Man Proposes, God Disposes Series

MAN PROPOSES, GOD DISPOSES (GENESIS 11:1-9)

“I will not believe anything that I do not understand,” said a man in a hotel one day. His friends with him agreed with him.

“Gentlemen,” said one who sat close by, “on my ride this morning I saw some geese in a field eating grass; do you believe that?”

“Certainly,” said one of the three listeners.

“I saw the pigs eating grass; do you believe that?”

“Of course,” said the three.

“I also saw sheep and cows eating grass; do you believe that?”

“Of course,” was again the reply.

“Well, the grass turned to feathers on the backs of the geese, to bristles on the backs of the swine, to white wool on the sheep, and to hair on the cow; do you believe that, gentlemen?”

Certainly,” they replied.

“But do you understand it?”

Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.”

The Tower of Babel is about man’s determination to live sufficiently, determinedly and arrogantly without God. People think they are smart in themselves, fine without God and in safe hands. Man thinks that with the advance of new industries, active collaboration and concerted effort, nothing can stop them from reaching the top, literally. God, however, reminds us His counsel will stand. Relying on Him guarantees our well-being, but excluding Him from our lives means failure.

The word “Come” in the imperative form is prominent in Genesis 11, the only imperatives in the chapter. The first and primitive “Come” (v 3) began the construction, the second and civilized “Come” (v 4) progressed with contention, and the final and sovereign “Come” (v 7) ended in confusion.

Why is God opposed to man’s insistence on his own way? What kind of lives do we live without God? How does that bring ruin upon us?

The Intelligence of Man is Pretentious of Oneself

11:1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, “Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. (Gen 11:1-3)

I came across a very interesting refrigerator magnet in a popular tourist spot in Hong Kong. It says, “I treat you like my brother, you treat me like Lehman brothers.”

It’s been said, “Humanity without divinity degenerates into bestiality.”

According to history, the Egyptians were the first to make bricks, but how were their bricks different from Genesis. They dried their bricks in the sun to harden mud placed in a brick mold or cast, but the men of Babel had an ingenious way: they fired and baked the bricks through and through. In Hebrew “bake them thoroughly” is “bake, bake.”

Man’s first ambitious “let us” was never for self-improvement but for self-destruction. It was never to have good character but to have more choices. It was not to be more personal but to be more powerful, not to build relationships but to build weapons. Sadly, man cares only for his advancement, addition and advantage. Controlling fire has always been considered the turning point in the progress of man. It was no small feat to combine the solid (brick) and the non-solid (fire) elements in nature. Before the construction of the tower, primitive men first tested the extent of their knowledge, researched the possibilities of natural properties, fulfilled their potential with great success and pushed their inventions to new heights. They had the resources, the skill and the drive to succeed. Nothing was beyond them, could stop or slow them. They had discovered how to heat raw materials, give them shape and maximized its use.

The first biblical occurrence of the word “Come” (v 3) is man’s determined, united and negative effort to flourish, succeed, and prosper without God. From stone they had progressed to bricks, and from mortar they had discovered tar. From now on they were hungry for the next step, the latest discovery, and the new frontier.

Sadly, the advance of secular man is his very path to destruction. People make guns, bombs, nuclear weapons, biological weapons and weapons of mass destruction. We have seen the rise of dictators and madmen such as Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden who love nothing but to cause religious wars, civil wars and world wars.

What happened to man’s advancement today? J. Robert Oppenheimer, the world famous inventor of the Atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, fittingly expressed his regret to Harry Truman: “I have blood on my hands.” He likened the then United States and Soviet Union rivalry to “two scorpions in a bottle, capable of killing the other but only at the risk of its own life.” (US News & World Report 8/17/98 “Brotherhood of the Bomb”)