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” (Gen. 11:1-9)
Here we have a very simple story that seemingly has no real purpose. Where all the languages came from is highly debatable. The point of this account is not to give out that information. There is a much bigger story here.
Theologians refer to the first-mention principle. This principle says that whenever a subject is first mentioned in the Bible, it is usually the key to understanding the mind of God on that subject. In other words this subject will stick its head up many times from one end of Scripture to the other.
The term Babel is very nuanced and can mean confusion, or rapid incomprehensible speech. But throughout Scripture, the term Babylon speaks of rebellion toward God and is mentioned 280 times from Genesis to Revelation. So as you can see, this city represents more than a place but man’s rebellion toward God.
To use modern terms, this is the first mention of secular humanism, in which man wants no part of God ruling over him. In the narrative there is no mention of God in their plans. They desire to go up while God plans on coming down.
As I have mentioned, there are seemingly endless layers of themes in Scripture. This present world is Babylon on steroids. We just cant fix it. Every nation on the planet is living in fear of other nations. The old Coke ad had a beautiful tune and happy lyrics. “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.” I would, too, but as long as Babylon rules that will never happen.