Pride

Life Lessons: Pride

Genesis 11:1-32

SITUATION: People built a tower and a city called Babel as a monument to their own greatness. God thwarted this arrogant behavior by causing all the people to speak in different languages. This caused the people to scatter all over the earth.

OBSERVATION: God will not permit us to replace him as supreme in the universe. We belong to him and are responsible for our actions.

INSPIRATION: The scene is almost spooky; a tall, unfinished tower looming solitarily on a dusty plain. Its base is wide and strong but covered with weeds. Large stones originally intended for use in the tower lie forsaken on the ground. Buckets, hammers, and pulleys—all lie abandoned. The silhouette cast by the structure is lean and lonely.

     Not too long ago, this tower was buzzing with activity. A bystander would have been impressed with the smooth-running construction of the world’s first sky scraper. One group of workers stirred freshly made mortar. Another team pulled bricks out of the oven. A third group carried the bricks to the construction site while a fourth shouldered the load up a winding path to the top of the tower where it was firmly set in place.

     Their dream was a tower. A tower that would be taller than anyone had ever dreamed. A tower that would punch through the clouds and scratch the heavens. And what was the purpose of the tower? To glorify God? No. to call people to look upward to God? Try again. To provide a heavenly haven of prayer? Still wrong.

     The purpose of the work caused its eventual abortion. The method was right. The plan was effective. But the motive was wrong. Dead wrong. Read these minutes from the “Tower Planning Committee Meeting” and see what I mean:

     “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and [watch out] let us make a name for ourselves.”

     Why was the tower being built? Selfishness. Pure 100 percent selfishness. The bricks were made of inflated egos and the mortar was made of pride. Men were giving sweat and blood for a pillar. Why? So that somebody’s name could be remembered.

     We have a name for that: blind ambition.

     We make heroes out of people who are ambitious.

     And rightly so. This world would be in sad shape without people who dream of touching the heavens. Ambition is that grit in the soul which creates disenchantment with the ordinary and puts the dare into dreams.

     But left unchecked it becomes an insatiable addition to power and prestige; a roaring hunger for achievement that devours people as a lion devours an animal, leaving behind only the skeletal remains of relationships.

     Blind ambition. Distorted values.

     God won’t tolerate it. He didn’t then and he won’t now. He took the “Climb to Heaven Campaign” into his hands. With one sweep he painted the tower gray with confusion and sent workers babbling in all directions. He took man’s greatest achievement and blew it into the winds like a child blows a dandelion.

     Are you building any towers? Examine your motives. And remember the statement imprinted on the base of the windswept Tower of Babel: Blind ambition is a giant step away from God and one step closer to catastrophe. 

APPLICATION: What towers have you been building? Wealth? Success? Recognition? Focus on what God wants you to build. Simplify your life. Surrender your desires to him! Let him guide your efforts.

EXPLORATION: Pride: Judges 8:1-3; 15:14-17; Psalm 10:11; Luke 1:48