Reaching Toward Heaven
Click below to download the Cornerstone Connections leader’s guide and student lesson. This week’s resources also include two lesson plans and a discussion starter video which offer different ways of looking at the topic. Each lesson plan includes opening activities, scripture passages, discussion questions, and real-life applications.
The futility of trying to find a way to save ourselves is exemplified in the story of the Tower of Babel. Only a life of trusting obedience brings ultimate and lasting safety.
SCRIPTURE PASSAGES
OVERVIEW
Have you ever been to a foreign country? How about to a part of a big city that you’d never been to before? What was it like trying to find your way around? Was there a language barrier? How did it feel to be out of your comfort zone? Traveling to foreign countries is often difficult and a little nerve racking the first time you go. Can you imagine what it would be like if everyone in the entire world spoke the same language, but suddenly that all changed? What would that be like? Our lesson today is about exactly that—everyone spoke the same language, until one day they couldn’t understand each other. Let’s explore what that was like and what caused it.
OPENING ACTIVITY: WORD PICTURES
DISCUSSION
TRANSITION
Everything is usually more understandable if you can see clearly what you are looking at. Things are usually very clear if you can see and read about what you are looking at. Language skills are very important. Imagine what it must have been like for Helen Keller—she was both deaf and blind. How could she communicate? How could she experience the world? Her story is fascinating. She learned to overcome her deficits and made huge contributions to society. Let’s dive into our scripture about a corollary event in the Bible.
BIBLE STUDY GUIDE
Read Genesis: 11:1-4.
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
DISCUSSION
Read Genesis 11:5-8.
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
DISCUSSION
Read Revelation 5:8-10.
8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. 9 And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
DISCUSSION
APPLICATION
Defiance, destruction, defamation, distance, and sin were never part of God’s plan. Once sin entered the world, the consequences of the new plan had its immediate effects. In order to give people the best chance for survival God did what He could to help them survive which was to spread the people out. Have you ever wondered what life would be like if after the flood, humanity had humbled themselves, acknowledged God, and followed His path? How much different the world would be! God’s plan is always superior to our plan. Make a difference today and chose to follow His plan for your life.
FOLLOW UP
Read John 16:31-33.
31 “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. 32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
DISCUSSION
In our lesson today, we discussed a physical scattering. This passage discusses a different type of scattering from the one in Genesis.
SCRIPTURE PASSAGE
LEADER’S NOTE
For a Relational Bible Study (RBS) you’ll want to get into the Scripture passage and encourage the youth to imagine participating in the story while it’s happening. Then you will be able to better apply it to your own situation today.
You will need to ask God for the Holy Spirit to be present as your small group discusses the questions (no more than 3-6 people in a group is recommended). Start with the opening question. It is a personal question and the answer is unique for each individual. There is no right answer and nobody is an expert here, so don’t be surprised when you hear different responses. You are depending on the Holy Spirit to be present and to speak through your group. Say what God prompts you to say, and listen to what others share.
Take turns reading the chapter out loud. Follow that with giving the students some time to individually mark their responses to the questions (a PDF version of the handout is available as a download). This gives each person a starting point for responding when you start to share as a group. Next, begin the discussion by asking the students to share what they marked and why on each question as you work your way through. Feel free to take more time on some questions than others as discussion warrants.
Encourage each person in the group to apply what is discussed to their personal lives and to share with the group what they believe God wants them to do. Then ask them to pray that God will help each of them to follow through in doing so. Remind them to expect that God will show them ways to live out the message of this passage in the coming week, and that they are free to ask others in the group to help hold them accountable.
OVERVIEW
In Genesis 9, God instructed Noah and his descendants to be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth (vs. 1, 7), then established a covenant that He would never again destroy all life with a flood (vs. 11). In Genesis 11, some of these descendants unite to disobey God by building a waterproof tower from the same material the ark was built from, both ignoring God’s instruction to spread out and fill the earth and choosing to trust a physical tower to protect themselves rather than God.
The first skyscraper documented in Scripture is this attempt at a tower in a city later called Babel because of the events in this chapter. Scholars and archaeologists say this may have likely inspired the other ziggurat temple towers in the Mesopotamian region with the structure and materials described. No matter how high, this tower would not have been formidable against God and yet the people chose to trust in a tower and ignore God’s command.
This relational Bible study covers the biblical story of the Tower of Babel and invites participants to consider the relation of trust in God and His promises versus trust in self and one’s own solutions and how that influences our choices of obedience and disobedience.
The First Skyscraper
What would you build a skyscraper out of? Why? (Choose anything.)
Read Genesis 11:1-9.
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
1. Why did the people build the tower?
2. What did the Lord do when He saw the people building the tower?
3. What was so bad about the people’s actions?
4. What are some reasons the people put their trust in a physical tower?
5. Why is it hard for some people to obey God’s commands?
6. Fill in the blank: we should obey God ___________.
7. How would this story be different If the people trusted in God’s covenant (promise) in Genesis 9?
8. How would your life be different if you believed God’s covenant (promises) for your life?
SUMMARY
God desires a loving, interactive, meaningful relationship with us, and when we love Him and love others, we are living in the laws of His kingdom and cannot help but be faithful to God’s principles of selfless love. When we trust God and love God, we obey God. The people in Genesis 11 stood in contrast to these principles, disobeying God and not trusting in the covenant He established with them.
Instead of uniting to do wrong like they did, we can choose to unite for the purposes of God’s kingdom, trusting in His covenant promises for us. We can keep God’s commandments without loving Him, but, if we love Him, we can’t help but keep God’s commandments. This starts by knowing Him and discovering His love for us through studying the Bible and praying together. If you have questions, reach out to your teacher and/or pastor and they will undoubtedly be glad to help.
APPLICATION
The people in Genesis 11 built the Tower of Babel to make a name for themselves.
When the people were scattered all over the world, God created many different languages, but God can say, “I love you” no matter what language you speak.
