There are two factors in each step of the fall. The first factor is Satan, and the second is man.
Before the flood there was no human government. It was only after the flood that God established a deputy authority on the earth. Man began to exercise God’s authority to rule over others. At the fourth step of the fall, Satan utilized the authority which God gave man to form the nations and to instigate a rebellion against God with the nations. Hence, man fell into an open rebellion against God collectively.
Rebellion is the denial of right and authority. In the rebellion at Babel, man declared that he denied God’s right and that he was absolutely free from God’s authority. The entire human race was stirred up, having been instigated into rebellion, to declare that they did not care for God’s right or for God’s authority.
At his fall in the beginning, Satan’s intention was to overthrow God’s authority, but he was not successful in his attempt. Hence, he came again into the fallen human race to inject the same thought into man, inciting man to rise up collectively against God’s authority.
The first step was the conspiracy to rebel against God (Gen. 11:3-4). The created men who were under God’s ruling came together to conspire to rebel against God. The second step was the making of bricks with the earth by human labor. 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. Man built the tower of Babel with bricks instead of stones. This means that man uses the misused earth plus human labor to replace God’s work. The third step was the building of a city to have a man-made, godless life. A city is the center of human living; hence, it represents human living. The city built with bricks signifies a man-made human life, which is a godless life. The fourth step was the building of a tower to declare the renouncing of God. The tower of Babel was a mark and an announcement of the city of Babel. It declared that the people there lived a life rejecting God and His authority. The final step was that they made a name to deny God’s name, that is, to deny God Himself.
First, God came in to scatter them. Since they rebelled against God collectively, God came in to scatter them that they might no longer live together in one place. Second, God confounded their language so that they were no longer able to have the same language. Third, confusion was brought in. Babel means “confusion.” This is due to the curse and judgment.
When man reached the fourth step of the fall, he had fallen to the uttermost, so that even God could not do anything to recover the fallen race. Eventually, God was forced to give up the race of Adam and had to call Abraham as the head of a new race for the fulfilling of His purpose in man.
The man created by God was very good and without sin, but he was deceived by God’s enemy, the Devil, to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; thus, he fell and became a sinner. On the one hand, he had sinned before God, and on the other hand, he now had the sinful nature, Satan’s evil nature, within him. The fallen nature of man caused his descendants to fall again and again until they reached the point of rebelling against God and standing against Him. At this stage, man was utterly fallen and met with God’s rejection.