It’s Friday 13th! I’ve written about it before, so I won’t do so today. Hope you’ve had a good day.

Maybe Friday 13th weekend is a good time to talk about the Tower of Babel as described in Genesis 11.1 – 9.

The first lesson, interestingly enough, is positive: the power of communication:

And Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they have begun to do. So now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. (Genesis 11.6, LSB)

“Nothing they purpose to do will be impossible for them” if they’re unified, speaking the same language. Often that’s not the case. In churches, for example, words are thrown around: “discipleship,” for example. Everyone is in favor of it, but few know what it means. That’s why when my Navigator friends begin to help a church create a culture of discipleship, one of the first steps is “picture of a disciple.” Do we know what we’re trying to produce?

To one church leader, a disciple is someone who comes to church regularly and behaves “nicely.” To another, a disciple is deep into Bible study. I just saw a church website in which “disciple” wasn’t used, but they wanted to make a difference in “structural racism” and “systemic poverty.” 

All good causes, but if we’re not unified around what we’re trying to do, it’s highly unlikely we will succeed – whatever “success” is. The people of Genesis 11 knew what they were trying to do and why:

And they said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11.4, LSB)

And, according to God himself, they would have succeeded, unless God intervened. 

Tomorrow, we’ll remind ourselves why God intervened.

For if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? (1 Corinthians 14.8, LSB)