Babel

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Is progression the new tower of Babel? I contemplated that as I read this in Genesis this morning: "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, whose top will reach to heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves...(Genesis 11:4a)" The commentary within the Orthodox Study Bible says this, "The Lord divided this false unity for the sake of man's salvation."

The unity is false because it is temporal. A fading people of dust sought to make a name for themselves and in doing so, sought to become immortal, to be gods, to literally reach heaven.

It seems to me that in our modern world we are ever obsessed with progress, with the notion of continual betterment of our society and our world. We seek to make a name for ourselves for the sake of ourselves. And while technology has done so much good and decreased a lot of suffering in the world, it is nevertheless a false unity because it does not last; more to the point, it does not really exist. "Eat and you shall be like god," the snake said. The prophecy wasn't incorrect. But unlike what God wanted, that is, to make us what Christ is by nature, a creature both divine and human, we idolized this world. we saw in it ourselves, it was our Narcissus and we built around it and celebrated it. But what we saw in it was the God in ourselves and didn't realize that we were not the origins of our own beauty:
"10 I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put sandals of fine leather on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. 11 I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck,12 and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was honey, olive oil and the finest flour. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. 14 And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign Lord.15 But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute.(Ezekiel 16)"

The tragedy is not a God who is so self-conscious that He demands worship and attention. No, it is in a people so self-conscious that it demands worship and attention and so deluded that it denies this, so numb that it will admit the brokenness of humans and claim progress. It will ignore tragedy and turn to innovation, point out research and regard all in contrary as merely anecdotal. Nonsense, a modern tower of Babel.

So God, in his mercy scatters them. He says, "Now they will not fail to accomplish what they have undertaken.(Genesis 11:6b)" This would not be good. While atheism exists in impoverished countries, it is essentially a religion of comfort. It is only rampant in places where modern comforts exist, where humans did "not fail to accomplish" and in doing so, developed hubris. Is it any wonder that the foundational virtue as ascribed by the church fathers is humility?

And hear how the saints describe it, to never judge anyone, to thinking neither good nor bad of yourself, to always view others before you.

It is the cure of Babel, of nonsense.


May we be so inclined to have such a mustard seed of humility to ask God for a such view of ourselves and others.