In this first article written for “The
Dusty Corner,” I want to do something incredibly stupid. I’m going to disagree
with my pastor. In his sermon in November, he wrote that one of the sins of the
ancient tower builders was to build a tower in order to bring God down to our
level. Because, he said, it is wrong to bring God down to us.
I
disagree. I don’t think it’s wrong. In the exact same passage, right after the
haughty declaration of the tower builders about their intentions, the Bible says
that God came down to see what they had done. God actually came down to inspect
what they had accomplished. The Trinity (as clearly seen in God’s use of ‘us’
in verse seven) did exactly what the people wanted them to do. They built an
enormous tower “…with its top in the heavens…” and they did indeed “…make a
name for themselves…” The only thing they failed to do was stick together.
If
Mike is right about their intentions (and we have no reason not to believe him)
then the tower builders said, “Let’s pull God down to our level,” and God said,
“okay.” That was the fatal mistake. They threw their rope around God and,
rather than stubbornly refusing to yield, he submitted, he came down, and he
wrecked everything.
That’s
the point, I think. Bring God down to our level may be sinful, but it is
definitely stupid.
You
see, this universe was not created for God. He didn’t make it to contain
Himself. He made it to contain us. That’s why, wherever we go, we can create
beautiful things, because we are simply mimicking, in a very small way, God’s
own acts of creation. He built the universe by the words of His mouth; we build
worlds with the words of our pens. He paints with brilliant colors upon a
canvas sky; we paint with brilliant colors the sky upon a canvas.
Because
of this, this universe is too small for our God. God is a doll maker who has
built a big, beautiful dollhouse. Of course, we all know what would happen if a
doll maker tried to live in his tiny house. He would tear the tiny timbers to
pieces. He would destroy everything he made. This is our God and this is what
happened at Babel. The tower builders built a bridge to heaven and God came
down, but He broke the furniture.
But,
it doesn’t end there, for what God destroys by His presence, He rebuilds with
His hand. There are no longer acts of creation. That ended on the seventh day
of creation. From that time until now, God has only recreated. When God came
down into the garden after Adam and Eve sinned, He broke His relationship with
man. Never again would He and Adam wander through the garden like they used to.
But, God had to break that relationship, in order to repair it. For, if He had
allowed Adam to stay, Adam never would have chased after God. God separated
Himself from Adam in order to reunite with Him later.
Again,
look at the Flood. The world was corrupt and evil. God saw this and sent a
massive flood, destroying all but a handful of people. Why? So that He could
re-establish a godly world afterwards. In fact, I think you will find, where
ever God goes, chaos either precedes Him (as it does in 1 Kings 19) or is with
Him (as in when God visited the Egyptians and killed their firstborn), but, in
both of those cases, as in many others, God rebuilds after. When Elijah
experiences earthquakes, strong winds, and fire, God whispers His instruction to
him. After God lays Job down low, He builds him back up better than He was.
This is because God must break before He can rebuild.
The
ultimate expression of this process is to be found in Christ’s very life.
Christ was not a peaceful man. He used a whip to drive out business men and was
constantly getting into arguments with various people. Nor was He a violent
man, for He often sat with children and had a tender heart to those who are
hurting. However, despite all that, God had Jesus’ body torn to shreds and His
relationship snapped like a string. Why? So that through Christ, God could
rebuild our bodies into what they used to be and to make our relationship with
Him what it was back in the garden before all this ridiculousness began. Jesus
came to Earth and His presence has not ceased to be felt.
God
came down to the ancient tower builders and broke their little town into pieces
exactly so that He could rebuild a world from it, a world he intended to redeem
through the breaking of His son.
Now,
of course, I don’t actually disagree with Mike. He wasn’t wrong in any sense. I
merely wish to point out that not only is it sinful to bring God down to our
level, it’s ill advised, because, when you do, you’re inviting destruction to
reign down upon you, because that’s the only way God can rebuild you.
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