Lesson from Babylon

A Biblical Tale Tailor-Made for Our Times

Disclaimer: This column first appeared in October 2022. Given that it’s tied to an annual reading cycle, however, I thought that I could get away with returning it to front of mind. The lesson is as clear as ever.

I’m hardly known for essays that sound like sermons, but every now and then I like to defy expectations.  So please, indulge me.

In Jewish prayer services, we read a different portion of the Torah every Shabbat.  It’s broken down and timed so that we read through the entire Pentateuch each year.  Because we just finished a cycle, we’re now back to the beginning.  Last Saturday we read Genesis.  This Saturday we read Noah.

As a result, Rabbis of a particular political orientation throughout the Jewish world are currently finalizing their insightful, moving, and deeply Jewish sermons about the connection between extreme weather events and climate change.  They’re impressing themselves with their own ability to find clear and direct connections between God’s covenantal rainbow, and end to fracking, and the promotion of windmills.  Good for them.  Had the Torah not taken the opportunity to emphasize the importance of tax credits on electric vehicles, how would we know of its centrality to Judaism?

Lost in the obvious relevance of this week’s Torah portion, however, is the importance of the shorter stories the Torah tucked between this week’s one-shot wonder Noah and next week’s introduction of Abraham. 

That’s where I start to sermonize.  Because wedged between enumerations of genealogy comes a story that actually is relevant to today’s world:  The Tower of Babel.

If you haven’t read the story recently, it’s worth revisiting.  It’s also pretty short.  Here it is in its entirety, Genesis 11:1-9:

1. And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

2. And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3. And they said one to another: ‘Come, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.

4. And they said: ‘Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’

5. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.

6. And the LORD said: ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withheld from them, which they purpose to do.

7. Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.’

8. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city.

9. Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. 

What’s going on here?  What’s the story?

The people of the world all seem to get along swimmingly.  They see past whatever differences may have divided them, and they unify behind a common purpose. 

That’s a good thing, right?  Peace, unity, cooperation, purpose, common good, what’s not to like?

In fact, they were so united that they sought a way to enshrine their unity in permanence.  What was their biggest fear?  That they might lose each other.  That their unity might be shattered.  That they might find themselves scattered, lost, and alone. Isolation.

Again, it’s hard to hear a downside.  Now that we’re all getting along, let’s find a way to ensure that we always get along?  Because nothing is worse than finding yourself cut off and alone? Hardly the stuff of villainy.

So what did they decide to do?

They built a monument to themselves, to memorialize just how great they were, just how worthy of fame and admiration.  In fact, they were almost godlike!

That didn’t sit so well with God, who was actually godlike (don’t take my word for it; it’s in His name).  

How did God punish them?  He handed them their greatest fear.  He scattered them, complicated communications, and set them at cross-purposes against each other. He introduced division, separation, and loneliness.

The Tower of Babel is one of the two great stories of hubris in the Western Canon (the other is the Fall of Icharus).  It is also—IMHO—the single most apt metaphor for our times.

We live in a world whose elite have transcended the parochial constraints of nationalism to take a global view of the problems plaguing humanity.  They operate without concern for borders, national identities, or even glitches in communication.  They recognize the connections binding us all together and the pitfalls must likely to drag us down.

Working together, they have undertaken challenges that no prior generation would even have considered.  They have united to repair the climate, eradicate a virus, and rewrite genetics.  Until fairly recently, such tasks had been relegated to the divine—challenges whose resolution existed only in heaven.  Not today!

Modern brilliance has brought us a class of elite experts so magnanimous, so enlightened, so gifted, that they can reach to heights previously reserved only to God himself.

Meanwhile, what is the real scourge of our time? Lack of community. Lack of purpose. Absence of meaning. Anomie.

We should count ourselves fortunate to have such a gifted elite. Perhaps they will succeed in building a monument to their own talent.

If only they would direct their efforts to the problems that truly plague us as atomized, disconnected humans rather than focusing on the cosmic problems best left to God.

Our global elite is intent upon fixing the problems of the globe while exacerbating the problems of humanity.

If only we had some indication as to how such an endeavor might work out.

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For more information about Bruce D. Abramson & American Restorationism, visit: www.BruceDAbramson.com

To learn more about America’s Spiritual Crisis and the new religion of Wokeism, see: American Spirit or Great Awokening?  The Battle to Restore or Destroy Our Nation (Academica Press, 2024). 

To learn more about how America’s elites destroyed the republic, see:  The New Civil War: Exposing Elites, Fighting Utopian Leftism, and Restoring America (RealClear Publishing, 2021).

To learn more about the ideology driving today’s anti-American leftism, see: American Restoration: Winning America’s Second Civil War (Kindle, 2019).

To learn more about our work at the American Coalition for Education and Knowledge, visit us at The Coalition for America.

To learn more about how I turn the ideas I discuss here into concrete projects that serve the interests of my clients, donors, and society at large, please e-mail me at bdabramson@pm.me.