SCRIPTURE: Genesis 10-11
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Another list of names. The human population is being fruit, multiplying and filling the earth, just like God intended (Genesis 1:28). But sinful human nature spreads with them, including pride and greed and lust and violence. No matter where people go, they take themselves and their nature with them. There is no escaping the problem of sin in our hearts.
The tower of Babel is an illustration of this. God is restraining and directing the effects of sin in order to bring about His kingdom restoration. He does not stop sin (we remain free to choose, and we choose sin), but He does limit and direct its consequences. Here, where sinful pride seeks to establish its own kingdom (centered in this religious tower, symbolizing the conquest of the heavens), God allows the division of pride to unravel what they are trying to do. The babel is not just a multiplication of languages, but the division and confusion of pride, people taking sides, misunderstanding and acrimony. We see this babel occurring in all great ventures, including religious (even Christian) ones.
We are so full of ourselves. While these lists ought to humble us – we are just a name on a list – yet we act as if our existence is all that! God is the one constant, and our confidence should be in Him. We need the wisdom of Moses who prays, “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).
God does not want us to feel small, He just wants us to realize our proper place before Him. This tower symbolizes the folly of pride, and its result is division, conflict, brokenness.
There is a real danger for Christians to get sidetracked as they experience success in their ministries. How many Christian ministries have crumbled and divided because the bigger and more successful they became, the more it began to center on themselves and their programs. God can use our efforts, but He will also thwart our pride and sometimes allow our efforts to crash, so that we can get our focus back on Him.
PRAYER:
Lord, keep me from getting so focused on buildings and programs that I lose sight of my dependence on You. Humble me, then lift me up in You!
When I read this passage, I am led to see the vision God had for the sons of Noah to spread themselves out amongst the earth was not what Ham’s generation embraced.
In verse 4, it reads “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth”
This is where in chapter 10, the generations of Ham and in particular, possibly the great hunter Nimrod, established themselves.
So the Lord intervenes, breaks them up and “scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth”v9. One way or another God’s will was to be accomplished.
I must be reminded of this again and again. Ultimately God’s will will be accomplished. I can be a part of it and enjoy His blessings or I can fight against it and gather trouble to myself and my family.
LORD, once again we read of a fresh start, a new beginning but all is not well with their souls…. We cannot run from our human, sinful nature; it goes with us everywhere we go waiting for a chance to rise up and lead us astray. Again it is revealed to us the importance of keeping You in the centre of every area of our lives – our thoughts, our heart, our work, our play….. LORD, even during our times of worship to You when it should be all about You our humanness rises up making it about our styles of worship, the songs we like to sing, the scriptures we want to hear, the messaages we desire (ones that keep us feeling okay with our lives NOT challenging us to surrender and live for You). We want to be comfortable, to feel good about ourselves, to fill our own desires. Forgive us LORD. Perhaps this is why our churches are filled with such divisions – we have made towers of babel, making it about us NOT You. Do we draw attention to ourselves or do our worship services make You the focus, bringing glory and honour to You. Is Christ our identity or are we known for the man made things we have built into our denominations?
What identity am I building for myself? Is my identity found in Christ 24/7? Can people recognize that I am a Jesus follower? LORD, tear down any towers that I have been building in my life. Expose the ugliness of pride and selfish desires that hinder my relationship with You. Forgive me for the things I have made about myself rather than You. I want to speak and live the language of a Jesus follower. LORD, I pray that Your will be done in my life.
After the flood, a new beginning, man was fruitful and multiplied as we see in the genealogy. But once again, man becomes great in his own eyes and forgets his Maker. His glory/power/reknown becomes what his hands have created. See what I have done. He forgets the upward look – his relationship to His Creator God. He is all puffed up and becomes his own god, forgetting whose world he lives in and his purpose for living. He goes contrary to the Word of the Lord. He becomes confused and muddles his daily affairs. The tower was once again a new beginning because man became self reliant – I can do all things in my own power – NOT.Once again the Lord puts man on the right track.
Lord, give me eyes that see You, and ears that hear Your voice which daily say, this is the Way. Walk in it.
Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.
Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.
Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.