Let Us Make For Ourselves a Name
Midland SDA Church
Tony Khalil
October 31, 2009
Does anyone know what building this is? It’s Burj Dubai. At 2,684 feet and 160 floors, it is the tallest man made structure ever built. Construction began in September 2004 and was completed this September 2009. 5 years of construction and 4.1 billion dollars yielded 3,595,100 square feet of floor area and the new world record.
On the screen now is a comparison chart of how it stacks up with some of the worlds other tall buildings. Perhaps the most well known to us here in Michigan is Chicago’s Sears Tower, or Willis Tower as it was renamed in July. Burj Dubai stands over 1000 feet taller.
Here is a neat picture taken from above sometime during the construction of the building. The curvature you see at the edge of the picture is just the distortion due to the camera lens and has nothing to do with the curvature of the earth as some would have you believe. How would you like to be one of the workmen up there at the top. I hope that position pays well.
Here are a few interesting facts about the construction of this great tower. 300,000 cubic yards of concrete were used in it construction. Do you know how much concrete that is? A lot, right? Well, to give you a sense of how much it is, if you were to use 300,000 cubic yards of concrete to make a sidewalk. Your sidewalk would be about 1,200 miles long. In all this concrete is about 31,400 metric tons of rebar. If laid end to end the rebar would reach over ¼ of the way around the world.
Now the concrete and rebar are parts of the building that you don’t see in these pictures, what about the glass and metal panels. There’s about 20.7 acres of glass and 6.8 acres of metal panel comprising the exterior skin of this building. Now I know 20.7 acres doesn’t sound like that much if were talking about farm land. But let me tell you 20 acres of glass is a lot of windows.
The Bible tells us a story about another tower, built in the land of Shinar. We don’t know how much material was used or even how high it was planned to be. We do however know it was constructed of masonry, which would indicate it was no skyscraper. It was not until the introduction of steel framed construction that man could conceive of skyscrapers as we know them today.
Most archaeologists believe it was located in Mesopotamian Babylon, southwest of Baghdad Iraq but as with many archaeological claims, it is not unanimous. Michael Sanders, a British archaeologist, believes it was in the Pontus region of the Black Sea coast of Turkey, which coincidentally is the same place several modern academics place the origin of all modern languages of the west.
Regardless of the exact location, it is interesting to note that relative to the scale of the world it is incredibly close to the modern day location of Burj Dubai.
Aside from it’s location, there are few similarities between the tower of Babel and Burj Dubai. One humorous one I read about during my research was the inability of the workers to communicate. When the Burj Dubai started to get really high, the construction workers discovered one problem that seems obvious now: their walkie-talkies stopped working as they climbed the structure. The reason was simple: distance. At the beginning of the construction they used walkie-talkies—which are light, durable, and have a long battery life—across the site but it turned out there were unanticipated range limitations as they ascended the tower. The similarity stops there though. With technology upgrades, unlike the men of Babel, they were able to overcome their communication problem.
It is likely that the Tower of Babel was a ziggeraut. A ziggeraut is descriptively referred to as a step pyramid.
They were made of sun-baked bricks at the core with facings of fired bricks on the outside. It was a form of architecture usually reserved for temple construction. Which raises the question “Was the tower of Babel a temple of false worship?
Let’s read about it in Genesis 11:1-9.
1Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.
2It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land (A)of Shinar and settled there.
3They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they used (B)tar for mortar.
4They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top (C)will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves (D)a name, otherwise we (E)will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."
5(F)The 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 (G)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, (H)let Us go down and there (I)confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech."
8So the LORD (J)scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.
9Therefore its name was called [a](K)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.
The story told here in Genesis 11 of the tower of Babel, may, to the casual reader, raise some question about God’s fairness. After all, why did he care if they built a tower? Why didn’t he want them to succeed at their plans? Was God afraid they might actually reach Heaven with their tower? Is God a control freak, ready and willing to step in and mess things up when they are not going his way? Or is there more to it than what first meets the eye?
Let’s break it down a bit. In verse 4 they say “Come, let us build for ourselves a city”. Now what’s wrong with that? Is there anything inherently wrong with building a city? Before you answer, remember that Jesus went back to heaven to build a city for us. It’s called “The Holy City” or “The New Jerusalem” we are told in Revelation 21:2. If Jesus builds cities it must be an okay activity right? Let’s look back a couple of chapters to Genesis 9:1. This is right after Noah and his family, get off the ark, and it says:
1And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "(A)Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
Was this a command? Of course, and who were the people of Babel we have been reading about in Chapter 11? Yes, they were the early descendents of Noah. We see here that God has commanded them to do what? To fill the earth, right. Building a city was in direct and open opposition to God’s command.
You may say, “well a lot of time has passed between chapters 9 and 11, Noah and his sons have since died, and these people, they don’t know anything about this command to go out and fill the earth.”, then why the tower? Could it be, they knew they were disobedient to God’s command and as a result felt vulnerable to His judgment. Failing to trust in the promise he made to their fathers in Chapter 9 Verse 11:
11"I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall (J)never again be cut off by the water of the flood, (K)neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth."
They embarked on constructing a tower in part for protection from erroneous future flood waters.
When we experience guilt for the wrong doing in our lives, we have a choice. We can choose to repent of our sin and come, running back to our Father’s open arms, or we can choose to turn from the convicting truth and the God from whom it originates. These early descendents of Noah chose the latter and felt compelled to attempt to protect themselves from the one they should have run to.
It is interesting to note that had they followed Gods command in Genesis 9:1 to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, they would have effectively avoided many of the pitfalls inherent with high concentrations of people. One of the chapters in the book Last Day Events that we studied in prayer meeting last year, spoke to the problems of cities. When people are piled up in cities, there is a tendency to lose touch with the natural world which God has created for us to learn of His ways. The clutter of man blocks out the beauty of creation, encouraging us in the ways of laziness, selfishness, and pleasure seeking.
Had these men of Babel made the correct choice, following God’s command by spreading out over the entire earth in homesteads rather than cities, they would have had a better opportunity to hear their creator speaking to them through his creation.
The tower was a declaration of their self sufficiency and a bold statement of not only “We don’t need you God” but also “This time you can’t get us.”, direct open defiance.
Let’s just pretend for a moment that the children we have raised or are currently raising are not perfect. I know that might be a new concept for some but we’re just pretending. It’s hypothetical. Now imagine that your child is playing with his favorite toy in the other room. You need him to come and help you with something so you call his name. Instead of responding how you would expect by stopping his play and running to you, he continues to play with the toy as if you hadn’t said anything. That is disobedience, right?
Now picture the same scenario, but this time seeing no response to your call, you walk toward you child with the intention of pointing out his error. As you approach, he jumps up and shouts “No, and you can’t get me” and proceeds to run away from you. Is this behavior still disobedience? I would propose that it goes beyond disobedience and would classify it as defiance.
Which behavior would make you more concerned about the character development of your child? Of course the defiance would. I’m not trying to minimize the importance of obedience, but defiance seems to be a more grievous offence. This was one of the sins of the inhabitants of Babel and looking at it in this light, it is not hard to see why God felt it necessary to intervene.
A little further down in Genesis 11:4 we read…“and let us make for ourselves (D)a name” Here we find yet another sin of the people of Babel. They had become impressed with themselves. Instead of seeking to glorify God and his attributes, drawing others to Him, they wanted to lift themselves up to a place of importance and receive the praise and glory that rightly belonged to God.
This sounds all to similar to the description of Satan in Isaiah 14:12-14.
12"How you have (A)fallen from heaven,
O (B)star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to
the earth,
You who have weakened the
nations!
13"But
you said in your heart,
'I will (C)ascend to heaven;
I will (D)raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the
mount of assembly
In the recesses of the
north.
14'I
will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
(E)I will make myself like the Most High.'
What about us, you and me. We certainly don’t say these words audibly, but do our thoughts, our plans, or our actions, speak these words. When someone at the office pats you on the shoulder after an impressive performance with a client and says “good job, I would have never thought of that approach”. Do we enjoy the praise a little too much? Or when you are sitting in class after receiving some test results, only to find it was your score that established the top of the curve, do you look down your nose a bit at your fellow students feeling intellectually superior.
As almost all of you know, I had a job change recently. After realizing the company I had worked for over the last 15 years was going to go out of business, I applied for, interviewed, and secured a new position at Delta College. Through this process I experienced some things that helped me to identify this prideful attitude in myself.
First of all I realized that when discussing my job ending with others, it was important to me to make it clear that I was not losing my job as the result of a lay off or termination but it was because the company was going out of business. I didn’t want anyone to think I was not valuable to my employer. Pride.
Then, after securing the new job, I found myself easily falling into the trap of accepting the praise of others for landing the job based on my own qualifications, credentials, and experience. Pride again.
And finally, although I really honestly hoped my coworkers would find employment too, I must admit I felt the victory of being the first one to land something.
It is important that we recognize these manifestations of pride, humble ourselves, and repent of them. Heeding the wise words of Solomon in Proverbs 29: 23 “23A man's (A)pride will bring him low, But a (B)humble spirit will obtain honor.” We must be very careful with pride because it is often subtle at first, but if nurtured, will grow and lead to our ultimate destruction.
I remember when I first heard the definition of the word Narcissism. Most of you may know what narcissism is, but I have never studied psychology (Sociology is the closest you get in architectural school). So it was only about four or five years ago that I heard it defined. Simply stated narcissism is a psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem. Well after hearing this and thinking about it I started to question myself, am I narcissistic? I’m always looking out for myself, often times my thoughts are consumed with my own plans. Sometimes I am more annoyed with, than compassionate towards other people. So this list of my prideful and selfish behaviors and failures ran through my mind. Like the healthy man who begins to find symptoms of a disease in himself after reading about it, I quickly diagnosed myself with terminal narcissism (there is probably a word to describe that behavior as well, I’ve heard it referred to as medical student syndrome). With time my rational mind took back over and I realized the condition of narcissism is much more acute than my condition, more accurately characterized as “sinful man” but this exercise in self-psychoanalysis helped me to recognize pride and ego in myself.
The tower of Babel is not the only biblical example of God intervening in the affairs of man to root out the evil of pride. The Old Testament is full of examples of God stepping in and punishing Israel and Judah for the pride of the people and their kings. Judas pride led to the betrayal of Christ and Peter’s to his denying Him. There was Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4: 30,31 30The king said, Is not this the great Babylon that I have built as the royal residence and seat of government by the might of my power and for the honor and glory of my majesty? 31While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind and was made to live with the beasts of the field for seven years as a result of his pride.
Then there is the one who started this whole business, as we read in Ezekiel 28: 12-19
“ You were the seal of perfection,
Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God;
Every precious stone was your
covering:
The sardius, topaz, and diamond,
Beryl, onyx, and jasper,
Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.
The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes
Was prepared for you on the day you were
created.
14 “ You were the anointed cherub who
covers;
I established you;
You were on the holy mountain of God;
You walked back and forth in the midst of
fiery stones.
15 You were perfect in your ways from the
day you were created,
Till iniquity was found in you.
16 “ By the abundance of your trading
You became filled with violence within,
And you sinned;
Therefore I cast you as a profane thing
Out of the mountain of God;
And I destroyed you, O covering cherub,
From the midst of the fiery stones.
17 “ Your heart was lifted up because of your
beauty;
You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of
your splendor;
I cast you to the ground,
I laid you before kings,
That they might gaze at you.
18 “ You defiled your sanctuaries
By the multitude of your iniquities,
By the iniquity of your trading;
Therefore I brought fire from your midst;
It devoured you,
And I turned you to ashes upon the earth
In the sight of all who saw you.
19 All who knew you among the peoples are
astonished at you;
You have become a horror,
And shall be no more forever.”’”
Is pride something to take seriously? I think so.
How many here went to the Michigan Men of Faith Conference last month? Well Doug Bachelor spoke in the afternoon about this very topic. He made a couple of statements about pride that I felt were worthy of writing down. The first was “Pride springs from selfishness”. It’s true right? Have you ever met a prideful person that was always thinking of others first? Of course you haven’t. A “self-less” person cannot be proud because their focus is not on themselves.
The second statement was “the antithesis of selfishness is love”. Selfishness and Love are opposites. The bible tells us plainly that God is love, it’s his character. Would it also be accurate to say the character of Satan is selfishness. Whose character do you desire? Gods. Right?
How can we develop the character of God or Christ? The bible seems to indicate humility has an important role to play. Lets look together at 1 Peter 5:5,6
“Likewise, you who are younger and of lesser rank, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God sets Himself against the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you.”
And Micah 6:8 says
“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God?”
Humility has more to it than just being lowly. We see here it is associated with love, kindness and mercy. These are all virtues of God that we too can possess. Peter spoke of humility toward one another. How can we show humility toward one another? By caring for others, putting there needs before our own. Let’s read what Jesus has to say in Luke 14:11-14
11 “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
12Jesus also said to the man who had invited Him, When you give a dinner or a supper, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, lest perhaps they also invite you in return, and so you are paid back.
13But when you give a banquet or a reception, invite the poor, the disabled, the lame, and the blind.
14Then you will be blessed, because they have no way of repaying you, and you will be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.”
Jesus didn’t just teach this philosophy of service, he lived it. In the life of Christ we see the epitome of humility. He entered our world as an infant in a blue collar family, made disciples of uneducated fishermen, and ministered to lepers, prostitutes, and tax collectors. Yet somehow he captured the attention of the world.
Jesus tells a story of a Pharisee and a Publican. We find it in Luke 18:10-14
10Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11The Pharisee took his stand ostentatiously and began to pray thus before and with himself: God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of men--extortioners, swindlers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector here.
12I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I gain.
13But the tax collector, standing at a distance, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but kept striking his breast, saying, O God, be favorable to me, the especially wicked sinner that I am!
14I tell you, this man went down to his home justified, rather than the other man; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Two other men, Robin Schmidt and Jan Bednarz, dressed as European engineers, before dawn climbed stairs for an hour and 15 minutes to reach the 160th floor of the Burj Dubai. Filming the entire event they made history as they hurled themselves off of a balcony to freefall for what seemed like an awfully long time before deploying their parachutes, landing and speeding off in their getaway car evading security and the police. The first and possibly only men to base jump the Burj Dubai. Thrill seekers? Yes, but as I watched their YouTube video, I could not help but notice the pride they had in their accomplishment. And I found it interesting, the words Jan used to describe the moment right before the jump. He said “At that point I’m free. I’m doing what I want to do. No one’s there to tell me it’s good or it’s bad. It’s a moment of freedom, of total freedom.” That sounds a lot like un-surrendered heart of sin doesn’t it. “I want to be free to do what I want with nobody telling me what to do.”
And what is the purpose of a ½ mile high building if not for pride. It is an amazing engineering feat. Interesting to read about and inspiring to look at, but not practical. It brings bragging rights and national pride. Were the tallest, the best, the richest. Seeking to elevate oneself.
Who do we seek to elevate?
“Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 And I (Christ), if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself. Jn. 12: 31, 32
Pride seeks to elevate oneself, may our pride rest only in our Savior, who overcame the world for us.