The Rock of Heaven

In the account of the building of the Tower of Babel, the author of Genesis said this: “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4). This suggests that one of the reasons for building the tower was so that the people could ensure they made it to heaven. That might seem to be a noble desire, but in the Book of Mormon we are given a little more detail about this quest. Moroni affirmed their desire in the title page— “they were building a tower to get to heaven”—and Mormon wrote of their true motivation when he described the devil this way: “And also it is that same being who put it into the hearts of the people to build a tower sufficiently high that they might get to heaven” (Helaman 6:28). So it was the adversary who motivated the people to seek to get to heaven through the building of the tower. At first this might seem surprising that the evil one would want the people to labor to draw closer to God, but he surely knew that physical proximity to God does not matter. This reminds me of how he similarly inspired Cain, saying, “Make an offering unto the Lord” (Moses 5:18). Satan wanted Cain to make an offering in the wrong way and to do it because Cain was in reality following him. Those who built the Tower of Babel were similarly motivated by a desire to do things their own way, but we cannot get to heaven by insisting on clinging to our “dead works” (Doctrine and Covenants 22:2)

                So perhaps the lesson for us from the brief story of the Tower of Babel is that we must seek to humbly follow the Lord’s plan. He said to Enoch, “I am Messiah, the King of Zion, the Rock of Heaven, which is broad as eternity; whoso cometh in at the gate and climbeth up by me shall never fall” (Moses 7:53). We do get to heaven by a Rock, but not by the kind that we put in a kiln and construct a tower with—rather, it is the Rock of Heaven upon which we must build. We do get to heaven by a Stone, but it is the Stone of Israel upon which we be our foundation so that we never fall (Doctrine and Covenants 50:33). We cannot use our own bricks to build and physically lift ourselves to heaven; we can only get there by coming in at the gate He has prescribed and climbing up by the rock of the Savior. Perhaps Peter was thinking about the Tower of Babel when he taught this: “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:10-12). He is the only way, and as Helaman taught, “It is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that [we] must build [our] foundation,” such that if that is the “rock upon which [we] are built, which is a sure foundation” then we “cannot fall” (Helaman 5:12). The prophet Isaiah declared, “Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste” (Isaiah 28:16). Perhaps the angel declared it in the simplest way to King Benjamin, “And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent” (Mosiah 3:17). The story of the Tower of Babel should remind us that the Lord alone is our strength and He is our fortress and our “high tower” by which we can overcome the world and indeed one day reach to heaven (Psalm 144:2).