And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:4)
After the flood, the descendants of Noah began to multiply and re-people the earth. Over time, their faith dwindled and many fell into apostasy. Many of the descendants of Noah began a futile attempt at building a tower to heaven. Why? This verse gives us two clues. One, they were attempting to reach heaven. Two, the record says that they were trying to make a name.
Elder Orson F. Whitney said, “The people who built the Tower of Babel are said to have done so in order that its top might ‘reach unto heaven.’ It was to prevent them from accomplishing this purpose, that the Lord confounded their language. Tradition credits Joseph Smith with the statement that the ‘heaven’ they had in view was the translated city.”[1]
Elder Whitney stimulates an interesting idea. Certainly these people had knowledge of the city of Enoch. I would think that Noah often taught his family about his great grandfather and the city of righteousness he established. He probably spoke of it in the fondest of terms. Noah was one who suffered through the destruction of an evil world and must have wished that he could be in such a place. The story of Enoch was passed from generation to generation and became part of the history of these people, even after wickedness returned to the world. Rather than live a righteous life, these people somehow believed they could find Zion, the city of Enoch, by building a tower that reached into the heavens.
A reading of this verse would seem to indicate that a prophet had already testified to the people of Babel that if they did not repent there would be a scattering. Maybe they felt that if they built this tower to heaven or the city of Enoch, the Lord would honor them by not scattering them. It seems that they felt there was a better way to accomplish their goals than by righteous living.
There is a difference between striving for the earthly and striving for the eternal. What is the center of our life? Are we striving to achieve a name for ourselves by pursuing wealth and the things of the earth, power, glory, the honors of men, and following our own earthly pursuits. We may achieve greatness in this life, but it will end just as surely as does our mortal life. On the other hand, as we take upon us the name of Christ, we will make him and his gospel the focus of our life. We will strive to honor him and seek to obey his will rather than our temporal desires. Though we may have little in this life, we will have made a name for ourselves in the eternities.
This story also teaches the consequences wickedness. Building the tower may only have been a beginning. The story continues, “And now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”[2] The confounding of the language may have been a merciful act of the Creator to prevent the people from falling into a pit from which there would have been no salvation.
The people who built the tower of Babel were punished because they tried to reach heaven by worldly means. Conversely, Noah and his family were saved from the flood because they lived according to God’s commandments. The only way for us to reach heaven, to return to live with our Heavenly Father, is through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must live righteously, as did Noah, having faith in Christ, repenting of our sins, receiving sacred ordinances, and enduring to the end of our lives. If we do these things, we will rise above evil and be able to return to the presence of God.
___________________________
[1] Orson F. Whitney, Saturday Night Thoughts (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1921), p. 101.
[2] Genesis 11:6.
0 comments:
Post a Comment