build - The Tower

verses:  Genesis 11:4, Genesis 11:5, Genesis 11:8

image source

If you ever attended Sunday School you probably already know this story, even if you didn't chances are good you have heard it before.  The Tower of Babel, a monument to what man can accomplish on their own, an expression of self-worship.  A big ol' billboard that screams, "We don't need you God!"

Genesis 11:4 tells us that it was built so that man could "make a name" for themselves and so they wouldn't be "scattered over the face of the whole earth".  Hmmm....didn't God instruct for them to do just the opposite?  Genesis 9:1 says that God told Noah and his sons to, "increase in number and fill the earth".

Remember that this is one of the cities built by Nimrod, and this is the city that falls in Revelation.  It is no wonder that we see this city as the site of man's arrogance.   What were they thinking?  Josephus wrote that, "He (Nimrod) also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to reach."  (Antiquities of the Jews [Book I, Chapter IV])  So the tower was built in defiance of God, as if man could out do Him.  

God seems to get curious as to what we are doing down here though, and comes to check it out, Genesis 11:5.  Don't think that He didn't know what was going on, He is omniscient after all!  Perhaps He was looking for some people who still had reverence for Him, perhaps He wanted to re-establish His presence with these people.  I don't know.  What is interesting to point out is that man's efforts were to reach the heavens, and yet even our combined efforts were so far beneath God that he had to come DOWN to view them.  While I don't know why He chose to come down, I do know that our efforts displeased Him and led to our own disunity.

You see, before this time we were able to work together, we could share our knowledge, God still allowed us to be a part of the whole of humanity.  When once before we walked with Him, He had allowed us to continue walking with each other.  Unfortunately we quit trying to walk with Him and started focusing on ourselves instead.  God recognized that this would lead to a total separation from Him, that it was a path to destruction.  Rather than stand by and let us walk that road easily, He stepped in and "confused" our language.  When we could no longer work together to conspire against Him, we quickly realized that the path we were on was not the one we should be and we abandoned the project, and did what we were supposed to do in the first place, spread out and filled the earth.

This building of a tower was more than just a physical construct, it was a religious one as well.  Man was trying to rise above God, and to do it without God.  Most false religions can be traced back to this one point, this one place.  While not the beginning our our straying from our Creator, this is the first instance where we decide to make a name for ourselves, to consciously proceed without Him.  It is a path that mankind is still on.  

Even today we strive to be known in and of ourselves.  We want to feel as if our efforts will be remembered by mankind, or at least recognized today.  "Look at me!  Look at me!"  we seem to scream, when what we should be saying is "Check Him out!".  You see, while the builders may have been the laborers, the building was impossible without God.  He provided the materials, He provided the knowledge, He provided the strength....He still does today.  When we forget that and begin to think it is our efforts that should be recognized we too will become confused when they fail to bring about the desired results.  In the end, God gets the glory.  Period.  Whether in this life or the next we will all have to recognize that, and give Him what He is due.