Tower Builders: Ancient and Modern

THE late Mr Hector Jack, Stratheconon, who was known to a number of our readers, it is reported, on meeting a young man who is now one of our office-bearers, asked him his name and what occupation he followed. On receiving an answer to the first part of his question, and being informed that the young man’s occupation was that of a master builder, he replied, “That is my work, too.” And on further asking if the young man built big houses, and receiving an answer in the affirmative, he added—”Well, I build big houses, too.” Then he went on to say—”I was building a great castle at one time, and I planned that it would have a very high tower, and one day One looked on my work, and a band of men were sent and told to undermine the foundations, and before I knew where I was my great castle was in ruins at my feet.” Builders of castles with high towers did not cease with Hector Jack, neither was he the first to begin that heaven-ignoring work. The first tower builders of whom mention is made are those referred to in Genesis, who said—”Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” That this well-planned scheme was the outcome of the godlessness of the builders is evident from how the Lord viewed the activities of the builders. “The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded,” and the work was so inconsistent with His mind that He confounded the language of the builders. The narrative makes it very clear that the motive in building the tower was to be independent of God, and there are a few points mentioned by the inspired writer that are worthy of our attention.

1. The people were very united in this work. When the leaders outlined the scheme at their meetings there were no dissentient voices—”behold the people is one” is the testimony of the Searcher of hearts and Trier of reins. This unity of purpose would be pointed to as a sure sign of success, but it was a movement towards union which, while it had all the people behind it, had one fatal defect—God was not taken into account.

2. Great care was taken to make the building as strong as possible. True it is that they were to use bricks instead of stone, but this may have been owing to the greatness of the building they proposed to erect, and as the more enduring material might be soon exhausted, nothing perturbed, they would fashion material by their own skill, and so carry out their project. Every care was taken to make the building as substantial as possible—the bricks were to be thoroughly dried in the sun, and so everything that the human thought of that day could devise was done in order to give enduring permanency to the building. But the very permanency they gave it was not to subserve the end they had in view, but to be a monument to after ages of how the Lord will frustrate the plans of those who try to work independent of Him.

3. This building of the tower was only the beginning of their revolt against God. This is clearly indicated in the Lord’s own words, “This they began to do” (literally, “this is their beginning to do”), that is, this is merely the commencement of their plan. The leaders, if charged with this at any of their meetings, would probably say that it was a gross misrepresentation of their movement, and they would plead that they had the interest of coming generations at heart, but Jehovah saw what was in their minds, and knew full well the dangerous road on which they were travelling, and so He brought their work speedily to an end.

This first movement for union which we have on record had everything to make it a success from the human standpoint. It met with the unanimous approval of the people; there were no seceders or anti-unionists to trouble the leaders; there was not even the existence of a despised “impracticable element” which so troubled a modern ecclesiastical in his union propaganda. All was harmony, the people were one, and nothing seemed wanting to success. But the builders, while they might plead the tie of kinship, the wish for personal safety, and that union was strength, had made their plans, ignoring one indispensable factor to enduring success. God was not in all their thoughts. And when the Lord came down to see the tower which men were building, it was in judgment He came, and by His heavy sentence caused such confusion that men are suffering from it to this day.

So this first movement for union has lessons for us in these latter days.

But not only in ancient times did men build towers with the view of being independent of God, the work is still actively engaged in among men. We know that thousands are building high towers, beautiful to look at in their own eyes, and very substantial and enduring according to their own ideas, but which have this fatal defect, that the God they recognise is not the living and true God as set before us in the Scripture.

1. What a multitude are building a tower of sentimental religion “whose top may reach to heaven”—a tower fatally defective in the foundation and the superstructure. God is love and merciful, therefore, we may serve the devil all our days, and then somehow or other get into heaven at last, even though we have neglected the one way that is set before us in His Word. This is one of the great delusions of the devil, by which thousands of thousands are ruined. God is love, and His mercy endures for ever, but He has plainly set before us the only channel by which that love and mercy comes to sinners.

2. Then there is the tower of our own righteousness. And in connection with it we have the testimony of one who afterwards became a wise master-builder in the Church of God. How many are building this tower! But even though in their estimation it may reach to the heavens, yet it has the fatal defect that its foundation is so defective that even though there was good material for the superstructure, which there is not, it would ruin the whole building. It is well in building such towers that we should as wise men sit down and consider and count the cost whether we have sufficient to finish them.

The first attempt at tower-building which ignored God brought such confusion that it is felt to this day, and the modern attempts at tower-building (unless repented of) which ignore the living and true God as He is revealed in Jesus Christ will bring upon the builders a more lasting confusion. God has not left His people to build a strong tower for themselves. He Himself is their strong tower. And, while conscious of the fact that they are still in an enemy’s country and in a world swept by desolating storms, they are not shelterless and unprovided for. So with faith in their hearts they may join with the sweet Psalmist of Israel in singing:—

But of thy power I’ll sing aloud;
at morn thy mercy praise:
For thou to me my refuge wast,
and tow’r, in troublous days.