Preached in Markham Baptist Church, March 21, 2004.

Genesis 11:1-9; 
Genesis 12:1-4 

CONNECTING WITH GOD AND STAYING CONNECTED

Long before Dr. Phil began assessing the human condition there was another popular Doctor of great renown and influence by the name of Dr. Suess. You’ve probably read his ground breaking work on family dynamics in a patriarchal society entitled, “Hop on Pop”. His classic study of crime in a materialistic age has become a must read – “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and he wrote several other books in the field of zoology – Horton Hears a Who and one on feline behaviour patterns, “The Cat in the Hat”.

But of all the books that Dr. Suess has written one of my favourites – a superior work examining the human condition is called, “Yertle the Turtle.”

Now Yertle the Turtle is king of the pond at Sala-ma-Sond.

He was king of all that he could see, “but I don’t see enough, said Yertle the Turtle, “that’s the trouble with me.”

So Yertle, the turtle King lifted his hand

And Yertle, the Turtle King, gave a command

He ordered nine turtles to swim to his stone

And using these turtles, he built a new throne.

And then Yertle climbed up. He sat down on the pile.

What a wonderful view! He could see ‘most a mile!

“All mine!” Yertle cried. “Oh, the things I now rule!

I’m the king of a cow! And I’m the king of mule!

I’m the king of house! And what’s more, beyond that -

I’m the king of a blueberry bush and a cat!

I’m Yertle the Turtle! O marvelous me!

For I am the ruler of all that I see!

Yertle soon built his throne so high

That he could see forty miles from his throne in the sky.

I rule from the clouds! Over land! Over Sea!

There’s nothing, no nothing, that’s higher than me!

You can imagine Yertle’s disgrace

When he saw the moon high up in its place

And in a fit of rage Yertle said,

“I’ll build my throne higher! I can and I will

I’ll call some more turtles. I’ll stack ‘em to heaven!

I need ‘bout five thousand, six hundred and seven!

But there was a plain little turtle named Mack

He was a plain little turtle below in the stack.

And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing.

He burped!

And his burp shook the throne of the king!

And Yertle the Turtle King of all Sala-ma-sond,

Fell off his high throne and fell Plunk! In the pond!

And today the great Yertle, that Marvelous he,

Is King of the mud. That is all he can see. ¹

Well that’s a fun poem, a simply-worded poem, but sometimes the simplest things carry the most profound truth. And so with Yertle the Turtle, for it serves as a picture of human rebellion against God. “O marvellous me I am the ruler of all that I see!” It is a story that has been repeated in human history again and again and again and again – as humanity has sought to dethrone God and to live independently of all that God purposes and wills and seeks to raise up self and put down God.

It is a story that finds its roots in Genesis 11:1-9.

The key to understanding this text is verse 4: “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

That verse captures the dominant attitude of the day. Self-reliance – “Let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly … Let us build ourselves city.”

Self-worship – “with a tower that reaches to the heavens.”

Scholars tell us that that phrase “that reaches” isn’t in the Hebrew, rather it speaks of the top of the tower being “in”, “on”, “with” or “by” the heavens. The intent is clear, humanity is seeking to build a religious center that will dethrone God and put self in His place. Scholars tell us further that Babylon is the birthplace of the Zodiac – the worship of the stars. “Let us put a tower into the heavens to displace God for we are gods and we can do it.”

So we have self-reliance, self-worship and then we have self-promotion – “so that we can make a name for ourselves.”

And then self-rule – “and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” It is a direct contradiction of what God commands. God had clearly directed humanity – both through Adam and Noah to increase in number and fill the earth. But humanity will not have anything to do with the command that God has given them – they want self-rule they want to decide what they can and cannot do and they decide to stay put.

This city, these people have turned their backs on God – it is completely humanistic. "O Marvellous me, I’m the ruler of all that I see."

My friends, it is a danger that we must constantly beware of. It is not part of God’s plan for us, it is not God’s will for us that we live independently of Him. It will only bring ruin and disaster to our lives if we do so. Instead of greatness and success we’ll be king of the mud.

Certainly this is what happens in our text. At verse 5 we read, “But the Lord came down…” Now we must not think of God lumbering off His throne in heaven and descending a set of steps to earth. That is not what the text is saying, I believe that the text is making a point – we are supposed to have a picture in our mind of this great tower that humanity is building - a tower that is supposed to be equal to the powers of heaven: “O look at what we are achieving, look at what we can do without God, Aren’t we marvelous, aren’t we fantastic, look at this great tower!” And yet in God’s eyes it is so small that He has to “come down” to see it. The point made is that this tower isn’t all that wonderful compared to the majestic, living God!

Then verse 6 continues – the Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this.” It’s not that what they have done is all that wonderful and that God is worried, it is, rather, God is saying look at the height of their sin, their self-worship, their self-reliance, their self-promotion.

“Then” He continues, “nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them,” it is not that they will achieve wonderful and marvellous things – it is that their sin will only become that much greater – there will be no sin that impossible for them.

So God seeks to disrupt the whole business and confuses their language and in the end His purposes are achieved; the end of verse 9: "From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” Exactly what God wanted in the first place.

O my friends, the parallels in this world are so obvious. Humanity is always boasting of what it can achieve without God. But let’s bring it closer to home. Let’s think of what we boast of as a church. Let’s think of what we are trying to achieve; let’s think of what we are trying to build; let’s think of what we are trying to accumulate and let us ask ourselves are we really doing what God wants us to do or are we trying to build a tower that will reach to the heavens and replace God?

You know it’s sometimes easier for the church to get off track than the world – of course the world is ungodly and turns its back on God. But for the church we can fall into the trap of just assuming that because we are the church that we are doing the will of God and that what we are doing is bringing glory to God. And we can blindly go on our way without ever checking, ever asking God, without ever waiting on God to see what He wants and what He thinks because we are the church, of course we are in His will, of course what we are doing is what He wants!

And we need to be careful, and we need to be checking – are we staying connected with God. Are we doing what HE wants?

Well how do we know that we are staying connected with God? How do we know that we are not simply building a tower of our own design? How do we know that we are not just little Yertle the Turtles seeking to claim territory and build our own kingdom?

There is a wonderful, helpful contrast to the opening verses of chapter 11 in the opening verses of chapter 12. Hear these verses in chapter 12: 1-4. Do you see the contrasts?

Chapter 11 tells of what humanity will do without God, chapter 12 tells of what God will do through humanity. Hear the contrasts

Genesis 11:3 – They said to one another

Genesis 12:1 – “The Lord had said to Abram”

Genesis 11:2 – “As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.”

Genesis 12:1 – “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.”

Genesis 11:3,4 “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly … Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.

Genesis 12:2 “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.”

One is all humanity’s doing and the other is all God’s doing.

And this is the first step in staying connected with God. We trust God to accomplish His will and His purposes. We do not look at what we can do – to be sure we offer that to God to use – but we do not trust in what we can do, we do not trust in what we have. We trust God to accomplish His will and purposes. As a Church we do not look to our budget, we do not trust in accumulated funds, we do not trust in gathered talents and skills, we do not glory in the size of our building or the power of our combined dollars, the strength of our music ministry or youth ministry, or mid week programs - we are to look to God to accomplish His desires through us.

God says to Abram, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.” You see, any kind of accomplishment that lasts, any kind of success for the kingdom that is eternal is not accomplished by our toil, our resources, our power, or our faithfulness. God says I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great.

There is a human condition that the old theologians used to speak of and we don’t hear it often in evangelical circles, but they used to speak of the “blessedness of possessing nothing.” And we don’t often hear the North American church speak of the blessedness of possessing nothing. We hear of the blessedness of the big church building, the large endowment fund, the blessedness of the big program. But this is there is a blessing in possessing nothing. Why is there blessing in possessing nothing? Because then the church is made to depend on God, the people of God are then made to look to God to provide.

It is a scriptural truth that the people of God are always slow to learn. When the people of Israel went into the promised land – they inherited cities they did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things they did not provide, wells they did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves they did not plant” (Deuteronomy 6:12) and as soon as they are in the Promised Land what do they do? They forget God (Judges 8:34; Jeremiah 3:21).

And we are slow to learn for our hopes are still centred on what we can bring to God and we keep trusting in it and the more we trust in what we bring the harder the work is. My friends, anything that lasts for eternity, anything that has impact for the kingdom of God comes from the blessing of God.

By blessing I mean the ability to do what we cannot possibly do by our own strength and ability and resources. To change the analogy – we bring the five loaves and two fishes, but it is God to blesses those and enables us to feed thousands of people. We don’t look to the five loaves and two fish in our hand – no, we look to God in faith trusting Him to bring the increase and the blessing. We don’t look at the great tower that we can build, even if we have the ability we look to God, we trust in God.

Second step in staying connected with God. First we trust God to accomplish His will and purposes in us. Second, we ask God what His plans and purposes are. Again the church often gets the order wrong – we make dream dreams of what we want to accomplish for God and then we make plans based on our priorities. What is important is what God plans to do where we are and how He wants to accomplish it through us. Do you know what Scripture says about our plans? “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.” Isn’t this what we see illustrated at the tower of Babel? That verse continues, “But the counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.” (Psalm 33:10-11)

Our plans and purposes must be God’s plans and purposes or we will not experience God working through you life or through us as a church.

How do we discover His plans and purposes for us? Through the study of Scripture and through prayer.

Don’t misunderstand - planning is a valuable tool. There is no virtue in walking around in a muddled mess – that’s not the point of the Tower of Babel – we should not think that because they planned we shouldn’t plan. No - the point is that they planned without God! Abram on the other hand received his plan from God! How is God’s plan discovered through the study of his word and prayer – I tell you the best planning meetings we can have as a church are our prayer meetings!

How can we stay connected with God? Trust God alone – not our abilities or talents. Let God give you His plan for you, for us. Wait on Him for his plan. Here’s the third way – Give glory to God and only to God.

The people of the tower of Babel were seeking to glorify self – we on the other hand have been called to glorify God and God alone. As soon as we take praise, or credit for what God has done we are in big trouble. It is God who gives the ability, it is God who blesses, it is God who gives the increase. The Work of God begins with God, continues with God and ends with God so that when the work of God is completed God is glorified.

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus speaks of not making a show of our good deeds. If we are praying, then don’t tell everyone, if we are fasting, don’t tell everyone.

But in one place He says – "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)

God gets the glory – sometimes we may say, look at our wonderful mid week programs, look at our great outreach to the high schools, look at the great Powerpoint we have, look at this and that. My friends, we have nothing to boast of! If we boast, let us boast in the Lord!

As soon as we say, “let us make a name for ourselves” our efforts are worthless, our work is in vain and our toil is for nothing. But when we seek to glorify God – that is to praise Him, to give Him the credit – to make His greatness and power known, then what we seek to do will last for eternity.

You want to stay connected with God? You want to have a relationship with God that is close and personal and intimate?

1) Trust God - not the things you have or the talents you possess. Maybe pray, "Lord allow me the blessing of possessing nothing."

2) Look for God’s plans

3) Glorify God

4) Seek to make His name great.

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - March 2004
 

Endnote:

1. Excerpts from Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories, Dr. Suess, 1958, Random House, New York.