Does the tower of babel represent human rebellion against God?

Answer 1

Yes, that is the traditional Rabbinic understanding of the relevant verses (in Genesis 11). Tradition states that the narrative describes actual historical events and that these are tied with the spread of idolatry after the Flood.

ANOTHER ANSWER:

Any number of analogies can be drawn from the account. "Man's selfish and rebellious human nature that naturally goes against the laws of God" [which God defines as 'sin' -- see I John 3:4] is certainly one of them.

The running theme of The Bible, however, of which the world seems to remain totally ignorant thanks to all of its many false, bickering, resentful, hate-filled religions, is that of the truth of the continuous prophetic promise of God to "replace man's governments" with HIS OWN!

The "gospel" or "good news" of our Creator regarding the soon-coming KINGDOM OF GOD that shall ELIMINATE ALL OF MAN'S SATAN-DESIGNED AND LED GOVERNMENTS FROM THE WORLD.

Man's rebellious "nature" simply won't allow him to "believe" the most simply-stated prophetic Truths of the Bible:

"During the reign of those kings [kings about to come to power and rule governments of this world in our lifetime], THE GOD OF HEAVEN WILL SET UP A KINGDOM that will never be destroyed, no one will ever conquer it [like man's governments destroy one another seemingly at Satan's will - "...'I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them - because THEY ARE MINE TO GIVE TO ANYONE I PLEASE..." - Luke 4:6 NLT]. It will SHATTER ALL THESE KINGDOMS[governments of man] INTO NOTHINGNESS, but IT WILL STAND FOREVER." (Dan.2:44 NLT)

To this day, man's history of the world has been and is written of his struggle to achieve his generations-long dream of ONE-WORLD-GOVERNMENT... which began with the building of Babel's Tower; way back when the world's population spoke only ONE LANGUAGE. When the whole world [such as it was] all huddled together in one place and "enjoyed" the phenomena of total unfettered FREE-FLOWING COMMUNICATION! A phenomenon that, thanks to the continuous advancement of modern computer technology, has returned the world to that frightening time of the elimination of the language barrier that God instituted along with all the free-flowing information anyone wants. Our world has been transported back to that time when God said:

"...'if they can accomplish this when they have just begun to take advantage of THEIR COMMON LANGUAGE and POLITICAL UNITY, just think OF WHAT THEY WILL DO LATER. NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR THEM!" (Gen.11:6 NLT New Living Translation)

To this day the governments of this world REJECT God's inspired, sacred, TRUTHFUL Word, because they are all under the direct "ownership" of Satan the Devil, the god of this world [see Luke 4:6 again]. And it began with the two people the LORD created who gave over their sovereignty over the earth, and their obedience and worship to the Great Dragon [Rev.12:9] in the garden of Eden, thus opting to disobey the First Commandment of God, and chose "another god" to have and trust before Him.

The Tower of Babel is representative of "what man is STILL TRYING TO ACHIEVE TODAY!" ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT. A satanic system doomed to failure, because the god man ignorantly worships hates ALL OF GOD'S CREATION... which certainly includes MANKIND itself.

The governments of man hate one another... are jealous of one another... are resentful toward one another... want for themselves all the prosperity, perks, benefits, and resources that all the other governments have. Satan has all of mankind AT ODDS WITH HIMSELF... men shedding other men's blood, perpetuating blood feuds, mindless hatreds, lusts, and blind jealousies. And mankind has succumbed to it from the beginning... thinking the "other men are his enemy"; when in reality, it has always been the seeds of hatred planted by the invisible spiritual force that he ignorantly worships.

"The ENEMY that sowed them IS THE DEVIL..." (Matt.13:39).

The Tower of Babel is man's first attempt under the deceptive direction of his god at forming his own government WITHOUT AND IN SPITE OF the Laws of his Creator. It's man following his selfish, rebellious nature, which is naturally "disobedient to the Laws of God:

"Because the carnal mind [human nature; the human mind devoid of the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit] is ENMITY[hostile] AGAINST GOD: for it IS NOT SUBJECT TO THE LAW OF GOD, neither indeed CAN BE." (Rom.8:7)

The Tower of Babel was man's first attempt to "worship himself." The same thing that men still do today, when governments speak their intentions: "We will be better than before." "We will be stronger."

The governments of this world don't say: "REPENT BEFORE GOD, and SEEK HIS MERCY AND FORGIVENESS."

No... they say: "We will rebuild it bigger, better and stronger..." intimating that they will do it WITHOUT GOD [who, in this modern computerized world, is regarded by anyone who is anyone as just so much ancient myth and ignorant superstition].

The end time prophecies of Scripture warn of the Last Days of God's plan in which man's worship of the Devil will lead him to his final attempt at building what that infamous TOWER of long ago represents. When man will finally think he has achieved his NEW WORLD ORDER. But it will be the time our Creator, Jesus Christ [John 1:3] describes as:

"...'that will be a time OF GREATER HORROR THAN ANYTHING THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN or will ever see again. In fact, unless that time OF CALAMITY is shortened, THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE WILL BE DESTROYED [you know, by that highly advanced technology that we worship, that gives man the power to destroy a planet like the earth five or six times over]. But IT WILL BE SHORTENED FOR THE SAKE OF GOD'S CHOSEN ONES.'" (Matt.24:21-22 NLT)

In truth, the world has come full circle BACK to the time of Babel's Tower. Because our achievement of the virtual elimination of the language barrier and free-flowing exchange of ideas and information... NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR US to achieve. Including something we've never given any thought to [because we don't believe it], that the "one man" this deceived world will choose to head up his New World Order will be a man CHOSEN BY SATAN TO RULE:

"...And the Great Dragon GAVE HIM HIS OWN POWER and THRONE and GREAT AUTHORITY... ALL THE WORLD MARVELED at this great miracle and they FOLLOWED THE BEAST [the MAN Satan has chosen] IN AWE. They [THE WORLD] WORSHIPED THE DRAGON for giving the Beast such power, and THEY WORSHIPED THE BEAST..." (Rev.13:2-4 NLT).

Long ago in the days of the Tower of Babel, the Beast's name was Nimrod. Men love to worship other men. It goes with the territory of human nature. Even ancient Israel REJECTED THE GOD WHO DELIVERED THEM OUT OF EGYPT, and opted for a MAN to lead them; just like all the other nations and governments around them did:

"...'Give us a king like all the other nations have.' ...Do as they say,' the LORD replied, 'for IT IS ME THEY ARE REJECTING, not you. THEY DON'T WANT ME TO BE THEIR KING ANY LONGER.'" (I Sam.8:5-7 NLT)

Certainly, the Tower of Babel represents man's rejection of his Creator ruling over him. And it represents the typical rejection of all the governments of the world, guided by their god and their blinded and deceived human nature that cries out: "DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, OR HOW TO LIVE!"