Most Monuments We Build Are For Spotlight

Devotion for Monday May 21, 2018

Topic: Most Monuments We Build Are For Spotlight

Text: Genesis 11:1 – 9

Most times, we build monuments to mark/celebrate great moments and people. However, monuments are more than just memory aids. In building them we want, above all, to glorify something; we use them to honour a person or idealize an event. After the Flood, God made a covenant with Noah and his descendants which included dispersing to other parts of the earth. But the people forgot God; His goodness, His deliverance, His judgment, and His promise soon after that. They became impressed with themselves, so much so that they decided to erect a monument for themselves. They built their tower to glorify their greatness; it became, instead, a memorial to their greatest foolishness and human arrogance. We can learn from this passage: (1) God is good and merciful to us. (2) God is greater than we are. (3) All humans are connected by sin. The people in this story built the Tower of Babel for the whole world to see (Genesis 11:3-4). Today, people may not build statues, temples, or pyramids, but they still erect monuments in achievements, expensive clothes, big houses, fancy cars, important jobs to call attention to them. When these are used as means to give us personal identity and self-worth, these otherwise worthy pursuits take God’s place. God gives us freedom to develop in many areas, but not the freedom to replace Him. What monument have you built for yourself?

Sing A&M 361; Abu 128

Food for Thought: What monuments are you erecting to give yourself personal identity instead of glorifying God?

Memory verse: Genesis 11:4  

Prayer: Help me, Lord God, not to attach self-worth to the blessings you have given to me. Rather, grant that I will use them to your praise and glory.