Genesis 11 part 1: The Tower of Babel

In part one of Genesis 11 the people of the world all speak one language and a number gather in the plain of Shinar to build a city. They decide to build a tower that reaches to the heaven in order to make a name for themselves. When God sees what they are doing He puts an end to it and confuses their speech so they can't speak to one another. The settlement is then abandoned and the people spread out all over the world.

First, some observations, then we'll get to some pressing questions.

1) God once again uses plural language to describe himself. "Come, let us go down and confuse their language". This is either a nod to the Trinitarian notion of God as three in one in Christian theology, or a polytheistic presentation of God, or it could be simply a literary device like the "royal we". This keeps cropping up in our investigation into Genesis.

2) This could be a literal story of how multiple languages were formed on earth. This could also be a myth to explain why there are so many languages. Some linguistic studies could be done to decipher when men began to have different languages. This is interesting, but not pressing so I may not get to linguistic studies for quite some time.

The question that pops up first in my mind is why? Why is God so concerned with the capabilities of man? Obviously there is something about man that God is not fond of. Genesis 6 shows that God had seen that man had become wicked and that He regretted making man. God then wiped them out with a flood because of it. But, it seems to that God is almost afraid of man. That might be sacrilegious in writing that, but why is God going to such great lengths to foil man and his efforts. What difference does it make to God that man can plan and do whatever he wants? It reminds me of Genesis 3:22 when God had to act so that Adam wouldn't eat of the tree of life and become immortal. Why does God worry that man become too capable of things?

It makes me think of the Image of God and what man has been created in that image. What is the Image of God? There is something powerful in that because otherwise God wouldn't go to such great lengths to do things to prevent man from accomplishing a tower to the heavens or becoming immortal by eating of the tree of life. The image of God cannot be the knowledge of good and evil because that was acquired. It can't be a sense of morality because without knowing good and evil there can't be a morality. It isn't immortality because obviously man doesn't have it. Or does he? Is the soul immortal? Is this the image of God, the immortality of the soul? Whatever the image of God is in man, it is powerful. And now that man is corrupt and become increasingly focused on being wicked, God does not want man to become powerful enough to unleash that wickedness in some type of way. That's why he banished Adam & Eve from the garden so they couldn't live forever. That's why he wiped out the world in a flood. That's why he dispersed them at Babel.