So That We May Make...

       Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.  As people 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; 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. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:1-9)

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:28)

You’ve probably heard this story even if you have never read it, but you’ve probably read it, too. Chances are also good that someone will have told you that what the people were doing was a violation of God’s command to fill the earth and subdue it. Others might complain that the people were subduing the earth, doing what God commanded, and now God seems to feel threatened. I’ve also heard that the building of the tower that reaches to the heavens was either reaching the heavens on their own, or of defeating God and bringing God down to earth. Slightly more generously, it might have been to make it easier for God to come down from the heavens. I’ll admit, I don’t understand what was going on here as well as I would like, but the significant thing I read is “so that we may make a name for ourselves.”

It brings to mind Jesus’ story of the rich fool in Luke 12. He didn’t have a storehouse big enough to keep all his harvest, so he built bigger ones so he’d never have to worry about food, but he died before he could enjoy his bounty. It also brings to mind the prepper/survivalist movement some members of which say the same thing. They’re going to put aside a lot of food so when “it” hits the fan, they can disappear into their bunker and laugh while others starve. Not all preppers are like that, thank God. But their fear is that if anyone knows where they hide their food and themselves that they will be killed so someone else can take the food. That’s a legitimate concern. What all three examples have in common is ego. I’m-agonna do thus-and-so and then I’m-agonna look down on all those folks…

And in the midst of these considerations, I paused to make dinner, taking one of many boxes of macaroni and cheese from the cupboard. While waiting for the water to boil, I took eight jars of mushroom soup base down to my storage shelves, noting to myself that I’m set for the next eight souper Sundays. The picture I’m sharing with this post is of the herbs I happened to put in big jars. I have many smaller jars tucked away elsewhere and soups, jams, and jellies in the basement. But stockpiling isn’t the issue. Because Joseph stockpiled, people survived a famine. It’s the motivation behind it that is key. My goal is to grow so much that I have nowhere to put it except in other people’s cupboards with the plea that they feel free to use it up. If you live near me, please come get some chives!

Lord, may it never be that my goals be to make a name for myself or purely for my own benefit.