TLDR: A guide for having a family discipleship time on Genesis 11 based on the ACT Bible Study Method.
Act 2: People Disobey
Scene 7: The Tower of Babel
Genesis 11:1–9
Analyze the Passage
Step 1: Introduce the Passage
Genesis was written by Moses sometime between 1445–1405 BC to help the Israelites leaving Egypt understand their history with God. It’s one of the five books of the Law that Moses wrote, which we also call the Torah, or the Pentateuch, which means “five books.”
Today’s true story is one that shows even after God’s “reset” of the world by a flood, things had not changed. People continued in their sinful ways. This story is in Act 2: People Disobey.
Step 2: Read the Passage
Step 3: Summarize the Passage
After the flood, the people settled in one place and decided to build a city with a tower that reached up high into the heavens. They wanted to make themselves famous and not have to spread out around the world as God had commanded.
When God saw what they were doing, he went down, confused the people’s language, and forced them to scatter. This is where the languages of the world came from.
Step 4: Interrogate the Passage
Questions you and your family ask might include:
- Why did they want to make such a tall tower?
- Why did they want to make a name for themselves?
- Why didn’t the people want to scatter around the world as God had commanded?
- How did confusing the people’s language stop the work and force them to scatter?
- What does Babel mean?
Step 5: Wonder about the Passage
Wonder statements you and your family make might include:
- I wonder what language everyone spoke to start with.
- I wonder how much of the city and tower the people had built before God stopped it.
- I wonder what it was like the moment God confused everyone’s language.
- I wonder if anyone was left to live in the city the people had started making.
Connect the Passage to Christ
Step 6: Find the World in Front of Text
One final time in Act 2, we see an example of what the world is not supposed to be like. God had told the people to multiply and fill the earth, but they wanted to stay in one place. God made people as his image-bearers so we could make much of him, but the people wanted to make much of themselves. God made people to be unified in our worship and honor of God, but they were unified in their worship and honor of themselves instead.
We also see a contrast between “up” and “down” here. The people were building the tower up to celebrate themselves, while God looked down and came down to stop their work. Instead of God coming down to enjoy relationship with his people as he had done in Eden, he is now coming down to break fellowship between his people.
This is all the opposite of the world God intends, one in which we live together in harmony and unity, but also in obedience. It’s a world in which we make God’s goodness known. As we have seen throughout this Act, it’s a world where we live in humility, not boastful pride like here at Babel, and joyful obedience, not blatant disobedience like here at Babel.
Step 7: Find the World of Jesus of the Text
While the people after the flood refused to go where God told them to go and do what God told them to do, that was exactly what Jesus did. By coming to earth, Jesus went exactly where the Father wanted him to go. And by living a life of perfect obedience and laying down his life, Jesus did exactly what the Father wanted him to do. Jesus did this for the primary reason of bringing the Father glory. It was amazing humility that prompted amazing obedience, and we owe our forgiveness, eternal life, and everything else to it.
Translate It to Your Context
Step 8: Connect the World of Jesus of the Text to Your World
How can you be especially humble this week? Remember, humility is not thinking poorly of yourself; it is thinking more highly of God and others. It is putting God first, others second, and yourself third. What are ways that you can display humility with your friends, family, and others to show them Jesus?
How can you obey God this week, in big ways and small ways, so that people might see Jesus in you? Think about all the places you will be this week and what you will do. How can you obey God and people he has placed in authority with joy?
NEXT: Act 3: God Promises Jesus; Scene 1: Abraham Is Called by God (Genesis 12:1–20)
Learn more about this family discipleship method here.
brian dembowczyk 