Is There A Tower of Babel In Your Life?

Is there a Tower of Babel in your life—something that seems so good; something that makes sense to those around you; something that would advance your comfort, security and name?  Remember, what looks good to you may in fact be the enemy of God’s best for you!  Maybe it’s a purchase you are considering, a plan you are making, a relationship you are considering, or…you fill in the blank. Let me encourage you to simply ask, “God, what do you want?” Then, my friend, just do it!

The Journey // Focus: Genesis 11:4

Then they said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.”

“This will make us famous.” “This will keep us from being scattered.” Thank God, God doesn’t always give us what we want! He gives us what he wants, and that is incomparably better for us.

The problem with the Tower of Babel, which on the surface sounded good—unity, achievement, legacy—was that is smacked of human pride (“this will make us famous”) and of flat-out rebellion against God (“this will keep us from getting scattered all over the world.”)

God created man for his own glory, and mankind finds true unity, meaningful achievement, and the only legacy worthy having in bringing glory to the One who created them. God had commanded the human race to multiple and fill the earth in order to manage the creation on behalf of its Creator, and thus in their obedient stewardship of the planet, they would glorify the Creator in the midst of his creation. Babel represents the ultimate middle finger to God: we have a better plan; this is what we want; this is best for us.

Individuals, families, congregations, groups, communities and cultures must take great care that what they perceive as for the good of the whole may in fact be in direct rebellion to the will of the Creator. When what we do brings fame to ourselves and thwarts the will of God—a sin, by the way, which is not always easy to spot, yet more corrosive than all other sin—we have entered the rebellion of Babel.

At times, our rebellion and pride is so strong and so persistent the Creator says, “Ok, go ahead. Your will be done! See how that works out for you.” (see Romans 1:21-24) But at other times, the merciful Creator lovingly steps in and says “no” to our plans. And when he does, he is keeping us from the corrosive sin of pride and rebellion, showing us that his best is better by far than our idea of good.

Thank God when we hear the Divine “no!”

Is there a Tower of Babel in your life—something that seems so good; something that makes sense to those around you; something that would advance your comfort, security and name?  Remember, what looks good to you may in fact be the enemy of God’s best for you!  Maybe it’s a purchase you are considering, a plan you are making, a relationship you are considering, or…you fill in the blank.

Let me encourage you to simply ask, “God, what do you want?” Then, my friend, just do it!