Is anything in your life too hard for our Lord’s hand? Everything and everyone around us seems to be in the middle of drama, either just in or just out of. Pride and arrogance seem to be the norm. I was reminded of a story that Moses recorded in the eleventh chapter of Genesis where pride and arrogance brought about a worldwide event that has affected us to this day.

After the great flood, God gave instructions to Noah, his sons, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and their wives that they were to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Genesis 9:1 God repeated this a second time. Then in verses 12-17, He gives this covenant; “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember My covenant that is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh. God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.’”

One of those descendants, Nimrod, migrated east to the land of Shinar which means “country of two rivers.” Those two rivers were the Tigris and the Euphrates which flow through modern-day Iraq. His father was Cush whose father was Ham whose father was Noah who was still alive at the time. Noah lived to be 950 years old and was 600 years old at the time of the flood. Just to give you an idea of the amount of time that elapsed between the flood and the tower of Babel.Nimrod, known as a mighty man, led the people to be a powerful and successful nation of thousands. He wanted a symbol or monument to himself and his accomplishments; one that could be seen by all. So, he proposed that the people build a tower that could be seen from a long distance. It would be a tower to the heavens so the gods could come down and the people could go up to the gods. This tower was made with bricks dried with fire and a mortar described as asphalt which took over 100 years to build.

Moses wrote this story in Genesis, chapter eleven and it describes them as a people that had become prideful and arrogant. They didn’t need God; they had become the powerful nation of Babylonians.

Josephus, a writer of ancient history, stated this about Nimrod: “He also said he would be revenged on God if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that, he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers.” (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1, Chapter 4)

“And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So, the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.” Genesis 11:5-9

Interestingly the Hebrew word for Babel or Babylon is Balal which means to mix, mingle, confuse, confound. The very meaning of the name given to the Tower of Babel was appropriate because God confused the builders’ language so they couldn’t understand each other.

The Lord had given Noah’s family the responsibility of replenishing the earth. Nimrod, only three generations from the great flood had abandoned the salvation of the Lord and the one and only true God who spoke directly to his great-grandfather. He was now building a monument to himself, staying in one place and building an empire dedicated to themselves and their selfish and prideful arrogance.

I was amused that Nimrod and his officials thought they could outsmart God with a tower high enough to prevent them from dying in a flood caused by God. I was equally amazed that they didn’t believe God when He said He would never destroy the earth by a flood again. But then I am often caught off guard myself when I go to God in prayer with answers to problems instead of saying to God, “Your will, Your way.” What? Am I smarter than God? Oh, may I always be reminded of the power of the Almighty God and His love for me. I hope this story has reminded you of what an awesome God, creator of man, and will help you realize God has a plan and purpose in store for you.
These two scriptures help me put things in perspective when everything around me is chaos. May they be an encouragement to you today.

Jeremiah 32:27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?”

Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.”