Where does the Bible say the people of Babel defied God?
Question:
Good day,
I'm slightly confused about Scripture and interpretation here.
The story of Babel is always propped up as a story of man's defiance of God's will, but nowhere do I see the Bible actually state that they defied God. Yes, they did go against God's command. God wanted people to disperse around the earth, but they didn't want to disperse. However, nowhere in the Bible does it say that the people deliberately went against God's will, Such as a verse saying something like "they said 'let us defy God.'" Now, obviously, I'm not expecting something so blunt. I'm not a biblical author nor guided by the Holy Spirit, so I don't know how it would have been written. My point is that the people in themselves didn't deliberately defy God. They were egotistical, yes, and they were vain, yes. I agree that they did defy God, just not outright by their own thoughts.
I could be wrong about this. If there is a verse somewhere that says that the people deliberately and decisively defied God, that is the basic message everyone gets from this passage in the Bible, but I don't see it. I see that they did defy God but not deliberately, so yes, they sinned and did wrong. I agree with that point.
Kind regards.
Answer:
While you don't intend this, you are stating that if the Bible doesn't express things explicitly, then it doesn't exist. You make no allowance for necessary inferences from the text. See Possible Inference Versus Necessary Inference. God does expect you to use the mind that He gave you.
God said, "As for you, be fruitful and multiply; populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it" (Genesis 9:7). Instead, the people decided, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11:4). God wanted them to scatter across the earth, but the people decided they didn't want to scatter.
"Defy" means to openly resist or refuse to obey. This is exactly what the people did. It doesn't require finding the exact word in the text; the word aptly describes the situation.
When God confused the languages, the result was that the people were forced to do as God had originally commanded. "So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11:8-9).
Response:
Thank you so much for your response. I truly appreciate it.
God bless you.
