Leadership Lessons from the Tower of Babel

The first skyscraper was designed by American architect William Le Baron Jenny and built in Chicago in 1884. The Home Insurance Building was the first to use a steel structural frame rose to 138 feet or 10 stories, an unprecedented height at the time. Fast forward 130 years to the current tallest building in the world and you’ll find the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, topping out at 2,717 feet. In both cases the builders desired to make a statement to the world about their ambition by building something taller than had ever been attempted. Several structures are currently in development that may reach a mile or more in height, if and when they are completed.

There’s an interesting story in Genesis 11 that speaks directly to leadership, ambition, and ego. It’s a warning to all of mankind of the dangers of ambition. Leaders often have the desire to do or achieve something that requires determination. A leader wants to personally advance, to do something praiseworthy, to make a name for himself. The Tower of Babel gives us caution about pursuing our personal and organizational ambitions.

Following Noah and the flood, the growing population of earth settles in one spot and decides to build a tower that they intended to reach to heaven. It’s an audacious plan, the very first skyscraper. Up to this point people had been using stone to build walls and strong buildings, but now they determine to use a new construction technique—bake bricks and use tar for mortar.

Consider what you are building. What was wrong with the leaders’ plans? For that, just turn a few pages back in the Bible, where God instructs Noah following the flood, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). God told his people to spread out across the earth. They began along these lines and spread to Assyria, Babylon, Shinar and other places. Yet within a number of years they stopped expanding and instead gathered in large numbers in one place to build a large city because, they said, “otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4).

A leader is often tempted in their ambition to do anything except for the one thing God told him to do. Here in Genesis 9-11 we see this play out. God says fill the earth, and the people made plans to do just the opposite. No matter what our plans, dreams and desires, they are neither good nor right if they go against the Word of God and clear instruction of God. Consider this good counsel from Scripture to hold up anything you are constructing in life and leadership to the lens of the Bible and ask, “Am I building something that God has clearly instructed me to build?”

Consider whose glory you are pursuing. In Genesis 11:4 the people say, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves…” The narrative shows that the motivation of the people was not to somehow build a physical bridge between themselves and God, but rather for their own glory and hubris. The word heavens here is translated to the sky. They weren’t trying in building the tower to somehow reconnect to God. Rather they were building something personally great that they would take pride in as their own creation.

Pursuing personal pride or greatness is not godly leadership. 1 Peter 5:5 reminds us, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” The lesson on Scripture is not to pursue goals that leave God out. Don’t pursue name, life, marriage, home, family or business that builds personal glory and lacks God’s glory. In the Tower of Babel we have an example of a people who were not only disobeying God’s instructions, but were also motivated by their own pride and personal ambition. Next we learn from God’s response:

Consider confusion is often the result of not listening to God’s Voice. God’s response to the people’s disobedience is found beginning in Genesis 11:6; “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.’” This is not God acknowledging that a people united can become all-powerful. Rather it’s God saying that people left on their own will pursue their own interests more and more. Their hearts will turn to themselves and will be inclined toward sin and abuse. Just 350 years after the flood, mankind was again headed toward its condition in Genesis 6:5: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” God had promised not to destroy all mankind again, so instead he does this: “‘Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’” (Genesis 11:7). Notice Scripture says the people could no longer understand one another, but there is no mention here that everyone could not still understand God. In this action God did not take away any individual’s ability to understand Himself.

If you are confused about the direction of your life and leadership, you may not be listening to God’s Voice. God may be calling you to know and obey His Word, the Bible, in order to regain clarity and a path forward. Often our confusion comes from lack of knowledge or obedience. We may think to ourselves, “I wish God would reveal to me His plan for my life, and what He specifically wants me to do for Him.” Yet God has given us a mountain of instruction in the Bible. There are more than 1,000 commands given to Christians in the New Testament alone. Words like:

• Pursue godliness (1 Timothy 6:11)

• Give freely (Matthew 10:8)

• Set aside envy (1 Peter 2:1)

• Go make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20)

• Hold fast to sound doctrine (2 Timothy 1:13)

• Let your light shine (Matthew 5:16)

• Walk in honesty (Romans 13:12)

• Provoke others to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24)

• Live peacefully (2 Corinthians 13:11)

• Put on humility (Colossians 3:12)

Remember, if you are searching for God’s purpose and instruction for your life, that He has already given you His Word. The Bible contains more specific commands that any one person could possibly accomplish. And if you are looking for that one thing that you alone may be meant for—your “special calling for life”—begin by obeying what He has already told you, and trust that in your obedience God may reveal those one or two additional tasks in life and leadership that were meant just for you.

Consider God’s purposes will not be thwarted. The story of the Tower of Babel ends with God’s original instructions being accomplished. Genesis 11:8 records, “So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.” God confusing the people’s language redirected their efforts to precisely what He had instructed in the first place. Regardless of your motives, pride, purpose, desires, dreams, direction—God’s will shall be accomplished. Better to have it accomplished with you and through you, than for Him to simply go around you.