Noah, obeying God, did a great thing in building the Ark and saving mankind and the animals.

At Babel, men united apart from God, attempted a big thing, but were opposed and prevented by God.

Great things are possible when working with God. Working apart from God, however, will result in ultimate failure.

"And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. ( 6 ) 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. ( 7 ) Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. ( 8 ) So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. ( 9 ) 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." Genesis 11:5-9