In the fourth fall man fell to the uttermost. He simply could not fall any further. He had reached the bottom. This ultimate fall eventually caused God to forsake the Adamic race. God decided to give up the created race. It had become hopeless. It had reached the point where not even God could do anything with it. Although God forsook the created race, He did not give up His purpose for man. On the one hand, He gave up the Adamic race, but on the other hand, He called a man out of that fallen race to have a new beginning. The name of that called one was Abraham. According to the Bible, Abraham became the head of a new race. Adam was the head of the created race, and Abraham was the head of the called race. In the following messages we shall have much to say about the calling of Abraham.
The Lord has a way to fulfill His purpose. Regardless of the instigation of Satan and the rebellion of man, God is still God. He is sovereign. God seemed to say, "All right, I will let go of the Adamic race." But, under His sovereignty, He selected one to be the head of a new race. This selection, this choice, was made before the foundation of the world. God planned it this way and worked it according to schedule. God has a schedule. In His schedule, He dropped the Adamic race and called out Abraham to be the head of a new race.
Let us now consider the process, the procedure, of this rebellion. In this rebellion there was a conspiracy (11:3). Under the instigation of Satan, man came together to conspire to rebel against God. The rebellion against God instigated by Satan always begins with a conspiracy. Throughout the generations, many times such a conspiracy against God has happened among the human race. The first one was at Babel. That was the beginning of mankind's rebellion against God. Under Satan's instigation, man decided collectively to give up God and to rebel against Him.
What did the people do in their conspiracy to rebel against God? They made bricks and burned them thoroughly (v. 3). Apparently, this is a simple story, and even little children are familiar with it. However, the deeper significance of this matter is profound.
According to the whole revelation of the Bible, God's building has never been with any kind of bricks. God's building is with stones. Eventually, the New Jerusalem will be built with precious stones (Rev. 21:18-20). Stones are different from bricks. Stones are God-made; bricks are man-made. Precious stones are not only God-made but also God-transformed. Bricks are made by man with the earth. At Babel, man burned the earth, the mud, into bricks to build a city and a tower. Pharaoh also built his treasure cities out of bricks (Exo. 1:11, 14a). Now we need to allegorize this portion of the holy Word in order to see what this story signifies.
According to the biblical record, the earth is for growing life (1:11). Growing life requires certain elements. The earth has all the elements necessary for producing life. Even we grow physically with the elements found in the earth. The meat, vegetables, and cereal we eat all come from the earth. All of the nourishing and growing elements in these foodstuffs come out of the earth. Thus, the earth contains the elements needed to grow life. What does it mean to make bricks? It is, for the sake of man's building, to kill, to burn, every bit of the element in the earth that grows life. If you have the insight, you will realize that today every society, every human culture, is burning the earth into bricks. The schools, for instance, kill the element that grows life, burning it in order to make bricks.
In figure, the earth signifies humanity. The rebellion instigated by Satan kills the element within man that grows life by burning it out and it misuses man to build something against God. This happened at Babel and, in the same principle, it has happened throughout human history.
To make bricks requires human labor, even a great deal of labor. Since man has denied God, man has to labor so that he might build up something. All of human history is a record of man's building by human labor with the misused earth (mankind). This was the way that Babel was built—with the misused earth plus human labor.