Have you discovered that when someone says, “I have a quick question”- the answer is going to be pretty long? It seems the most difficult questions start with “why”? Most of us know the story of the Tower of Babel. Mankind united together and built a city and a ziggurat or tower to heaven. God responded by confounding man’s language and driving them away into separate lands and nations. Ok, here it comes… Why? Why did they build a tower? Why was God displeased? We can infer that the building of the tower was a prideful rebellion by those who dismissed and disobeyed God’s command to fill the entire earth, be fruitful and multiply (btw, the first direct command given to mankind in the Bible). God, makes the observation that now, mankind has recognized his power to reject God in a united way. So, in a wonderful act of grace, He confounds their language and disperses them, thus delaying His righteous judgment. The formation of nations was God’s plan from the beginning and a safeguard against tyrannical tendencies of forming a world system without God. We still have “babel” minded, one world government people today! I can assure you they have no room for God in their plans for utopia version 2.0
Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “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, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:1-4 NASB
What rebellion remains in my heart? In what ways am I trying to live my life apart from God? What grace has God shown me?
God- my prayer comes from Psalm 4. Many are saying, “Who will show us any good?”; Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O Lord! You have put gladness in my heart, more than when their grain and new wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.
