Today's Reading:Gen. 11:1-9
"The Tower of Babel"
Focus Verses: Gen. 11:1-9
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.
Insight:
The motivation of those who were building the tower was centered in themselves--"Let's make a name for ourselves." They were trying to preserve the power and strength that comes with numbers, but their motive for strength and power was selfish. As language and dialects diversified and humans spread out and scattered into different regions of the world (languages leading to scattering--scattering leading to more languages), the struggle for power and dominance was scattered too.
God had promised Noah to never destroy mankind again, and now God intervened at Babel to decentralize humanity's power and knowledge (v.5), and slow down the self-destructiveness of "progress" rooted in a selfish grab by a few for control of the many.
The human tendency to selfishly work for power and control over others is alive and well today. It's easily seen in the top news stories of every hour. While the barriers of different languages and cultures are often seen as an obstacle to human potential, I wonder how many times in the course of human history those "barriers" have actually worked to save humanity from itself! How many tyrannical rulers and despotic regimes have ultimately fallen because languages, people groups, and cultures are just too scattered and too complex for any one person or nation to take absolute control?
Response and Action:
I need to be on guard against selfish grabs for power. I do not want to be guided by a desire for control or selfish gain. I want honoring God to be my motivation, not "making a name for myself." I want to serve the best interests of others, not control others to serve my own selfish interests.
O Lord, thank you for all the times you save us from ourselves. Help me, like Jesus, to be willing to lower myself to serve and to save others. Help me to always humble myself before you and to trust that you will lift me up in the times and in the ways that are the best for me, and the most honoring to you. Amen.
Proverb for Today: Prov. 25:6
"Do not exalt yourself in the king's presence, and do not claim a place among great men..."
New Testament for Today: Philippians 2:3,4
3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
In Context: Philippians 2:1-18
Resources:
Genesis: The Story We Haven't Heard
by Paul Carlton Borgman
