Babel

"Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.  As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 

Then they said, "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 11:1-2,4

"so that we may make a name for ourselves".....  I wonder how many times I've been there and not even realized it.  How many times have I set out to do something great and the hidden motive in my heart has been to make a name for myself? 

How often have I masked my own selfish ambition with doing something "for God"?  How often have I longed for the place that only belongs to God?

"But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.  The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.  That is why it was called Babel —because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth."
Genesis 11:5-9

And how gracious is God to see me on a path that will not be good for me and intervene, confuse things, do whatever it takes to remove me from a destructive path? 

He knows that making a name for myself would not go well for me.  He knows that I am most fulfilled and safe when I am bearing fruit for His glory and completely dependent on Him and not myself.

And how often do I shake my fist in His face for confusing my plans, for setting up a roadblock on the path I was on.  I will never know on this side of heaven what He saved me from when He interrupted my plans!

I pray that my life would make a name for Jesus Christ, for His glory, for His fame and that God would confuse and prevent any plan that is to make my name known. 

I won't always understand what He saw down that path that He didn't let me stay on, but I will trust that He is good and is always at work to protect me and draw me closer to Himself!