Yesterday SpaceX launched the first manned rocket from US soil in 9 years. It was a beautiful launch. Everything went as planned. Job well done. Praise, rightly deserved, was doled out to all involved. Thanks to all the many, many people who have spent so much time on it was given and received.
Sadly, there was one name I never heard from anyone reporting on the event: God. No praise of God for His beautiful creation He has given us to explore. No thanks to God for a safe launch and for the ability to even conceive of such a launch. Instead, I heard again and again the sentiment: Look what we did!
I am reminded of a story from the Bible about a people who wanted to clap themselves on the back for a great feat they were accomplishing. A people who went to great lengths to make a name for themselves. They didn’t get quite as far with their project as they would have liked. God put an end to it. The story? The tower of Babel. The people? Those who had repopulated the earth after the flood. The outcome? God confused their language which caused them to divide and go their separate ways. Putting an end to their grand plans. Humbling them in a way only the one true God could do.
This is such a small story in the history of man, or so it seems. It just takes 9 verses in the 11th chapter of Genesis. It’s sandwiched between the great stories of Noah and the introduction to Abraham. I have taught little ones in Bible classes that this is the story of how we got our different languages. End of story.
But wait. That’s just the beginning of this story. The next several centuries are stories about struggles for power between peoples who speak different languages. The languages separated them causing different cultures to develop. God said Himself that He would put a stop to their arrogant ways because otherwise “nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.” God created different languages so that man would not be able to accomplish all he could have done if all were united. Man has been striving with each other ever since.
Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 1:9:
That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
We consider ourselves to be so advanced, technological, scientific. We’re nothing more than what they were back in Genesis 11. Men wanting to make a name for ourselves.
We want more than just a tower. We want to explore the universe. Nothing wrong with that. Unless we leave out the important thing those in Genesis left out: God. We accomplish these amazing feats because God created us to desire to learn more. God gave us the drive and the brains to figure things out. As He said, “nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.”
So Wednesday the rocket launch was postponed due to weather. Nothing new. It happens all the time but keep in mind that God has been left out of this venture. Wednesday evening riots begin in the US. Saturday, the rocket is finally able to launch. Saturday the riots escalate to cities all across the US. Great damage is done to public and private property. Lives are lost.
But these two events don’t have anything to do with each other. Look again. What is causing the riots? Different groups of people not able to work together, to live side by side in peace. Groups divided, not by language, not even by skin color although it plays a huge role, but by culture.
I find it all very sad. Sad for those directly involved and sad for our people as a whole. But I can’t help but see that when we praise ourselves, as a nation, for our own accomplishments and then turn around and destroy the very cities we live in that we are seeing Babel happening again. Not again but continuing. God didn’t confuse their languages just so that generation would not be able to accomplish what they set out to do. He did it to put a halt on all of us. The separation of languages brought about a separation of cultures. This separation will forever keep us from doing what we set out to do.
God isn’t interested in what we consider to be monumental achievements. I watched as that rocket blasted off. It looked huge on its launch pad. As it took off it became smaller and smaller until it could no longer be seen with the human eye. What a tiny thing. A rocket blasting from our small little planet into the huge expanse of space. We praise ourselves and God sees our feeble attempts to make a name for ourselves.
Look what we did! We can’t even love our neighbor. We don’t even know how to treat each other with respect. Of course we can devise a rocket and send it into space. God knew that we could do anything we set out to do. He made us to be able to do great things but until and unless we learn to love and respect each other and until and unless we learn to put God first in our lives, it’s not impressive at all.
Yes, explore the deep sea, the high mountains, the unknown caves and space both near and far. Yes, learn all we can about the tiniest creatures, the microscopic cell and how it works. Do great things using all this knowledge to heal the sick, feed the poor, help the hurting. But first and foremost, thank God for the ability to do these things. Praise Him for the awesome design of the world around us. Let all we do be done to glorify God As long as we leave God out of our story the only name we will make for ourselves will be that of a riotous, unloving, uncaring generation. We can do better. We have to do better.
Genesis 11:1-9
Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 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, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Philippians 2:3-4
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Matthew 5:43-48
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Diana Dow
Well said. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts in light of God’s word.