Move past pride

The Tower of Babel--Genesis 11:1-9

"They said, 'Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the earth'"--Genesis 11:4.  I find this story to be among the most interesting in the Old Testament.  We see a group of people descended from Noah and his family.  At this point in time, the whole world was of one language so communication was not an issue.  Rather, than spread out these people decide to use their one language to their advantage, build a tower that would reach into heaven in order to make a name for themselves.  I have heard people say the sin here was that they were trying to be like God. However, it's simpler than that.  What they did is the reason they were forced to move past pride.

Move past pride. The story of Babel later to be known as Babylon.  Above is an artist's rendition of the tower of Babel, one of many.  In this story, we find the origins of world languages.  But what was their sin? We have to go all the way back to Genesis 9 to find out. In Genesis 9:1 God tells Noah to "Be fruitful and multiply and FILL THE WHOLE EARTH." (Emphasis added).  The descendants of Noah were failing to do this. Rather than spread out, they gathered into one place.  So what does God do? He comes down and confuses their languages so they are not able to communicate in order to finish the task forcing them to scatter across the earth.  This is why the area was called Babel.

Move past pride. We can also see that the pride of life was an issue here as well. These people were more interested in making a name for themselves than they were doing God's will.

Move past pride. What does this mean to us? Pride led to disobedience here.  Too often we are more concerned with how we look to the world than we are with pleasing God. There are times in our lives when we say "Let us make a name for ourselves" instead of pleasing God.  Pride is also the cause a lot of this.  Pride is a huge problem these days for us as Christians when it comes to doing God's will.

Move past pride. My encouragement to you start out the week is to move past pride.  Do God's will and move past pride by taking time to talk to the cashier at the local grocery store about Christ, or move past pride by talking to your family member who is not a Christian about Christ.  If pride is stopping you from being reconciled to a brother or sister in Christ, move past pride and go to that person and resolve the situation and don't let pride stop you. Or maybe you can move past pride and take time to buy some food for that homeless person you see on your way to work.  May we all move past pride. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!