Getting Back to the Bible in 2025 - Building a Temple, Not a Tower.
My wife just returned from India to share her experiences with me. One striking lesson I learned is that she did not see a single bungalow (ranch) in the part of India she went to. Perhaps because of a shortfall in available space relative to the population, most buildings are complex skyscrapers, with different builders adding apartment over apartment heavenward. My immediate reaction/conclusion is that the foundations of buildings in India are structured to bear hefty loads. This is the work of structural engineers, right?
We cannot overemphasize the significance of a solid foundation for any building, physical or spiritual. Jesus’ teaching about the wisdom of building our house on the rock (Matt. 7:24-27) is pertinent and instructive for both physical and spiritual builders. Some of us have witnessed buildings collapse because of inappropriate materials and poor workmanship.
In this piece, we intend to address one critical issue for believers in 2025: the need for Christians to return to the Bible. By this, I mean taking time, individually and corporately, to study the Bible and critically reflect on the context and meaning of words used.
Every word in the Bible is deliberate - carrying specific meanings for the immediate audience and applies to future audiences. Bible events and stories, especially the Old Testament, foreshadow the up-and-coming events in the human trajectory to serving God’s purposes for creation - lost in the Garden of Eden. You and I must locate our lives in 2025 within God’s overarching plan and purpose. Like expert workmen and women, we are to build on Christ, the Rock, and the Foundation of our faith - we are the living stones that make up His holy Temple.
Here’s what we are into in 2025:
Called to Build - a Temple, not a Tower:
We begin in Genesis, the Book of the Beginning. This book is the key to navigating the Bible and knowing our position in God’s eternal plan. It is the foundation and blueprint of what to expect in our faith walk. Broadly, the Book is in two parts: Chapters 1-11 tell the creation story and the failure of humankind to fulfill God’s purposes, leading up to the flood and Noah’s ark, and followed by a new beginning and Babel - a people united in their resolve to build a Tower and make a name for themselves. From the general to the particular, Genesis 12 - 50 accounts for God’s choice of an individual and his descendants - Abraham and his offspring - as the point man or arrowhead for human restoration into fellowship with God to fulfill His purposes on earth.
Abraham’s relationship with God depends on the covenant God made with him. The covenant and God’s promise to bless Abraham and make him a nation and father of many nations were fulfilled in Isaac, Jacob, the twelve tribes of Israel, and ultimately in Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, gentiles, including this writer and, most probably, this reader, are covered by God’s covenant with all believers in Jesus.
Are You Building a Tower or a Temple?
The Babel Tower Episode.
Genesis 11: 1-4 states:
“Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people 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 bricks instead of stones 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 make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the earth.”
They reflect the post-flood human society and culture, working and pushing self-centered ambitions with little consideration for God’s will and purpose in keeping them alive beyond a flood that destroyed other humans and all living creatures not taken into the ark. These were descendants of Noah - speaking one language and united in purpose. In unity, they were able to break ground, building cities. However, they were fixated on their success in discovering a superior technology in civil and building engineering — using “bricks instead of stones and tar for mortar.” The “baked bricks technology” has stood the test of centuries.
Laudable accomplishments indeed! But here’s the snag:
Humans are easily blinded by success and accomplishments to seeing God at work and get carried away. Puffed up by a sense of national pride, the Babel crowd chose to rebel against the God of Noah, who saved them and their ancestors from perishing. They ignored the command to “increase, multiply, and fill the earth.” Their motivation, which went counter to God’s command, was to “build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to heaven, “so that we make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
Every word in that statement is against the will of the Creator.
To quote Matt Lucas of Our Daily Bread, “This has been a recurring issue for humans; we build monuments to ourselves and our achievements.”
King Nebuchadnezzar rhetorically bragged: “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30).
Babel gave birth to Babylon.
But Solomon’s motivation for building God’s temple stands in contrast. He declared:
“I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the Lord my God.” (1 Kings 5:5). Solomon understood that what he needed to build would “make a name for God” and not for himself. He later wrote a psalm about it. He acknowledges that “unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1).
In the New Testament, “to build” is a metaphor for work in the household of faith. Jesus told Peter that he would build His church on this rock, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Mattew 16:18),
On his part, Paul said to the gentile members of the church in Ephesus:
“You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also of His household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him, you, too, are being built together to become a dwelling where God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2: 19-22).
Hebrews 3:4 sums it up: “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.” (ESV)
Some people take delight in building “Towers” of physical structures to make a name for themselves at the expense of building God’s holy temples for their church members.
What are you building, and what do you intend to make of 2025?
