Recently, I toured Alcatraz.

In case you don’t know, Alcatraz is an island in San Francisco Bay. It is a rocky island that is more than a mile from the breath-taking beauty of San Francisco and its Golden Gate Bridge.

Alcatraz is famous because it was a Federal prison from 1934-1964. It has inspired memorable movies including Escape from Alcatraz, starring Clint Eastwood, and The Birdman of Alcatraz, starring Burt Lancaster.

The island is now operated by the National Park Service. I reached it on a ferry that “vibrated” as it powered through choppy waves, despite it being a pleasant, sunny day.

I spent several hours on the island with my son and his girlfriend. We toured the aging, abandoned prison.

As we returned to the mainland on a triple-decker ferry, I couldn’t help thinking back to the movie Escape From Alcatraz that we had watched the previous evening to get us in the mood for our visit.

For the prisoners to escape, they gave careful thought to where they would swim towards. Where was the best place to land?

They also gave careful thought to how to swim more than a mile despite the cold, chaotic waters that they must swim across.

To help them, they jerry-rigged a “raft” that they could grab onto for flotation. (It was too small to climb onto and actually ride as if they were Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn rafting on the Mississippi.)

We don’t know if they reached shore. The three men were never found.

Maybe they were never found because they reached shore and eluded capture. Or maybe they were never found because they grew tired and sank to the bottom of San Francisco Bay.

How can our civilization swim across cold, chaotic waters to reach shore safely?

Keep in mind that ALL we like sheep have gone astray. ALL people. ALL civilizations.

So how do we and civilizations keep from from going astray on the way toward shore—on the Way toward the Promised Land?

The first step is to discern the best place to land—a Promised Land where all people will be blessed by the fruit of the Spirit of the LORD: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

I call this figurative place—this Promised Land—America.  This is the ideal America that anyone can seek—even if they are citizens of nations other than the United States, including nations such as Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. (Please read my blog “The ‘United States’ Compared to ‘America’”).

This Promised Land is the ideal America first discovered by the hearts of Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

As I first published in 2004 in my book Visions of America, this Promised Land is the ideal America where:

—ALL people are blessed (Genesis 12:2-3);

—ALL pharaohs are challenged to let ALL people be free (Exodus 9:13-14,16); and

—ALL hurting people are healed (Luke 10:25-37).

This ideal America is the exact opposite of a selfish, arrogant Tower of Babel. (Please read my blog “How Do We Build a Civilization That Is Good—That Is Very Good?”).

This ideal America is also the exact opposite of an America First mentality—of a Tower of Babel mentality. (Please read my blog “Nationalism Is Patriotism Gone Astray”.)

As I first published in 2004 in my book The Promised Land:

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to build a city. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be proud of your city.

[Especially if it’s the type of shining city on a hill that was praised by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount—a city that shines with good deeds (Matthew 5:14-16)(this sentence is not in the original text published in 2004)]

It’s good for people to have “civic pride.”

Such “civic pride” motivated Jerusalem to build Solomon’s Temple, Athens to build the Parthenon, Paris to build Notre Dame, Rome to build the Sistine Chapel, and countless modern cities to build sports arenas. (Notice any decline in “civilization” in modern times?)

But in Babel the virtue of “civic pride” became perverted into the vices of arrogance and selfishness.

To show that they were better than anyone else, they boasted that they would build a “tower that reaches to the heavens!” That way even God could see how great they were—true legends in their own minds!

Their arrogance was surpassed only by their selfishness.

They wanted a city for “ourselves.”

Their tower was not a “Statue of Liberty” welcoming the world’s huddled masses to come find a new home. They wanted to make a name for “ourselves.” Their tower was not a “cross” where they would sacrifice themselves to help others.

The people of Babel did not want to be scattered over the face of the whole earth. They wanted to remain safe on their couches in Babel, admiring their tower. They shunned the risky life of a Good Samaritan. They were too arrogant to bother going into all the world, being good neighbors to “unimportant” people. They were too selfish to bother going into all the world, being good neighbors to people who hated them.

However, the people of Babel were not as safe on their couches as they presumed. Because God pounces on arrogance as quickly as a cat pounces on mice. And because selfishness brings trouble from God as surely as pestering a baby bear brings trouble from a mama bear.

“[T]he LORD came down to see to see the city and the tower that the men were building” (Genesis 11:5). Notice that the height of their arrogance was much greater than the height of their tower. Their arrogance reached heaven, but their tower was nowhere close. The LORD had to “come down” to see it!

The LORD didn’t like what he saw. He realized that: “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” (Genesis 11:6).

God didn’t wait for the people of Babel to “plan to do” even more arrogant, selfish deeds. He “confuse[d] their language so they [would] not understand each other” (Genesis 11:7). Then “the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city” (Genesis 11:8).

There is a lesson here for all who seek to make “a name for ourselves.” Such self-centered arrogance inevitably leads to division and failure—whether in a family, a sports team, a business, a church, or an entire civilization.

Those who want to make a name for “ourselves” naturally tend to treat others in ways that cause jealousy, quarreling, persecution, and fighting. Confusion results. Scattering comes.

Whatever tower they wanted to build is “gone with the wind.” Such a fate overtook the Soviet Union for persecuting Christians, the Nazis for exterminating Jews, and the Confederacy for enslaving Africans.

Therefore, when Abraham set off for the Promised Land, he already knew that no enduring civilization can be based on arrogance or selfishness. The fate of the Tower of Babel taught Abraham the impossibility of building any “tower” by arrogantly challenging the authority of God and by selfishly ignoring the needs of other people.

God’s command to go to the Promised Land—the “tower” where all other people will be blessed—taught Abraham that the family of God is the only “tower” worth building. The family of God is the only “tower” worth establishing as the work of our hands because the family of God is the only “tower” that truly “reaches to the heavens.”

Furthermore, Abraham’s call to be a “great nation” (Genesis 12:2) by blessing “all peoples on earth” (Genesis 12:3) shows how God’s way of making “a great nation”—a good civilization—is totally different from the flawed approaches of Nimrod and Babel.

Nimrod “grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth” (Genesis 10:8). But God did not suggest that military prowess should play any role in helping Abraham become a “great nation.”

In Babel, people worked to make a name for themselves. But Abraham’s faith relied on God’s promise: “I will make your name great” (Genesis 12:2).

Nimrod and Babel did not understand what makes people, nations, and civilizations “great.”

Greatness does not come from winning wars.

Greatness does not come from building the tallest “tower.”

Greatness comes from being a blessing to other people.

Greatness comes from having the faith to go to that “Promised Land” where “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3).

In the concluding blog of this series based on Alcatraz, I will explore how people and civilizations can swim in the Way of Jesus to overcome the strong currents—the strong temptations—of the Powers of Money, Religion and Kingdoms in order to avoid destruction and reach the Promised Land.

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT

What makes a nation great?

Why are some nations “gone with the wind”?

What makes a civilization great?

Why are some civilizations “gone with the wind”?

What kinds of deeds build a shining city on a hill?

What kinds of deeds turn a nation into an ideal America?

What kinds of deeds turn a civilization an ideal America?

What kinds of deeds turn a nation into an “America First” nation?

What kinds of deeds turn a civilization into an “America First” civilization?

What kinds of deeds turn a nation into a “Tower of Babel” nation?

What kinds of deeds turn a civilization into a “Tower of Babel” civilization?

Is any nation or civilization completely a shining city on a hill, an ideal America, an America First, or a Tower of Babel?

How do you understand the timing and implementation of Revelation 21:1-4,10,22-27; Revelation 22:1-5)?

READ MORE

For more of my thoughts inspired by my visit to Alcatraz, please read my blogs “Alcatraz: Imprisoned in a Cell”, ”Alcatraz: Imprisoned on an Island”, and “Alcatraz: Imprisoned by the Powers of Kingdoms, Money and Religion”.