today's tower of Babel

Genesis 11

v4

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top [may reach] unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

This is an interesting verse with a lot in it. they were going to build themselves something (Psalm 127:1). They were going to try to prevent what the Lord was going to do with scattering them (Psalm 2:1-5).

Them building that city reminds me of how people build Church buildings and organizations that are corporations. They were going to build a very high tower, and that reminds me of Church steeples. They were going to make themselves a name, so they wouldn't be scattered all over the place.

So many Church gatherings have names today, and they may think they took those names for noble-sounding reasons: If we have a certain place with a name on it, then people will know where we are, and we will be able to maintain an identity. But when they were doing things to try to prevent God from scattering them, those very things precipitated the thing that they were trying to prevent God from doing.

v5

And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

It was called ...the city and the tower which the children of men... built. That reminds me so much of our own good works and the worldly religions. They are mankind's way of trying to reach up to heaven, and up to God (v4 whose top may reach unto heaven.) We fall short in our sin (Romans 3:23), because we can never reach Him ourselves (Isaiah 59:1,2). The only way we can be saved is Him reaching down to us (Romans 10:6-9), and that is what Jesus is.

We cannot reach up to God by our own righteousness. But God's Son Jesus is like God's hand reaching down to us sinful people, to bring us up to Himself (John 15:16, 1 John 4:19). He loves us, so He promised that He would show us the path of life, to be in His presence (Psalm 16:11). Jesus showed that He is that way and that life (John 14:6).