This story caught my eye. It’s the sort of incident that sounds like the tales gathered by fanatics who see evidence of the End Times in everything. You know what I mean; the people who struggle to show how “www” somehow translates to 666. But the point of this post isn’t to highlight the discovery of another secret anti-God conspiracy. I’m noting that the European Union has deliberately, expensively, proudly, and loudly taken an overt stand against God.
First, the background. The Tower of Babel is described in Genesis 11:
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
What was the specific sin in building the Tower? The question is open to interpretation. It’s clearly an effort by Man to usurp the realm of God, and God brought it to an end by confusing the tongues of Man. Some argue that the pointed specification of bricks and not stones as building material is a metaphor for a godless socialist system in which individuality is repressed. (Bricks are uniform; stones are individual and unique.) Others see the Tower as a product of unbridled human vanity and arrogance. But whatever the interpretation, the Tower is clearly depicted as an offence against God. Presumably the Builders knew they were doing wrong in the eyes of the Lord.
In the picture above, on the left you see Pieter Brueghel the Elder‘s depiction of the Tower of Babel, unfinished and abandoned. In the center, there is an official poster of the European Union, showing Brueghel’s illustration and the slogan, “Europe: Many tongues; One voice”. On the right, the picture shows the finished (it only looks unfinished) European Union Parliament in Strasbourg, France (see larger picture), modeled after Brueghel’s painting.
In other words, the EU Parliament has deliberately invoked the Biblical symbolism of Man standing in opposition to God. Why would they choose such a negative allegory?
Am I reading too much into this? After all, we casually apply terms such as “devil” to commercial products and sports teams (e.g., “Dirt Devil” “Sun Devil”, etc.). My community gets water from the nearby “Devil’s Gate Reservoir”. All these things I reasonably regard as innocent and playful. But the European Parliament stands as a challenge. The indication is clear: Our leadership intends to pick up where Babel left off. And this time, God shall not stop us.
Is this story worthy of note, do you think? Or has your pal Maynard moved into the realm of the crackpot?
hey maynard.
seems interesting to note in passing though i tend to believe these persons to be more agnostic(from the root of ignorant) and sarcastic than able to mount a challenge to The Most High. Most of the time assertion is the only apologia they can make for their positions. We would do better to spend time on substantive issues. (which you do very well) This symbolism does reveal a lack of respect for us.
Hi, quick thought…
It’s seems apparent that the Tower builders were under the impression that if they did *not* build the Tower ‘to make a name’ [for themselves] they would be scattered upon the face of the earth.
The God seems to have thought differently and gave them what they feared most.
The key seems to be the confounding of language which for me means this:
Even when all are of one voice [group think], the group is still capable of unintended consequences. In other words, there is no counter-balance of opinion. After the transgression comes the ‘blame game’ and scattering, in this case explained as ‘God’s will’.
The ‘sin’ is akin to communism. Godlessness. Bricks.
The EU symbolism seems to be saying, ‘If we can come to a “united opinion” [socialism/communism] we can achieve anything…which is completely missing the point of the biblical story, imho.
Federal republics allow for us to achieve what we can imagine in a restrained fashion. Think of your friend pulling you back from the edge of the cliff…:)
Thanks.
Euroweenies and all non-believers may wish to redefine who God is…but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to play along! Good luck in their future endeavors without his cooperation…
Excellent point Maynard. One point of the Tower story is man’s attempt to reach God is impossible. You can’t build a tower to reach God, duh. For the French to even use that analogy shows their disdain for God. Only God has the capability to bridge the gap between us. The language thing was changed at Pentacost (Acts Ch. 2), and the bridge was completed at Calvery. Unfortunately there is no Cross on top of that Parliament, that’s the connection, they lost that concept a long time ago.
I don’t think you’re being a crackpot. Certainly the poster looks extremely deliberate. I’m not so sure about the EU building: perhaps there’s an interview of the architect somewhere.
For what it’s worth, a good interpretation of the Tower of Babel story is that unity under Man represents totalitarianism. By scattering people, God freed us from slavery. Is there any doubt as to what Brussels wants for Europe?
From “Legends of the Jews”
“Many, many years were passed in building the tower. It reached so great a height that it took a year to mount to the top. A brick was, therefore, more precious in the sight of the builders than a human being. If a man fell down, and met his death, none took notice of it, but if a brick dropped, they wept, because it would take a year to replace it. So intent were they upon accomplishing their purpose that they would not permit a woman to interrupt herself in her work of brick-making when the hour of travail came upon her. Moulding bricks she gave birth to her child, and, tying it round her body in a sheet, she went on moulding bricks.”
I know this was posted ages ago, but I just had to post a comment. it was too “tempting” not to.
I’ll be backing up what Khepri said. Maynard showed this story is in Genesis 11. In chapter 9, verse 1, God told the eight people who came out of the ark after the flood: “Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.” Yet, in the story, the people had been fertile and multiplied, but had not moved out into the whole earth. Then in their arrogance they built this tower. They would still have been unified even in language if they had kept their part of what God told them to do. They did not. so He made them scatter. A possible interpretation is that He told the people to “go be yourselves.” They did not so He helped them to do so. They were probably a lot like the Left elite, needy, afraid and therefore in over-compensation, arrogant (though they did not and do not have to stay that way). Like Khepri seems to say, i don’t think God is a big fan of GroupThink either.