The Lord Came Down to See

Genesis 11:5
“And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.”

God was not pleased with the people of Babel when they wanted to build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. This is because their aim of preventing their own dispersal throughout the world was in contravention of God’s command, and their intention to make a name for themselves is opposite to our commitment to seek God’s glory.

The Bible says that “the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.” (Genesis 11:5) On the surface, this is an odd sentence. Didn’t God know what was going on?

God, being omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, knew all about what people were doing at Babel, and why. So the statement that he “came down to see” was not for His benefit, but for ours. God sees everything, but we are reminded that He is focused if we engage in rebellion. God was intentionally about to prevent these rebellious actions, and He did so for our benefit because it was in the interest of the human race to scatter across the whole world.

The verse tells us that the city and the tower were being built by the “children of man”. The Hebrew word translated as “man” is Adam. Of course, this word actually means man, and is correctly translated that way throughout the Old Testament. But perhaps “children of Adam” is an appropriate phrase. These people were rebellious because their first ancestor was rebellious. They carried Adam’s sin nature in their hearts.     Author: Paul F. Taylor

We pray, Lord God, that we might seek Your face and to do Your will, and not our will. Please guide us and show us Your will for our lives. Amen.

Ref: Hodge, B. (2013), Tower of Babel, (Master Books). Image: Heermskerck’s Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Public Domain.