You may call this day's blog a stretch. That's okay. It will certainly remind me about the story in Genesis 11. I don't think I'll forget.
My husband is a pretty good sport. Most of the time putting up with everything new I want to try. This most often relates to food. I tend to make a hobby of trying different healthy food regimens. Typically in the summer I will read some type of healthy cookbook and decide to attempt to eat/cook that way for awhile.
Two problems with attempting new meals--especially healthy ones. Problem #1: they often taste terrible! Problem #2: they often smell horrible! Today's meal was complete with both problems. If you could make it past the smell (my husband didn't, I did), the taste (even when trying to dress it up with some great salsa) would certainly disappoint.
So much for health. I downed a serving of the tolerable side vegetable then ditched the rest of the meal and finished off with the chocolate, creme-filled lady finger my husband brought home from our favorite donut shop. (He's a good man! And he did walk with me first, so don't judge!)
Now the tie-in to today's Bible story about the tower of Babel. The people thought they were doing a good (healthy, if you will) thing. They were going to make a way to God. They were going to make up a religion that worked for them. Who better than themselves to know how they would best connect to God, right?
Wrong. The Bible says that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." (Jeremiah 17:9) That verse and the next one go on to say, "Who can know it (the heart)? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings." (Jeremiah 17:9-10) We often hear people say, "Trust your heart." I think these verses go against that saying.
The people constructing the tower of Babel were trusting their heart to make a way to God. What they needed to do instead was to trust God's way of salvation, God's way to connect to His people.
Often times we think we are doing something for our good, but it turns out to not be so. I thought the healthy meal I was preparing was going to be good for me and my family. Turns out it stunk to high heaven! Do you remember Genesis 8:20-21? After Noah was able to exit the ark, he built an altar to the Lord and made a sacrifice. The Bible says in verse 21, "And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma . . .".
Does the way you worship God smell like a soothing aroma or does it stink?
