The ark has been offloaded. Noah’s kids had kids and their kids had kids
and they are spreading out upon the earth as this populating process continues. We can presume that the animal kingdom did
the same though there is no genealogy
listed for them. This might have only
taken a single chapter in Genesis, but much time has surely elapsed since Noah
hit the beach.
From that beachhead, some went to the
east and decided that they would remain where they were and build a
tower. Others had built cities but they
would build a tower that reached to the heavens. They would put their mark upon the world in
this feat of engineering and labor.
They would make a name for
themselves. Why should Nimrod be the
only person with a claim to fame? He
might be a mighty hunter and a great warrior, but he didn’t have a tower that
reached to the heavens.
Perhaps the tower was in concert with
Nimrod’s desire for greatness; perhaps not. In any case, no such feat had been
attempted in recorded history. The
tallest man-made structure up to this point was probably the ark towering about
50 feet above the ground when ashore.
The height of the Tower of Babel is
estimated to have been about one hundred meters or so—that’s 300 plus feet
above the ground. These are
estimates. The tower stands no more and
surely was incomplete at the time when the language of men was confused.
Are there any remains of the
tower? Perhaps, but this was a land
where tower building became popular at some point. The ziggurat—or terraced tower—become the
model for all subdivisions. These were
more like pyramids than towers. When
people think of towers, the Leaning Tower of Pisa comes to mind for many.
These ziggurats were more like
pyramids with terraced patios.
Architecture was not at the heart of what
prompted God to confuse the language of humankind. What was it?
Did God think that these people could
build a tower to heaven? I doubt
it. While their construction was surely
impressive; reaching God was not their objective.
They wanted to make a name for
themselves. This was not something
constructed to the glory of God. It was
built out of the human desire to be our own god.
Pleasing God and bringing glory to him
was not on their to-do list. Bringing
glory to themselves seemed to be the objective.
The rest of the world was spreading
out to the four winds. That part seemed
in accord with God’s direction to fill the earth. These people who were involved in the tower
project wanted to go against the directions of God.
They wanted a name for themselves,
thus they would build a city with this impressive tower. They were probably a
group of narcissists. They managed some teamwork and went from it’s all
about me to it’s all about us.
Apparently, they were good at what
they did.
What difference did that make? What’s one tower built by a collection of narcissists?
Did it really make any difference?
Do you remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs? Did we have to get rid of that in
Woke America or can we still use that? I
don’t subscribe to the politically correct channel so I don’t know.
I thought when we changed all the
names of those sports teams and took a picture of a black woman off of a syrup
bottle world peace had broken out everywhere.
Enough digressing—I had not used my
full quota of sarcasm allotted for 2022 and the year is running out. And I can’t carry it over to the next
year. It’s use it or lose it.
Back to Maslow. He builds a pyramid with basic physical needs
as the base—air, food, water, and the like. The next level is safety—that’s
more than safety from others, but includes things like employment, resources,
health, and the like.
Then comes love and
belonging—friendships, love, intimacy.
Above that is esteem—confidence, mutual respect, achievement, and others.
Finally, at the top of the pyramid
comes self-actualization—morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem-solving,
acceptance of facts, and other advanced skills.
It’s the be all that you can be
thing. It’s the live life to the full
concept. It’s realizing your full
potential as a person.
It’s the gestalt effect. The whole is greater than the sum of all of
the parts. That sounds good. That sounds like something we would all like
to realize.
The problem was that these people were
moving towards that without God. What
kind of morality do you have without the One who is good and says what is good
and what is evil?
What good is creativity if is only
serves yourself?
What good is problem-solving if it
doesn’t consider all factors—especially how a solution may not consider those
Jesus would later call the least of these my brothers and sisters?
When you are very successful in the land
of it’s all about me, you are moving away from bringing glory to God.
But the Lord came down to see the city
and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people
speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan
to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their
language so they will not understand each other.”
We have seen this sort of intervention before.
Do you remember? This came after Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The Lord God made garments of skin for
Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “The man has now
become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach
out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So
the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which
he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of
the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to
guard the way to the tree of life.
Let’s think about our ongoing
struggle. We wrestle with a sinful
nature and we have God-given free will.
We get to choose.
Let’s think on being made in the image
and likeness of God. God is all-knowing and creative. We hunger for knowledge and we like to
create. It’s in our nature. It’s in our
God-given nature.
Let’s think about God and his
goodness. We want to be like God. We want that divine heart. We want to be loving and generous, forgiving
and full of love, but sometimes our sinful nature wants us to be God instead of
being like God in his many attributes.
Being like God—or as Paul would phrase
it—being imitators of God—is a good model.
Desiring to be God comes from
surrendering to our sinful nature. Think
a few millennia forward from this tower to the time of Jesus.
Then Jesus said to his disciples,
“Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of
heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
When money, power, wealth, achievement, and other things of this world give you all that your desire, then your desire
for God and the things of God are subordinated or altogether forgotten.
Whether you make your own god or feel
like you have become your own god, then the reality of God is lost to
you. You are blind to the truth.
You will call good evil and evil good, and it will make sense to you.
You will be clever—wise—in your own mind, but make no mistake, you will have
been deceived.
The world will reach this point at
some point. Many people think that time
is upon us, but so did the first-century apostles.
But the story of God’s relationship
with humankind would not
be accelerated by the acts of men.
Humankind would be given a chance to be redeemed from sin and reconciled
to God by the blood of Jesus.
The self-actualization of humankind is
a good thing. It is living
life to the full, but if it is void of bringing glory to God, it is
deception. It is narcissistic. It is a
harmful drug that moves us away from the goodness of God.
God tells us to make it all about him and he will give us life so full, it will
overwhelm us.
So if you want to build a tower, build it to the glory of God and make it the best tower that you can.
If you want to be the best football
player on the planet, do it to the glory of God and be that player.
You want to be the person who cures
cancer, then cure it
to the glory of God.
When I preach the Parable of the Talents, I usually ask this question. What did I do with what God gave me? My hope is that it will help motivate you to
put your God-given gifts and talents to work and that you will produce fruit
for the kingdom of God and the body of Christ.
Today, I ask you why? Why do I want to use the gifts, talents, and
resources that God gave me? If it is to
make a name for yourself, then be careful.
If it is to bring glory to God, then go
for it with reckless abandon that only one who seeks to please God can know.
If you are building a tower to make a
name for yourself, stop.
If you are doing something for the
glory of God, become unstoppable. It is the Lord, God whom we serve. Let us do everything to the glory of God.
The rest of this chapter gets us to
Abraham, which is where we will begin next week.
Amen.
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