CHAPTER V
The
Tower of Babel
Gen. 11
Agnes M. Lawson
Hints
to Bible Study
The Colorado College of Divine
Science
Denver, 1920.
This is an
ancient Hebrew explanation of the
diversity of human language and the
divergence and antagonism between men.
Babylon, the cosmopolitan city of human
grandeur and many gods, was a synonym for
wickedness to the monotheistic and
simple-minded Hebrew, and he uses it in
many graphic illustrations to elucidate
his spiritual truths. Babylon was the
center of civilization at this date, and
its life was marked by luxury and
magnificence. The great buildings and
remarkable achievements of the
Babylonians without the consecration of
them to spiritual purposes were the
“pride of man” and
“rebellion against the Lord”
to the Hebrew.
The story
runs in this way: The Babylonian in his
pride and arrogance decides to build a
city and tower that will reach to heaven,
and make a name for himself that will be
scattered over the whole earth. Jehovah
comes down to see about it. Jehovah is
always jealous, He will have no pride,
arrogance, or self assertion. Every
“tower” that we build in this
attitude of thought invites this visit.
And so the great Jehovah said, “Go
to, let us go down and there confound
their language that they may not
understand one another’s speech. So
the Lord scattered them abroad from
thence upon the face of the earth: and
they left off to build the
city.”
Without
unity of purpose no great tower can be
built nor any great work be accomplished.
Pride, arrogance, self assertion, can not
translate spiritual truth into visible
expression. Selfishness is always
isolation, and when each works for self
his language can never be understood by
another. It is the one who has not found
himself, and so does not know the meaning
of his own life, and the one so lost in
self that he has not outlets, who
complains of being misunderstood. We all
understand the large, generous,
self-forgetting man or woman.
The
Pentecostal gift of Christianity is the
converse of the Tower of Babel. It is
only as we sit with “one
accord” that the gift of tongues
descends upon us. Then we speak as the
Spirit gives us utterance and we are
understood of all. The great people are
the most simple and they are easily
comprehended, for they have the power to
make themselves understood. A common
purpose is a common speech; we know where
a man is going if he is on the road to
our home. There were many languages among
the Allies but they understood each other
well.
Just as
selfishness confounds our language, and
dispersion and disintegration must
follow, so unity and obedience unite us
and give us the gift of tongues, a common
purpose and a common speech. The
spiritual world is a universe, that is,
it is so constituted that we, each, have
a particular good and supply, and the
welfare of the whole demands that each
unit have free expression. There is never
cause for dissension; there is no
possibility for rivalry. The good that
comes to another is but the prophecy of a
similar good that is ours, and the
rejoice in another’s victory is the
sure precursor of the arrival of our own.
It is always on its way to us, will we
but keep the way open for its passage;
for each life is complete and that which
belongs to us, from a Power in which
there is no variableness nor shadow of
turning, we must receive.
The great
lesson of the Tower of Babel is to cease
thinking of self. We are to come out of
our narrow, selfish restrictions and work
and live for others. God made the world
and all there is in it just to have
something to put His Life into. We grow
up unto Him as we work for the welfare of
the race.
What we all
need is something outside of ourselves to
work for. There is a Tower to be built,
but it is not to make a name for
ourselves. It is to benefit others.
Whatsoever we do for others is twice
blest, it blesses him who gives and it
blesses him who receives.
There yet
remains the great Tower to be built. Its
base must rest on the earth and its top
be lost in heaven. It is the discovery
and demonstration of all truth. It is
Jehovah’s Tower and must be built
in His name and for His glory. We must
work for truth alone, and as we work in
Spirit and in truth we receive our New
Name. Surely we feel the glad time
coming, the Pentecost of the Spirit, and
we know that the barriers of superstition
and ignorance are being burned away in
the white light of discovered Truth.
Every truth perceived, every task nobly
performed is a stone built into the
Tower.
We grow fine
and true as we measure up to the work
that confronts us. No matter how lowly,
all true work goes into the Tower. The
stones in the foundation may not glitter
as the gold on the spire, but there would
be no spire if the foundation were not
securely laid. We each have work, and to
do it cheerily, truly, constructively,
will place us on a level with the great
of all ages. It will broaden us, educate
us, and grow us into His likeness.
Service is
the keynote of all true living. But the
Tower of Babel is a warning not to serve
self, but to serve the race. Every day
see to it that something has gone forth
from your heart and mind, that will lift
humanity into a higher concept of man and
his destiny. Love alone quickens us into
definite and unified action. Therefore
love, love and serve. Lose yourself in
love and service, for the life of the
individual is just a unit in the whole,
and the whole is composed of these units,
it is saved only as each of us does his
part.
With the
open vision of the present day, work is
easy. At last we see the Spiritual Tower,
and we are learning to work shoulder to
shoulder. National boundaries are being
swept away as we are welding the whole
into one great body, religious
differences must be adjusted with the
advancing of man into the one White
Light. All progress everywhere, which
works for the betterment of the race
anywhere, is a stone placed in the
Tower.
* * * * *
Hints to Bible Study
Table
of Contents
