Bricks, Stones and God's Plans

Genesis 11:4 - And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." 

In the Old Testament there is a story about the Tower of Babel. It is there to be an example for us, like everything related in the Bible. Just a brief explanation: There was a man named Nimrod whose name meant "the valiant" or "opposition." He was also called a hunter and hunt he did for people he could manipulate to help him build the Tower of Babel. Why? He wanted to create a city that rose to the heavens...one that was made by human hands, apart from God. He wanted to make a name for himself.

So if you know the story you realize that God objected to this and "scattered them abroad" because God said "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language..." (verse 6). Nimrod had the power to change all the people into thinking like him. The Tower of Babel story symbolically or more likely literally represents what we need to look for today to prevent the same thing happening as it did back then. A way to look out for today's Nimrod, a tyrant, who wants to take away our individuality as persons and a people.

Last week Glenn Beck was talking about the EU parliamentary building. When he showed a picture of it I immediately thought it looked like the Tower of Babel. See for yourself online. Oh, Lord, help me put these thoughts together concisely.... He had a guest speaker with him named Rabbi Daniel Lapin who explained the Hebrew meaning of the building of this tower. How exciting it is to hear biblical accounts in greater detail to open up meanings.

Tower of Babel...EU parliamentary building? What could they possibly have in common?  Seats of a one world government, perhaps? 

Nimrod had the capability of seducing the people into building this tower. It was made of bricks. You have to understand this: bricks are manmade, each looking the same as the previous one. The tower was made by human hands. God did not have a hand in this. He would have used stones...natural, not manmade elements. So where am I going with this? Here's a clue: Exodus 20:25 - And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it. 

It's about bricks, stones and God's plans. Anything that does not start with or center around God, is manmade. 

When God creates us we are individuals; we each have our own individual personalities. When you look at stones, not one is exactly like another. Not so with bricks. God tells us "you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." 1Peter 2:5  If He wanted us all the same He would have made us like bricks. God does not do this. So, Nimrod molded and shaped his people like these bricks so they would do just as he wanted them to. He would order their lives. He was building this tower to make a name for himself, not for God. By this act he was, in essence, profaning God. And we do the same...

This tower was the first attempt at creating what we would today know as a new world order or a one world government. It was not God's plan, but man's. I may be wrong but it's like our age old theme of making something of yourself on your own terms...a self-made man...to achieve our own goals, apart from God. Like the manmade bricks...with mortar. Rabbi Lapin suggested that the mortar today would be materialism. Mortar is the material that holds the bricks together. If the mortar in my life is not God, it's about me, my stuff, the ladder I want to climb. But I'm a stone...a living stone. 

Today's government appears to be suggesting we begin going green or doing everything for a "higher purpose," like the tower, or the greater good. Do you see this? We are headed for a one world government. There will be a one world ruler who will look like a Nimrod, who will want everyone to become a brick rather than a stone. A brick he can manipulate, one who will take away individual rights to achieve the plans, whose decision is to build his own tower...apart from God. It's starting in our country, but it will lead to a global issue.

This could very well be where we are headed if we allow one man who has decided he's as good as, if not better than, God, to take over, if we become part of a one world government, one world order, common currency because he thinks it's for the greater good. I remember a story similar to this early on in the world. There was this angel of God. His name was Lucifer. He was the heavenly worship leader, for crying out loud. He held a prominent role in God's plan. But he became arrogant enough to think he was better than God...for which reason God threw him out of heaven. This is why today he's so bound and determined to infiltrate lives of unsuspecting people through subtle means and will find just the one man he can fashion to become the antichrist. 

Aren't we seeing government wanting everyone's freedom taken away...stripped little by little...beating some down and raising others up....make everything equal...one level playing field? Soon we'll all be slaves without any freedom of speech, religion, or right to choose anything. We could well become as bricks to bring about the desires of one man.

This is why we have examples in the Bible. They're there for us to learn from. It's why it's so important we understand this Book. All throughout history God has shown us what it is like if we turn away from Him. We fail, we collapse, we are destroyed. In Him we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28)  It's not a bad thing having God on our side.

Beck asked if we have all our materialistic things removed from us what holds us together? My first thought was: if we do not have God in our lives we have absolutely nothing. We have no sense of freedom. Then Rabbi Lapin said this: any tyrant knows that he cannot enslave a people who believe in the Boss, as he pointed upward. And to that I say Amen! He continued to say (paraphrasing) any eternity will begin to develop a hostility toward traditional biblical faith (and our God) and any commitment there might be....secularism becomes the religion of the day.

If we are slaves to the world view we will follow the others like sheep, striving on our own. If we know the God of the Bible and follow Him, listen for His voice, understand what He wants for us, we know the truth and we have liberty. For who the Son sets free is free indeed (John 8:36)... It is our relationship with Jesus, not our just knowing who He is, that will set us free from the things of the world (materialism). It is He who tells us to treasure the things of heaven that cannot be destroyed or taken away rather the things of the world which do not last (Matthew 6:20). 

The Tower story had a happy ending. God became angry with these people and instead of destroying them He dispersed them. They were no longer one people but many individuals, again stones not bricks. This dispersing brought us our individuality in the world...the different cultures. But since history tends to repeat itself, we may be headed back into the same scenario: toward globalism and losing our individuality. Will we need another act of God? Why did God write these things if they weren't so? Why did He provide examples for us all throughout the Bible from monumental things down to small personal things? Those who see and understand have a better chance of survival. 

Do you want to be a living stone of God or a manmade brick? It's your choice. This Book is our handbook for life. But we have no life if we wander among the sheep of the world...keeping up with the Jones' and determining to be our best in ourselves. What's wrong with being the best God has chosen for us? 

It is our responsibility to first get into that relationship with God...that personal relationship...between you and Him. You don't get to Him through living in the same house with one who has a relationship, nor do you get one just by corporately attending a church. It is you who must make a decision for yourself. When we come into relationship with Christ and have that common bond with others of like mind it is the wisdom and strength of God that causes our strength rather than the single, worldly individuals wanting to do on their own. 

God is our Master, not man. Without Him we are nothing. When we begin to realize this we can succeed. If all the world succumbs to the idea of one man (not one God), one government, one way of living for all mankind, we are lost. But...even if that happens, and it looks pretty much like it could, if we have God as the center of our lives, we have nothing to fear. Whatever the outcome, we are secure in Christ. No man, no government, no world, can take that away from us. This is an amazing promise. 

John 15:5 - "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."