Genesis 11:1-3

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

Now the story narrows from the spreading of the nations to a united rebellion. The whole earth was of one language and one speech, and they settled in the plain of Shinar, in present day Iraq. Instead of scattering as God intended, they stopped, settled, and started building.

And notice what they built with. Brick instead of stone.

That is more important than it might seem at first. Brick is man made. Brick is manufactured. Brick chips. Brick cracks. Brick does not have the strength or permanence of stone. Man builds with brick because man likes to make his own materials, shape his own future, and construct his own name. But God uses stone.

That is how the temple was built. The great stones were shaped far away from the temple site so that when they arrived, the Bible says there was no sound of hammer or chisel heard in the house while it was being built, according to 1 Kings 6:7. The stones fit together exactly as they were meant to. No noise. No last minute pounding. No scrambling to make them work.

And that is still how God builds. Peter says we are living stones, fit together into a spiritual house in 1 Peter 2:5. That means the quarry is here. This world is where the shaping happens. This is where the rough edges get knocked off. This is where the Lord does His cutting work in us.

So we should not be too shocked when people rub us the wrong way. The person sitting next to you. The person you work with. The person you are married to. The brother or sister in the church who seems to hit your nerves without even trying. A lot of that is part of the Lord’s shaping process. He is fitting living stones together for a house that will one day be perfect.

Then Moses adds one more detail. They had slime for mortar.

That says plenty. Man’s efforts are always held together with slime. He may call it progress. He may call it vision. He may call it unity. But if it is man made from the ground up, without the Lord, it is still brick and slime. It may stand for a little while. It may even look impressive. But it does not have the strength of what God builds.

That is the contrast in this passage. Man is down on the plain making bricks, trying to build something for himself. God is in the quarry shaping stones for His house. One project is noisy, messy, proud, and doomed. The other is quiet, exact, lasting, and holy.

Beloved, I can spend my life making bricks and smearing slime, trying to hold my little tower together. Or I can let the Lord shape me into a living stone for something eternal.