4. Tower of Babel

The idea of a city with a tower whose top reaches the sky or “heaven” (samayim) is not unfamiliar in today’s world. Modern cities and their skyscrapers in many ways replicate the civilization of ancient Babel or Babylon (babel) with its materialistic socio-economic culture designed to create a worldly utopia. For the earth’s elite inhabitants who idolize their lavish lifestyles, God decrees destruction in his end-time Day of Judgment.

Isaiah 26:5–6

He has put down the elite inhabitants of the exalted city by casting it to the ground, laying it even with the dust. It is trodden underfoot by the feet of the poor, by the footsteps of those impoverished.

Isaiah 32:13–14, 19

[Mourn] for all the amusement houses in the city of entertainment, for the palaces shall lie abandoned, the clamorous towns deserted. High rises and panoramic resorts shall become haunts for ever after, the playground of wild animals, a browsing place for flocks. . . For by a hail shall forests be felled, cities utterly leveled.

Isaiah 2:12–14, 17

Jehovah of Hosts has a day in store for all the proud and arrogant and for all who are exalted, that they may be brought low. [It shall come] against. . . every tall tower and reinforced wall. . . The haughtiness of men shall be abased, and man’s pride brought low; Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day.

Isaiah 30:25

On the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

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5. Callout into the wilderness