The Tower of Babel (Genesis 10-11)

"The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them."
-Genesis 11:6
      Today we studied chapters ten and eleven, but we mainly focused on the story of the tower of Babel. After the flood, Noah's descendants begin to live on the Earth and repopulate it. Some years go by, and the people begin to forget about God again. They decide that they want to build a tower that is so tall that it reaches the heavens. The reason they decided to build this tower is so that they could make a name for themselves and not be scattered over the Earth. God is displeased by this decision to build a tower so He confuses the people by giving them different languages.
      This is a well known story, but there are lessons to be learned from it. The people built this tower because they wanted to have a sense of pride and security. They felt that by building this huge tower that they would be powerful. We can see that God disapproves of this building because they made it out of pride and to glorify themselves. Man was not made to honor himself, but to honor God. A man is made in God's image, and therefore should strive to glorify God. As soon as someone starts to do things to build up themselves, they go against their purpose.
      We should be very careful and examine our motives. I mentioned this before, but it is crucial to our lives. These people making this tower thought that they were doing a good thing; making a name for themselves and unifying the people. They thought this tower was something that could save them and strengthen them. Let's be clear, nothing a man builds from his hands will ever be enough to save him. People eventually die, and they can do nothing to stop that. People also can do nothing to earn their way into heaven, the only thing they can do is accept Jesus and have faith in Him.
      Another thing I noticed in this passage is the remarkable thing that God says. He says that "nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them." In other words, because the people were one, and they all spoke the same language, they could do great things. As I have written in my last post, unity is a powerful thing. As seen in this passage though, it can be used for the wrong things. These people worked together to glorify themselves rather than God. We should work together to honor God and spread the gospel to the ends of the Earth. Imagine if the whole world came together and sang a song of praise to God, and how amazing that would be. I pray that we could learn to work together to praise God forever.
-Smart