Making A Name

Let's go back - way, way back - to the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. It is so fascinatingly placed! Before it is the Garden of Eden (God comes down to establish a covenant), then Sin, then The Flood. Right after it is God coming down to make a covenant with Abraham that would effect us all. That's a 500 year jump between Noah and Abraham, and all we get in between is Genesis 11. Most of that is genealogies. 

But there is this 9 verse event laid out. Somewhere between those two great men was an attempt by the people to build a large tower and make a name for themselves. God was not pleased and He scattered them. But what in the world is that story about? What is it designed to teach us? I think the answer to those questions is vital today.

Special thanks to Christianity Today magazine, and an article called "Babel's Invitation" by John Walton for the historical information behind this episode. I hope you find it useful in how you commune with God, on whose Terms, and for what Purpose. 

- What was the problem with the Tower of Babel and it's construction?

- If they were trying to get God to come down to them, what's wrong with that?

- Why are we so drawn to creating our own terms for communion with the Lord?

- If our relationship with God is transactional, how is that doomed to fail?

- Why is the end game to be God's Glory, and how can that be a challenge for us?

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the Excel Still More podcast. I am your host, Chris Emerson. I'm here to encourage you in your walk with God. Thank you for joining in. Today's podcast is sponsored by a wonderful company, Creation to Revelation. This group of Christians believe it is extremely important that we teach the Word of God to our kids. They have original graphic illustrations from the beginning of the Bible to the end, featuring the beautiful and consistent presence of Jesus throughout. You can explore all of that at Creation to Revelation.com. I'm so thankful you're here, so let's get started. I hope things are going really well for you. I'm excited today to turn your attention back to an Old Testament story that we both probably know quite well. It's just so interestingly placed and intriguing. And in the end, for me at least, it has some powerful implications that relate to your life on an individual level as it relates to God, and even some things that relate to the church with which you choose to affiliate and worship and work. By the way, I know this is a little bit out of the box, and I really hope you enjoy it. A couple of times a year we turn our attention back to some interesting Old Testament story to try to figure out what is that thing really about? Why did the author place it there? And of course, how can I use it in my modern walk with the same God that they served even back then? The example that comes to mind to show that we've done this before is the episode from last year where Jacob was wrestling with God. And I got a lot of good feedback on that, and I've wanted to do this a bit more often. So the story of interest today is found in Genesis chapter 11. It is only nine verses in length, and I will read that for you in just a bit. I'm talking about the Tower of Babel. You're familiar with that, right? Where they all spoke the same language and they decided to build this tower, and God came down and confused their language, and they all headed in different directions. There are a couple of usual common takes that we have on that story that I'd like to challenge just a little bit today. And then, as I said, I have a few connections I would like for you to consider. Let me start out by giving credit where it is due. I subscribe to a magazine called Christianity Today, like a literal paper magazine that comes in my mailbox once a month. Maybe it's a nostalgia thing, but I just enjoy the feel of turning pages. Anyway, necessary disclaimer, this is not an ad for the magazine Christianity Today. It has articles from people of all different theologies related to Christ, and I just kind of find the variety interesting. In the March edition that just showed up at the house, there is an article on the Tower of Babel that begins on page 73, just in case you have the magazine or have access to it. It was written by a man that I am absolutely certain knows more about Old Testament history and culture than I do. His name is John Walton. He is a professor of the Old Testament at Wheaton College and the author of a whole bunch of books. As it pertains to this particular story, he did his doctoral dissertation on the Tower of Babel. And so I at least thought this guy was worth a five-page read. What you will get over the next 15 minutes is a combination of the thoughts introduced in that article, as well as the results of my own personal study and some things that I really wanted to toss in. So maybe I should apologize up front for the diluting impact of my information in the episode. But particularly on the back end, I'm all about what do we do with it and how does it improve our walk. And I think this story can do a lot for you. Before I read it in my chosen version for the day, the New Living Translation, let me speak a minute about how fascinating it is in terms of where this story is placed in the book of Genesis. So just before it, in chapters 6 through 10, is the story of Noah and the Ark and the flood, where God baptizes and purifies the earth and brings it forth new. As I said, that concludes in chapter 10. If you jump to chapter 12, you have just moved forward in time about 500 years from Noah to Abraham. Chapter 12 is extremely significant as God comes down to Abraham and establishes a covenant with him that would dictate the future of the Hebrew nation and ultimately bring blessings to all of us in Jesus. In between is chapter 11, which mainly consists of a genealogy that takes us from Noah's son Shem all the way down to Abraham in the beginning of the Hebrew nation. Somewhere around the middle of that 500-year gap between Noah and Abraham, the people gathered in the region of Shannar and built a huge tower. I find it so incredible to think of how many things must have happened over five centuries, and we get one nine verse story. I want to dig in today with you on why that is. So let me read it for you. Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They used brick instead of stone and tar for mortar. Then they said, Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves, otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth. But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, If as one people speaking the same language they had begun to do this, then nothing they planned to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand each other. So the Lord scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. 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. Okay, so let's start with this. What is that story about? What is it designed to teach us? I think there are a few traditional ideas that I've heard most of my life, and maybe you have as well. Basically, they are a warning against overreaching pride and direct disobedience. I mean, we already know those things are wrong, and so we can go back and say this story illustrates that. It is argued by some on the pride side that they are attempting to build a tower that reaches up into the heavens. Maybe they are actually trying to, of their own power, build their own access to heaven. Like maybe they wanted to knock on God's door and see what he was having for breakfast to show that they are equal to him. If that is what they're trying to do, it's foolish and it's wrong. I'm not sure that's the case here. In fact, if they were trying to build a tower all the way to heaven, all God had to do was wait them out and it would have fallen over eventually. A second common argument is that they're just disobeying the will of God. Back in Genesis chapter 1, they were told to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and these guys don't want to fill the earth. They want to stay in one location. So to me, the first point about pride has a lot of merit, I think, but this one maybe a little less so. I mean, eventually, again, if God just waits them out, there's so many of them that they end up scattering anyway. And if you and your family wanted to stay in one place, and you hadn't been told explicitly by God, like Abraham was to leave, I'm not so sure that would be categorized as direct disobedience. So to be clear, I'm not saying that pride and disobedience aren't a problem here. I mean, clearly God is displeased with what they're doing. But maybe there is another explanation than just saying they're trying to make themselves equal to God to make their own name great, or they're just outright defying his will. We also use this story a lot, like a lot, lot, to talk about communication and marriage and being on the same page and all that stuff, which it is also useful for, just maybe in a secondary fashion. So let me introduce some historical details consistent with that time and area based on the research of John Walton, and then maybe take another look at what the mistakes were that these people were making. It's very clear that they wanted to make a name for themselves, which is clearly not good, but maybe not in the way that we thought before. So in the centuries surrounding that region in time, there was a lot of idolatry. There were temples that man built to connect with some god. These towers were called ziggurats. And it wasn't about building a ladder up to heaven, it was about building a ladder so that the God would come down from heaven. The objectives were pretty simple. Let's build a house for our God to visit us in. We'll build a tower right next to it so that he can easily come down. When he gets here, we will come up with different offerings that we believe he wants, and we will make those offerings to him. Our God will be very pleased with them, and in return, he will bless us exponentially. In their culture, it may have been a God that blessed the harvest or fertility, or in this case, maybe they're addressing it towards the Yahweh God, but they're trying this same approach. So they definitely do want to make their name great, but they want to make it great in association with God, which on the surface sounds pretty good. I mean, in the very next chapter, God said to Abraham, I will make your name great. So it definitely seems like something that is reasonable, but maybe you can begin to identify the problem. It's not so much the tower to try to connect with God or the ultimate objective of an enduring name, though there are some issues with that. It is mainly because it is all on man's terms. It's not that God came down and said, I am here to create an agreement with you, where I will front end all of my grace into your life, and out of gratitude you will make my name great. Now I just gave away the farm with that sentence because I think that's the ultimate way this should all work, but it is not the way it was being worked in Genesis eleven. Maybe the people got impatient, waiting on God to come and start something. It had been a couple of hundred years since the flood. So man says, We will design something. We will build a temple as we see fit, we will build a tower to God, we will invite him to come down on our terms, we will give him what we believe at least he wants, he will be pleased with that, and the end game, and I want to talk to you about this at the end, the end game is that we will be a great people. Practically all of that is a disaster from the very beginning and gets repeated today in individual lives and also in churches. To help understand what I'm saying, let's talk a bit about where this story is placed in the Genesis narrative. In the very beginning, God comes and establishes a covenant with Adam and Eve. He front loads all of these blessings and he expects them to be faithful to him out of gratitude. Note it is not a transactional relationship where God says, You give me what I want, and then I'll give you what you need. You and I both know that could never work. We could never give God enough, and it would never be balanced. But that's not the way God set it up. He set it up by grace in Genesis 1. I will build this world for you and breathe life into you. But ultimately Adam and Eve violated that covenant and it all broke apart. It is worth noting that it was at that point in Genesis 3 that God revealed he would build a new covenant, which is first shared with us in Genesis 12, just after the Tower of Babel. But anyway, Genesis 3 through 5, the covenant is broken, Genesis 6 through 10, God washes the earth clean. Instead of waiting on God to set up the way that he wants to bless man and work with us, they started designing their own tower to try and make it happen. It's kind of ironic in verse 5 of our story that God comes down to check it out. I'm guessing he didn't use their tower to do that. And then, of course, the most interesting part of the placement of the story, as we've said already, is in the very next chapter when God was ready on his terms, he came down here his way, reached out to Abraham, established a covenant that would govern the Hebrew nation and that would ultimately lead to redemption of all people by faith in Jesus. God did in fact make Abraham's name great, but ultimately the covenant was designed to bring honor to God's name. The end goal of it all was to glorify God. The Hebrew nation's faith glorified God before others. It made God's name great on his terms, in his ways, not in some transactional way, but as a response to his incredible loving kindness. So our folks in Genesis 11 missed this and it angered God, and so he scattered them in all directions until he was ready to set up things the way he wanted them. Here's an interesting little side note in case you haven't amply disagreed with me on anything, maybe I can give you something now. I think this is akin to the golden calf of Exodus 32. Even with the language of attributing victory to the calf, I don't think the golden calf was a replacement of the Yahweh God. I don't think they point to that thing and say, that's what parted the Red Sea and that's what shook this mountain. I'm more convinced that they grew impatient, they thought their own intellect would be good enough, and they were effectively replacing Moses with their way to access God. They would build the calf, they would decide what to give it, God would be super pleased and do for them whatever they wanted. And not unlike our story, God was very upset with that. So in this back portion of the episode, let me talk to you about how this story should matter in your life. First bit of good news, you don't have to build any access to God, God has already built it. You don't have to convince him to come down, he has already come in the name of Jesus. You don't have to figure out what to give him to start this relationship, what will make him happy enough to do something for you. He did wonderful things for you before you did anything. He wants you to believe in the ways he has established through Abraham and Jesus to have a relationship with you. And all we have to do is submit to him. Now, chances are you agreed with all of that, but if you agree with that, can I convince you to fight this human urge to defy all of it and build some tower to the Lord? This is one of the things I love about a conservative view of religion and the church and what we're here to do and what pleases God. On a church level, if we put together a group of people and we decided what it should look like and how it should operate, and what our offering should be, and how God should respond to it, and we ultimately wanted to be blessed as a result of it. And maybe it wasn't as important what the Bible says or the examples that we've been given, or even the things that God has very explicitly commanded us to do. Some part of us would say it's still going to be okay because it's not all about us. It actually is about God and our relationship. But we, as a group, as a church, would be making the same mistake as those who built the Tower of Babel. We need to meet God on His terms, His way, and be thankful that He has already established all of that by His wisdom and not ours. I would also encourage you to apply this on an individual level. What are the things you need to be doing in your life so that God will come into your life? What are the offerings you need to make so that God will respond to those offerings and bless you? Those are all really poor questions. Because again, they make it all about what you think will work in some transactional relationship with God. I think it's kind of a slight against what we would call both liberals and conservatives. The more liberally minded person would think they can create the whole thing and God will be fine with it. The more conservatively minded person thinks very transactionally that if we give the right things to him first, then he will respond and give us what is due, even though we wouldn't use that language. Praise God that you don't have to figure out any of that stuff. You don't have to figure out what to do, you don't have to figure out how to do it, and you certainly don't have to pay in enough to get grace to start trickling your way as a result of it. God has come down. He has established his temple, his church. He has told you how to enter into it. He has told you what offerings please him. He has even told you the blessings you get front-ended with and the blessings that are awaiting you in eternity. Subjective, personal religion on an individual level, where I decide how it's all going to work and God receives it because of my heart. I think that is probably the story of the Tower of Babel, and you don't want it to be your story. So to wrap up that point, just stay in the Word, be full of gratitude that God has already set this up and He's made it so beautifully simple. And to strike at the other side of the spectrum a little bit, no group of people, no church, no preacher, not yourself or anyone else tells you what is required to be blessed by God. God has already told you that. I'm so thankful for that, and I hope you are also. One final thing that needs more time than we have because it's kind of the centerpiece of this whole deal, is that the end game needs to be the glorification of the name of the Lord. Today's episode is called Making a Name, not making a name for yourself, though God may very well establish your name here in some influential way. That is not the end game, and that cannot be what you're in it for. And I think that's what idolatry was always about. We will imagine there is this God that exists, we will figure out what to do, we will give him what we decided to give him. The end game is he gives us fertility or harvest or sunlight. The end goal is making a name for ourselves. This cannot be for the child of God. God wouldn't put up with that even with Israel. The way that they lived and loved him and served him represented the glory of God's name to everybody who lived on this earth. And he did not respond well when they started seeking their own glorification and not his. This is actually pretty tough, so I'll use an extra minute or two here talking about it. Even for you and me, if we're following God's plan, there's just this trap always set that makes us want to focus on what we get out of it as the biggest deal. God forgives me. God blesses me, God saves me. I get to heaven, I get some wings or a cloud or angels that drop grapes in my mouth for all eternity. But the truth is, and the book of Revelation confirms that heaven is not about you, earth is not about you. It's always been about him and by his great kindness about your incredibly blessed relationship with God with the ultimate goal of glorifying, praising, and honoring his name. So what does that look like in regular life? Hey, go around living a blessed life by God and be super thankful for it. But everything you do in church or out of church, on a Sunday or on a Tuesday, needs to be Ephesians 1, to the praise of the glory of God and his grace. If the end game is you and not him, God sees that. And it asks him, like in Genesis 11, to come and scatter things in all directions. Make everything about him, the fact that you're still alive, the family you've been given, the opportunities that are in front of you. God is already great, with or without you and me, but by his kindness he has placed us here so that we can demonstrate to the world his greatness and his worthiness to be worshipped. So as you go about your life today, in everything you do and in every place you go, when it comes to things like greatness and glory in the ears and the eyes of a world who need him so desperately, embrace this incredible and humbling idea that God by his design is going to use you and your life on his terms in making a name for himself. Thank you so much for joining in today. If you enjoyed this program, consider sharing it with your family and your friends. As always, you can go to excelstillmore.life to sign up for the email, order the three-month journal, or just catch up on old episodes. And also, if you are looking for financial advice or future planning, give John Cunningham a call today, 205 913 1720. And remember this whatever you choose to do today in the name of the Lord Jesus, excel still more.