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 and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4
What was wrong with their thinking, their planning, their building? They simply left God out. Humanism leaves God out of the picture. Perhaps these guys were deists, who admit there must be a God but refuse to involve him in daily life. The Babylonians defined ‘Babel’ as ‘the gate of God,’ but the Hebrew definition is ‘confusion.’ Man said, “We’ll build ourselves a tower high enough to visit God.” The Creator said, “You’re confused,” as language was confounded and plans were upended.
You don’t need to be a humanist or deist to fall into the same trap. James warned the believers of his day, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.”
Arrogant talk, boasting, bragging, prideful living… babel… confusion… “Come, let’s make a name for ourselves!” The disciple of Christ can’t embrace such thinking for it opposes the Master, who ‘made himself nothing,’ ‘humbled himself,’ and ‘took on the very nature of a servant.’ Jesus taught, “A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master,” so we must walk in his steps.
While ‘babel’ leads to confusion, selflessness leads to joy. Go to any nation on earth and find the people that have given up ‘self’ for the Savior. Their country may be in trouble, fear may grip the multitudes, all may live with difficulty… but joy abounds in the redeemed. Hope overcomes hopelessness when there is true faith in the One who overcomes. When the confused skeptic asks, “What is truth?” the wise one says, “I know the answer! His name is Jesus!”
May the children of God walk with confidence in a risen Savior, not with confidence in self. This leads to fellowship with the Father. The Son has accomplished the work; the Spirit empowers us to live; now we must simply trust and obey.
“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.” Philippians 2:12-16