Build-a-God Workshop

N. Hunter Strength

Beacon Baptist Church

9.25.22

Introduction:

In Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, Willy Loman spends his entire life creating this facade of success around himself. Towards the end of his life, the reality of his deceit comes to light and his son notices that his father never truly knew himself. There are ways in which we can so truly sell ourselves on a lie that we became convinced that perhaps it were true to begin with. It was Austin O’Malley who said, “Those who think it’s permissible to tell white lies soon become color blind.” And isn’t this the truth of the world around us? Even within our own lives, we may find ourselves casually saying untruthful things that we wouldn’t consider to be significant such as: “I never saw that text!”, or “I sent the check in the mail yesterday.” or “The Miami Hurricanes are back!”. In all sincerity, We hold onto lies and speak them as though they have, within themselves, the ability to change reality as we know it. This is not merely the case with things we may consider “minor”, such as trying to ease your way out of a ticket, but it also concerns the greatest of things, that being our view of who God is. And with this being true, as I studied through our passage for this evening, I found myself confronted with this mountainous question: How much of what we believe about God is formulated by what we wish were so, rather than what He has told us is so? Or to put it another way: Have I created God in my own image?

Last year Ragan and I decided to take Ella to Build a Bear Workshop. And at Build-a-Bear, you have the privilege of walking in, selecting whatever creature you want, dressing him however you want, and then they let you kiss his little heart and tuck it away inside right before they stuff him full of fluff. And this kind thing is cute when it comes to making stuffed animals for your daughter, but it’s not so cute when it comes to the Lord of glory. He is the essence and origin of beauty, honor, and glory. He is the climax, the pinnacle of all that is lovely and grand. He is not a blemish ridden God needing the makeup of our ideals smeared upon His face. And as we look in Genesis 11 this evening, we will find the story of a people who have found themselves walking into that sinful “Build-A-God” workshop. Let’s read Genesis 11:1-9 together,

Genesis 11:1–9 NKJV

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.

Now, before we dive further into this passage, I need to set a little backdrop. In Genesis 3, we read the horrible story of Adam and Eve sinning against the Lord. It is there that we find the gracious, yet firm judgment of God as a result of the sin of man. One of the results of this is that Adam and Eve are banished from Eden and from the presence of God and those hands which once were able to hold the fruit of their sinful choice in taking the fruit of the tree, now have nothing to hold onto to show for their actions. Yet within their hearts the hands of faith cradle very near to them the that blessed curse that God delivered to the Serpent that was pregnant with the promise that God would provide a Serpent-Crushing Messiah.

Now, as we find ourselves here in Genesis 11, mankind is still banished from God’s presence. But what we will find first, and this is our first point for tonight, is:

A Shameful Pursuit of Glory

It’s finally VBS time again and little Benjamin finally gets to go this year. Throughout the week they’ve announced that there would be a competition between the boys and girls to see which group would give the most money. Ben was ecstatic. He would race home to search under his bed, between the couch cushions, and everywhere he could think of. The final day came and Ben is seated with excitment as they pass the buckets around to take up moeny from each side. As the plates go by, Ben’s mom decides she’d like to contribute to the giving but she realizes that 10 dollars is missing from her purse and as she makes eye contact with Ben, he realizes he’s been caught.

With eye’s focused on the glory waiting before him, that feeling of being able to triumphantly stick his tongue out at all the girls, the seriousness of his actions didn’t seem too severe. Perhaps you and I have done something similar in our lives. Maybe you’ve cheated on your taxes believing that the joy of having more of your money around would feel far better than following the law of the land and in your mind you’ve justified it already effectively numbing your conscience to any rebuke. You see, we often focus on the feeling of self-exaltion without ever considering that there could be negative recompense for our actions.

In Genesis 9:1, God gives the command to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth.” for the second time. God’s desire is that all of His little image bearers would spread through the Earth, representing His character to His glory. Yet not much time passes at all and we find the people here in Shinar, this could be also called Mesopotamia or Babylon. And instead of focusing on their God-given task, they decide that they’re going to stay in one place, build a giant tower, and they’re going to be safe and become forever famous for the work they do there.

Now what’s so shameful about this? All they wanted was a good name. And that’s not a shameful thing at all. However, they could’ve gotten a lasting name through having children, exploring, and doing great things. Instead, they decide they want to directly rebel against God’s command and do things their own way for the glory of it all.

But what we need to focus on here to understand this passage is this tower that they’re building. This isn’t just some cool office building, but is what they called a Ziggurat. Now Ziggurats were these massive mountains that they would build as high as they could in hopes that it would poke into the heavens and attract a god to it. These Ziggurats would have a small room on the top of them where the god could rest and eat, and it would have a long stairway on the way down where the deity could walk down. At the bottom of this tower, there would be a temple for the god to live in so they could worship him and he could bless them. And we may still be thinking to ourselves, “What’s so bad about wanting God to come dwell among them?” And there’s nothing wrong with that, except for their motives! Yes, they want God present with them, but not because He is glorious and righteous. But because they are more interested in blessings than the blesser Himself. They want to have the reputation of being the people who enticed God to come down to live with them so they could have what verse 4 calls, “a name for ourselves.” These people have fallen into paganism and instead of worshiping the God who made them in His image, they have created a god who is the way they’d like him to be. They’ve created this easily manipulated god who needs food and rest and yearns to be pampered and they figured they could check those boxes for an awesome reputation. They’ve created a false idea of the True God in their minds and they’ve decided their going to use Him for the purpose of their names being great.

And this seems insane and easy to laugh at today; but it’s still this way. We have a world that wants a Christ with no confrontation, a God who loves with no holiness, a savior with no judgment. We have people who claim to be Christians who want a sovereign God who we’ve forbidden to display any electing love. But this doesn’t shock us, we’re aware of these things. But my question again is, “How much of what we believe about God is formulated by what we wish He was like, rather than what He has told us He is like?

One writer said, “Christians tend to sort of keep God around like the British monarchy- good for show, but with little power.” And we may think that’s the best way to govern a nation, but it isn’t the way God works. Do we have an idea of God that says, “God hates sin and I rejoice to see the day things are made straight concerning all of the heart ache people have dealt me.” Meanwhile we think He certainly winks at my sin when I explode at my spouse after a long day simply because, hey, it’s me afterall? John Walton wrote, “When we think we can manipulate God by praying in Jesus’ name to achieve selfish purposes, our paganism is showing. When we “claim promises” as a means of making God do what we want him to do, our paganism is showing. When we come to think we are indispensable to God because of the money we donate, the talents we have, the ministries we engage in, or the worship we offer, our paganism is showing. When we treat God as a child to be cajoled or a tyrant to be appeased, the Babel syndrome is surging in our veins. We want a manageable “God-lite.” We want to be able to harness his power for our own benefit, no strings attached.” Is this us? This is the sin of Simon Magus in Acts 8, who thought he could buy off the power of God and use it to build his own name.

You know, what we believe about God is the most important thing about us. We are all theologians whether we choose to accept that or not, and our theology influences every corner of our life. Within the lives of these people, they didn’t take God seriously. They rebelled against His command and presumed on His grace as though they did Him a favor in building that tower. And because our theology affects all of our life, we better come to the Scriptures praying for God to show us His glory and that if we have some faulty view of Him, that He would change it.

Well, God does come down, but not to bless. In verse 5-9 we’ll find his response and it gives us our second point which is very short, and it is that God delivers:

A Serious Punishment

This is a serious account in our Bibles. In Genesis 1, God creates. In Genesis 3 we read of the Fall, in Genesis 6, we read of the Flood. And what happens here in Genesis 11 is not just that God messes with their speech and destroys their building. This is man pursuing paradise with God’s presence for selfish benefits and it backfires. This is God fully disowning the people of the Earth. This is what some OT scholars call the Romans 1 of the Old Testament. This is where God delivers them up to their vile affections in totality. Now, this should cause you as the Bible reader to gasp, “NO!” You see, within chapters 3-11 there should be this strong tension where you’re expecting messiah to come at any time. Adam and Eve certainly do. That’s why they name their son “Cain” which means “Received from the Lord”. And in the context, it would seem that they strongly expected that Cain was the deliverer. So these chapters are the stories of, “Could this be the Messiah?! Follow by failure.” And this passage should especially stress us out. Why? Because God just disowned everyone. It seems hopeless. But this isn’t it. Here’s my last point.

A Sweet Provision

If you will look with me in Genesis 12:1-9

Genesis 12:1–9 (NKJV)

Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,

From your family

And from your father’s house,

To a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you

And make your name great;

And you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

And I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.

Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.

It is here that we read the beginning of what we call the Abrahamic Covenant. But why does this matter? This matters because as Galatians 3:16

Galatians 3:16 NKJV

16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.

This is the beginning of the nation of Israel. Who God sets aside to be that people that would bless the whole world because it is through them the Lord Jesus Christ will come. There is this constant building of tension throughout the Old Testament where great men such as Noah, Moses, Joshua, and David rise and there is this idea of “Could he be the one?” and they fall over and over again. But it is through this covenant with Abraham that God begins this beautiful unfolding and pointing forward to that great Christ who is the One who won’t let us down, but instead will redeem His people from their sins. This should be extremely encouraging to our hearts here for in Genesis 11 we find sinful man attempting to bring God down to be used for their sinful purposes. But here in Genesis 12, a Holy God comes down to bring up a sinful man named Abram for His Divine purposes. But that’s not all. Stay with me, I’m going somewhere...

In Genesis 11 we find a sinful people establishing a sacred place for God to dwell for their selfish benefit, but through the Abrahamic line comes the Lord who would take upon Himself our sins on Calvary, die, and rise again. And upon His ascension, days later, He sends forth the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. It is at Pentecost that we find God pleased to dwell within His people for their good and His glory. Would you hold your place here in Genesis 11 and turn with me to Acts 2:1-13? As we read, I’m going to point out the connecting language seen in this passage. In v1 we read, “They were all together in one place.” in v3 we see the word, “divided” like we see in Deuteronomy 32:8-9, and in v6 we see the word, “bewildered” or “confused” just like God uses in Genesis 11.

So, what we see here that is just too rich for words, is that in Christ, tongues once boasting in vanity and separated by pride are now unified and lit aflame to the praise of God. In Christ, we see that the hands that once built up the kingdoms of selfish pride are known put to work building the kingdom of God. In Christ, our minds that once drew up plans of selfish gain are now consumed with thought of who God truly is.

Conclusion:

I’d like to say that the Tower of Babel is not an accident. God ordained this incident to reveal to us the seriousness of His glory and the proper means by which we have access to Him. In the failure of the Tower of Babel, we find confused nations who are now separated from one another and who are delivered up to the idols of their hearts. But in this New Covenant, wherein we know more fully see the Spirit birthing a new people into a heavenly kingdom through the power of His gospel; we find that we will turn to the right and to the left and we won’t say to our brother, “Know the Lord” for they shall all know Him. In Christ, there is a wonderful kingdom, who’s people are closer than family as they are united by the blood of Christ. And our wonderfully eternal language shall forevermore be “Hallelujah’s” raised to the Lamb slain that we may now have bold access into the presence of the Most High God.

This story of the Tower of Babel is the story of both having a god of our own imagination as well as the shameful attempt of man to find themselves in the glory of God. What is most precious about this text is that it so beautifully points to Christ. It points to Christ, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. It points to Christ who is the way, the truth and the life. It points to Christ who is Emmanuel - God with us. It points to Christ who has sent forth His Spirit to dwell with us and it points to Christ through whom we have bold access into the presence of God.

Who do you think God is? Is it a depiction that is foreign to His word? If it is, then that’s an idol. And what do you believe grants you access into His presence? Beloved, if you are resting in your works, your giving, or even friendships then you’re sorely mistaken; look to Christ.

One writer said, “God freely and genuinely tells us, “I love you”- but if we expect Him to say, “I need you”, be prepared for a letdown.”

Here are a few lessons from this passage tonight:

We must be dedicated to having our understanding shaped by the Scriptures.

Though there will always be conflict with sin, we should frequently check our motives in Christian service to see if they are God-honoring and genuine.

We must not take the grace of God for granted.

We should rejoice that the presence of God among us is not contingent upon our methods, but rests upon His grace.