Genesis 11:1-4. 1Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4Then 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.”
Genesis 11 tells the story of the Tower of Babel. Have you ever heard this story before? It’s the story of how people came together after the flood and decided to build a city and a tower that reached to the heavens. Why did they want to do this? So that they could make a name for themselves. That means that they wanted to be famous. They wanted to be important. They wanted to be able to brag about how great they were.
One of the big questions after the flood is how will people treat each other? Before the flood, people became very wicked and mean. But now after the flood, people will only love God and love each other…right? Nope. Remember what God said back in Genesis 8:21 – “every intention in people’s hearts is evil from their youth” (8:21).
What the tower of Babel story shows us is that people still have a big problem with pride. Pride is the original sin. The sin of Lucifer. “I will be like the Most High,” he cried from Heaven before God kicked him out. And now these lowly humans are crying the same thing – Let us make a name for ourselves. Rather than worshiping God, they will break free from God and raise themselves up to Heaven in their skyscraper.
But this is never God’s will. We don’t climb up to God, God always comes down to us.
God’s good gifts also come down to us from him. This includes the gift of science and technology. At the Tower of Babel, they invented bricks. God gave us smart brains that can figure out how to make things, and build things, including towers. The problem comes when we use science and technology to replace God. Look at what God says about their invention:
Genesis 11:6. 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.
“Nothing will be impossible for them.”
And that’s not a good thing. Why? Because often the more we can accomplish or invent, the more technology we build, the more prideful we become. Now, this does not mean that God hates science and technology. Like we said, it is a gift from God. But the story of the Tower of Babel is a big lesson for us. What is the lesson?
The lesson is that it is way more important to trust God and worship God than it is to build or invent new things. Caring about other people is also way more important than building big buildings, or spaceships, or cool apps for your phone. Think for a second about all the new technology that you can get just on a smart phone. But does it make us better or worse at being kind? Does it increase our pride or does it make us more humble? I think we all know the answer, don’t we?
With Jesus we don’t have to build “towers” for our own glory. We don’t have to make a name for ourselves. Jesus has given us his name. That means we don’t have to do everything we CAN do, but we should do what makes others able to know God and trust him too.
Questions: What are some things you do in order to be noticed by others? How does Jesus’ love keep us from having to do everything in order to look good to others (pride)?
TLICfamily 