.
The inner circle of the NICE envisions that man can, even must, get to the point where he will not need food (or the hassles of producing and eating food) for strength, nor will he need sex (or the messiness of relationships and marriage and babies) for procreation. Man may advance so far that he will not even need a body. He will rule with nothing other than his head, literally.
In the name of Man, men will be sacrificed. It must be so. Man’s values—which are entirely subjective—must be repurposed, and his feelings—which are physiological leftovers of less mature stages—must be ignored. Even their bodies should be willing sacrifices to the greater good. But this vision makes men without that which makes a man. Or as Lewis put it in a non-fiction book, they will be “men without chests.” As it turns out, men are responsible for the abolition, the elimination, of man.
Lewis took the name for “that hideous strength” from a poem by David Lyndsay written in 1555. Written during the Scottish Reformation, the poem attacks the power of the Popes and Kings and compares their combined, institutionalized evil to “that hideous strength with a shadow six miles in length,” the Tower of Babel.
When the sun is at the height,
At noon, when it doth shine most bright,
The shadow of that hideous strength
Six mile and more it is of length;
Thus may you judge, into your thought,
If Babylon be high or naught.
(My modernized English of this.)
”Strength” most likely referred to a stronghold, a fortress. What man meant as a symbol of ability, coordination, industry, security, and control becomes a symbol of failure, confusion, emptiness, defenselessness, and catastrophe. Judge for yourself: did the shadow of that tower bring man up or down? Elevate or humiliate? It was a monumental disaster.
That is what happens when men attempt to make Man, make humanity, in their own image. Men were made by God to receive the nature of things not dictate them. In pursuit of “summits of power and mastery of the world” (Lucretius) men will have have neither. When doctors decide what lives are valuable and what are not lives but “tissue,” when politicians or judges legislate the meaning of gender and marriage, when teachers and publishers insist on equality without any allowable distinctions, Man cannot continue to exist.
I have argued since Genesis 1 that men were made for relationships and responsibility. These capacities are unique to the human race. The civilizations, medicine, laws, communication, travel, food, and energy that man has developed are part of his commission to subdue and take dominion. They show man’s strength. And it is our strengths that destroy us if they are not used in conscious reflection of God. Man is an image-bearer, not an image-innovator. He is made in the image of a Maker, but he cannot make himself into whatever image he wants. Ice cannot be made with fire, and triangles cannot have two sides.
God frustrates our strengths for our good lest our strengths obliterate us. The Tower of Babel is such a story. The story shows the danger when men forget that they are image-bearers.
At the beginning of Genesis 11 we see the last, literal vox populi, “voice of the people.” Every living person spoke one language and had one collective desire, to make a name for themselves by building a tower with its top in the heavens. By the end of the story in verse nine there is no longer one language. There are many different tongues.
We know this from the Genesis 10. Noah’s sons multiplied and the descendants of Ham, Japheth, and Shem became nations in their own lands, speaking their own languages. Genesis 11:1-9 is a flashback that exposes how it began. It’s very similar to when Genesis 2:4-25 expanded a part of day six in chapter one. The “deliberate dischronoligization” (Hamilton) shows us that there is blessing and punishment in the dispersal of nations.
Moses links 10:1-32 and 11:1-9 together, since the next toledot after 10:1 occurs in 11:10. The Table of Nations set the stage in 10:1-32, it introduces us to relevant history, and the Tower of Babel incident reveals the beginning.
There are two divisions in this section. Verses 1-4 are the proud plans of man, verses 5-9 show the merciful punishment of the LORD.
Moses sets the scene.
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. (11:1-2)
The whole earth meant all the inhabitants of the earth. If the events in Babel occurred during the time of Peleg (10:25), then somewhere between 100-150 years had passed since the flood. Calculating an average of 8 children in each family in each generation (using 30 years as a generation) from Noah’s sons, there could have been up to 30,000 inhabitants (half the size of Marysville, since there were 63,000 in the 2013).
Why wouldn’t they have one language and the same words ? Noah was still alive, Noah’s family was the only family, it was natural that Noah’s language was the only language. The phrase translated one language could be translated “one lip,” indicating the same genetic structure and the same formations of the mouth. The same words meant that they shared the same vocabulary.
The people migrated from the east and found a plain in the land of Shinar . Everything’s good so far. They moved away from the mountainous region of Ararat and settled in the fertile land of Mesopotamia. The LORD commissioned Noah’s sons to replenish the earth, but there wasn’t anything wrong with establishing a community along the way.
Things must have been going well for them. The first things to take care of when you come to a new place are making sure there is enough food and water along with adequate shelter. Only once those needs are established can you move on to other things. And they did.
And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. (11:3)
The people rally one another: Come, let us… . There’s enthusiasm for the project, which in this case was making bricks. There were likely not many rocks or stone quarries in the plain. The research and development team determined that since stones for building weren’t convenient, and wood was not as durable, they could mix clay with water—both of which were readily available—and then bake them into bricks. Again, so far so good. This is being creative with what you’ve got, a fitting thing for image-bearers to do.
Then we find out the motivation for their innovation, and it was not to reflect God’s image.
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, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” (11:4)
The voice of the people unites again: Come, let us… . While Babel was described as being part of Nimrod’s kingdom (10:10), he apparently was not the mastermind, so he is not named and he certainly isn’t the only one punished. The united voice of the people unmasks their hearts and condemns them.
The people want a city and a tower, and from that glory and security. Better living through better architecture. The bricks were intended to build great structures such as a ziggurat. The great structures were intended to make themselves look great and perhaps protect them from another flood. Their accomplishments and their fame was their idolatry.
Cities are okay, in their place, but these people wanted a city not as a hub or outpost for filling the earth. They wanted to avoid being dispersed over the face of the whole earth . This was in direct defiance of God.
The tower with its top in the heavens would make a name for themselves (think: Chump Tower). The only thing higher than the skyscraper they had in mind is height of hubris/arrogance believing that they could resolve their insecurities.
The pride was virtually written on the city council letterhead. It was the tagline for tourist commercials: “Come enjoy the sights from our heights. We’re the best humans on the planet.”
The point of view switches from man to God.
The sarcasm is thick.
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. (11:5)
For however high the tower was, the LORD had to come down just to get a glimpse. The reason He had to come down was not because He was previously engaged, not paying attention, and now He has to do something before it’s too late. He had to stoop over to see.
Not only did He “come down,” but the remark is made that the children of man were at work. That’s precious. The Hebrew is “sons of man,” and the ESV may or may not provide the best nuance, but the irony is beautiful. (The NAS totally blows it by merely mentioning “men”). In other words, the LORD descends to see what the little guys have been up to.
Verse six is crucial for our understanding of God.
And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. (11:6)
Does this mean that the LORD feels threatened? Is He afraid that men are going to take over? I don’t think so. But let’s see how He responds first and then come back to the why (next Lord’s day).
With a similar pattern to the voice of the people, God speaks to Himself.
Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” (11:7)
The (hint at the) Trinity is back; let us go down . Previously we saw the Godhead speaking before creating man and woman (1:26), and perhaps even more relevantly, in discussing the sin and punishment of Adam and Eve (3:22).
It’s a simple plan. He will not flood the earth to destroy them. He could have taken any number of approaches to punishment, including breaking down the tower. What He does, however, strikes at the core of their failure to recognize themselves as image bearers. The LORD disrupts their relationships and makes their self-determined responsibilities impossible.
He confuse[s] their language . The story doesn’t say exactly how it happened, but men started speaking differently. Imagine the confusion and then the frustration. They wouldn’t have had any idea what was happening. They hadn’t seen, or more appropriately, heard, anything like this before. It was incoherent nonsense that led to full-fledged chaos.
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. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth. (11:8-9)
The language confusion led to frustration which led to separation, families moving away from Babel. I used to think that two things happened simultaneously here, that God picked men up (by the scruff of their neck, or blew them like Aslan blew Jill and Scrubb in The Silver Chair) and dropped them in new locations around the world with new languages. But that’s not what happened.
The dispersal transpired as relatives, who could understand each other no longer, moved away from each other. Confused language was the engine that drove them apart. They got exactly the opposite of what they wanted. They settled so as to avoid being scattered and now their settlement was scattered.
That they left off building the city would be less significant if the majority of the population in Babel vanished immediately—a rapture-like phenomena as I assumed before. They stopped building because they couldn’t understand each other anymore.
Note that the city was called Babel , not the tower (“they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel”). It’s like the Seattle Space Needle. The tower project was a never-completed project, and never forgotten.
The people of Babel had image-bearing strengths. They had ease of communication. They clearly had been being fruitful and multiplying. They were creating and building. What were they missing?
They were missing what it means to be Man. Relationship and responsibility are NOT what it means to be human. Relationship and responsibility are parts of bearing God’s image. Relationship and responsibility are reflections of our God. There is nothing but a confusing catastrophe when men make Man in their own image.
Near the end of That Hideous Strength, Merlin cries out in the spirit of Mercury:
They have despised the word of God, from them shall the word of man also be taken away.
So it was in Babel, and has been ever since when men refuse to worship God.