Reflecting on God’s Timeless Wisdom, 25 Years Later
(This sermon was originally preached on September 16, 2001.)
This has been a week that no one in America—no one in the world—can ever erase or expunge from our memories. The horrifying moments of terror that struck our nation unfolded before us on television like something from a disaster movie, only worse. Commercial jetliners were high-jacked and turned into deadly missiles. Who can ever forget the collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the attack on the Pentagon, the thousands who have died. It is a week that will live in infamy.
My sister visited the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center earlier this year, and she spoke of how they gave the illusion of sturdy permanence and invincibility. Gazing up at them, she marveled at what mankind was capable of building, and now we’re marveling at what mankind is capable to destroying.
When I was a boy, we visited New York City and ascended to the top of the Empire State Building, which at that time was the tallest building in the world. Later we returned and went to the top of the World Trade Center. Later, while in Chicago for school, we rode the elevators to the top of the Sears Tower, which took its turn as the tallest building in the world. I’ve been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and of the CN Tower in Toronto, the world’s tallest free standing structure. Now the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur hold the distinction of being the tallest building in the world, and I’d like to visit there one day. Like everyone else, I’m fascinated by towers and skyscrapers.
It was also true in biblical times, and today I’d like to speak of four different towers in the Bible.
The Tower of Babel
In Genesis, chapter 11, we read of mankind’s first attempt to rise above the level of the earth in the building of a tower.
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 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.”
We know from the previous chapter that the postdiluvian mastermind behind this project was a man who was violently anti-god in his attitude and beliefs. His name was Nimrod, which mean “Rebel.” He is perhaps the first great prototype for the coming antichrist, and he is the founder of the empire of Babylon in what is now known as Iraq. In the story here in Genesis 11, the building of this Tower of Babel represented an act of rebellion against God. There is no mention of God in this passage. The people didn’t consult God. They didn’t seek God’s will. They determined to build a tower for themselves—to make a name for themselves—a tower that would to reach to the heavens. Many commentators believe this building was intended as a pagan temple in which Nimrod was going to institute pagan religious practices—a ziggurat. In saying that these city builders wanted to make a name for themselves, the writer of Genesis is implying that they were attempting to find significance and immortality in their own achievements. But it ended in confusion and came to naught.
The Tower of Babylon
Now let’s move from the front of the Bible to the back of the Bible. In Revelation 18, we have a description of the great city of the End Times, the city of the Antichrist, the city code-named Babylon, the city whose foundations in history Nimrod laid—a city with towers and buildings and skyscrapers such as the world has undoubtedly never before seen. This is the conclusion of the empire begun by Nimrod in Genesis 11. A few weeks ago we looked at this passage during our Sunday night studies in Revelation, and its images have stayed with me. Revelation, chapter 18, describes the last great capital city in history, a city that will serve as the worldwide headquarters for the evil empire of the Antichrist. It may actually be the city of Babylon, rebuilt on the Plain of Shinar.
I could not help but think of this passage as I watched the televised scene from across New York Harbor at the skyline of New York City, as the lower boroughs of Manhattan disappeared in the ash and smoke of its own destruction. Look at verse 9:
When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: “Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!”
Verse 17 says:
In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin! Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, their sailors, and all who earn their living form the sea, will stand far off. When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, ‘Was there ever a city like this great city?’ They will throw dust on their heads and with weeping and mourning cry out: ‘Woe! Woe, O great city, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth! In one hour she has been brought to ruin!’
Doesn’t that sound like what we witnessed last Tuesday? As I watched the television coverage, I felt we were just seeing a preview of the terror of this approaching moment of apocalypse just before our Lord returns to earth when the towers and buildings and spires of last great city in world history will collapse amid the smoke of her own destruction.
The Tower of Siloam
But now I want to show you another passage which is extraordinarily relevant to our situation today. During the life and ministry of Jesus, two tragedies rocked the secluded little world of Israel. The first tragedy was political in nature. Pontius Pilate had unleashed his soldiers against a group of worshipers in Galilee. The second tragedy was akin to the one we have faced this week. A tall building, a tower as it was called, collapsed with significant loss of life. Not as great as this week’s fatalities, of course, but for that day and age, it was very significant and it stunned the people. Jesus commented on these tragedies, and He didn’t exactly say what we would expect Him to say.
Suppose a television crew had come to our church to interview me about this week’s tragedy. I suppose I would have offered my prayers and sympathy and tried to say words of comfort into the camera. Jesus was far more blunt and truthful. Look at this passage in Luke 13:
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
The people of our Lord’s day felt that if something terrible happened to someone, it undoubtedly happened because they had sinned in some terrible or extreme way. Jesus refuted that. Death and destruction, tragedy and heartache, He said, are the results of sin. And we’re all sinners, and left to ourselves, we’re all going to perish. When a tragedy befalls those around it, it is a wake-up call for us to consider the brevity and uncertainty of life, and to direct our own hearts to Jesus Christ who alone can give us abundant life and eternal life.
Over five thousand people died this week in these terrible attacks, but out of all of us who remain, how many are going to be alive five months from now? Five years from now? Fifty years from now? A hundred years from now? Every member of every generation perishes. It might be in a terrorist attack, or it might be from an accident, or from a disease. But we’re all going to die.
But those who repent and turn from their sins and take Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. What does it mean to repent? It doesn’t mean just to feel sorry for the way you’ve lived. Judas Iscariot felt sorry for having betrayed Christ; he felt remorse and he felt regret. But he didn’t really repent. To repent means to feel sorry enough to do something about it. It means to confess your sins before God. It means to stop living the way you’re living. Stop doing the things you’re doing. Stop saying the things you’re saying. It involves changing your mind, changing your behavior, changing your attitude.
You say, “I can’t change.” You can with God’s help. I remember reading about the conversion of the radio evangelist Michael Guido. His mother came to Christ first, and she started praying for her husband, who was a heavy drinker. When he found out she had been saved, he became so angry that he threatened to divorce her and even to beat her if she went back to church. She went anyway, taking the children with her. One by one the children, too, became Christians. On the Sunday they were going to be baptized, the old man drank heavily, then threatened them and beat the children. Then he locked the doors from the inside, put the keys in his pocket, and fell asleep. As he slept, they slipped the keys from his pocket, ran out of the house, and walked to the church.
Michael later said that when they reached the corner of 23rd and Broadway, the shafts of sunlight fell on his mother’s face, and he could see she was in deep pain. She had a weak heart, and he worried about her. “Ma,” he said, “with your heart trouble, the doctor said the least excitement could bring an attack. When we get home, Pa will beat us all unmercifully. Do we have to go through with this? Can’t we be secret Christians? Can’t we be silent believers? Do we have to go all the way?”
“Children,” replied the mother, “we are going all the way or not at all.” Michael Guido later said that he never forget that lesson—the importance of going all the way with Jesus.
And I wonder if someone here needs to come to Christ, to repent of your sins, and to go all the way with Him. He said, “Unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
The Tower of Jehovah
But that brings me to the fourth tower I’d like to show you, and it’s in Proverbs 18:10: The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it, and are safe. One of the most heart-tearing things I heard this week was the tape recording of a woman named Melissa Hughes who was high in the World Trade Center, on the 101st floor of the North Tower. She called her husband—they had just celebrated their first wedding anniversary—and you could hear the fear in her voice as she left this message on their voice mail. She said, “I’m up in this tower, and we’ve been hit by a plane—or a bomb has gone off. I don’t know if I can get out. There’s a lot of smoke, and I just want you to know I love you always.”
No doubt when she went to work that morning, the lobby of that great building was gleaming. No doubt the elevators were zipping smoothly from floor to floor. No doubt her office on the 101st floor was plush and comfortable. No doubt the view was incredible. But five minutes later, none of that mattered. It wasn’t a safe place; it was a place of terror and death.
One newspaper printed an article about the impact this week’s events are having on young people, on those too young to remember World War II, the Korean War, or the assassination of President Kennedy. Some sociologists call them the “pampered generation.” But now, all that has changed. One high school counselor in Fairfax, Virginia, just outside of Washington, said, “This is like an emotional assault. It has shaken a lot of these kids to the foundation.”
And one young person, a college freshman, says that she and her friends are worried about retaliation, the possibility of war, the possibility of a draft. “Everyone is feeling kind of vulnerable,” she said.
Without the Lord Jesus Christ, we are all vulnerable, and there are no safe places. The strongest and most powerful and permanent structures that human beings build are never really safe. There is no security in any tower built on earth. There’s no security in building your own towers. No security in the tower of fame, or in the tower of wealth, or in the tower of popularity, nor in the tower of beauty.
There’s no place on earth where we are truly safe from sudden death and destruction—except in the towering cross of Jesus Christ. There’s an old hymn that says:
In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o’er the wrecks of time;
The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are safe. Today I want to invite you to run into it. To run to the Lord. To run to the cross. It’s the only place of safety and of eternal security in times like these. How do you run to the Lord? You come and kneel and pray: “Dear Lord, I know I’m a sinner and I know I’m perishing. I know there is no safety in this world. But I also believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross and overcame death in order to give me eternal life. I repent of my sins and receive Him today as my Lord and Savior. From this day on, my security is in Him. From this day on, He is my strong tower.”
At a time like this, I urge you to come to Christ.