The earliest thing we figured out how do do was to build giant buildings. It is still one of the great things we do. It is a sign of how advanced we are. If we can make something rise up into the sky we are to be honored and feared among men. It is a bench mark of advancement.
So it is no wonder that the first thing we do after the floods subside and the people recreate, is build. In Genesis 11 we learn that the whole earth had one voice. And we also learn that they decide it's time to build something big. We learn that the people know how to make bricks and that they also know how to stack them and make a tower. They say, "come let us build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth."
Now this is Weird thought process but it is tied up in our wrong thinking. We think we can be like God by being impressive.
Now these are some interesting developments. The people are pretty impressive. They can and do build things. They apparently can build these things into the heavens. This is no small feat. People are pretty impressive. They also seem to have a goal in mind. They seem to know there is a God and they desire to build a tower to where He is. Beyond that they also seem to have a fear. They have a fear that they will all be separated. They seem convinced that by building they can ward off separation from each other. Hmmm?
God's reaction to the whole event is equally stunning. The Lord comes down to check out the handy work of the people. He is obviously quite impressed. He says of this project, "Behold they are one people and they have one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing they propose to do will now be impossible for them." This is a stunning moment to say the least. God is aware that man kind has continued to discover the limitless possibilities it has when unified and organized. Remember this is post flood, event one. God is looking at what they have done and He knows that if He does not take action people will do more amazing things to glorify themselves. He knows that they contain unlimited creativity and ability. He knows that they can do whatever they set their mind to. He understands that because they are from Him and yet because they have grown evil from their youth God knows that man kind will do all things and move further away from Him. He can see that there may be no way to reconcile this people if he does not step in and actively thwart what they can do.
So he grabs the rest of Himself ( no really easy way to explain the "us"). He says "come let us go down and there confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech" and we are told this works. As they did not complete the building of the city. They all head off in separate directions as they feared would be the case. It is quite an interesting thing that perhaps needs further thought. Why is their greatest fear that they would be separated from each other. In a world that is defined by its rampant individualism is it not then interesting that the great fear is separation from others. My guess is that is still the great fear disguised as self reliance but rooted in the fear of being alone. Stunning that most of us stumble because we seek approval of man. Alone we don't do much one way or the other.
We can see the inherent problem with mankind. Those all around us who would argue they can do great things without God are not liars. This is not a secret to God. He recognized this aspect of us even from the beginning. What He has always known is that we are impressive. He did make us after all. But He also understood right from the beginning that everything we do is driven by our desire to be great. It is economics 101. It all works because we act in self interest. When we all work in our own self interest we will be led to create and do things that will benefit all. And God knew this from the earliest moments. He knew that if He was not going to destroy us again that He would have to act to split us into smaller groups. As a fragmented people it would take us longer to re organize and create things apart from Him. All of this to show His perfect plan and mercy.
See we don't need God in order to be impressive. We need God because apart from Him there is no good. Apart from Him there is no light. The truth is that all the impressive things we do leave us trapped in dark. We cannot find good when we have created fake good in the dark. When God set about creation everything He made was good. From that point on all things that we have made are super cool and down right amazing. So amazing in fact that even God can see it. But nothing we have made is good. It is just a fact. We conspire to do evil. There is no escaping that truth.
The mercy of God is that He loves us. He has made a way. He has caused confusion and delay. And He is using this time to tenderize our hearts. He wants us to know that being impressive is not the same as being good. It is the one thing we consistently get wrong. We can build some cool stuff. We can even fight for worthy causes. But all the cool stuff in the world will not rescue us from the dark. We don't need the light to accomplish cool things. We need the light because in the light is God. At the end of the day that is reason enough. We don't need to build towers to the heavens when we are in the light. We don't need to reach God. He is already here, in the light.
