Prideful or Humble

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

PRIDEFUL OR HUMBLE

Gen 11:1-4

11:1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 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 and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

NIV

We bypassed chapter ten for it was just the names of the descendants of Ham, Shem, and Japheth with names of several cities they founded, and the various languages each had. The reason for the bypass is seen in the first statement in this chapter. That genealogy of descendants does not fit in chronological order as before they all scattered to different places with languages of their own, they all spoke the same language and had common speech. Here is where the arrogance of man begins to be seen, at least for the first time after the flood. We would think that knowing the history of the flood and that all of them were descendants of Noah and were of the line of one of his three sons, they would know that God was not pleased with man because the inclination of their hearts was evil all the time. We would think these new people would be careful not to displease God in any way but would rather follow the example of Noah and give thanks and praise to God. Instead, they wanted to build a tower too great, one they thought could reach the heavens or would mean a tower to reach God, thus making a name for themselves. How impressed we are with ourselves because of what great things we are capable of doing. Men have become so narcissistic, so self-absorbed, and over-confident they could just do whatever they desired and be known for how great they are. It does not make much sense, but it seems there is still this type of thinking in the world today. Even though we will see the response of God by giving them all different languages to confuse them, man has found ways to communicate with each other all over the world, and now we are back at the arrogance of man thinking they as great and they can do mighty things. The only difference between them is this generation of man is not trying to reach God, although they have reached, in a sense, the heavens with their space programs, they have created their own gods, so they can believe they are in touch, or they can reach out and touch their god. We should be careful not to think more highly of ourselves than we should, meaning living with humility would be more suited for those of us who confess we follow Jesus. Yes, there are still different positions in life that might appear to have some higher calling than others, which could be a result of higher education or higher incomes. Yet, if we follow Jesus, no matter our position in this life, we should walk humbly with our Lord, and before men. Arrogance and pride have no place in the life of a believer. We cannot understand how some believers allow themselves to think they are that important, or they are better than others because of some human standard. Let us always be aware that all we are, all we have, and all we do is because of the hand of God at work in us, for us, and through us. Let humility be our lifestyle. It is always a question of who we are, prideful or humble.