Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

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.

• Genesis 11:1-9

There are a couple of things here that seem strange to me.  The NIV version talks about them “making a name for themselves,” but if they were the only people on earth, who else would be impressed.  Of course, this could mean that future generations would worship them, because they were the ones to build the tower.  The Message says that their intent was to build all the way to heaven.  That is more in line with what I have heard in sermons – a people who decided that if their tower could reach heaven, they’d have no use for God.

The other thing that bothers me, a little, is the way the text is translated in God’s response.  It seems little and petty to confuse their speech because they might do “anything” if they pull this off.  Of course, God knew their true intentions and He knew their sinful desires.  He is almighty; He need not fear what they could do.  Yet, God knew that a great edifice would be worshiped instead of an invisible God being worshiped.  The people’s desire to be the generation that would be worshiped was the epitome of hubris that God could not tolerate.  The wording of the translation just does not tell the full story here.  Then again, God leaves a lot of mystery in the Scriptures.

The CSB also has an interesting translation of a different word.  The CSB says the place was called Babylon instead of Babel.  Interesting.

My reason for going to this passage is that the United Nations wants a unified world government in another 11 years or so.  As a few blog sites my quip at this point, “And the End begins …”

Let’s look at the United Nations in the first place.  It was started as a deterrent to stop wars, but I don’t think we have had peace for very long worldwide since they started.  The US has had very few months of true peace.  I served during ‘peacetime’, but it was during the Cold War.  There were armed combatants on either side of no-man’s land and they stared at each other, a lot.  When one side moved tanks, the other side spent the night in their tanks, with the weapons loaded and ready to fire, just in case the tank movement meant something.  It usually meant a taunt to the other side, saying “Guess who isn’t getting any sleep tonight?”  Between that and the terrorists that were headquartered practically in our hometown in Germany, there was a lot of war ‘tension’, but only rare shots were fired, until my wife discovered the terrorist’s money drop in our building and the terrorists were ‘dealt with’ by the German police.

But it is surprisingly seldom that the USA has not had military being shot at somewhere in the world since the UN was founded.  Add to that the rebellions and border clashes around the world that the US was not involved in and there was probably never any peace.

Now look at it from a different angle.  In all our cities in the US, we have organized crime and gangs.  They clash when someone steps over a line.  If we had a unified world government, run by the UN, there would be ‘gang violence’ on a larger scale – one country against another.  The UN, by simply stating that they are in charge, will not change the fact that there will be wars and rumors of wars.

But the UN wants to go further.  For their global warming initiatives to mean anything, they need a global government to force people to comply with any global environmental agreements – at least that is their excuse.  Otherwise, some nations will never sign the Paris accords while other nations will sign and then dare you to make them comply.

In the end, a single world government points clearly to end times.  At what point will God look upon the UN and their machinations and think “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.”

Am I the only one seeing this, or am I simply babbling?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.