Turning Back Babylon

If you find the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11 interesting, and you are sure there must be more to it than what we are usually told, then you will find this fascinating.
We get a foretaste of the Babel story in Genesis 2-4 as we follow the descent of humanity from Eden to Babylon (Eridu, to be exact). The story expands in Genesis 5-6 as we learn more about the depravity of mankind that resulted from the influence of the fallen angels, and the terrible violence of the Nephilim.
When God intervened with a flood to preserve humankind from an otherwise inevitable extinction, the garden of Eden was reimagined as a lush vineyard. But it wasn't long before human sin led back to Babylon once more. The ruin of Eridu was rediscovered and rebuilt. It would later be called Babel.
But why was it constructed?
In Genesis 4, humans gained the technologies of the gods.
In Genesis 6, they became demigods (Nephilim).
In Genesis 11, humanity aspired to be not only demigods but the personal temples of the gods in flesh.
They became the Rephaim; giant warriors that took over kingdoms all over the known world so that the gods might rule through them.
This series of three rebellions left the world separated from the Creator, obsessed with altering their created nature and enslaved to lesser gods and their religions.
God responded to this final rebellion by dividing humanity so that the pace of their self-destructive path toward the deception of self-deification would be slowed. People needed time to realize what they were doing and where they were headed. And they needed someone to show the way. So began the era of the Biblical patriarchs. Abraham would become the father of a nation that would break off the shackles of enslavement to the Rephaim and take possession of a land of their own, destroying the giants and defeating the gods of the nations one by one.
Eventually, human sin overcame mighty Israel and they fell into idolatry, subjecting themselves to the foreign gods of the nations. And where did they end up? Exiled to Babylon once more.
The lessons of Babel keep coming back to teach us and guide us. The New Testament authors knew well that God alone can bring about the glorification we naturally seek - by the power of His Holy Spirit driving out the presence and influence of the Fallen Ones.
We are meant to be a habitation for a divine Spirit - but unlike the Babylonians who venerated evil powers, it is the Spirit of the Most High God, not the spirits of demons. Our biggest hint that God was planning that reversal comes from Abram. Adding the "heh" in his name signified the filling of the man with the Spirit of God; hence Abraham foreshadowed the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in those who would believe God and obey Him.

​- T.J. Steadman