When Making Plans

"Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, 'Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.' They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.' But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The LORD said, 'If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.' So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel — because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11:1-9, NIV).

What do you feel toward whom or what you love?

Not only you have a nice feeling on the object of your love, but there is that feeling of great delight. In 1 Corinthians 13, we have the picture of it. What do we see in it? At the last part of verse 6, we read that love “rejoices with the truth.”

When we love, we rejoice. And we don’t just rejoice on anything. We rejoice with the truth.

So, when God commanded us to love Him “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind" (Luke 10:27), it’s for our great benefit.

God does not want us just to experience a temporary delight. He does not want us to rejoice only when nice things are happening to us. But, He wants us to “rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8). That’s why He told us to love Him above all things. For He is the Supreme and Absolute Truth. No one or nothing in this world is as lovable as our God.

With that in mind, thinking that this Great and Lovable Being wants us to rejoice greatly, should we not consider Him also in whatever we do? Just for instance in making our plans. Should we make plans just for our benefit? What should dominate as we make a plan?

So, this time let’s examine a particular passage that should give us a better perspective in making our plans. Let us, then, explore our topic, WHEN MAKING PLANS, while we focus on our text (Gen. 11:1-9).

As we proceed, we will consider the important ingredient of making a plan: it’s intent. Is the plan just for the purpose of making a particular project successful? Is the plan intended just for the benefits that could be gained? What should be the important thing to consider as we make our plans?

In Genesis 5, it was pointed out that though men lived for several hundred years, yet God’s judgement on them was still executed: they died. However, we also saw that when God chose someone to receive His grace, in the case of Enoch, he was able to walk with God. And he did not experience death.

In chapter 6, it was related that God instructed Noah to build an ark. He would destroy all flesh by a great flood, for “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5).

In chapter 7, we read that for 40 days and 40 nights “rain fell upon the earth.” All men and animals and creeping things and birds were blotted out. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark were left.

In the early verses of chapter 8, it related that the waters had abated and God commanded Noah to “Go out from the ark…” (v. 15.)

In Genesis 9, we studied the blessings that God extended to Noah and his sons: the blessing of His command, the blessing of His decree, the blessing of His judgement and the blessing of His promise.

In verse 10, we could read about the sons born to the sons of Noah after the flood.

Now, in our text, we can see both what God and what man could do. And as the wrong action of man was related, we could also dig out at least two rights things to do in having a plan. What are those?

I – PLAN FOR THE FAME OF GOD (vv. 1-4).

We read verses 1-4, “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”