The Tower of Babel
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
If you have your Bibles we are going to start with
1. Starting Together Strong
1. Starting Together Strong
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
Discuss what the difference is between confidence and pride?
Where do we get confidence from and where do we get hope from?
2. Building Up Pride
2. Building Up Pride
They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and 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; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
People wanted to reach Heaven on their own,
Why does pride always lead down the wrong path
3. God's Gracious Intervention
3. God's Gracious Intervention
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.”
You could focus here on God's response to the people's prideful endeavor. Maybe explain how God intervened not out of cruelty, but to prevent the harm that unchecked pride can bring. Highlighting God's care in redirecting them might help children understand that sometimes God steps in when we go astray to guide us back to humility and dependence on Him.
4. From Pride to Scattering
4. From Pride to Scattering
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.
Finally, consider discussing the outcome of the events at Babel. Maybe emphasize how God's action resulted in the scattering of the people, turning their pride into confusion. Suggest that humility before God could have resulted in a different, more unified outcome. This point could also foreshadow how Christ ultimately restores unity among believers.
Now to speak for the adults really quickly
Let us go back
They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and 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; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
People invited bricks. Bricks believe it or not were technology in those days. They were able to build cities and eventually they started building the tower. It was their pride in their innovation that led them to believe they can reach heaven on their own.
Innovation is a good thing. Bricks are a good thing, houses, cities. However that pride in the things we can create , can cloud our judgement. The internet has thousands of towers of Babel in them. While innovation can be good, we must always remember that God is first.
Let us pray and as we move to the house of prayer. I want you to think about how pride has led you down wrong paths, or areas where pride is keeping you from Jesus.
