
It is believed that the Tower of Babel was actually a Ziggurat, there are remains of a Ziggurat still to be seen in Ur today.
The cultural study bible tells us that rather than for man to reach heaven, the purpose of the Ziggurat was to provide a stairwell for the Ancient gods to come down into the attached temple and bless the people.
This wasn’t how the God of the Hebrews wished things to go, this was a pagan way of envisaging God. There was nothing that man could make to bring God to earth, God was already present for one and secondly God does not need a mud filled tower in order to come amongst us. Was it prideful that they thought they could summon God and bring about blessings from their own hands? Perhaps yes, but I can understand the thinking, don’t we still think at times that we are loved and blessed because of our actions? That in some way Gods blessing is down to our work?
We are told they wanted to make a name for themselves, this certainly sounds prideful, but in this culture it was understood there was a need to secure the comfort of their afterlife. It was believed in Ancient times that your afterlife and its quality depended on the living relatives still remembering you. Stone structures ensured you were remembered, bricks baked to last for ever ( some are still there now) would ensure that you stayed alive in the memory of those who followed you. Cities named after you ensured they thought that their eternity was covered. To scatter away from your homeland risked being forgotten and your afterlife not going well. Of course this wasn’t necessary, and was born again from pagan practices and perhaps fear of eternity in agony.
God knew the truth of how eternity was to be spent, but they didn’t, this was the earliest of days in the revelation of The Hebrew God and his ways. So God has to stop this from happening, He has to steer the Hebrew ship from the earliest times. Steering the direction of right worship and a slow unveiling of His love for His people.
When the time is right of course, God will come down, and people will be scattered again to the corners of the earth but this time to bring the good news to the world of this God of the Hebrews.
Nothing we build can reach God, He has by His own decree reached down to us. We build only in His strength and with Him as the cornerstone.