Are you building a tower of Babel?
"Now the whole earth had one language and one
speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that
they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.
Then they said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks and bake
them thoroughly.' They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt
for mortar. And they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city,
and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for
ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole
earth" (Genesis 11:1-4).
But the Lord confused their language and
scattered them over all the earth, and they stopped building the
city (Genesis 11:7-9). Babel means confusion. In the rest of the
Bible, Babel (also called Babylon) symbolizes rebellion against
God.
Notice how arrogant and self-centered the people
of Babel were: "Come, let US build OURSELVES a city," ... "let US
make a name for OURSELVES." They were building for their own glory,
rather than for the glory of God.
What about us? Are we building for our own glory,
or for the glory of God? Are we building a tower of Babel or the
temple of God?
"Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in
vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman
stays awake in vain" (Psalm 127:1).
The people of Babel had big plans, but God was
not included. We must avoid such arrogance: "Come now, you who say,
'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year
there, buy and sell, and make a profit'; whereas you do not know
what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a
vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do
this or that.' But now you boast in your arrogance. All such
boasting is evil" (James 4:13-16).
Rather than building a tower in Babel, the
temporal city of confusion, we ought to build the eternal temple of
God. Rather than being arrogant and self-centered, we ought to be
humble and God-centered.
Jesus said: "If anyone desires to come after Me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For
whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses
his life for My sake will find it. For what is a man profited if he
gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man
give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew
16:24-26).
Followers of Jesus do not strive to "make a name"
for themselves. They do not build a monument to their own glory.
They build a temple for the glory of God.
What is this temple?
A temple is a place where some deity is presumed
to dwell. The one true God does not dwell in a building of stone.
When Solomon built the temple at Jerusalem, he understood this:
"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the
heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple
which I have built!" (1 Kings 8:27). "For thus says the high and
lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: 'I dwell in
the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and
humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive
the heart of the contrite'" (Isaiah 57:15 RSV).
God dwells in His people. "Do you not know that
you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in
you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). We are God's temple, individually and
collectively as the church of Christ.
To the church at Corinth, Paul wrote: "For we are
God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building.
According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise
master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on
it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other
foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus
Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:9-11).
Christ is the foundation, the cornerstone of
God's temple. On the basis of His teaching, recorded in Scripture
by the apostles and prophets, we are built into a dwelling-place
for God: "Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and
foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the
household of God, having been built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief
cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together,
grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being
built together for a habituation of God in the Spirit" (Ephesians
2:19-22).
Our first task in building the temple of God is
to build ourselves up spiritually. "As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him
and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in
it with thanksgiving" (Colossians 2:6,7). "But you, beloved,
building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy
Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life" (Jude
1:20,21).
The temple of God consists of living stones built
on Christ: "Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by
men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones,
are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer
up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, 'Behold, I lay in
Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on
Him will by no means be put to shame.' Therefore, to you who
believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, 'The
stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief
cornerstone,' and 'A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.'
They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also
were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may
proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people
of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly
lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable
among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers,
they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the
day of visitation" (1 Peter 2:4-12).
Rather than building a tower of Babel to our own
glory, let us be living stones in the temple of
God.
Roy Davison
Unless indicated otherwise, the Scripture quotations in this
article are from The New King James Version. ©1979,1980,1982,
Thomas Nelson Inc., Publishers.
Permission for reference use has been granted.
Published in The Old Paths Archive
(http://www.oldpaths.com)
Recently, Huffington Post writer Antonia Blumberg penned an article titled “Anti-Atheist Prejudice Is Entrenched Around the Globe, Even Among Atheists.”1 In the article, she commented on research that appeared in Nature magazine.2 The summary paragraph on the Nature
Web site describing the research stated that “people in most—but not
all—of these countries viewed extreme moral violations as representative
of atheists. Notably, anti-atheist prejudice was even evident among
atheist participants around the world.”3 The researchers wrote,
