Category Archives: Cities

Governments: The natural outgrowth of cities

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When men banded together in cities, they found it necessary to have an increasingly formal social structure. Before there were nations, there were city states, with each city having its own king. Some strongmen, like Nimrod in Genesis 10, came to rule over several such cities, but the original organization in the ancient world was the city. Later nations like Egypt were formed, groups of cities and their outlying areas that joined together for mutual protection and cultural advancement. Abraham and his family lived apart from such kings (Lot being the exception, choosing to live in Sodom). They had dealings with kings like the Pharaoh, Abimelech, etc., but God’s people were organized by families and clans. It wasn’t until they were led to Egypt for their 400 years of slavery that God’s people came under the authority of a human king.
In a discussion on another blog, someone commented that God invented government. I disagreed then and still do. I think that human government grew up out of man’s rebelliousness, his desire to rely on men instead of God. God would eventually permit his people to have a king, but that wasn’t his desire nor his plan. God has used human governments for his ends, but his plan for mankind was other. God wanted to be king and will be king; he sent his Son to usher his kingdom into this world. The rebellious sinful kingdoms of this world will eventually be absorbed into this kingdom, as announced in Revelation: “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”” (Revelation 11:15) Satan has been at work in the nations, deceiving them (Rev. 12:9; 20:3, 8, 10). But God’s kingdom has erupted in this world and is displacing those nations and their deceiver.

Abraham and the city builders

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The contrast between Abraham and the city builders of Genesis is stark and, I think, intentional. Abraham left Ur, one of the most advanced cities of his day (with a great tower), to go and live in tents for the rest of his life. He left his culture and his family to go and live as a stranger in a foreign land. He built neither cities nor towers nor even a house; the only thing we see Abraham building is altars. He invoked the name of God, lifting up his name rather than seeking to make his own name great.
In Genesis 6, we see the powerful “sons of God” becoming “men of a name”; this seems to mean that these powerful kings were famous throughout the region. They dominated men and lifted themselves up. Abraham neither served kings nor became a king himself. Yet he achieved what men throughout Genesis sought. Look at God’s promises to Abraham in Genesis 12: ““I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”” (Genesis 12:2-3) We can easily argue that no human being has become more famous than Abraham; three major religions count him as “father.”
All of this because he rejected the power-seeking, city-building lifestyle and chose to live a life of dependence on God. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:13-16)
God blessed Abraham and made his name great. God is not ashamed to be called Abraham’s God. Sounds like he found the right road to follow.

Babbling Babel

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So why was God so hard on the people of Babel in Genesis 11?
”The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:6-9)
I used to think this action was about repopulating the earth, and that does seem to be a part of it. But I also see God’s grace at work. These men who had banded together would never seek God. They would always rely on one another. They would be able to accomplish so much that they would not feel the need for a higher power. (Hmmm… sound familiar? I wonder if God is going to come and scatter our languages again.)
When Paul was speaking to the Athenians in Acts 17 he said, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” (Acts 17:26-27) Paul said that the multiplicity of nations was a design of God to make men seek him, reach out for him and find him. That explanation fits what we see in Babel. Yes, there is an element of punishment, but like most punishment, there was a purpose to it. God wanted to make it easier for these men to seek him, and he did it by making their lives harder.
Which is another element of how God works with people that we need to see. His priority is not to make our present lives as easy and comfortable as they can be; sometimes he puts hardship in our lives to make it easier for us to turn to him. That’s because his focus, as our focus should be, is on the life to come. It’s an eternal focus. One that I need in my life.

The builders of Babel

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OK, I’ve taught on Genesis 11 several times over the last few years. Good lessons. Interesting stuff. So imagine my surprise last night when I’m teaching and realize that I’ve missed a very basic point every time I’ve taught it.
You remember the story. We call it “The Tower of Babel.” We call it wrong. Here it is:
“Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:1-9)
Their project wasn’t a tower. It was a city. With a tower. The tower probably refers to a ziggurat, a type of tower that was common in that area at that time. I know, people have misunderstood the language of the KJV which read “a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven,” and the story was twisted into a tale of people who were trying to build a staircase to heaven. But these people were building a city, a city with a tower. And they were doing it for the one of the reasons we discussed yesterday: they wanted to be remembered. They wanted to “make a name” for themselves. It was all about human pride, the quest for fame. It was about man depending on man, rather than man setting out to repopulate the earth, trusting on God to protect them, trusting that God would “make their name great,” as he did with Abraham.
It was the building of a city, a sinful act on this occasion.

Where did cities come from?

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Have you ever thought about that? God didn’t tell people to build cities. Where did they come from?
“Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.” (Genesis 4:17) [No, I don’t want to get into the question of where Cain’s wife came from; we’re talking about cities. ;-)]
This verse sets us up for a lot of what we see in Genesis. It’s not God’s people that build cities, it’s those that are living away from God. One of the purposes of building a city was the idea of leaving a legacy. In Argentina, there is a saying that talks about how a man can leave a legacy: “Have a son, write a book, plant a tree.” In the ancient world, they might have inserted “Found a city.” Like Cain, however, many founders of cities named them after someone else, so in a way they served as a monument to another person.
Another clue about ancient cities is in the previous verse: “So Cain went out from the LORD’S presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” (Genesis 4:16) As I said, it wasn’t Gods people who built cities. Cain has been talking with God about his fear that someone will kill him to avenge Abel’s death. Living away from the presence of God, he feels the need for protection. Remember that ancient cities were typically walled for defense purposes. They were built to allow men to band together for mutual defense. Cities were about men depending on men instead of depending on God.
The building of cities reflects basic human tendencies: the desire to be remembered and the inclination to seek protection in other men rather than in God.