Sunday, July 26, 2015

Building my own Tower? Or Trusting in Him?



As we read in Genesis 11 we can learn again the patterns after which God works.

In this account of Tower of Babel we see the people come into unity. Unity is exactly what God wants for His children when we are in unity towards Him, His righteousness and His ways; however this unity was not the kind of unity that Jesus Christ teaches us to have.

. The unity that these individuals were forming could be compared to the unity of the Gadiantion Robbers; Those in the great and spacious building; Priest-craft Leaders and Anti-Christs. These individuals desired to have their own name to be known of. Considering one of the first things that Jesus Christ asks His disciples to do is take upon themselves His name, we can clearly see the opposing evil at work in influencing these actions.

In Genesis 9, one of the commandments of God within the covenant that He made with men concerning Him never flooding the earth again, He instructed them to " Be fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein." ( Vs. 5 )

From the writing of the Jewish Historian, Josephus, He mentions that God had commanded this people to send colonies abroad for the future abundance of people in the earth, but they enjoyed their prosperity of living together and they did not desire to follow God's commands. Thus understanding that they were being disobedient, they began to build a tower to reach the heavens not only because they did not trust that God would ever bring them to heaven, as they were disobeying Him, but also because they understood they were breaking their covenants with Him, therefore He was not bound to keep His covenant of not sending a flood to the earth again. ( Josephus, Flavius, " Antiquities of the Jews ", Book 1, Chapter 4, verse 1-3 )

One witness that we have manifesting truth in these Jewish writings is the fact that the tower was made with thick burnt brick and cemented together with bitumen and mortar which are water proof. 

 These individuals had the attitude that they could disobey God, avoid the consequences, glorify themselves with their own name , and get to heaven on their terms.

The result was God changing their language. God knew that if they could not put evil into each others minds, less evil would spread.....

The pattern that we can see is God taking evil, separating it, and trying to preserve the good.  We see this pattern in the Book of Mormon as we learn about the Lord's Vineyard:


Jacob 5:15  

 And behold, saith the Lord of the vineyard, I take away many of these young and tender branches, and I will graft them whithersoever I will; and it mattereth not that if it so be that the root of this tree will perish, I may preserve the fruit thereof unto myself; wherefore, I will take these young and tender branches, and I will graft them whithersoever I will.

Because of the Book of Mormon account of the Brother of Jared in the book of Ether, we learn that these people were scattered, or that they were grafted into another area of the earth that hey may be preserved from Babylon, or evil. 

The Jaredites left at the time of the Tower of Babel and their language was preserved because of their willingness to obey God's commands. ( Ether 1:42 ) 

As I consider these things and I ponder upon my own life and the way that these things can relate to me?  I ask myself if I am living my life in a manner that I know that I can trust that God will keep His promises to me? ( I thee Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no such promise. D&C 82:10 ) , or do I seek for my own name, and my own will, to do things in my way as those that were building the Tower of Babel were doing in their lives? 

I hope and desire to want His will in my life even more than I already do wish for His will....I want my desire for His will to be strong enough that I will seek more to know His will, and spend less time on the things that I think I can control because I am not trusting Him... Perhaps their are ways that I am spending time building my own tower because I lack trust or faith in His promises? These are the things I will consider and work on.

 I am deeply thankful for the scripture accounts that remind me of the things that I can do better in my life. 

I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Genesis 11 


 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
 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 aname, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
 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 all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

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