The Power of Unity

In the Bible we read about a people who wanted to build a tower to heaven. "And they said, go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven" (Genesis 11:4). We know how the story goes. God puts a stop to it, confounds their language, and sends them their separate ways. 

I had always imagined that the reasoning behind this was because God was jealous that they were not focusing their efforts on Him. However, I think there is a different, more powerful, reason.

"There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—

"And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated" (Doctrine & Covenants 130:20-21).

There is power in unity. 

When the Savior was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed, "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are" (John 17:11). 

When Paul was speaking to the Galations he said, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).

"So we, being many, are one body in Christ" (Romans 12:5).

The Lord has made it clear that He wants us to be united with Him. Why? I think it is because He understands the power that comes from the eternal law of unity. I love how Tad R. Callister explains God's use of laws,

"Gods do not live oblivious of laws, but through obedience have mastered the laws so that they might use them to accomplish their purposes" (Tad R. Callister, "The Infinite Atonement", p251).

So, why did God put a stop to the building of the Tower of Babel? I think that the reason can be found within the story itself.

"And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do" (Genesis 11:6).

When we are united, for good or for ill, nothing can be restrained from us.