Do you ever notice that it is the
things that remind you of yourself that can annoy you about other people? I remember a guy visiting our last church who
was something of a hot shot in certain Christian circles. I didn’t like him. You see, he didn’t make much of me. He didn’t see me as a hot shot and made no
fuss to talk to me. So, I wrote him off
as arrogant.
Why was I so aware of his
arrogance? I was aware of his arrogance
because it surfaced my arrogance. I
disliked the fact that he acted like someone important, because I wanted him to
treat me as someone important. His pride
merely surfaced my pride.
We like to pretend that we are
humble. We are too cunning to tell you
how great we think that we are, because we don’t want to appear proud. But we would love other people to do our
boasting for us. In fact, boastful
people annoy us because it is really foolish to be so obviously into
yourself. We would promote ourselves much
more subtly!
This morning’s passage focuses on
God’s judgement of human arrogance. If
you think that you don’t have a problem with pride, then you are probably far
more arrogant than you realise. You
think struggling with pride is for lesser people than you. This is a struggle we all have.
Proud
people think they are like God
Now
the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain
in Shinar (in modern Iraq) and
settled there. They said to each other,
“come let us make …” (1-3). The
words that they say echo the words of God in creation. He, too, had said, ‘come let us make’ (1:26). Humankind was not content to simply be made
in the image of God. In our pride we
aspire to be God.
They wanted to make a name for
themselves. In other words, they were
living for human approval. When we live
for people’s praise, we become very vulnerable.
We have given them the keys to our happiness. They now have the power to destroy us with
their criticism. In fact, when we live
for people’s approval, we can’t even take constructive criticism. Rather than demanding that people make much
of us, we should desire that they see the beauty of Christ. Rather than seeking the praise of people, we
should be living for the approval of God.
Isn’t it amazing that the Lord of
heaven and earth could be pleased with sinful and broken people like us? I don’t think that I ever do anything with a
completely pure motive, but when we step out for God Jesus breaths grace over
the weeds that are our stained efforts and they are presented to God with the
scent of roses. Jesus makes our
imperfect obedience beautiful in the eyes of the Father.
Live for the praise of people and
you will be disappointed. They are far
too obsessed with themselves to be obsessed with you. They may be jealous of your success. They may even see you as a rival. But God sees us as dearly loved children, and
he enjoys singing over us. Don’t seek
your significance in the eyes of people, see that God has given you eternal
significance.
Cautious
people are in danger of avoiding our great commission
The people wanted to make a name
for themselves, and they also wanted security.
They wanted to cluster together behind city walls. But God had commissioned them (both before
and after the flood) to ‘go and fill the earth’ (9:1). In chapter ten it looks like that is what
they have done. But these two chapters
are not in chronological order. Chapter
eleven describes events before chapter ten.
It explains that the only reason that the people spread out was because
God scattered them. Their desire for
security stopped them from obeying the commands of God.
Where is our security based? If your security is in our bank account, you
will never be sacrificially generous. If
your security is in people’s acceptance, you will never be brave. If your security is in comfort, you will
never be adventurous. Jesus promised a
strange sort of security: ‘You will be delivered up even by parents and
brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s
sake. But not a hair of your head will
perish. By your endurance you will gain
your lives’ (Luke 21:16-19). You may face
bodily harm and hatred for being a Christian, but no-one can harm your soul!
We have a great commission to
take the make disciples of all nations.
That may involve praying for missions and giving. That may involve being prepared to go
overseas or encouraging our children to go overseas. It certainly involves breaking down the walls
of racial hostility, being all things for all people, making cross-cultural
friends, and praying for the opportunities to speak about the hope that we have
in Christ. It certainly doesn’t call us
to huddle together behind the proverbial city walls!
Even
great human achievements are small in God’s sight
Back to pride! When we live to make a name for ourselves our
world becomes terrible small.
But
the Lord came down to see the city and tower that the children of man had built
(5). There is a beautiful irony
here. They had built a tower to reach to
the heavens, but it is so relatively minuscule, that God needed to come down to
see it. I doubt that the omnipotent God of
all wisdom and understanding is all that impressed by how bright you or your
children are. I doubt that the God who created
every person on the planet, and who will rightly receive the worship of an
uncountable multitude, is all that impressed by how many Facebook friends you
have. I think he cares a lot more about
the state of our heart than about any degrees or trophies or plaudits we can
gather. When he does a work in our heart
it soars to heaven, but when we try to make a name for ourselves, he has to
come down from heaven if he is to see it.
Christ
will one day bring an end to human arrogance
There is a deadly serious lesson
to be learned from this passage. 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” (6).
Genesis has repeatedly reminded us of the wickedness of the human
heart. Think of the potential for harm
when millions of human beings unite together under a godless ideology or
leader. ‘Just as democracy is a check on
the abuse of power, so is the multiplicity of language groups’ (Tinker). Do totalitarian regimes produce religious
liberty and human flourishing? Look at
the millions that were killed in the Soviet Union! The European Union has done some undoubted
good, but let’s pray it doesn’t push a godless social agenda on us! Even in our own little country the power that
be, and the media, want us all to think with one accord.
The word translated Babel [which
in Hebrew sounds like ‘confused’] is generally translated Babylon in the rest
of the Bible. In the book of Revelation,
a new Babylon pictures humanity in united hostility against God. For a brief season Babylon will be drunk on
the blood of Christian martyrs (Revelation 17:6). However, that rebellion will be stopped with
a breath from Christ (2 Thess. 2:8). The
story of Babel in Genesis foreshadows the judgement on the last Babylon! When Christ comes, those who have lived for
the praise of people and the security of this world will realise then how
foolish they have been! When we boast
and seek to make a name for ourselves, we are aligning our hearts with an
attitude that is fundamentally anti-God.
God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. May God’s grace and kindness humble us, and
let us be glad to be what we are, however he has formed us.
Conclusion:
I want to finish by telling you
how kind, clever and beautiful our God is.
He is kind because he confused
the languages and scattered the people in order to curb human evil. Humankind is simply too evil to be allowed
have one language and one government. So
often anti-Christian states have sought to crush those who stand for Christ.
He is clever, because he knows
that confusing the languages will actually help the spread of the gospel. That might not make sense if you are learning
a language with the intention of speaking about Jesus to people from other
cultures. But the fact that a united
humanity would seek to crush the church means that diversity of language actually
helps missions.
And he is beautiful. Christ is going to save people from every
language group. If you don’t like
‘foreigners’ or people who speak a different language or have different
customs, then you are not going to like heaven.
What beautiful diversity we are going to witness in heaven as people from
every tribe and language and people and nation sing in their own tongue:
‘salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb!’ (Rev.
7:9-10).
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