Genesis 11:5-9: And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
In the early history of the world after the Flood, the human race was united by one language and headed by one man named Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-11). Under Nimrod the city of Babel and its tower were built, not to glorify God, but to create a one-world government in which Nimrod would rule over all. Genesis 11:4 in the King James Version of the Bible states that a tower was to be built whose top “may reach” unto heaven. The words “may reach” are expressed in italics because they were not in the original Hebrew writing of the Bible. The builders of the city and the tower had enough intelligence to know that they could not build a structure which would actually reach to heaven.
The early Babylonian builders were indeed geniuses, but they were not stupid. Their intent behind the tower was to build an observatory that would be used to study the stars and chart their courses, and to make predictions based upon their readings of the celestial bodies. It was the ancient Chaldeans who gave astrology its origin. They gave certain names and meanings to the stars and divided the heavens into the twelve sections of the zodiac, and said that the stars were what controlled the destiny of man.
The religion of star-worship flourished and had its greatest glory of history in the Babylonian Empire which was primarily made up of the priestly caste of the Chaldean people. These Chaldeans became the aristocracy of the priesthood. We know how esteemed the astrologers and magicians were because every king in Babylon built giant ziggurats (observatories) for them. The astrologers of old were considered almost equal in power to the king.
But when God came down to see the construction project that was underway, He did not share the same attitude toward the pursuit of star-worship. God brought the entire project to a sudden grinding halt by confusing the languages of the builders, thereby ending the construction of the largest Babylonian observatory to have ever been built.
Nimrod as the first world dictator was the leader of the entire Babel enterprise, and through the new religious system of star-worship established at Babylon, he undoubtedly wished to pursue the ambition of all dictators, and that is to have a one-world government and a one-world religion. But he had not taken God into account, for it was God who said that when you put everyone under one dictator, there would be no evil which could be restrained (Genesis 11:6).
When the city and tower project were abandoned, it was a turning point in history. Where there had formally been but one language, now God initiated many languages and scattered the people throughout the earth. This passage shows that God’s plan for the world until the Prince of Peace (Jesus Christ) returns is not for there to be an international one-world government, but nationalism.
Nationalism or sovereign nationhood is the only way that the world can be kept from falling under a universal dictator who could virtually destroy all of mankind. When a one-world government and one-world religion is ultimately set up under the Antichrist (the Man of Sin), it will result in the destruction of the whole earth under the seven vials of God’s wrath.
It is only when Christ establishes His Kingdom on the earth (in the Millennium) that all nations shall flourish, under His rulership. Zephaniah 3:9 states that in the Kingdom Age of Christ, the whole world will return to a pure language that unifies everyone, but it will not be used to defy God as it did in Genesis, but will be spoken to call upon His name and to serve Him.