Our word for today is בָּלַל mix up, mingle, confuse, confound. It is used 44 times in the Old Testament, 3 times in chapter eleven of Genesis which we are in today. A good picture of this word is in Exodus 29:2 And from the finest wheat flour make round loaves without yeast, thick loaves without yeast and with olive oil בָּלַל mixed in. Most of the uses of this word are used to describe God’s instructions for preparing offerings by mixing oil into the flour. This helps us understand what God did in Genesis chapter eleven when they only had one language until God mixed it up like you would mix in other ingredients into a single ingredient. Genesis 11:7-9 Come, let us go down and there בָּלַל confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called בָּבֶל Babel, because there the Lord בָּלַל confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
God is mocking the pride and arrogance of people who built a city בָּבֶל which literally means Gate of God. El is the name for God. We see their pride and arrogance earlier in the chapter. Genesis 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens.” Why would the people want to do this? The rest of the verse tells us “and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” The people were disobeying God’s direct command to them first to Adam and Eve before the flood then again to Noah and his family after the flood. Instead of spreading out to cover the face of the earth they consolidated their efforts to make a name for themselves. And the name of their city was gate of God. In other words, they wanted to go up to the heavens to where God was on their own ability. Here is the irony God turns this gate of God city בָּבֶל and makes them babble like inexplicable nonsense that a baby makes. Because they couldn’t understand each other they stopped work on the city and ended up doing what God commanded them to do in the first place, scatter over the face of the earth.
What is interesting is that God gave people freewill to disobey him, but He still was able to bring about his purposes. We see this throughout the Bible. Proverbs 16:1 The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Proverbs 16:9 The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Proverbs 21:30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord. God’s will is ultimately going to prevail over against human freewill so it is in our best interest to simply do what he says in the first place because we won’t stop God. All we will do is cause ourselves to miss out on His blessings and the ability to enjoy Him and our lives.
