The story of Babel is often missed. It’s actually humorous. Israelites live in a rocky terrain—you wouldn’t build a tower from mud bricks, but stone. In Israel’s climate, bricks wouldn’t stand under the stress.

So, people are building a flimsy tower to the heavens and God has to look down to see what they’re up to. It’s almost as if God is speaking ironically—“We’d better go down there and do something—they’re liable to hurt themselves!”

Of course, the problem isn’t they are trying to reach heaven. They’re trying to stay together with the ziggurat as their focal point rather than scattering and filling the earth.