Genesis 10-11

The section I read late last night consists mostly of the family tree for Noah and his sons. In the middle of this we get a interesting story of one of his descendants. It is another well known story that we have come to know as the Tower of Babel. 

I had always thought of this story as another case of humanity doing something it should not and God stepping in to stop them. Before re-reading this story I would have summarized it as the people trying to build up and get to heaven. God hears of this and stops them by making it so they can not communicate by changing their languages. 

This is similar, but seems to be wrong as I look at this. What we see is the people start making bricks as they move out and fill the earth as commanded. They do this instead of using stone. So they start building a city and have a large tower in it to reach the heavens. What struck me as very different is the response God has. God sees it and realizes that people can accomplish anything now. God then states to himself (with a let us) that they should confuse the language. 

This is a story to help explain how people began to speak different languages. It is a myth to help explain how we came to have different languages. The part that perplexes me is that God is more concerned with how productive the people have become. Why would God be concerned about this? It does not make sense in this light. 

The only way I can understand this story right now is to see it as myth and an explanation of a situation on Earth.