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Begin wherever your curiosity leads. The studies will be here when you’re ready. When I shared my first Matthew study on Facebook today, I mentioned that I planned to post daily, though I might not share every post on Facebook. As I continue setting up this blog, I’ve realized that what matters most to me is making my past studies available for anyone who wants to explore them. For now, I’ll be adding posts to my heart’s content as I work through those studies. Some days that may mean one post; other days it may mean several. I’ll continue reading through and preparing each one before sharing it. There is no need to keep up with everything as it appears. This blog is becoming a place you can browse at your own pace—begin with a book, a question, or a study that interests you, and follow from there. The Bible Books page gathers studies by book, while Study Threads helps connect topics that travel through more than one book. The labels on individual posts also bring related material to...
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18. Babylon: Let Us Make a Name

Babylon Study • Connected to God’s Image and the Ten Commandments

We began with Babylon in Revelation. Now we return to Genesis and examine the builders’ own words. What did they intend to establish, and what did they fear losing?

The Purpose They Expressed

Genesis 11 places the builders in Shinar. They share a language, manufacture bricks, and use bitumen as mortar. Their proposal includes a city and a tower reaching toward heaven.

Then they state their purpose:

“let us make us a name”

— Genesis 11:4, ASV, excerpt

Their concern about being scattered follows in the same verse. Building, making a name, and remaining together belong to their expressed intention.

Agreement Does Not Settle the Question

YHWH (יהוה) observes their unity and shared language. He then confuses their speech and scatters them. The building stops, and the place is called Babel.

The outcome is the very scattering they sought to prevent. Their ability to agree and build together did not establish that their purpose agreed with God’s. Read Genesis 11:5–9.

Follow the Concern with Self-Exaltation

Place the builders’ desire to establish a name alongside Babylon’s description in Revelation. She glorifies herself and declares her own security, yet judgment overturns that confidence. Read Revelation 18:7–8.

This comparison directs our attention to purpose: whose standing is being established, and whose judgment determines whether it remains?

A claim of permanence cannot make something permanent. Agreement among its supporters cannot answer whether God approves it.

Whose Name Is Present?

Revelation’s closing scene directs our attention elsewhere. The throne of God and of the Lamb is present; His servants serve Him, see His face, and bear His name on their foreheads. Read Revelation 22:3–4.

Compare the relationships: people undertaking to establish their own name, and servants identified by the name of the One they serve.

This gives us a question to carry through the study: Does what we are building direct allegiance to God, or establish an identity we become unwilling to question?

Questions to Examine

  • Who has made a name for themselves?

  • Whose name or reputation am I most concerned with protecting?

  • Do I treat agreement within a group as proof that its teaching is true?

  • Could fear of losing my place among others keep me from examining Scripture honestly?

  • If correction threatened something I helped build, would I welcome it?

  • Am I drawing people toward God, or toward loyalty to a name, organization, or personal following?

Threads to Follow

  • Shinar: Compare Genesis 11 with the destination of the woman in Zechariah 5.

  • Building and dwelling: Examine who builds, what is established, and who dwells there.

  • Speech and gathering: Follow language, hearing, scattering, and gathering while preserving each passage’s details.

The books were opened…

🌿 By Maria Emilia

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