Understanding God: He is Strategic
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.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. – Genesis 11:1-9
Another lesson we can learn from God is his strategic thinking and operations. God is the epitome of strategy. The Bible is replete with examples of his strategic mindset and mode of operation. Some of these we will cover in future series under similar or different headings. But today, let us consider the strategic nous that God demonstrated for our learning in the Tower of Babel saga.
Humans, being humans, began to run contrary to the plan of God for their occupation of planet Earth. Rather than spreading across the planet and subduing it in the course of doing so, as we have done to a large extent today, they only converged in a place and built towers up to the skies as opposed to gaining ground and spreading across. This ran contrary to God’s thinking.
Again, men presented God with yet another problem, a problem that must be solved without Him resorting to the drastic measures He earlier adopted with the flood, which wiped out all living beings except those housed in the ark of Noah. So, how did God solve this latest problem? He went about it in a rather tactical way.
A common but less intelligent approach would have been to focus on the gargantuan construction going on. That would have been a daunting task in itself, one that would be more stressful and time-consuming. Imagine how long the men working on the tower would have gone in their projects. They surely must have gained considerable traction. Even if they hadn’t, it must have been quite a sight scuttling the edifice they had put up in the tower at Babel. Besides, God may be a no-nonsense God, but He is not a vandal since He Himself is a maker and knows what it takes to build something.
However, in coming up with a solution to this problem, God centered on the motivation that led to the hairy construction in the first place: He saw that “the people are one and.” It was a problem of oneness. Much as unity is a desirable state, in this regard, it was driving humankind on an opposite course with God’s design. Having zeroed in on the real cause of the problem, God also identified the driver of the unity, the one thing He needed to fix to solve the problem: “one language and one speech.”
Thereafter, God merely changed the people’s language from one to multiple, and that was it. They could no longer come to an agreement again, as everyone now speaks different languages and have different speeches. That was the end of the project. No demolition was necessary. There was no need to go to any great lengths to mobilize resources and infrastructure to stop the project. The only thing needed was to introduce diversity to the communication and perspectives of the builders, and the project was abandoned while everyone pursued something else that more aligned with their interests and worldviews across different parts of the world. Thus, they inadvertently realign themselves to the original intent of God in the process.
Now, isn’t that ingenious? Try God.
Selah!
Also read:
- Understanding God: He Does Not Condone Nonsense
- The Benefits of Wisdom: Pricelessness
- Jesus Wants All of You
- Who Feels the Pain?
- Drawing from the Wrong Well
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