Today as I sat seeking God in a decision I was reminded of two stories from the Bible that are unrelated but show the beauty of the Father.The first, is the Tower of Babel. Genesis 11 says:
3 "They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 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.”
The second passage is Joshua 4 which says:
"1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, 2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
You may be asking, “What do these stories have in common?” I believe they have more than we see at first glance. At the tower of Babel we see a people so focused on building up their own names that they lost sight of the creator. They wanted to be famous rather than making Him famous. Funny, I didn’t get their names. Joshua, in contrast, led the people of God to build a memorial to His faithfulness for future generations. It is amazing to me that we then read a few verses later in verse 14 of the same chapter:
"14 That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him all the days of his life, just as they had stood in awe of Moses."
Now, you may be thinking, “So are you saying that Joshua was exalted because He followed God’s command to him?” Yes…and no. Joshua was made famous, but not for his own sake. Joshua was made famous and revered in the site of Israel because it accomplished God’s purposes. Joshua would later lead the army of God into battle and those men needed a strong respected leader to follow. Joshua was not made king of Israel; they already had God as their King. Joshua was a man who followed God for His glory. His work was to point to highlight Famous One that He might be glorified throughout the earth for his contemporary and future generations.
How often do I look to build a monument to my own name, even under the pretense of “doing it for God” rather than building a memorial to His faithfulness? MT
