A Name for Yourself

The Tower of  Babel

Sitting one day in our front living room, I read a story to my nephew. It was "The Story of the Tower of Babel". Now I have heard this story told many times. I've heard it being spoken of in the sermons of pastors. And I guess, I never paid attention to enlightenment of it. But on this one particular day, this story came alive to me. I began to understand it's meaning.

Have you ever gotten the idea to create something? How did it make you feel? Could some of the feelings you felt be excitement, happy, joyful? I bet you couldn't wait to get started. You gathered your materials and put together your strategies. You wrote down your start-to-finish. Pretty soon you had a finished product. How did you feel about your finished creation? Did you cherish it? Did you love it? I would even say that you didn't even let anything happen to it, did you?

Friend, the way you felt about your creation is the same way that God felt when he created you. The book of Genesis 1:31 states clearly that God saw everything that He created and it was "good". However,  after the fall of man (Adam) things changed. The hearts of God's creation became evil. They began to worship themselves rather than God. His name became no longer important as they sought to make a name for themselves. This is the case with the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9).

Now the whole earth had one language and one speech...........and they said, "Come let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves..........." (vs. 1-4).

 

 

The creation of God had discovered their liberty and freedom. But instead of worshipping God and building up His name, they decided that they would build up their own name. They wanted to be able to say that they did it. God was left out. Or was He? If you continue to read the chapter, you will see that God came down to see what they were doing. And as we know, God was not pleased. His creation making a name for themselves? As loving and merciful as He is, this was something He could not allow to happen. So He confused their language.

 

Are there any of you reading this post who feel a slight conviction by this story? Well I have a confession to make.......it convicted me. If I may be truthful here, I check my blog page all of the time just to see if someone I associate with has left a comment or something on one of my posts. Sometimes I get discouraged when I see not one response. I have to admit that I had to examine myself and my motive for this page. The discouragement was so heavy that I felt as if the Holy Spirit said to me, that I was trying to build a name for myself.

 

I love God. I am grateful to Him for everything that He has done. Creation speaks of His beauty. I also love to write. At this point in my life, my life is completely consumed with my Father. The reason I started this page was that I could express my love for Him. I freely want to share with the world what an awesome God we serve. I find though that I must be careful by not losing my focus. It's about my Creator, not me. I feel privileged that my eyes are able to see and that my ears are able to hear.  

 

Gospel recording singer J. Moss has a song called, "We Must Praise". This song speaks of us using our every part of our bodies to praise God. This one particular verse of the song says...... "If I were a writer, I would use a pencil...." My blog to me is my pencil. What, my friend, are you using? Are you using it to lift up God's name or are you using it to make a name for yourself? I don't believe that the people of the Tower of Babel would have even attempted to make a name for themselves if they even considered the fact that God would separate them by confusing their language. This moment to me was one of God's ultimate test. One of the many that mankind failed.

 

How about your test? If God were to come down to see what you were doing with what He's given you, will you be found building up His name or yours. This story of the tower came alive to me because as simple and corny as it sounds, I realized where they got the word babbling from. Can you imagine being able to understand your neighbor one day and the next day you have not a clue as to what he or she is saying. If God did that then, what will He do now?

 

God wants to be glorified in everything that you or I do. Any time we do anything other than that, we are making a name for ourselves. The latter part of the song says this......."Since I'm a Believer, I use everything".