A Name For Ourselves

Oct. 10

Read: Gen. 11:1-9

A Name For Ourselves

I was looking at a list of the tallest buildings in the world this morning while thinking about the tower of Babel. The current “tallest building in the world” is the Burj Khalifa a tower that reaches 2,717 ft into the sky and has 163 floors above ground (and 2 more below). It is in the United Arab Emirates, and stands as a massive tower springing up on the planes of the desert around it. There is a wikipedia page devoted to the world’s tallest building with a list of the top 80 of them that includes pictures. If you scroll down the list the silhouettes of the buildings look strikingly similar to one another… tower after tower plunging into the sky. I can’t help but be reminded of the collective words of mankind as they sought to build the very first city and civilization:

“Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves 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.” (Gen. 11:4)

“Come let us make a name for ourselves.” I can imagine it so clearly… it is as if I can hear the desperate cry of humanity to “make a name for ourselves” still today. There must have been a real “buzz” in this newborn city; a great anticipation of development and dawning of a new era for humankind. Imagine how those humans saved by God from the flood on the ark walked off that ship onto an empty earth. The first years must have been wild as they moved about as hunters and gatherers. God had blessed them and given them a commandment:

“And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (Gen. 9:1)

And that is exactly what they were doing at first. These first post-flood humans were “multiplying and filling the earth. They were moving east and spreading out into the creation that God had given them. (v. 11:2) Then one day, humanity decided “let’s stop and just settle here. This plain in the land of Shinar looks good. Enough of the ‘fruitful multiplying and earth filling’. Let’s just stop here and make a name for ourselves.” And humans have been ignoring God’s instructions and seeking to make a name for themselves ever since!

I know this because I struggle with those same things. I am hungry to make a name for myself. It is tiresome to walk by faith and keep moving into the unchartered territories and the unknown that God is leading me into. Living as a “hunter-gatherer” is such a “give us this day our daily bread” sort of life… like manna in the wilderness… and I like the idea of a big tower filled up with stuff and a place where I can just settle and become famous. These are the deep roots of humanity’s sin: the desire to make name for ourselves instead of making a name for the God most high! Whether we realize it or not, we are consistently trying to take matters into our own hands, and frankly… we like writing the story so that we are the heroes!

This is the first problem with the first city and first civilization… and it remains a thorn in our sides today. We are still building our towers. We are still trying to make a name for ourselves at the expense of doing what God has called us to do. We are still more concerned with our own glory than with his. We are still building our own little empires and ignoring HIS kingdom; the Kingdom of God. Listen to the voices of our influencers and world leaders today, what are they talking about? What is their goal for humanity? What is the “buzz” all about? Maybe it is not big buildings anymore… but rather big “networks” or big “economies”? Maybe it is big “businesses”; like 4 or 5 mega-corporations who are trying to control every facet of life or buy up every other business and put it under one person's control? We have no shortage of “towers” we are seeking to build in an effort to make a name for ourselves. Here is the good news:

God loves us enough to come down and dismantle it… to confuse our efforts… to frustrate our plans. God loves us enough to send us out, to move us along on our God-given journey. In this case it was be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth and that is exactly what God forced the people to do. Sometimes God frustrates our plans and breaks down our communication because it is working against HIS plan and purpose. We may want to “settle down in the plains of Shinar and make name for ourselves” but God is calling us to the “daily bread life” of a hunter-gatherer so to speak. He is leading us bravely into the unknown. Praise God that he disrupts our tower-building! May we be committed to making a name for HIM. May he guide our building projects and our efforts. May we look to HIM for our daily bread. May we confess of our own “empire building”. Let’s make a name FOR HIM, that the world would “see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven.” (cf. Matt 5:16) Love you guys. - JDP