Dear friends,
One of the great joys in my week is meeting with some of our church members who are studying at Bible College. Some are getting further equipped for work and others are training in preparation for a lifetime of ministry. Spending time studying the Bible is a great joy and highly recommended – watch out for our next God’s Big Picture Course so you can get a taste.
I met with one of our young guys this week who is studying OT1 at Youthworks College and we came to one of my favourite parts of the whole Bible. Genesis 11:4-5:
“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; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’ But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building.”
Don’t you love the picture being painted here? Human people, desperate to make a name for themselves, urgently build a tall tower that will wend its way to heaven. It’s hard to imagine what they thought might happen when they got there; moreover, it appears from the text that they were going to somehow overthrow God and stop his judgement of them.
So what did God do. Well, their tower was so small, their efforts at reaching him so mediocre, their efforts at exalting themselves over God so pathetic that God has to come down to see their tower. They are trying to reach God, defeat God, compete with God but their efforts at replacing God and his authority over them are absolutely useless. They prove to be ridiculous in the extreme.
There is something in this for us. We can think that we know better than God, or think we can arrange our lives better than God can or even exert power over our lives in a way that beats God’s power. But all our efforts are pathetic and useless. It is ridiculous to think that you can compete with God for power or authority or love or kindness in this world. You think you can replace God and his authority over you with yourself and run your own life? Think again. You’ll mess it up and make things worse.
Thankfully, this descent from heaven prefigures another great descent. The moment when the Lord Jesus Christ humbles himself to become man. Paul speaks of it in this way in Philippians 2:6-7:
“Jesus Christ, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
That amazes me every time. God came down to serve us. He came in Genesis to judge. He came in Jesus to serve and bring life eternal. He will come down again to do both.
Are you ready for that moment? Or are you too busy building your own tower to realise that God is in charge around here? Don’t miss God’s gracious descent to earth. He’s called out to you to come and follow him. Are you?
In Christ
Nigel