Scattered -Genesis 11:1-9

Genesis 11:1-9 NIV
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
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.”
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.”
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.

As the children of Noah expanded into the nations, they wandered further from God until they began to see themselves as the master of their own fate. This is a common frailty of man, to trust in one's own strength and wisdom. They decided to make a name for themselves rather than call on the name of The Lord.

Their aim was to create their own path to heaven. God has provided a way to heaven and there is only one name that opens that door, His Son Jesus.

The Tower of Babel is well represented in our world today in our pride and arrogance. Many are comfortable with the idea that we have or can find the answer to all our problems. Many find the idea of God to be a primitive notion held by the weak and simple. If they do believe in a God and heaven, the idea that God has provided the single way to approach Him is unacceptable and mean spirited.

Adam didn't listen to God either. Eve handed him the forbidden fruit and he ate it. They were expelled from the Garden just as these people in the plain of Shinar found themselves scattered after all. These things are written so that we might understand.

Zephaniah 3:9
Restoration of Israel’s Remnant
“Then I will purify the lips of the peoples,
that all of them may call on the name of the Lord
and serve him shoulder to shoulder.

Acts 2:6-8
When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked:“Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?

Zechariah 5:7-11
Then the cover of lead was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman! He said, “This is wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and pushed its lead cover down on it.
Then I looked up—and there before me were two women, with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.
“Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking to me.
He replied, “To the country of Babylonia to build a house for it. When the house is ready, the basket will be set there in its place.”

Psalms 49:11-13
Their inner thought is that their houses are forever
And their dwelling places to all generations;
They have called their lands after their own names.
But man in his pomp will not endure;
He is like the beasts that perish.
This is the way of those who are foolish,
And of those after them who approve their words.
Selah.

Daniel 4:30-32
The king reflected and said, ‘Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty? ’ While the word was in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you, and you will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes. ’

Psalms 92:9
For, behold, Your enemies, O Lord,
For, behold, Your enemies will perish;
All who do iniquity will be scattered.