The all New Monthly Update from Jennifer Rothschild

What God Has Been Teaching Me Lately

"...And they used brick for stone..."

You know, whenever we hear the word "they," we should ask, "Who are 'they' anyway?" So, when I began my Fresh Grounded Thought with "they used bricks for stone," you must have surely wondered who" they" are. "They" are the people in Genesis 11 who were on a pilgrimage to the land of Shinar to build a city with a great tower. I have been thinking about them because I realize we aren't very different from them.

"About one hundred years after the flood, people grew restless and wanted to make a name for themselves." (Gen 11:4)

When I read that, I pondered, "Didn't they already have a name? Wasn't it a name that represented God's provision and favor?" What is it about people--about us--that makes us want to make a name for ourselves?

The people in Genesis 11 started their name-making project by constructing bricks. Perhaps the land of Shinar didn't have enough stones to build a tower. Or perhaps the people were so determined to make a name for themselves that they chose to create the building blocks themselves rather than use the stones that God provided. I can see them stooped over, stirring, forming, sweating, and patting mud, grime, and slime. Finally a brick is formed.

I imagine one of the descendants of Nimrod taking a piece of firm straw and proudly etching his name in the brick, and then placing it into a pile of other bricks, all bearing the names of those who formed them. The bricks were masterfully placed together to form a colossal tower that history remembers as the Tower of Babel.

I only imagine that their names were etched on the bricks; there isn't any historical evidence of such action, but think about it...the whole purpose of erecting the tower was to make a name for the people. Doesn't it seem slightly plausible that the brick makers left their marks--kind of like kids do in wet cement? It seems possible to me because I think that's human nature. Hmmm...

We erect towers of self-importance, one brick at a time. Our bricks read "professional" or "married" or "pretty" or "smart." We strive to find our own significance from bricks we make and names we take. I want to be of the people who say, "No bricks!"   God has made us living stones and given us new names.

Peter said, "You [Christians] yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2:5)

God doesn't want towers; He wants "a spiritual house." Instead of just accumulating the transient, temporal things in our lives and using them to build a tower of pride and make a name for ourselves, may we use what God says we are--living stones--and build a spiritual sacrifice. On you, His living stone, He wrote "forgiven" and "valuable" and "dearly loved" and "called." Recognition of God's name for us and being satisfied with and humbled by His calling gives us all we need to build our lives.

On the plane of Shinar, the people built a tower, brick by brick, with the intent of reaching heaven. No matter how great their efforts nor how brilliant their endeavor, their tower could never be high enough. Even at its soaring height, the Lord still had to "come down" to the tower. (Gen 11:5)   That's just how it is and forever will be! We can attempt to build a name for ourselves and try our best to tower above others to make ourselves feel significant. Some of us even try to erect our towers to somehow reach and please God.   But our labors will always fall short. Our grand efforts of vain pride only expose our smallness.

I seek to solidify in my own mind and heart that what God did in making a name for you and me is utterly sufficient and far superior to anything we could ever do to make a name for ourselves. Our greatest endeavor to reach Him will always fall short.

The beauty, though, is He does come down. He made us living stones with new names so we would have something with which to build sacrificial lives to Him.

So, what name are you seeking to write? Are you making bricks with which to build your life or are you content to be a living stone, wearing the name He gave you?