Understanding God: He Does Not Condone Nonsense And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a…
Understanding God: He Does Not Condone Nonsense
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.” But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. – Genesis 11:4-8
As we continue exploring God’s personality, another lesson we can learn from Him is that He does not condone nonsense, particularly to the extent that such conflicts with His will and plan.
God had just completed a total overhaul of Project Earth with the flood, which required that He wipe out the defective creatures He then had in hand after the fall in the garden and the cursed earth they had to operate in afterwards. Even though the former generations were gone, God did not lose sight of His mandate for humanity to subdue and fill the earth. This was part of His initial communication to Adam (Genesis 1:28). It was also one of the first things He told Noah when He started afresh (Genesis 9:1).
Meanwhile, here comes humankind again. After multiplying enough, they started having a different idea of their own. Rather than fulfilling the mandate of God, handed to their forbears, to proliferate across the earth, they wanted to stay in one place instead. Hear them: ‘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”’ (Genesis 11:4).
They did not want to leave their comfort zone. They wanted to stay in the same place. And rather than spread out, as God wanted, they were only thinking of building high-rise structures that would rise as high they could get to accommodate their increasing number of people. They were not contemplating branching out to other parts of the earth where they would have to break grounds and level the highs in order to build new structures. God was not happy about that.
‘So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city’ (Genesis 11:8). God came down and mobilized His hosts to confuse their communication, and that put an end to the project for sure. God is still very much in the business of scattering and scuttling structures today, particularly schemes and affairs that do not align with His will. He does not condone nonsense and does not suffer fools gladly.
Understanding God: He Consults Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain…
Understanding God: He Consults
Now the whole earth had one language and 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. Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 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.” But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” – Genesis 11:1-7
Another interesting lesson we can learn from God’s mode of operation, as seen in this passage and many others like it, is that He regularly consults His council before making a major move or undertaking an important endeavor.
It is instructive that God, who is all-sufficient and all-knowing as we know Him to be, is this way. But there are many traits and attributes of God that seem lost to humanity, even to the most ardent of His worshippers. Yes, we know Him to be the Almighty and all-powerful, but there is certainly more to Him than that, as we have been highlighting through this devotional. God is much more than what we imagine Him to be. He is more than what is preached to us at religious gatherings.
On His penchant for consulting, it is instructive that God, who has the most important decisions to make and the highest responsibility to shoulder, is also the One who arguably consults the most before making His moves. When He was about to make the most important of His creatures, He did not just declare them into being like He did His previous works. Rather, He started by first engaging His council, saying, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Genesis 1:26).
From our main Bible reference today, when He came down to earth and saw the edifice that humanity was building at Babel, He also consulted His council to intimate them on what He would do. The passage reads: ‘And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language…’” (Genesis 11:6-7). This indicates that God first came down, saw what was going on and then went back to His hosts in heaven to consult them on what He wanted to do to solve the problem. Then He invited them to come down to earth with Him to execute His plan.
Of course, He could have gone ahead and done what He considered best. After all, He is the Ultimate God, and no one can question Him. But that He did not do so became an important lesson and another of His legacies for us lesser mortals: If God, who could have done without counsel, did not, why should anyone who does not have the benefit of omniscience do so?
Understanding God: He Reassures And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere…like the garden of the Lord… Then Lot chose…
Understanding God: He Reassures
And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere…like the garden of the Lord… Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan… And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.” – Genesis 13: 10-11, 14-16
Our reference passage today provides us with another attribute of God. He assures and reassures His anointed about His good plans and intentions for them, so that they do not lose hope and give in to depression. He is a reassuring God.
Reading the passage in context, from Abraham’s position, it would have been easy for him to become despondent after his nephew chose the prime portion of the land for settlement and left the less attractive part for him to contend with. And we do not know if Abraham at any point entertained any regret or foreboding thoughts about the fact that his nephew took the good land.
However, whether Abraham did nurse such emotions or not, God was quick to visit him after Lot had departed, with assuring words that He was still with him and would bless, multiply, and make him great in the seemingly unfavorable land he found himself in.
And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.” – Genesis 13:14-16
These gestures on the part of God would have been a welcome development for Abraham. It would have offered him hope and put his mind at rest, not to entertain any ill will towards his nephew or habor any feeling of ill luck concerning himself.
Aside from Abraham, the scenario itself is also a pointer to the character of God that He does not abandon His own or leave them in the lurch. He was the one who made Abraham leave his comfort zone in Haran, in the first place, with promises of what He would do for him if he relocated. When the saga between Abraham and Lot happened, which resulted in Abraham ceding the better portion of the settlement to Lot, God was very quick in coming to Abraham with professions of His support and goodwill.
This should offer hope to anyone faithfully walking in God’s will that no matter how hard done by they might appear to be, God will always come through for them. It should also restore the confidence of those who feel forgotten that they are ever in God’s mind because He cares.
Understanding God: He Checks Up Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a…
Understanding God: He Checks Up
Now the whole earth had one language and 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. Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 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.” But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” – Genesis 11:1-7
The attribute of God we shall consider today is His situation inspection or assessment nature. In other words, He is a God who checks up on His creatures and does not just leave them or things to chance.
This attribute of God is particularly revealing because after the disobedience of Adam and Eve and the squalor that defined humanity afterwards, which led Him to decide that He had had enough and then proceeded to wipe out the human race with the flood, and when the new generations set of human race also reverted to nature and started going out of line, a development which made God concluded that He would not need to wipe out humanity again, one would think that with such a resolution God, who cannot condone evil, would have decided to stay away from humans. However, our reference today shows that that was not the case with Him. He still kept in touch and was always visiting the hemisphere where He had placed humans to assess them and their activities.
It was during one of His assessment rounds that He saw the latest endeavor humans were engaged in, a la the tower at Babel. If He had not checked up, such a development might have escaped His attention, and He might not have dealt with it on time the way He did.
Today, God still checks up on humanity to inspect, assess, monitor, evaluate, appraise, and profile the thoughts, deeds, actions, attitudes, behaviors, and works of His children so as to know how He may reward or retribute deserving individuals or groups as commensurate with their ways. The question is, when He checks up on you, what is He going to find you doing?
Understanding God: God of Product Recall and Fresh Beginnings Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts…
Understanding God: God of Product Recall and Fresh Beginnings
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” – Genesis 6:5-7
Another lesson we can learn from God is that He was not afraid to admit a defect in His work and institute a product recall. Also, He was not afraid to take a drastic measure to correct the defects in His work and then start again afresh. He is a God of fresh beginnings.
From the Bible passage above, we see how God expressed regret for the unending but ever-increasing wickedness of humankind, a development which brought Him untold sorrow.
At this point, humans had mixed freely with aliens and the fallen angels. Therefore, they had morphed into a new breed of sorts, a rather horrible species comprising two fallen entities, the fallen heavenlies and the fallen earthlings in concert. In other words, the worst of the heavens had mingled with the worst of the earth, and they were reproducing on a large scale, widening the circle of wickedness. Thus, a defect was introduced in the original innocent creation that God made.
Even though God was longsuffering and endured the endless wickedness with the hope that humanity would turn around, there appeared to be no prospect of that happening, as they only kept getting worse, as seen below:
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. – Genesis 6:11-13
At this point, God had had enough and was ready to clear out the defective creatures He had on hand.
It takes a lot of courage to admit that one has made a mistake, particularly with a project or product in which one has invested a lot of resources. And you can imagine how vested God was in humans whose models He fashioned out of Himself and painstakingly formed in His own similitude and likeness.
However, the human race at that time, having mixed with aliens and fallen angels, had become corrupted and drastically different from the original creature that God made. So that meant there was a necessity for a product recall and the need to start afresh all over again. Thus, God ‘destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth’ (Genesis 7:23).
As easy as this may sound, it was a lot then, as it is in our days.
Another lesson we can learn from God is His disposition to a balancing act. He is not a God of extremes. Even though some who profess to follow Him go to extremes in His name or make extreme claims on His behalf, extreme is not a label that one can pin on God. He balances the acts.
Understanding God: He is Not Moved by Sentiments
Another lesson we can learn from the personality of God is that sentiments do not move Him. Therefore, He cannot be deceived into making a wrong judgment or call, as humans tend to do.
Understanding God: He is A Creator
He is a Creator. This is not to be interpreted loosely, particularly in the light of our contemporary use of the word. God is the ultimate Creator, as He created all things, even the ends of the earth (Isaiah 40:28).
Understanding God: God of the Beginning
There is no better way to begin this journey of exploring the people and entities in the Bible than to start with God. He is not just the beginning but is the origin of all things.
Women in the Bible: A Paragon of Beauty
What made Sarah’s beauty so compelling that kings and nations took notice? Explore the deeper layers of grace, favour, and mystery surrounding one of Scripture’s most unforgettable women — and discover why her story still provokes wonder today.
Men in the Bible: A Man of Ambition and Adventure
Terah may not have reached Canaan, but his courage to start a life-changing journey laid the foundation for Abraham’s destiny. Discover how ambition and bold steps mark a life of significance.
Men in the Bible: An Impetuous and Impudent Man
A revealing glimpse into a man whose choices exposed deeper issues of character, showing how hastiness and entitlement can quietly shape a destiny, and why his story still speaks to us today.
Men in the Bible: A Man with Little Foresight
Sometimes what looks like a smart choice can hide the seed of a mistake. This reflection from Scripture invites us to think again about how foresight — or the lack of it — shapes a man’s story.
Men in the Bible: The First Man to Tithe
Before laws, temples, or traditions, one man honoured God with his substance. Abraham’s tithe was not commanded, demanded, or enforced. It flowed from reverence.
Fathers in the Bible: A Destiny-Shaping Father
What makes a man a truly aware father? Discover how one man’s prophetic foresight shaped his son’s destiny and changed generations forever.
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