After the Wednesday night service, people do not linger in the sanctuary for very long anymore. In the parking lot, car doors slam and tires squeal as they race home to watch the popular new television series called “Empire.”
We love to watch and listen as Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, among others, bring to life a man and his family seeking to build an empire and willing to do anything, and I mean anything, to achieve it. And though this is a new series, it is an old, old story. In fact, it is as old as the Bible itself.
Men have always tried to build their empires. On the plain of Shinar, men tried to build a tower to reach up into heaven and “make a name” (Genesis 11:3). Pharaoh kept the people of God in slavery for four generations to build his pyramids (Exodus 1:11). King Nebuchadnezzar built an image of gold “sixty cubits high” and made the people of his empire bow down to worship it (Daniel 3).
Herod killed all the babies in Bethlehem to protect himself from any threat to his power (Matthew 2:16). Pontius Pilate did not see Jesus as a threat, but nonetheless sent “the King of the Jews” to a Roman execution to satisfy the political forces of his day (John 19).
When we watch “Empire” and hear the musical performances, we should also hear a different sound. We should hear the bricks tumble and fall on the plain of Shinar, and the confusion of babbling chaos resulting from the judgment of God (Genesis 11:8). We should hear the screams of Pharaoh and his army as the wall of water crashes down upon his crown (Exodus 14:28). We should hear the fingernails of Nebuchadnezzar scrape along the stony ground because he has been reduced to living as a wild beast (Daniel 4:33).