Note: the first portion of this recording was lost to an audio failure at the source — the message begins mid-introduction.
What Does a Name Reveal? — Genesis 11:1-9
A name reveals the purpose of the heart. That is the claim this passage makes, and it makes it by contrast. The builders of Babel said, “Let us make us a name” — and never finished the sentence. They had no purpose to declare because they had rejected God’s purpose entirely. God named them anyway, and the name told the truth: Confusion. Centuries later, the Son of God refused to grasp at the name that was already His, emptied Himself, and went down to the cross. God gave Him the name above every name. Both received a name from God. In both cases it revealed the heart.
Make a Name for Ourselves
The word that governs the whole sermon is the Hebrew shem — name. Genesis 4:26 tells us that in the days of Enosh, men began to call upon the name of the LORD. Set that against Genesis 4:17, where Cain builds a city and names it after his son. Two lines, two answers to a fallen world: one builds, one calls. When we reach Genesis 11:4, the builders of Babel declare, na’aseh lanu shem — “let us make us a name.” The phrase echoes God’s own words from Genesis 1:26, na’aseh adam, “let us make man” — the same verb, the same grammatical form. The disease is one added word: for ourselves. The self does not appear in speech one, where they talk about making bricks. It appears in speech two. The self shows up between verse three and verse four, and it changes everything.
Notice also what is missing: they never say what the name would be. The name is not a memorial — it is a rallying point, something to keep a scattered people together. And the engine driving the whole project is the phrase “lest we be scattered.” This is fear, not faith. They had the rainbow. Genesis 9 records God’s covenant that He would never again flood the earth. The tower is what you build when you do not believe the covenant. Noah was also moved with fear, and he also built — but he built according to God’s instructions, not his own invention. Faith builds by instruction. Fear builds by invention.
Modern Day Babylon
Babel’s sin did not stay in Shinar. The Hebrew word lanu — for ourselves — is present in every room where reputations are managed, platforms are cultivated, and legacies are curated. Notably, the ziggurat was a religious structure. This sin is most at home in religious work.
There is also the matter of capability versus calling. In Genesis 11:6, God does not dispute the competence of the builders: “nothing will be restrained from them.” The plan would have worked. That was never the problem. The problem is that verse two — the decision to dwell there and stop — came before verse three. The question of whether they should build was settled before the question of whether they could. Capability without calling is the blueprint of Babel.
When God came down to judge, He never touched the tower. No fire, no army, no stone was moved. He removed one thing: the ability to understand one another. And it fell under its own weight — “they left off to build.” When the people could no longer coordinate, they did not grieve together; they grew suspicious of one another. Coordination is not love, and one afternoon proved it. The landing question for every listener is this: if God named you tonight — for what your heart is actually building toward — what would He call you?
God Has a Name of Honor
Babel built a monument. God wrote a genealogy. Genesis 11:10 begins the line that runs to Abraham — a man God intentionally scattered with the command “Get thee out of thy country” — and then named him father of many nations. The very thing Babel was built to prevent became the very thing God promised. The name was not seized. It was given.
Philippians 2:6 uses the Greek word harpagmos — to seize, to snatch, to plunder. Babel grasped at what was never theirs. Christ refused to grasp at what was. He made Himself of no reputation, emptied Himself of the very thing Babel was frantically filling, and descended. Babel climbed toward heaven and God still had to come down to see it. They were building a stairway. God gave a Son who is the stairway — as Jacob would one day see in a dream, and as Jesus told Nathanael plainly in John 1:51. Heaven and earth were never going to be joined by brick.
Because Christ went down, God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name. The name “Jesus” is a purpose-name with its reason attached: “for he shall save his people from their sins.” He did not choose it. It was given. And the title “Lord” in Philippians 2:11 is drawn from Isaiah 45:23, where the speaker is YHWH — the Father handing the Son the divine name. The tongues that were divided at Babel will one day gather to confess one name.
You Can Call on the Name
The sermon ends where it began. Genesis 4:26 said men began to call upon the name of the LORD. Romans 10:13 says whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved. Babel’s word is lest — lest we be scattered, lest we be forgotten, lest we lose what we have built. Paul, writing from chains while rivals made names for themselves on his imprisonment, has no lest. “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.” A man who has received a name has nothing left to build and nothing left to defend.
God’s answer to the fear of scattering was never a promise that we would not be scattered. It was a promise of presence: “I am with thee in all places whither thou goest” — and at the end of all things, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age.” You cannot make a name. But you can call on one.