Beginnings: Questionable Construction Projects

 

So the LORD scattered them from there across the face of the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was named Babel – because there the LORD confused the language of the entire world, and from there the LORD scattered them across the face of the earth. Genesis 11:8-9

 Have your children, or ones you’ve known, ever set about building something in the back yard, or in the woods, that is of questionable stability? Lacking in architectural principles and geometry skills, their creativity and drive to build outpace their abilities. I remember when my youngest son would embark upon construction projects with his best friend. Sometimes it would be a “fort,” other times they tried their hand at designing weaponry like blow guns and trebuchets (actually the trebuchet was with his grandmother 😂).  Left to their own devices, sometimes these projects can have harmful, even disastrous consequences though.

 A few generations after the flood, people decided that they knew better than what God had told them. He had instructed them to be fruitful – have children – and spread out over the whole planet. Instead, they decided it was more convenient to stick together. I could understand this! It would be scary to head out into the unknown. How would you have friends? Who would help you when you ran into trouble? Wouldn’t you miss your family? But God, in His infinite wisdom, had told them to do this. In hindsight, imagine the horrors of an overcrowded city with no hygiene or basic sanitation services. Imagine the filth of a lack of sewers. Imagine the propagation of diseases in unfiltered water – if they could even find enough water! Not to mention, growing and gathering enough food for a large population in one place would be nearly impossible. God knew all this, which was probably part of why He had told them not to do it, but sometimes we have to figure things out for ourselves. God also knew, though, that the horrors of an overcrowded city was not a lesson humanity was ready for. That one would certainly come later. In His mercy, He called a halt to it, as a parent seeing a dangerous contraption being created in the back yard might.

 Here's the other part of this scenario, they were embarking on this project saying “Come, let's build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves.” (Genesis 11:4). That seems quite the opposite of what I’ve been taught we are here for – to glorify God. I do get a little confused by this though because if everyone on earth was banded together to do this, who were they making a name with? Each other? The why is spelled out in the rest of the verse when they go on to say, “Otherwise we will be scattered across the face of the entire earth.” Wait, wasn’t that exactly what God had told them to do? They were fighting tooth and nail – literally – to try not to do what God had told them. Don’t we all do that sometimes? For some bizarre reason we seem to think we know better. We question God’s wisdom, even though He created wisdom to begin with. We think that maybe, this time, we have come up with a better plan than He did. Let’s be honest, sometimes we just don’t like God’s plan! Sometimes God’s plan hurts and it’s hard and it’s complicated. God never said His ways were easy or fun, they’re just better (Isaiah 55:9).

 The same proved true for Jesus. Do you think He came down from heaven with the idea that being terribly tortured and then dying on a cross would be fun? If we think we could come up with better alternatives, imagine the case for Jesus. He actually was God. If anyone could come up with a better idea, it would be Him. But instead, though it was so difficult he sweat blood (Luke 22:44), He submitted to God’s plan. IT WAS HARD!!! Even though He absolutely knew without a doubt that it was best He begged for God to find any other way, but when it came down to it He did what He was supposed to, and I am forever, eternally grateful.

Here's the Thing: God is above and outside of time. He created time. He existed before it and He exists apart from it. With this perspective, being able to see the end from the beginning, He is able to determine exactly what has to happen in order for ultimate good to come about. He knows that there have to be wars and horror so that there can also be beauty and peace. It rarely makes sense to us, and that’s where faith comes in. We live in a small, finite point in time – right now anyways – and we can only see a tiny piece of all that we are experiencing. We have no idea the full ramifications of our actions. What we do know, what I know, is that God gets it. He fully, completely comprehends all of these things and He knows what has to be done. Not only that, He’s willing to do it, because He loves us!