"I Will Make Your Name Great"

In my last two posts (Friday, Monday), I have been taking a look at the sin of those who proposed to build the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. As I had mentioned, there was always something curious about that story in my mind. I guess I never really thought it made sense. I didn't know what the big deal was about building a tower. But as I've read it afresh, God's intentions became clear to me. And so in their declaration to build the Tower, we saw that their sin was twofold: that it was directly disobedient to God's command to fill the earth, and that their desire to make a name for themselves was treasonous. And, with our wicked, rebellious, desperately sick hearts, and all of our prideful desires to bring glory to our name, and to steal it from Yahweh who's name is worthy, we found ourselves right there with them, building that Tower.

It's a sad story, because it gives us a realistic look at who we are as human beings. Not "basically good" people who sometimes do bad things but are generally all right, but as rebellious, treasonous subjects who spit on the name of their King in hopes to steal the renown due Him and gain a name for ourselves.

But this study would be incomplete without reading the opening verses of the next chapter in Genesis. Be stunned by this.

• Genesis 12:1-3 - Now Yahweh said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."

This is so great. There is glory to be given to Yahweh for His sovereignty. The Babel-onians' problem was that they wanted to make a name for themselves. But Yahweh tells us that He is the One who makes names great! He is the source of glory and renown! And no one will decide what's happening with His creatures and His creation but the Creator Himself! Amazing!

But... wait a minute, though. What about how zealously Yahweh pursues glory for His own name, and how He won't give His glory to another? The sin of the Babel-onians was that they wanted to make a name for themselves, and thus steal Yahweh's glory. And now here, Yahweh is talking about making Abram's name great? What sense does this make?

This is so beautiful, friends. This is the wonderful glory of grace! Yahweh our God will have nothing of anyone trying to make their own name great. He will have no pretenders to His throne. But it is of great glory to Him to freely benefit those whom He chooses to benefit. How zealously does He declare that He pursues His own glory! And He does! But how lovely is it that He -- not shares His glory with, but -- is glorified in an unworthy moon worshiper from Ur of the... who? The Chaldeans! The Babylonians! Just a few generations later, Yahweh freely decides to grace a man with a great name from the very land in which He destroyed the plans of the people to make for themselves a great name!

That Yahweh makes His name great and zealously pursues His glory is a great and wonderful thing. It exalts Him high as Lord over all, a God to be feared and worshiped for His great glory. And we should love that about Him!

But that He purposes to make His name great by freely making an unworthy enemy's name great glorifies Him all the more as the God of grace!

Love this grace, Christian! For it has come to you and me. God has freely chosen us rebellious traitors to participate in this great drama of bringing all glory to Himself. Praise God! Grace has come to you and me!

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.
- Titus 2:11 -

"And Let Us Make for Ourselves a Name"

This is the second post in a three-part series on the sin of those who purposed to build the Tower of Babel.

Last time, I introduced the scene at the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9) and observed that the sin of the 'Babel-onians' was twofold. First, by their desire to not be scattered abroad over the whole earth, there was direct disobedience of God's command to fill the earth (Gen 1:28; 9:1). We focused on this aspect of their sin and found ourselves right there with them, building that tower, as we discovered the desperate sickness of the rebellion of our hearts against our God.

Today I'm going to focus on the second aspect.

Treason

The direct disobedience that manifested the wickedness of their (our) hearts is not all there is to it. The repulsiveness of sin is seen in their (our) treasonous hearts: "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 whole earth."

I hope that sends chills down your spine. Hear the deceitful treason in the desires of their heart. "I want to be great! I want to have renown! I want to be feared among all the people! I want a great name!

"I... want... glory!!!"

And here friends, we see the fountainhead of all the wickedness of our heart spoken of in Friday's post. Our most fundamental problem is that we want glory for ourselves. And yet we're not worthy of it. And we cannot take any glory for ourselves without stealing it from the One who is worthy of all glory, honor, and praise.

From just a fraction of His revelation, listen to Yahweh's passion for His own Name:

• Exodus 9:16 - But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth.
• Isaiah 29:23 - They will sanctify My name; Indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob And will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
• Isaiah 42:8 - I am Yahweh, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another!
• Isaiah 48:11 - For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.
• Malachi 1:11 - For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations," says Yahweh of hosts.

Does the Babel-onians' treason give you chills yet? "Let us make for ourselves a name!"

And oh feel the thunder of God's voice and the fire of His eyes when He answers these traitors, when He declares how zealously He will pursue glory for His name! Feel the force of these declarations! "No! Your name will not be great among the nations! My name will be great among the nations! My name will be proclaimed in all the earth! My name will be sanctified! I will by no means give My glory to you!"

So Yahweh scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth.

This is how God reacts to pride, to those who, unworthy though we be, would steal His glory! And friends, He will not delay to do the same to us who would gather together to build towers to heaven to receive glory for ourselves, to be praised, to be adulated, to be affirmed, to be made much of.

Oh how pervasive pride is in all of us! Oh how we love people to be impressed by our clever thoughts and words! How we love them to see our accomplishments and praise us for them! How we love them to see even our progress by grace in the Christian life, which is not of ourselves (1Cor 4:7), though we would receive glory for it! Oh how we love the praise of men, and desire to make for ourselves a name!

This is your heart. This is, straight from the mouth of Almighty God, what your heart is. Oh, may it keep you near the cross!

How can you believe when you receive glory from one another,
and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?
- John 5:44 -

Our Heart is Desperately Sick

This post is the first of a three-part series on the sin of those who purposed to build the Tower of Babel.

⁴They 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 whole earth." ⁵The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. ⁶The LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. ⁷"Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech." ⁸So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. ⁹Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.
- Genesis 11:4-9 -

So for most of my life I haven't understood this passage.

What was the problem with these guys just building a tower? Yeah, I guess they were prideful in imagining they could reach heaven, but they wouldn't have been able to do it anyway. Did God really feel threatened? Would a successful effort on the part of these 'Babel-onians' have really opened the door of omnipotence to them? And was all God after in confounding their language getting them to give up because they just couldn't understand each other?

In the past couple weeks, for my Old Testament studies class, I've had to read Genesis twice. I've read that story a couple more times as well (quick review before class, lecture during class, etc.). There's a benefit of reading large portions of Scripture repeatedly. As I did this, I believe I gained some insight into why the Babel-onians' sin was specifically offensive to God. And the insight the Word of God gives us into their sin will help us know our own sin, and will therefore aid in that process of the mortification of the flesh (8:12-13), in which, as Christians, we are engaged.

Their sin of congregating and building this tower is twofold: there was direct disobedience of God's command, and there was grievous treason. Today, we'll look at the direct disobedience and seek to find ourselves there, building that tower, as well.

Disobedience

The part of their sin that I want to focus on first is revealed by the following: "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 whole earth."

And you say, "What's the problem with that? They like hanging out with each other. Is it really such a big deal that they didn't want to be scattered abroad?"

The problem was that it was in direct defiance of the very first command God gave man after He made them.

• Genesis 1:28 - God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

After destroying the earth by the Flood, because every intent of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually (Gen 6:5), He also gave this charge to mankind, now to the descendants of Noah.

• Genesis 9:1 - And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth."

And so in chapter 11, one of the Babel-onians' intentions was to avoid being scattered abroad, in direct disobedience of a command they'd received once from their Creator, through their federal head, and then again through their ancestor Noah (only 4 or 5 generations back).

Where this intersects with all of us is: it illustrates the same truth as Genesis 6:5. You say, "No, we're not like those 'every-thought-only-evil-continually' people! God wiped them out! These guys may have been bad, but if they were that bad God would have wiped them out again."

Not at all. God's mercy that has flowed to us through the blessings of the Noahic Covenant did not come because we were a better product than those alive before the flood. Listen to God's reasoning for why He decided never to destroy the earth again by water:

• Genesis 8 - ...and the LORD said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done."

God basically says that if He gave us what we deserved, He'd have to destroy the earth every couple of generations or so! The intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. And even though that's the case, He'll bless us by not wiping us off the face of the earth as we deserve.

And so when God gives us a command to fill the earth, our wicked, rebellious hearts that think only evil continually decide that we'll stay put. Know the depth of your depravity, friends. Know that, when met with our corrupted flesh, God's holy, righteous, and good Law (Rom 7:12) serves only to aggravate our sin all the more, to drive us to despair, and to cause us to call out for mercy from the One who was born under the Law so that He might redeem those who were under the Law (Gal 4:4-5), from the One who became a curse for us in order that we might receive the blessing of the promise of the Spirit (Gal 3:13-14).

This is your heart. This is, straight from the mouth of Almighty God, what your heart is. Oh, may it keep you near the cross!

The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?
- Jeremiah 17:9 -

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth,
and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
- Genesis 6:5 -