There is one rule in creating drama to build a blockbuster story that fills the big screen with action: create a problem. And the quickest way to create a problem is to have a main character break a rule: cheat, kill, steal, even skimp on building codes for a building 81 stories high. And what goes up like that will come down in a ball of flames like it did in the 70’s blockbuster: Towering Inferno.
If Irvin Allen’s production of the Towering Inferno showed us anything, it is this: Breaking critical building codes can have devastating effects. On the other hand, God’s production of the Tower of Babel teaches us a greater truth: breaking His building code will have devasting consequences on building a blessed life. How do you build a successful, blessed life?
That question is raised in the raising of the Tower of Babel seen in “The Tower”, episode five of The Seed: The Greatest Story Ever Told. In this Genesis sermon series, The Seed tells the epic saga of the journey of the “Seed-Son”, sent by God, to save humankind from itself—its sin. The protagonist is Christ; the antagonist is Satan whose mission is to derail, by any means necessary, the Seed from His destination—the cross. One of Satan’s strategies is to get man to build a life apart from God’s plan for salvation.
We will see in Genesis 11 how to build a blessed life. First, trust God’s plan over man’s plan to build a blessed life. Second, trust God’s power to intercede in man’s ill-fated power-scheme to live a blessed life. Finally, trust God’s path over’s man’s ill-fated path to find a blessed life. Want to build something good? Follow God’s building code so that we all make it out blessed.
First, trust God’s plan over man’s plan to build a blessed life. God previewed his plan to fulfill his Genesis 3:15 promise to bless mankind and save it from sin through “the Seed of a Woman who will crush the head of the snake.” That preview is seen in Genesis 9:1:
Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Gen. 9:1
God’s plan to bless mankind is to bring into the world the Seed-child through the line of Noah. The key word is fill. God’s plan is to have man keep having children, to keep him moving, to fill the earth until he is at the place where He wants the Seed to be—Jerusalem. Fill—that was the building code to build a blessed life. God said fill, but man’s plan was, not to fill, to be still.
After the flood, the nations—the off springs of Noah and his sons—feared scattering to a new place, so they settled for settling in a familiar place, the plains of Shinar or Babel, and to trust their ingenuity, ambition, fear:
“Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” (They had brick instead of stone and tar instead of mortar.) 4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise, we will be scattered across the face of the entire earth.” … Gen 11:3-4
Ingenuity, ambition and fear were man’s building code.
Baked bricks and sticky tar were ingenious (v. 3). The innovations of heat and adhesive made building anything possible and waterproof. They didn’t quite believe God’s promise not to destroy the world by water.
A city and a tower were ambitious (4). An aggressive use of resources motivated man’s ambition. They wanted a high vantage point to practice astronomy and read the stars to know the future. They could be famous. They could make a name for themselves—not “Adam”, the name God gave them—but one of their own identities.
The notion of scattering to unknown parts of the world was scary. It opened the door to xenophobia—the fear of the unknown. Fear ruled over faith.
Man’s ingenuity, ambition and fear can be summed up in one code: make a name for himself—to be famous without God. That was man’s code: to be “apart” from God rather than be “a part” of God’s plan to bless them. It appears Satan’s established blueprint to turn cosmos to chao was all over the place. Satan’s building code was to convince man his plan was wiser than God’s, that man could build on that.
Church, as you consider what to do next in your current situation—property up for sale, no pastor, few in the pew—what is your plan to build a blessing? You can be incredibly ingenious, ambitious, yet fearful. If your plan does not include faith to “go and fill” where you cannot see, you will fail. So, fill:
Fill with evangelism. “Go ye therefore…” and do Matthew 28’s Great Commission. No visitor should dart your door without someone getting some follow-up information to, well…follow up.
Fill with service. Love your neighbor as yourself and do Matthew 22’s greatest command. CASA (Court Appointed Child Advocacy) can always use volunteers. The Highway 80 Mission just had a fire. They could use your help as they help others.
Fill with worship. “Enter into His courts with thanksgiving…” and do the Great Call to worship. You don’t have to be a public speaker to lead in Communion reflecting on God has blessed you.
So, ask yourself: Where is the faith—the “filling”—in your building code to build what is next? Want to build a blessing. Follow His building code so that we all make it out blessed.
Second, trust God’s power to intercede in man’s ill-fated power-scheme to live a blessed life.We see God’s power interceding in man’s plan to build with his code in verses 5-8:
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people had started building. 6 And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. 7 Come, let’s go down and confuse their language so they won’t be able to understand each other. Genesis 11:5-8
God saw the danger of evil spreading unabated because of one common language. Sin would spread like wildfire. All it takes is one bad idea from one mouth to another’s ear. Perhaps, that’s why James calls the tongue “a fire that corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell (James. 3:6).
With their ambition to reach heaven, this pride would spread by word-of-mouth, fueling a false belief in their abilities apart from their belief in God. Pride is a bad building code according to Proverbs 16:18: Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18
God has always demonstrated his power over man’s ill-fated power schemes to avoid obeying Him. So, God decided: Man if you’re not going to fill, but sit, I will scatter.
8 So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why its name was called Babel - because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth. Gen. 11:8-10
Single mindedness—accepting only one story, one voice—has always been a dangerous thing, a breeding place for evil, a terrible build code. It was the single-mindedness of Germany under the single voice of Hitler that was the foundation to build The Third Reich. A single narrative of racial supremacy was the basis for the Holocaust—the systematic murder of six million Jews across German-occupied Europe during World War Two. Last week, Holocaust Remembrance Day was observed with the sole purpose of preventing the return of Anti-Semitism that, even now, is on the rise, fueled in part, by the similar dynamic of the Tower of Babel—one dangerous idea abetted by a one-language paradigm—social media—where White-supremacists and Neo-Nazi hate groups incubate and inculcate.
But God demonstrated his power over the spread of Germany’s fascism. The Allies won but the work of the Evil One is not done. The language of hate is still spoken
Church, as you consider what to do next in your current situation—trust God’s power to see and respond to pride and single-mindedness. Pride will only cause confusion. Have faith to “go and scatter”, to listen to God and go where He wants you to go. Ask yourself: Where is the faith in our building plan to bless our next steps? Want to build a blessing? Follow God’s building code so that we all make it out blessed.
Finally, trust God’s path over man’s ill-fated path to build blessed life. God’s path to bless man would be, not through the line of Noah’s son Ham and his grandson Nimrod, but through Noah’s son Shem to connect to Abraham:
11This is the account of Shem. Gen 11:10 26 When Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Gen. 11:26
The Genesis 3:15 Seed will catch a ride on Noah’s ark. And out of the ruins of the scattered city of Babylon, God will preserve the promised Seed out of the line of ten men to Father Abraham. In chapter 12, God will later reaffirm His promise of the Seed to Abraham to bless all mankind.
No amount of man’s ill-fated plans, insipid power and confused paths can thwart God’s building codes to bless His Seed to bless man.
· When Pharoah’s building code was to kill every Hebrew boy, it failed because of faithful midwives in Exodus 1:16. The Seed was saved to bless mankind.
· When King Herod’s building code was to kill every Hebrew boy two years old and younger in Bethlehem to get Jesus, it failed because Joseph was faithful to listen to a divine dream and escaped to Egypt. The Seed was saved to bless mankind.
· And when a later King Herod and the crowd’s building code was to “Crucify him, Crucify Him,” on an old rugged cross, they failed because of a faithful Father who rolled the gravestone away. The Seed was saved and raised from the dead on the third day. All mankind was forgiven.
Church, as you consider what to do next in your current situation—property up for sale, no pastor, few in the pew—what is your path to build a blessing? Trust the path that requires the most faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God and bless yourself. So, go and fill, walk by faith. Ask yourself is there enough faith in your building code. Want to build a blessing? Follow His building code.
CONCLUSION
If you want to build something that blesses: first, trust God’s plan over man’s plan to build a blessed life. Second, trust God’s power to intercede in man’s ill-fated power schemes to live a blessed life. Finally, trust God’s path over’s man’s ill-fated path to build a blessed life.
In the Towering Inferno, breaking a few building code rules made for exciting drama, but ended in disaster. A building, eight-one stories up, nearly came down in a ball of flames. Ignored building codes didn’t work for the Tower of Babel, either. Neither will it work for your hopes of building something good out of something bad for your church and for your life. Build by His code. It’s the best way so that we all make it out blessed.
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