Reposted from January 2011
Today’s Reading: Genesis 11 – 14
Today’s reading begins with the story of the Tower of Babel. I have always been impressed by this story. Humans working together decide to build a great tower to reach God. Sure, to us it seems like a ridiculous endeavor, for God is not reached through human hands. But the idea of men working together some 4000 years ago to build something so impressive that it captures God’s attention is amazing.
Genesis 11:1 – 5 (New Living Translation)
1 At one time all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words. 2 As the people migrated to the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there.
3 They began saying to each other, “Let’s make bricks and harden them with fire.” (In this region bricks were used instead of stone, and tar was used for mortar.) 4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.”
5 But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building.
Humans had been inventive, creative and industrious. This should not surprise you and I at all. We live in an age when we are seeing humans accomplish many great things. I myself grew up in the city that invented the modern skyscraper. Until only recently I could have boasted about Chicago and its world’s tallest skyscraper (Photo: Sears Tower).
But all of us have seen that man has been so industrious, creative and inventive that we have learned how to fly like birds (planes), swim under the water like fish (submarines), go faster than gazelles (cars) and even go as far as sending a man to the moon. We have cured many diseases. We have found the basic elements of our universe beyond molecules and atoms.
In reality, the idea that man is so creative, inventive and industrious should not surprise us. Why? Because we were created in the image of our creator. We just read a couple days ago the following verse:
Genesis 1:27 (NLT)
27 So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God is a wonderful example of creativity, inventiveness and industry. All the world around us shows how wonderful God’s creation is. We are creative, inventive and industrious because God made us that way, in His image.
1 Year, 1 Book, Many People 