Babel: When God Breaks the System

Genesis 10:1-11:26

The Untitled, Open-Ended Study Bible

April 26, 2026

Rev. David Collins

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I want to start off this morning talking about quilts. Any quilters in the room? Or aspiring quilters? Very cool. Now you all probably make beautiful quilts, but what I love are ugly quilts. Scrap quilts. I want some scratchy wool, and someone’s old jeans in there. Maybe some cracked leather. Those kits are great, but I love a trauma quilt.

When we started this project, the Untitled, Open-Ended Study Bible, I told you about the box of fragments…all those little memories you keep in a box and never throw away. Well today, we develop that idea a bit because now they’re all fabric. I know you quilters can resonate with the idea of never throwing away fabric. Baby pictures? Meh. That muslin from 1984? Keep.

So in your mind, transform all the contents of your box of memories into cloth. The way that you’re going to preserve them all is stitching them all together.

That’s a lot closer to what the Bible is like than we usually admit.

We tend to read it like it dropped out of the sky all at once…clean, organized, perfectly arranged. But what we actually have is more like a quilt.

The Bible as a Quilt

Stories, poems, laws, genealogies…fragments from different times and places…stitched together by people who were trying to make sense of their world…and where God was in it.

And sometimes…when you look closely at the quilt…you find a piece that makes you stop.

A patch that doesn’t seem to match the others. Something that feels out of place…or at least surprising that it’s there at all.

And that’s what we have today.

Because right in the middle of this long genealogy…this map of how the world spread out…we get this story about the tower of Babel and God seemingly punishing unity and ambition.

And it’s not there by accident. Somebody chose to stitch that piece right there…into that part of the story.

So the question is…Why?

Why take this long list of names…this careful tracing of how the world spread out…and then stitch this story right into the middle of it?

And that’s part of what makes this section so interesting…because it doesn’t mention God much at all. It just shows cause and effect. Consequence. The kind of world we recognize.

Babylon

Genesis was stitched together when Israel had already lived through the collapse of everything they thought was secure…during their exile in the empire of Babylon. They knew what happens when power consolidates and people become tools.

And into that memory…into that map of how the world spread out…they stitch this story.

Not randomly. But as commentary.

Genesis 10 shows us what the world looks like when people are spread out…you’ve got your coastal people with their language and the hill people with their language and customs.

Then Genesis 11 zooms in and asks a different question…

What happens when human beings try to undo that?

What happens when instead of living in that scattered, complicated world…we try to pull everything back together…into one place, one system, one voice?

That’s the patch that sticks out. That’s the bright yellow corduroy in the sea of blue denim.

That’s the piece that doesn’t seem to match…until you realize it’s the point.

Nimrod

One fun detail in here…very quick…is Nimrod.

I first heard the name Nimrod because Bugs Bunny calls Elmer Fudd that. And like most people, I just assumed it meant “idiot.”

But that’s only because nobody reads the genealogies.

In Genesis, Nimrod is actually described as a mighty hunter. Bugs wasn’t calling Elmer stupid…he was calling him a terrible hunter. Which is honestly a much better insult.

And it’s a small thing…but it kind of proves the point.

What people think the Bible says ends up mattering a lot more than what it actually says…especially when nobody bothers to go back and read it for themselves.

Now…Nimrod’s not Jesus, so the stakes are low here…but people do this with Jesus all the time.

Anyway…back to the quilt.

The Bible understands something we already know, if we’re honest… We inherit the world we live in.

Nations, languages, systems, economies…none of that started with us. It’s the result of decisions made before we got here…choices stacked on top of choices, generation after generation.

Which means none of us start from scratch.

So don’t be one of those people who was born on third base and believes that you hit a triple.

If you’ve been given opportunity or stability…that’s not just something to enjoy, it’s something to steward. Because what you do with it shapes the world for someone else.

And if you weren’t born on third…if you’ve had to fight for every inch…that’s not a personal failure. You didn’t choose the starting point. But the fact that you’re still showing up…that matters more than you might realize.

Either way…none of us got here alone. And none of us gets to pretend that we did.

That’s not just important for how we understand ourselves…it’s crucial for how we read the Bible too. Because there are people who read texts like this as if they’re magical…as if once something is written down, it becomes destiny. Like if the Bible connects a people to a place, then that must be God’s will forever.

But this passage isn’t doing that. It’s not handing out eternal land deeds from heaven. It’s describing how things came to be…how people spread and ancient nations formed. And of course, Israel tells the story in a way that makes sense of their enemies… how all their enemy nations are descended from the son that Noah cursed.

But when we turn descriptions into prescriptions…that’s when we lose the thread and stop asking what God is doing, and start assuming God is on our side.

Babel

Now, if you’ve only heard this story before, you probably heard it like this…once upon a time everyone spoke the same language, the people built a tower so tall it made God nervous, so God came down, scattered them, and scrambled their languages so they could never work together again.

But it’s actually more complicated than that.

Because if you’ve been paying attention to the quilt…right before this is a whole genealogy where all these different nations already have their own languages.

So either we’ve uncovered some kind of hidden code that only the truly dedicated can piece together…or…something else is going on.

And usually the simpler explanation is the better one.

This story isn’t trying to explain where all the different languages came from. It’s been stitched in here…on purpose. The editor knew exactly what they were doing.

They’ve just shown us a world where people are already spread out…already diverse…already living with the consequences of history.

And then they zoom in and add a piece…not to show how that diversity started…

…but to call out what human beings do with power once they have it.

Genesis 11: 1-9

1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

That phrase “the same words” kinds of jumps out at me. It doesn’t just sound like language to me, but slogans. Enforced conformity. The kind of world that wants everyone to think and believe the same thing.

2 And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Shinar is the region of Babylon. This is a way of talking about the empire without naming it directly. Which in some empires is necessary for survival.

3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar.

This is another reference to Babylon. They made bricks like this.

4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

They’re building a city and a tower “with its top in the heavens”…trying to make a name for themselves so they won’t be scattered, like they can secure their future by what they build. It’s that same human move we see over and over again…taking something good, like working together and building, and turning it into a way to control the future, and other people, so that we can avoid being small, dependent, and mortal.

5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.

This line is supposed to be funny. They think the tower is huge, but God has to come all the way down there to see their city, let alone their tower. But here’s where we need to pay attention to what it actually says and not just what we think it says.

6 And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

In the fairy tale version that we remember of this story, it always seemed like God was threatened. Like what if they come up here and take my magic harp and my golden goose? But I don’t see anything here that indicates God is worried about God. It seems to me that God is worried about the people. How in the grand project of this tower being built, and making this name for themselves, who is going to be left behind? Who is going to be ground under this wheel of progress?

The people! Keep in mind, that the people building the tower are not the owners of the tower. This is Babylon. This is an empire that conquers nations because it believes it has the divine right to do so. That says what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine. So what does God do?

Sabotage.

7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

9 Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

God orchestrated the very first walk out. You can hear the Woody Guthrie music in the background if you listen hard enough.

God doesn’t smash the tower…God takes away the workforce.

The whole thing only works if everybody stays in one place, and does what they’re told, doing the same job, speaking the same words, building somebody else’s name who claims they represent the whole world.

So what does God do? God breaks up the labor pool.

All of a sudden the project can’t run anymore. Not because it got struck by lightning…because there’s nobody left to exploit. Nobody left to stack bricks day after day so somebody else can point at the skyline and say, “Look what I built.”

God takes them away…and sends back into their own lives. Back to the ground. Back to trees, to families, to food they grow and then actually get to eat.

And the tower just…stops. Not because God crushed it…but because the people walked away…or better yet, were set free to.

Diversity

That’s where the Babel story ends, but the story doesn’t end with the scattering, does it? Now we’re back to the wider quilt…all the peoples spread out over the earth… different languages, different lands, different ways of life. Not one voice…but many.

Diversity isn’t God’s punishment…it’s God’s rescue plan.

Equity

And none of them get to claim the center. None of them get to say, “We’re the tower…everyone else fall in line.” They have to meet each other out on the plain…they have to trade, and cooperate, and depend on one another.

Equity isn’t about everyone having the same thing…it’s about no one getting to stand at the center and take everything.

Inclusion

And instead of forcing everyone into the same system, the world opens up. Space is made for different people to actually belong without losing who they are.

Inclusion isn’t about making everyone the same…it’s about making sure everyone has a place without having to disappear to fit in.

This is what the quilt looks like when it’s allowed to be what it is…different pieces, different textures, all belonging without being forced into the same pattern.

And anyone who tells you different…usually wants you building their tower.

Back to the Genealogy

But we’re not done! Because next, it goes back to the genealogy. Did you ever think a genealogy quilt could be this exciting? Well, all you people who like genealogy are like…”YES!” And you’re right.

But this next one isn’t trying to map out empires or royal lines.

It narrows down to one family. One line. Leading to Abraham.

Because God’s plan for the world was never going to, and never will, come through one massive, unified system where everybody says the same words and builds the same tower.

It comes through a scattered, diverse humanity. Where everyone is equal and everyone is included, but no one is the same…learning, slowly, imperfectly, how to live together.

And out of that diversity…God calls one family. Not to dominate the others…but to bless them.

So here are a few things we can say.

Conclusions

First…God is not in the business of building empires.

Empires take the many and reduce them to the few. They gather power, resources, and people into one place…one system…one voice. And they only work if someone is always on the bottom…always carrying the weight…always building something they will never own.

That’s Babylon.

That’s big tech.

That’s America at it’s worst.

That’s every system that says, “What’s mine is mine…and what’s yours will eventually be mine too.”

And God interrupts that. Every time.

Not always by destroying it from the outside…but by disrupting it from within. By loosening its grip. By scattering what it tried to control. By refusing to let human beings be reduced to parts in someone else’s project.

God doesn’t build monopolies. God breaks them open.

Which brings us here…

So let me ask you this…

Where are you building a tower? Not in theory…in real life.

Work

Because for some of us, it’s work. It’s the job that takes everything you’ve got…your time, your energy, your attention…and gives you just enough back to keep you coming in tomorrow. It works…as long as you keep showing up. As long as you don’t stop.

Politics

Or maybe it’s politics. The constant stream of outrage…where you’re told what to think, who to blame, what words to use. It works…as long as you stay plugged in.

Church

For some of us, if we’re honest…it’s church. Systems that look holy on the outside…but underneath, they only work if everyone conforms. Don’t ask too many questions. Don’t step out of bounds. Just keep building.

And for a lot of us…it’s more personal than that. It’s the life we’re trying to build. The version of ourselves we’re trying to prove is enough. If I can just get a little further…a little higher…a little more put together…then I’ll finally have a name that sticks.

And then there’s

Family

The roles we were handed…or forced into. The expectations that were never spoken out loud, but everyone knows them. “This is who you are in this family.” “This is how we do things.”

Some of you learned a long time ago how to keep the peace…how to not rock the boat…how to be the one who holds everything together. And it works…as long as you keep playing your part.

Some of you are still trying to earn something that was never given…approval, affection, a sense that you belong. And that system only works if you keep trying.

All these towers promise meaning…a future.

But they only work…if you keep building them.

And the moment you stop…you start to see them for what they are. Just a story you were telling yourself.

The tower doesn’t fall because God smashes it…It falls when people stop building it. When the workforce walks away.

And maybe…that’s what’s happening in your life right now.

Maybe something that used to make sense…doesn’t anymore. Maybe you’re tired in a way that sleep doesn’t fix. Maybe you’ve started to notice who actually benefits from all your effort…and it’s not who you thought.

That’s not failure. That might be God…showing you a way out.

So here’s what I think:

You don’t have to tear the tower down.

You don’t have to fix the whole system.

You don’t have to convince everyone else to leave.

You just have to stop climbing.

You just have to step off the job site.

And I know…for some of you, that’s terrifying.

Because if you stop…what happens to the job? What happens to the family? What happens to the version of you that everyone expects?

But if the tower is only standing because you’re holding it up, that’s not much of a tower.

And just as a sneak preview.. right after Babel…God doesn’t build something bigger.

God calls Abraham to leave.

To walk away from the thing that defined him…to step into something uncertain…but real.

A life that isn’t about making a name…

But about becoming a blessing.

And it might not look like much from a distance…

But it’s how God actually changes the world.