The tower of Babel is one of the best-known Old Testament stories. We all remember the people who tried to build a tower as tall as the heavens, only to have God confuse their languages and scatter them throughout the world. But there’s one detail that often gets left out when we recall this story: their motivation for building that tower. Essentially, they wanted to make themselves great—and they all wanted to stay together.
We can understand why the first reason provoked God to intervene. From the very beginning, our greatest temptation has been to set our-selves up as rivals to God. But why would God object to their desire to be together?
For the answer, we have to go back to the story of creation. There, God told the first man and woman to be fruitful and multiply, and to conquer the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:28). He wanted his people to be co-creators with him, spreading out to all the earth and bringing it under his dominion. But rather than take to the road in service of God, the builders in this story chose to stay put and establish a comfortable little enclave for themselves. They also sought to erect a monument to their ingenuity rather than spread the beauty and majesty of Yahweh throughout the world. So God took it upon himself to send them out. And he confused their languages to make sure they couldn’t come back together again.
The moral of this story still applies to us today. God is asking us to bring the power of his love and the grace of his Spirit to all the earth. He wants us to go out into the world and share his gospel, to work for peace and justice in our communities, and to reach out to the lonely and the hurting. It is tempting to content ourselves with the comforts of home and parish life. But the harvest is ready, and God is asking us to join him in the fields. How can you do that today?
“Father, give me a heart of service. Help me see how rewarding it is to be your disciple—so much more rewarding than building a world for myself.”
Psalm 33:10-15; Mark 8:34–9:1