Last 5 Days
Pride goes before a fall
1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
If you have been following the story of Genesis so far, you will realise how pervasive sin is. What started to be the fall of one man and one woman in Genesis chapter 3, has evolved to become the sin of an entire race. In verse 1, “migrated from the east” was not a simple shift in geographical location for the people, but the deeper theological meaning of moving away from God. Man was driven out of the garden of Eden and the cherubim was placed at the east of the garden of Eden to guard the tree of life. (Gen3:24). Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. (Gen 4:16). Later in Genesis 13:11, we see Lot journeyed east, separating himself from Abraham which led to sin. Journeying eastward connotes moving away from the presence of God and conclusively falling into sin.
What plans did the people have this time? At that time, men had mastered the sophisticated technology of brick making and they were ready to showcase their impressive mastery. They wanted to build a tower and a city. A tower, with its top in heaven, was meant to be seen from afar, and the bible tells us that they wanted to build a name for themselves. They did not just want to build a tower, but also a city for themselves, which posed as the other problem. The problem here was not with the desire to build a city, but with their intent. The bible tells us that they did not want to be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. God’s first command was for mankind to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen 1:28), but here, man disobeyed God with the intention of consolidation rather than dispersal. The pride of man has has caused them to choose to live their lives apart from God’s intention.
In order to prevent men from falling into the sin of pride, God had to come down to inspect and intervene in the works of men. Realise the sarcasm of the author when he mentioned that God came down to see the city and the tower? The tower was not tall enough to reach God, and God had to come down to view it after all. Men often think so highly of ourselves that we forget that we are only the created beings. In every generation of technological or scientific breakthrough, we over magnify ourselves thinking we can be like God. We deny God’s presence or His sovereignty and desire to do things our way. We become prideful in thinking that we can do things without Him. We move eastward away from Him. We disobey Him and that is when the problem of sin spirals out of control. Like the good old saying, pride goes before a fall, the people at the tower of babel attempted to reach God with their prideful means and desired to consolidate themselves, but in the end, they were dispersed by God through the confusion of their language.
Just as we know that it was impossible for men to reach God through brick and mortar during the time of Babel, it continues to be impossible to reach Him today with the achievement men boast of. We have learn to fly and learn to automate. We have put a man on the moon and are now venturing to live on Mars. We have a telescope that can see into the depth of the universe or a microscope that ventures into the depth of the skin. We have the ability to alter human genomes and recreate artificial human intelligence. All the successes that man have done with their hands should not be undermined, for they are wonderful creations. However, all that had been done with human hands are nothing but brick and mortar that will not help us reach God or be like God.
My dear friends, technological and scientific advances will help us come to be aware of a mighty Creator, but it will not solve the deep problems of sin. Only Christ has the means to resolve the problem of sin with His blood on the cross. My dear friends, when David wrote in Psalm 51, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise", it meant that we ought to humble ourselves and return to Him. Come to the Lord and acknowledge that we need the hands of the mighty God, and apart from Him, we are nothing. Would you come to Him in humility?
