If I were to ask
you, “what were you doing when you first heard of the airplanes flying into the
World Trade Center towers”, I’m sure you could recall the time and place that
you heard or saw. I remember getting ready for my first class of the day, my
sophomore year at Auburn. My father called me to ask if I was watching the TV.
I rushed to turn on the TV and watched as the second plane flew into the tower.
That was a gut-wrenching few weeks. I remember wondering why on earth would a
terrorist want to attack such a meaningless target. Why not attack a nuclear
power plant or the stock exchange? But, as the “War on Terror” developed over
the years, I began to understand what we all now know. Osama Bin Laden saw
those towers as a symbol of everything he and his movement despised about the
USA. Bin Laden wanted the US to leave all Muslim nations, and he believed that
the primary reason US companies were involved in those nations was because of
their oil. So, when he struck out against the US, he wanted to strike at a
symbol of global capitalism, and the World Trade Center certainly represented
that.
You see, whether
we admit it or not, our buildings say something about us. We design our
buildings to say something about who we are and what we value. Before you think
that you are immune from this temptation to represent your beliefs and values
in a building, think about this little town of Pine Apple itself. What has
preserved the beautiful buildings of this town if not the convictions of many
of the residents that the history of these great Antebellum homes be preserved.
The desire to
preserve, to venerate, to honor, to even glory in the workmanship and greatness
of humanity is a desire that has been with us since the fall of Adam. We find
out, even in the story of Cain and Abel, in Genesis 4:17, that Cain went away
from the presence of the Lord and built a city in the land of Nod. This might
seem like a useless fact to you, but remember the curse that God placed on
Cain: he was to be a fugitive and a wonderer on the earth. Also, remember the
promise of God to Cain, that God would protect him. Yet, Cain goes out and
builds a city because he neither trusts God nor submits to God’s judgment.
You would think
the Great Flood would have brought humility to humanity, but the opposite is
true. Remember from chapter 9 that God had promised that he would no longer
judge the earth with a flood. He also reiterated the blessing that he had given
to Adam and Eve. The descendants of Noah were to be fruitful and multiply and
fill the earth.
In Genesis 11, we
find that the people all had one language, and they all came together on a
plain in the land of Shinar. In verse 4, the people decide that they need to
build a city and a tower, and I want to focus in on the reasons. The first
reason they give for wanting to build a tower into the heavens is so that they
might make a name for themselves. Now, we might not think anything of this
because we erect plaques and monuments to great men and women all the time. And
yet, this act is offensive to God because it is blatant rebellion against his
supremacy and holiness. Notice that they want to build a tower to reach into
the heavens. Like Adam, Cain, and the people before the flood, they wanted to
be like God. But, the text points out how futile this effort is. Notice the
sarcasm in verse 5, as it says that God “came down” to see what the men were
building. Get the picture: here these men are, trying to build a tower to reach
up and become gods, and the one true God can’t even see it from his vantage
point! He has to “come down” to see what they are doing!
Second, the people
want to build this tower “so that we might not be scattered”. They want to
build this tower as a defense against God’s command to be fruitful and multiply
and fill the earth. Notice that fallen Man resists even the most basic commands
of God. There are commands of God which seem so simple, and yet people even in
our day, with our sophistication, still reject even the first commandments of
God. The birth rate in the US has been in steady decline since the 60s. Fewer
people are getting married, and those who are getting married or at least
having children are waiting till later in life out of concern for their own
social lives and careers. The end result is that we are no longer producing
enough new population to support the aging population, putting a strain on our
health and retirement systems. Yet the problem goes even further than birth
rates. We have gone from taking something that used to be known as a mental
disorder (we used to call it “gender dysphoria”), and now we celebrate it and
even enforce the idea of the fluidity of gender by changing our very language
to accommodate the desires of a few individuals.
Yet, there is
nothing new under the Sun. The people of Babel resisted the most basic commands
of God, and the irony of the end of that story is that the very act they took
to keep from being scattered drew the judgment of God and brought about their
scattering. But, that desire to become like gods and to resist the basic
commands of God would not stop there. As the nations splintered out into the
world, the belief in the one true God was distorted by distance and time to the
point that the Creator of the Universe was substituted for idols made with
human hands. Even the people of Israel, who were given the command to worship
no other gods, who saw the great miracles of God’s deliverance, who battled the
pagans of Canaan, and who suffered under the oppression of the nation of
Babylon itself – even Israel followed after other gods and sought out kings who
were more concerned about making a name for themselves than following after the
one true God.
It is to this
Israel that the Son of God, Jesus Christ was born. At his birth, he was given
names like “Immanuel”, which means “God with Us”. The angel told Mary that he
should be called Jesus, which means “The Lord Saves”. His royal title that his
disciples would give him was “Christ” or “Messiah”, which means “King of
Kings”. The titles he would use for himself were “Son of Man” and “Son of God”,
which were references to his divine authority and his role as king of the
world. Yet, this rightful king of all of creation did not boast in his
authority. He did not go to the highest point in Jerusalem and declare his
name. He did not raise up an army to rightfully take back what was his. This
king revealed who he was through suffering. Phil. 2:5-11 says:
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ
Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a
thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled
himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above
every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and
on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Even when he was
confronted by the powers of this world, he did not assert his rightful claim.
In John 18:36, Pilate asks him if he is a king, and Jesus explains “my kingdom
is not of this world, if it were of this world my people would fight for me.”
And, Jesus was ultimately lifted up, but not in the way that our sinful hearts
would want. He was not raised up on some high tower so that he might gain
public glory. No, he was raised up on a cross. Yet, Jesus said in John 3:15
that if he were to be lifted up, he would draw all men to himself. And you know
the rest of the story – all the world has come and is coming to Jesus.
Friend, if you are
living your life so that you might make a name for yourself, the end is
confusion and judgment. So many in our day live by the motto of “get all you
can, can all you get, and sit on the can”. We believe that there is no other
life but this one, no ultimate consequences for our actions, but God promises
in Isaiah 2:12-15 that there is a day of judgment coming when every high tower
will be laid low. Turn to Jesus and trust in his humble work of redemption.
Walk after him and you will have life.
Brothers and
sisters, we are called to make the name of Jesus known in all the earth. The
beautiful end of the story of Babel is found in Acts 2, where God takes 12 men
and through them speaks to every tribe and tongue. God is bringing the nations
to himself through the Gospel of His Son. We are called to magnify the name of
Jesus. We do this by using our gifts and our talents to His glory. We do this
by loving our neighbors and displaying a new and different kingdom than the
typical kingdoms of men. We do not exist to make our name known. We do not
exist even to make the name of this church known. We exist so that Jesus’ name
might be known.
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