When People Say We Don’t Need God

The battle for our worship is a battle that draws our flesh and its desire to exert itself over God. The flesh demands that it be stroked, satisfied and honored. The inner part of our being cries out for independence. From our earliest days we desire to do things for ourselves. But we cannot please God or satisfy his demands for righteousness by ourselves. When it comes to worshiping God, He is the one who supplies what we need.

The story of the Tower of Babel describes this battle on a grand scale. The whole earth’s population was gathered at the Plain of Shinar to build a tower and “make a name for ourselves.” The plain is in the land of Babylon, which God uses to represent man-made religion. In the end times, Babylon, in the Plain of Shinar, will once again become the place where man-made religion exerts itself against God.

Pride is a sin which keeps us from God. Proverbs 16:18 "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."

Pride is the sin which entered Lucifer’s heart and caused him to fall from his honored place among God’s holy angels (Isa 14:12-14).

Pride is a sin, blind as we are to it, that puts us on a path of self-made religion and keeps us from enjoying God’s salvation.

The TOWER of BABEL represents man’s effort without God.

Let’s begin by examining the Motivation for BUILDING the TOWER of BABEL

The builders of Shinar wanted “A TOWER that reaches to the heavens” (Gen 11:4). There is nothing wrong with building buildings, or improving our living conditions. There is nothing wrong with dwellings, cities, skyscrapers, or highways. At first glance, one might think, “why is God so upset about a tower?” Millions of buildings and towers have bene built since, with God’s blessings.

The problem in Shinar is in the purpose of the Tower. It was a statement that represented the heart of the post-flood people to establish a way to reach God through their own effort. This is represented in the many artists drawings of the Tower of Babel.

The tower was most likely in the form of a ziggurat, or pyramid. Such towers have been found in Babylon. Genesis 11 explains why ancient people from entirely different cultures built similar looking towers for worship. The pyramids of Egypt, the ziggurats of Babylon, and the Aztec temples of Mexico and South America all follow a similar architecture.

Some intelligent scientists with Ivy League educations propose that the reason for the similarities is that ANCIENT ALIENS gave the design and assisted primitive earth-dwellers in building similar looking towers! A better explanation is found in the Bible. The dwellers of the plain were scattered to the ends of the earth. They carried their building experiences and techniques with them, and when they arrived in their new homes, they quickly built towers like they had built in Shinar!

The TOWER was for built for TWO REASONS

SPIRITUAL POWER

POLITICAL POWER

Rather than waiting to hear God’s voice, they decided to attempt to reach God on their own. The statement in Genesis 11:4, “a tower that reaches to the heavens,” does not mean that they thought they could break the limits of the atmosphere. It is a statement of hyperbole, with the intention that they would use the tower as a place of worship. At the highest point of the ziggurat was an altar that was used to worship false gods. Thisi was the SPIRITUAL POWER that they were seeking.

The tower also represented their desire for POLITICAL POWER. God instructed Noah and his sons to “fill the earth.”

Genesis 9:1 "Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth."

Genesis 8:17 "Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it.”

The tower was in direct contradiction to God’s command. They desired a unified, one-world government. Mankind is incapable of this type of government, in spite of his repeated efforts to bring about one world dominion. The Babylonians tried and failed. The Greeks tried and failed. The Romans tried and failed. The Roman Church tried and failed. Only JESUS will bring about a one world government!

The LESSONS from the TOWER of BABEL

What can we learn about the condition of our own hearts?

First, we learn that as people created in God’s image, we have GREAT POTENTIAL

(Genesis 11:4) “Let us build a tower to reach the heavens.” We think that ancient people were little more than cave-dwelling numb-skulls. This is far fro true! In the pre-flood and post-flood world, an increased life-span allowed great learning. The Bible tells us about early metallurgy and other skills often considered the accomplishments of a great civilization. Consider Noah, who with God’s help built an ark that shipbuilders today would be proud of!