Human pride with its desire to make each of ourselves known, instead of making God known, works in direct contradiction to God’s mission. As we have discussed in the previous articles regarding the mission of God, God made man and woman in his own image and then told them that they should be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. God’s mission, therefore, is that his image would fill the earth and from this we can understand our identity and the mission that God has given to us, the purpose for our lives.

Often, though, we listen to the voices that seek to tell the story differently. There are many voices that tell us that there is no creator. There are voices that tell us that, if we just try hard enough, we can determine our own purpose. They say that there is no God who has created you. Instead, we are each our own gods. We are each in charge of our own selves. The world tells us that only thing that counts is the power that one person has over another person. That which is good is determined solely by the perceived power of a person or a system, and depending on whether you prefer to speak for the prevailing power or for those who have less power in a society determines how you perceive your righteousness within the world.

The knowledge of good and evil

This is a very similar type of argument that the serpent made in the Garden of Eden as Eve stood before the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The serpent told Eve that God knew that if they ate from that tree, they would be like him, like God himself, knowing good and evil.

What is the serpent saying here?

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’? ”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Genesis 3:1-5

The serpent is tempting Eve, and along with her also Adam, to want to be like God. Adam and Eve didn’t need to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil because they were God’s people. They walked with God. They lived with God there in the Garden. Up to that point, they had listened to God and did what God told them to do.

Yet now, the serpent was telling them that they could be like God. How would they be like God? They could decide for themselves what is good and what is evil. They could essentially ignore God’s direction, ignore his commands or his rules, and simply do what they preferred to do. They could make their own decisions about the direction for their lives, do as they prefer to do and rebel against God, denying God’s plan for their lives, and go their own way.

And that is what they decide to do. Instead of listening to God’s plan, they decide that they want to be like God. They eat the fruit and their eyes are opened, realizing that they are naked. They feel shame, and now they truly understand what it means to have the knowledge of good and evil because they have just committed the greatest evil possible. They have attempted to elevate themselves to be their own gods. Instead of being the image of God, representing him, Adam and Eve have now attempted to be their own gods, making their own decisions about that which is right and that which is wrong. They have their own will to decide between right and wrong. That which they considered to be right was what they thought was right, not necessarily what God told them was right. That which they considered to be wrong was what they thought was wrong, not necessarily what God told them was wrong.

The decisions that they make about right and wrong are now relative, based not on what God has told them, but upon their own ideas. They have become “like God”, making their own decisions of right and wrong. They now have the knowledge of good and evil, just as the name of the tree had suggested.

At this point, then, it is still true that Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, but it is also true that there is now another image to which they have decided to offer their worship. Is it the image of God that is their desire to multiply to the ends of the earth as God had commanded them? No, they are now working from their own understanding of right and wrong. They have elevated their own image to a higher place than the image that God had given them. They are now no longer just representing God. They are now carrying around their own image, a form of idolatry, because they have elevated themselves to be “like God”.

Let’s make a name for ourselves

The story of the tower of Babel is very similar and the people who are there on the plain of Shinar use a similar line of reasoning to Adam and Eve. As we saw in the previous article, when Noah and his family exited the ark following the destruction of the earth by flood, God once again acknowledged that his people were made in his image and told them twice that they should go and fill the earth. God’s mission, that his image would be multiplied all across the earth, making him known and glorifying him, is renewed and reiterated to his people once again. God has one plan, that he would be known and glorified all across the face of the earth.

However, just a few years later, as the people were moving eastward out of what was likely present-day Turkey into present-day Iraq, they stop on the plain of Shinar so they could settle there. Read this next part from Genesis 11 to see how they specifically intend to work against God’s mission, preferring instead to adopt their own ideas and their own plans:

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; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

Genesis 11:3-4

Similar to Adam and Eve, the people there on that plain know God’s plan. They know what he wanted them to do. They had heard that God had told them to go, to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth. However, they have a different plan. These people want, instead, to make a name for themselves. By building a city with a tower that reaches the heavens, they will become known all across the earth as the powerful ones, famous themselves for what they believe to be their own greatness. Instead of taking God’s image and spreading it all over the earth as God commanded, their desire is to gather together so that they, their name, will be known, not God’s name. They want to be the ones to receive the glory for who they are and what they have done. Not God.

Self-reflection

We should take some time to reflect on these stories to determine whether or not, or to what extent, that we have similar attitudes, or similar behaviors in our lives. Are there ways in which we stand against the mission of God? Are they times in our lives when we want to “be like God”, determining right and wrong for ourselves? Or maybe there are points at which we want to make a name for ourselves?

Each of us are susceptible to our own pride. Each of us are tempted to build our own kingdoms instead of living for Christ, instead of living for God’s glory, for the kingdom of God. Living as Jesus has called us to live is a calling to leave behind those things that we want and instead living for those things that Jesus wants. Each day that we live is an opportunity to live for Christ, but it is also a day in which we can choose to live against him, against the mission of God. Which will we choose today?