'Towers' Figure Into Many Parts Of Scripture As Divine Purification  

By Michael H. Brown

Anyone with remaining questions about whether the events of September 11 could be part of a chastisement need only search the Bible for the word "towers." There, the indications -- the hints -- come in a torrent. Throughout Scripture, towers figure prominently into God's judgments.

This is not "gloom and doom." This is Holy Scripture.

Take a look at Judges 9, where "all the men of the tower of Shechem also died, about a thousand men and women." In many instances the judgment comes from flames. "On every lofty mountain and on every high hill there will be streams running with water on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall," says Isaiah 30 -- mentioning two verses later "a consuming fire." 

According to Scripture -- indeed, according to the very passage above -- such destruction is the lot of "rebellious children." It is the lot of those who add "sin upon sin." It's the lot of those who "weave webs that are not inspired" by God. It is for those who presume they can do anything and build high places for themselves instead of God.

"This guilt of yours shall be like a descending rift, bulging out in a high wall whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant," says Isaiah 30:13-14. "It crashes like a potter's jar, smashed beyond rescue."

 "Therefore, her young men will fall in her streets, and all the men of war will be silenced in that day," declares the Lord of hosts in Jeremiah 49. "I will set fire to the wall of Damascus, and it will devour the fortified towers..."

Sin, says that same book, brings "a mound of ruins." It brings earthquakes [49:21]. It leads to -- yes, terrorism.

"I am bringing terror upon you, from all round about you," says the Lord God of hosts in Jeremiah 49:5.

Edom would become an "object of horror," it warned; "every passer-by shall be appalled and catch his breath at all her wounds."

"He destroyed their fortified towers and laid waste their cities," adds Ezekiel 19 -- mentioning a "young lion" and the "sound of his roaring."

This is interesting because "Osama" (as in Bin Laden) means "roaring lion"!

"I will bring up many nations against you," says that same part of Scripture. "They will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers."

It was the fate that in one case -- Ezekiel 26 -- causes destruction to the richest metropolis. "The blow of his battering rams he will direct against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers," it says in a passage about the Lord sending Nebechadnezzar as a chastisement. "How have you perished, city most prized!" 

On the day of wrath, the Bible makes clear, there is destruction; it is a day of "clouds and darkness, a day of trumpeter and battle cry against the fortified cities and the high corner towers." We remember too Babylon!

"I have cut off nations," says Zephaniah 3 for those who still don't believe that God chastises in this manner. "Their corner towers are in ruins. I have made their streets desolate."

Is there hope? Of course. There is always hope. The Old Testament makes clear the way for repentance -- and avoiding just such chastisement. But pretending that God does not punish (calling such a notion "doom and gloom") is the devil's way of making us ignore it.

As for the New Testament: "Or take the eighteen who were killed by a falling tower in Siloam," says Luke 13:4-5. "Do you think they were more guilty than anyone else who lived in Jerusalem? Certainly not! But I tell you, you will come to the same end unless you reform."