The lust for power began in Eden, of course, when Adam aspired to be equal with the Elohim, and it rose to a climax with the period of the flood when together with all unrighteousness it was removed from the earth. It did not lie dormant for long, however, but as the population increased it began again at Babel. The whole earth was then united, and doubtless with an eye to the continuance of progress and prosperity men said, “Let us build a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name lest we be scattered”. The subsequent history of mankind leaves us in no doubt that this “public works” proposal would originate with the ruling family, who would desire to have their position secured against opposition by identifying themselves with Deity and giving themselves a Name with him. In other words, they needed divine authority. The proposal, however, instead of preserving unity precipitated disintegration of human society.
The details and causes are not stated for us, only the bare results, for Cod looked down upon their ambitions and frustrated the evil designs by scattering them far and wide. The consequences to human society reach down to the behaviour patterns of this present day. It is only necessary to look at history from that day to this to be aware of the sort of thing that procured the divine judgment. The lust for authority and power in the top echelons of society would split the family open at its seams and give scope for rival factions with conflicting aspirations and ideologies, under which the magnificent design and assumed divine authority broke into pieces. Each faction would find justification in religious and theological issues until men everywhere would be involved in insoluble controversies, each with its jargon of special words and phrases, until the simple speech of Babel was brought to confusion with new languages which made unified administration impossible.
This modern world is surely another Babel of conflicting ambitions. National laws and international agreements, wars and treaties, achieve no lasting purpose, but only serve to emphasise the fragmentation of human society. The search for a common language, for example, is constantly being defeated by new political aspirations and new nationalism; the lust for power knows no end, yet without it the world would be at peace. All human protestations of peace are deceptive and are abysmally evil because the desire behind them all is further oppression of the weak.
The fragmentation of human society extends down into its smallest groups—political, social and religious—for the simple reason that men have not yet learned the way of peace.
Jesus came to give this peace and to that end preached the gospel of the kingdom of God; and he demonstrated it clearly by submitting to a death of sacrifice rather than exercise any human lust for power, so that his disciples might learn obedience to the will of God, and in that obedience discover the foundations of the true hope. He said, “My peace I give unto you”, and to his bickering disciples he gave the instruction, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called ‘benefactors’. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you . . . let him be as he that serveth . . . I am among you as he that serveth”.
The hope that Jesus inspires is a strong uniting hope that makes his disciples one with him and one among themselves. It is a virtue that pairs with humility and service.
These thoughts are penned because our brotherhood has recently attained to a state of unity after many years of division and, moreover, because peace is always an uneasy state depending on spiritual virtues rather than upon human aspirations. Our humanity, therefore, makes our present unity an insecure condition which can be split open to the intrusion of evil influences, as surely as was Babel of old, if men of immature mind aspire to a controlling power. Jesus set the pattern of proper conduct: “Men shall know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one toward another”. Let us therefore see to it that worldly ways and practices, both inside and outside the ecclesias, are restrained on every side, and that we rather labour to “preserve the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace”, for “the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace”. This form of conduct truly needs the counsel of Christ.
Reflections on the Potter and the Clay