Too many times we teach a lesson with the memories of our childhood Sunday school classes in mind. Let me explain - as a kid, most of us were taught the most basic information about a Bible story. The main characters, what they did, and a lesson. That's not necessarily a bad thing, because it was instilling the facts into the heart of a child. It is on their level.
Side note: I have to warn though, from over-simplifying. Sometimes a story is so simplified that it is no longer accurate. A couple of weeks ago, an upper-elementary child was retelling me the story of Job - what they had just learned in Sunday school, but this version was so simplified and so dramatic, it was completely inaccurate. Other stories that come to mind are Hosea and the passage about the tower of Babel. (Rehash the stories in your own mind as you would tell them to a child, then go and read the passages in the Bible. A little different, huh?)
Now I totally understand that the way we teach children and the way we teach those who are more mature adults, is different. But it is our responsibility to teach a "story" Biblically and accurately - not in accordance with the traditional Sunday school lesson that we have heard our entire lives.
Here is an example: the Tower of Babel.
This is the story we hear and teach - Nimrod and his men built a tower to reach to heaven, to get to God, so they could be like God or overtake God. God got angry at their sinfulness and mixed up the languages, forcing the people to spread out.
But let's take a look at what the verses say.
Genesis 11:1-4
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
When I am reading the Bible, I like to reiterate what I just read, so that I can understand in layman's terms. Basically what we just read in this passage was that everyone on the earth spoke the same language. A group of them were traveling together, and decided to settle in the land of Shinar - which we know historically to be a very fertile and fruitful land. A good choice for a permanent home. Then they got together and decided to build a city and tower. This tower would be very tall, distinguished tower that would stand out as a landmark on the plain. (Like the Sears tower in Chicago and the Empire State Building in NY) Why? They wanted to be remembered for their unique and unsurpassable feat, because they were concerned that they would be scattered across the planet.
Don't take my word for it! You just read it in the verses above. So moving on...
Genesis 11:5-9
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
While they were building, God can down from heaven to check it. But He noticed a problem - the people were unified in a central location. This was in disobedience to His command to populate the earth, not just the plain of Shinar. As a punishment for their disobedience, God confused their language, creating multiple languages, so that those who were once unified could no longer understand each other, and they now had to scatter.
The sin in this act was not the building of a tremendously tall building. The sin was in their failure to populate the whole earth as God had commanded. This is evidenced in their reason for building in verse 4 and in God's reason for punishment in verses 8-9.
God doesn't reprimand or punish them for trying to access Him through man's ways or for establishing a new religion or worshipping inappropriately.
Surely there is an argument for prideful behavior, and it is likely that Nimrod was not a godly man. But the fact is what we traditionally teach is not what actually occurred in this passage.
The moral of the story here is to teach the Bible biblically. Use the Bible as your source, not your memory, not someone else's material. Be careful to keep the truth in all that you teach.
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