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A Tower of Weakness
A Tower of Weakness
“Failure is always an option.” ~Adam Savage
“Press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish,” is a phrase many of us understand to be the first question on phone trees whenever we call into a utility or service. According to the BBC, there are currently around 7,000 languages being spoken somewhere in the world. Keeping up with them all is an impossible task for any single human. For a time, though, such was not a concern. Adam and Eve communicated and, using a language, man began to flourish despite the failings and curses afforded to him.
God, in all His glory, created a being with a strong will and a powerful mind which can reason, and in the days after the flood, man figured out how to create stronger materials by using fire, and how to put them together to create wonderful things. The inventive spirit of man was just as strong as his arrogance. In the story of the Tower of Babel from Genesis 11:1-9, the inspired Moses tells us their motivation was to make a name for themselves lest they be dispersed over the face of the earth.
They were already migrating westward a few generations after the flood. What name did they need to make for themselves? Why would they look skyward? God had just destroyed all of mankind, and they were all starting over, but what if man could reach the realm of heaven? What if, instead of praying to God, or waiting for instructions to appear in a dream, or vision, we could go to God directly and petition Him in person? It is difficult to speculate exactly about their motivation, but their egotism is apparent in the text. They thought they could, through their efforts, physically reach God.
The surprising part about this story is not the arrogance of man, but what God says to Himself in verse 6 that, “nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” God said in Genesis 1:31, after creating man, that His creation was very good. So good so that man, when bound together could do anything. A single man can even defy the laws of nature with enough focus toward God in faith. Note Simon Peter, in Matthew 14:29, asked God to command him to come out and walk on the water. Jesus commanded, but did not perform the miracle to make Simon Peter’s feet special, or the water have properties it would not normally have. Jesus tells us that Simon Peter did it with his own faith.
In Matthew 17:20, Jesus tells us that, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
So, why is it that my wife and I have been working on learning Spanish via an app on our phones and my daughter is in a dual-language program? Why is it that I cannot tell a mountain to move, and watch as it hurriedly obeys my command? Why is it that Simon Peter began to sink after walking out to the Lord? Why is it that we do not still live in paradise? The answer is the same as it always has been: sin.
Because we sin against God, and are flawed, God must put limitations on man, so he does not destroy himself. Imagine if the tower at Babel had succeeded? How far would they have built? At what point would they run out of air? At what point would even the strongest of materials buckle and send the entire tower crashing back to earth on top of everyone in its path? How far did Peter travel, walking on water, before he saw the wind and waves, and his fear overtook his faith?
II Corinthians 12:10 gives us hope in that weakness, though. “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” In our weakness, Jesus reaches out His blessed hand and grabs hold of us as we are in threat of drowning amidst a sea of wind and waves.
Lance Byers
May 3, 2025
- A_Tower_of_Weakness_05-03-25.pdf (32.73 kB)
