05/30/2008
Genesis 11:1 - 9 (HCSB) 1At one time the whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. 2As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3They said to each other, “Come, let us make oven-fired bricks.” They had brick for stone and asphalt for mortar. 4And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5Then the LORD came down to look over the city and the tower that the men were building. 6The LORD said, “If, as one people all having the same language, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7Come, let Us go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. 9Therefore its name is called Babylon, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
As I’ve stated a few times, I have had the opportunity to tour some of the pyramids in Mexico. Chichen Itza is perhaps the most recognizable of the Mayan pyramids because of its state of preservation. There are steps that ascend to the top. I did not climb it. They are very steep and one false step would send you tumbling down jagged stone steps to the ground. What’s remarkable though is that there are pyramids on several continents, not just Egypt and their purposes all appear to relate to metaphysical matters.
The structure believed to have been built at Babylon is frequently called a ziggurat, although we can’t be certain. A ziggurat differs from a pyramid in its construction and shape. Pyramids follow mathematical principles governing the height to width ratio, where ziggurats tend to be more focused on height. But the structure built in Babylon was not built of stone, like the pyramids of Egypt and Central America, and thus over time deteriorated much faster.
Nonetheless, the story of the tower of Babylon is a common one, familiar to most people. And since my youth, I have been intrigued by one nagging question: “What was wrong with building a tower?” Indeed, any architect or engineer would agree that the skyscrapers we have today would dwarf anything that could have been built in that time. So, why was the tower of Babylon a problem?
The answer lies in the purpose it was built. They wanted to build a tower to keep the society centralized, rather than dispersed as God had intended. And I would suggest that their motives drove more towards a human-focused society rather than a God-focused society.
It seems natural for us to try to become the masters of our own fate. And indeed, we should take responsibility for our lives and actions, but we should never forget that it is God that guards our steps. I believe that this early civilization became very humanistic, believing they could achieve for themselves anything they desired and that they needed no help from God. The problem was not their actions—it was their motivation.
The solution, rather than destroying the tower with an earthquake or some other “act of God,” was as simple as confusing their language. Did everyone wake up one morning with a different language, or did their dialects morph over time? Nobody knows, yet the end result is the same. The people chose to abandon the tower and segregate into bands, tribes and clans. The tower, the once mighty symbol of the humanist spirit, was left to crumble all alone.
We need to remember that God is our creator and sustainer. When we make plans that do not center around God and His plan, then we, in effect, are building our own tower—we are becoming our own god.
Are you building any towers in your life? Are you keeping God as the focus of everything you do?
Jeff Justus
Cleff Publishing
www.cleffpublishing.com
©2008 Cleff Publishing, all rights reserved.
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