Genesis 11:5-9

Good morning, friends!

This morning we'll look at God's response to the efforts of the people to build a tower to the heavens to make a name for themselves. They had determined in their hearts to defy God's command to scatter over the face of the 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.” (vs. 5-7)

Uh-oh! Don't mess with God! Just as the people had used the phrase, "Come, let us..., " God now turns that phrase back on them as He determines to thwart their plans. God points to the destructiveness of their unity of purpose, since it was defiant. When He says "nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them," it's like He's saying, "There isn't anything they won't do. The evil imaginations of these people will run wild if not stopped." So, even in judgment, God is being merciful here. He is saving them from themselves by confusing their language. Beth Moore, in her study, The Patriarchs, says that God is basically saying in the language used here, "We will un-brick what they have bricked." I love that! The plans of men are worthless and come to nothing without the LORD!

Jon Courson says that we have a universal language now on earth: mathematics, which is the basis of all computer language. We can now communicate to anyone anywhere by means of a computer. If I write something in English to someone in Japan, the computer can translate it into Japanese! Courson writes of how the use of technology can be and is used for all sorts of evil imaginations. Surely we live in an era when men are convinced that "nothing is impossible" for them by their own efforts, and nothing is too awful for them to do via computer! In the time of the Tower of Babel, God had had enough!

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. (vs. 8-9)

The word Babel meant "Gateway to God," which you would think would be a good thing. However, it demonstrated an attempt to reach God on their own merits, through a gateway of their own building, and it also displayed their defiance in their purpose to remain in the city rather than scatter. Therefore the word came to mean "confusion." Defiance of God leads to chaos. If you feel your life is circling out of control, could it be because you are working under your own power, trying to do something on your own, apart from God? Are you wanting God to conform to your plans, rather than conforming to His for you? That will only lead to confusion, depression, and destruction! Jesus is the only "gate" provided by God (John 10:7; Acts 4:12). God scattered these people since they would not do it themselves. And He will do the same to us. If we refuse to obey, He will often, in love, remove us from the situation in which we've firmly planted ourselves so that we will seek Him alone. He loves us too much to leave us to our own devices!

God has a plan, and it will not be thwarted! Tomorrow we'll look at how He narrowed the plan through one nation. Tomorrow we're introduced to Abram (Abraham)! Can't wait!