Have you ever played the game Jenga? Awesome game, and the quentisential game for kids! Build towers and watching them crash! what could be better? I used to keep one in my office when I was a children's pastor for the occasional group of kiddos that come down to hang out. Actually, this is one of the first games that my wife and I bought for ourselves when we were first married. We played it quite often, and the competition became pretty intense! Most of all, we just had a lot of fun and it was a great way to unwind after work.
A few weeks ago, I was reading the story of the Tower at Babel in Genesis 11, and you guess it! The first thing that crept into my mind was "Jenga". You know, a lot of people have traditionally thought that the people of that time, wanted to build a tower in order to literally reach heaven. That was definitely an underling aspect, but there is something much deeper going on here. You see, the people wanted to build a massive monument of recognition for others to see and praise them for. People from all over the world would see this great tower, and as with Jenga, the people of Mesopotamia wanted bragging rights for the tallest standing monument. In essence, they were attempting to make themselves appear more important than God. They were depending more on themselves, rather than on the God who just recently miraculously saved Noah and his family. And get this! Noah was probably still alive to witness this! Can you imagine his reaction?
Well, as you might know, God quickly put a stop to this, scattered the people, made up some new languages and the rest is history. The people stopped building their monument, but notice one very important point. God did not destroy the partially built tower. For centuries, the tower remained outside of Babylon as a reminder of who really is in charge. I think that's cool. Kind of like a monumental "tatoo" that you have to live with.
You know, at first glance, when we look at the story of the Tower at Babel, it seems hard to understand what the big deal was, doesn't it? I mean, we live in a culture that values hard work, ambition and extreme competition. We constantly fight to build the highest tower, and when they crash down, we question our worth. We question our standing within society and we question our faith in the God we serve. If you think about, we have not changed all that much since the days of Babel. We are still trying to finish the tower, and what's worse, we are teaching our kids to pick up the legacy and pick up where we left off.
God doesn't want our self-sufficiency. He wants complete dependence on Him. Sure, sometimes He has us build towers, but they stand for His glory and not ours. After all, He created us for His glory and that alone. Give this some thought this this weekend. Consider what total devotion to God looks like. As parents, teachers, pastors, mentors, leaders etc., do we emulate this to the children that are in our lives? Do they see us giving our hearts to God in complete totality, or do they see us pursuing our own agendas? Building the towers? Adding the bricks? One after the other? Applying the mortar? Measuring the height? And finally, witnessing the collapse?
