Let's Build Ourselves A City

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. ² As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

³ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶ The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.   --from Genesis 11

It's a familiar story most of us have heard from our youth.  Basics in the story seem harmless.  It's about some people who found a desirable location to build a city.  Buildings were to be built with bricks and  tar for mortar. The entire city was planned out, even the building of a tower to reach the heavens.

Perhaps we should insert here, these were the generations of the earth's in habitants following the flood, and there is no doubt these people knew well that God had the power to destroy all living creatures.  Yet their primary mistake is found in their discussion in the middle of verse 4.  They revealed their building plans were motivated by the desire to build a name for themselves. That self-centered plan did not need to continue, and it called for the Triune God to confuse their language.  When they could no longer communicate because of the language barrier, the building stopped.

But there is more here than a story of God confusing the language of a people who were operating outside his will.  We see similar activities in today's churches when we build and inhabit our buildings with the idea of centering everything around our desire to separate ourselves from things not church related.  When that happens, we not only isolate ourselves from the "outside world," we also lose our chance to be salt and light to those who are lost.

We accomplish little when we are salt to the already salted and when we are light to the enlightened.  Our church experience is then described by past successes as we cuddle in the safety of our brick walls.  This leaves the family of God on the inside, while the lost still remain lost on the outside.  Like those building the Tower of Bable, we are operating outside the will of God.

Yes, be salt and light, be an example of faith and love, share the message of the gospel with all.  The key is to continually function as God's people, led by his Spirit, knowing the things we do are for his glory.

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