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Zuckerberg, Babel, and the Church

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole Earth.”
Genesis 11:1-4

The story of the tower of Babel is usually used as a warning against pride. And that’s valid. But I choose to also see it as a challenge.

Using the technology of their day – brick baking – mankind tried to build a tower to reach the heavens to make their name great. And they almost succeeded.

Think about that for a second. Mankind had the skill to accomplish this feat. They had the drive. The vision. All they lacked was God’s favor. That made all the difference, of course, but look at what they were willing to try without it.

This gets me thinking about the God-sized mandate that Jesus gave to us right before He left the Earth in Matthew 28:19-20:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

If the people of Babel could do all they did to make their name great, why should anything be impossible to us as a Church as we seek to make the Name of Jesus great? If the people in Genesis 11 could accomplish so much having God against them, how much more should we accomplish having God for us?

Maybe it would help if I put this in modern terms:

If Mark Zuckerberg can build Facebook for his own glory, what will we as the church build for the glory of God? If Oprah can start a network to cover the Earth with Oprah, why shouldn’t we use every resource at our disposal to cover the Earth with the name of Jesus?

The people of Babel built a brick tower for their own glory. Zuckerberg and Oprah are making their names great.

The tower came down. Their names were to be forgotten.

As much as that is a testimony to the futility of human pride, it’s just as much a question to us:

What will you build for the glory of God?

Whose Kingdom will last forever. Whose Name will be praised for eternity.