The people had the entire Earth to use for God's glory.
They had been given a fresh start. In a way, it was similar to Eden
because mankind just had to follow God and not get into the evil that
had come with time that wound up resulting in the Great Flood.
Also like Adam and Eve, they went up setting their minds on
becoming like gods. And, they didn't need any help from the devil this
time.
Studying slowly through Romans in my personal devotionals, I got a very real sense of what these people went through in Romans 1:20
where it says that the people had the knowledge of God. They know Him,
and yet chose to ignore Him and worship the things that were created
rather than the Creator. From this, all sorts of evil came because the
people decided they would work on their own to reach God. They wanted to
ascend to Heaven.
However, we can't get up to God's level. We are not perfect, and no sin can enter Heaven.
Instead, God lovingly reached down to our level. He humbled
himself and chose to become flesh and dwelt among us. He did that so
that He could take the punishment for our sins when He died on the cross
and then He rose from the dead.
As for these people, this large group journeyed together till they got to in the land of Shinar. I have a couple of observations on that.
One is that the Euphrates River is named as one of those
from which flowed out of Eden. The geography of the pre flood world was
incredibly different, so it is almost impossible for it to have been the
same Euphrates as flows today and flowed them through Shinar. However,
it is possible that the river was named after the one which flowed out
of Eden. This actually makes sense because of the other connection.
Nimrod founded a great empire, in the area which is perhaps
the most continually settled area in the world. That area of Babylon
ground up developing several empires, and the city of Babylon is
mentioned more than any city except Jerusalem in the Bible.
So, even here, one can see the battle between God and
rebellious man. The battle which has seen the devil tried to wipe out
the Jewish people so often. Indeed, many believe the area around Babylon
is filled with evil spirits. We do know that during the End Times four
unclean spirits looking like frogs will be released from the area.
All this, then, provides the context for what they did next.
