Thought from today’s Bible reading from Genesis 8-11.
“They said, ‘Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth’” (Genesis 11:4).
This was the reasoning of those who proposed to build what would be called the Tower of Babel. There are several errors of which they were guilty that we could consider. But probably the most notable was in their attempt to reach heaven. They were determined to do it their way, without any sort of assistance from God.* So God put an end to their ambitions.
“So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city” (Genesis 11:8).
Fortunately for all of us, God has made heaven open to all. Jesus gave the Great Commission to His apostles:
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15).
The gospel is God’s power for salvation (Romans 1:16). The preaching of it leads all who will listen to it to heaven. But we need to be sure we strive to reach heaven in God’s way. Jesus continued:
“He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned” (Mark 16:16).
We can make no other way to heaven other than the one that God has provided through Christ (cf. John 14:6). The folly of those who built the Tower of Babel reminds us of that.
*Except for the building materials, human strength and ingenuity that were provided from the Creation, but that’s a whole other topic.
Tomorrow’s reading: Job 1-5
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
