The Tower of Bable is confusing on multiple levels!

Genesis 11
3They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4Then 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.” 5But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9THAT IS WHY IT WAS CALLED BABEL[c] —BECAUSE THERE THE LORD CONFUSED THE LANGUAGE OF THE WHOLE WORLD. FROM THERE THE Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. 

Everytime I read this passage I wonder why God did this. Was He afraid the human race would get all the way to heaven with the tower? Was He afraid these people would overrun heaven? Could they have possibly made it all the way to heaven anyway?  I wonder about all these things and then ask, in prayer, for guidance and understanding concerning this confusing passage. I know God puts everything in the Bible for a reason, I just needed to understand why He would destroy a project that everyone was working on together. Why He would say He didn't want them to make it to heaven?

Today, my prayer for understanding was answered. I started my devotions this morning and all they talked about was how God confused the people's speech so that they would focus on Him, not themselves. Well, that confused me, too! What a confusing morning! Where did they get the idea that these people were focusing on themselves? So, I reread the passages. Sure enough, there it was:

Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; 

There it was. It had snuck up on me. I had never noticed it before. In one sentence, the people, who were products of the flood and knew God's power and might...and His dislike for sin, sinned. They wanted to make a name for themselves so they would be glorified. It was all about them. If it is all about them, it is not about God, is it. So, God scattered them. He didn't scatter them to be mean of for some unknown reason. He scattered them in order to help them rely on Him, the all-knowing all-powerful God, instead of themselves.

It is amazing to me how one minute, I, too, am focusing on God and praising Him and the next minute I am clearly focusing on me and what would make me happy. So, I don't need to worry how the people of Babel forgot about God so quickly and focused on glorifying themselves...I do it all the time, too.

Father, please help me focus on and glorify only you and you alone...not me. Help me to rely on your wisdom, not mine. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.