And they said one to another, Come on, let us make bricks, and burn [them] thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
On the plain of Shinar, one people with one language agree on a method before they agree on a project. They will bake their own building material. The verse turns on a swap: brick where stone should be, tar where mortar should be. Commentators read that swap as the key to everything Babel became.
The choice of material followed the choice of location. One writer follows them down from the hills and notes why God records what they used.
They have left the mountains and come down to the easier life of the plain. There the same effort and endurance are not called for. Instead of trusting God, they follow what looks like their own short-term advantage. They realize there is strength in unity, but they do not seek unity as in subjection to God. On the plain, of course, they found no stone for building, so they made brick from the available clay. They "had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar." The Lord points to these substitutions because He builds with stone — with "living stones." Believers are His workmanship, not the work of men's hands, and He uses the mortar of the Holy Spirit to join them together. Of course brick does not last as stone does, because it is man-made.
The words are an invitation. A tower needs many hands, so the call passes from person to person.
Building a city and a tower with its top in the heavens is beyond the power of one man. Men can do it easily enough if they join together. So combining forces became the order of the day. "Come, let us make bricks," they said. And again, "Come, let us build." At last the Lord Himself said, "Come, let us go down and there confuse their language."
Brick appears in Scripture at two notable moments, and one writer sets them side by side.
The first time we have mention of bricks in Scripture is at Babel, Gen. 11:3. The next time they are mentioned is in Egypt, Ex. 1:14. Bricks speak of human material, man's imitation of stone, which is divine material. Both of these false systems, the religious and the political, use human material. Both have raised their heads to give glory to men. In Babel it is "a name"; in Egypt it is "treasure cities."
They "had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar." It looks good, and in the fine climate of those regions it lasts a long time. But it is human material, not divine: "brick" is man's manufacture, standing in for "stone," which is God's material. They cannot build great Babylon with the "living stones" of God's producing. These are man-made Christians, pressed together. The Spirit does not cement them for eternity. Human motives and influences hold them, the kind that sway crowds — and one day the fire of God will test them. So is great Babylon built.
The method has outlived the plain of Shinar. One writer applies the builders' mistake to the way people still try to reach heaven.
They said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens." They never got there. They were wanting to get there by brick and mortar. How does God take us to heaven? He puts Christ there first, and then sends the Holy Spirit to link us with Him in heaven. Some people think today that they will get to heaven by "brick and mortar," that is, by hard work for salvation. Works, rites, and ceremonies take the place of Christ in their struggle to get to heaven. Christ is God's way to heaven. Faith, not works, can alone take you there.
The name of the place has two possible readings, and the builders got the one they never intended.
Men thought it was "Bab-il" but it turned out to be "Babel." They dreamed they were passing through the golden gate to godhood, in one form or another. It may have been by making themselves gods. In the end, though, they had to learn the hard way. Their bricks and bitumen were only a slimy gate to folly and confusion.
- Descent. They came down from the hills to the easy plain, and the lower ground decided the material — no stone there, only clay.
- Substitution. Brick is man's manufacture standing in for stone, God's material. Scripture first mentions brick here, and next in Egypt.
- Cement. The tar that holds bricks together pictures human motives, not the Spirit who joins living stones.
- Combination. No one man could raise that tower. So "Come, let us build" became the order of the day — until God used the same words to come down.
- Fire. The fire of God will one day test what men baked hard. The golden gate they imagined turned out to be confusion.
And they said, Come on, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, the top of which [may reach] to the heavens; and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.
After the flood, Noah's descendants settle on a plain and agree on one project: a city, a tower, and a name to hold them together. Their few words here show what men wanted then and still want — a centre of their own making, and a guard against scattering.
One writer traces the course behind the plan, and stops at one word the builders repeat:
The tower was not only a guard against scattering. It was tied to their purpose of making themselves "a name" — their fame would spread through the earth and dominate it. This brings us to the great feature that marked Babel from the start, and that is stamped on Babylon all through Scripture: the glorification of man. These early men after the flood had no thought of God as the proper end and object of their existence. So they put themselves there instead. It was "let us build OURSELVES a tower," and "let us make a name for OURSELVES." Their course is plain enough. First unbelief. Then rebellion against the feared judgment of God. Then they set themselves up as the great centre-piece of the picture, so that everything on earth might serve their pleasure and glory.
One writer weighs their purpose, and how literally to take the words about a top in the heavens:
They had one united purpose, independent of God — in fact, in defiance of His will that they should fill the earth. But what was their aim? Aim is what mainly shapes a man's acts and life. There is no need to think more was meant by their ambition than by the discouraging report of the spies in Deuteronomy 1:28: "the cities are great and fortified up to heaven."
Another writer ties the height to the second aim:
The tower was to be very high, "to heaven." They had no thought of actually reaching heaven. But it showed the lofty imagination of man's heart: the desire to make himself a name, and to form a gathering point that would stop them scattering.
The city was meant to hold them together. One writer sees that plan as a rival to God's own purpose of gathering:
As yet the whole earth had one language, and to this they would add another bond. A city and a tower should be their central point, and the place where they would reunite if any difference arose among them. It was Satan's work, his attempt to cancel the purpose of God, who will head up all things in Christ. His aim was to centre everything in himself. But Christ is to be the centre to whom all men shall turn — not the city and tower of Babel, but the city of Jerusalem and Zion, where He is.
Their plan needed numbers. One writer names the refusal underneath it:
The order is instructive and important. God's thought for man is weakness, dependence, subjection — and so, blessing. To bring this about, they are to be scattered abroad over the earth. But of all things, man's pride refuses to admit weakness, and his will resents subjection. He covets power and a name. "Union is strength" is his watchword.
The end of the story gives them the one thing they feared, and leaves the verdict in the place's name:
Their fear had been "lest we be scattered." One single act of Almighty power, and "from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth." The thing was so obvious that men themselves named the spot Babel, which means "confusion."
In the next chapter God calls a man named Abram and promises him what these builders tried to seize:
Note the LORD's word to Abram in Genesis 12:2, "I will make your name great." Compare it with men's ambitious work in chapter 11:4, "let us make a name for ourselves." Men's schemes — whether the Tower of Babel or any other — come to an end. The names of those who plan them and work them through perish with the world they belong to. But the man who identifies himself with what is God's gets a name that will last for ever. Far better to let God make our name great than to seek anything for ourselves in a scene like this.
- Motive — The builders had no thought of God as the aim of their existence, so they put themselves there instead: build "ourselves" a city, make a name for "ourselves."
- Method — Pride refuses weakness and dependence, so it reaches for numbers. "Union is strength" is man's watchword.
- Meaning — The height showed the lofty imagination of the heart. The city was to be a rallying-point, holding them together apart from God.
- Judgment — They built to prevent scattering, and scattering is what fell on them. The place still carries the name "confusion."
- Name — Man's schemes end, and his name perishes with the world it belongs to; the man who identifies himself with what is God's gets a name that lasts for ever.