God and Google
April 19, 2009
As an unashamed technology geek, I geeked out when I heard about Google’s latest product, Google Voice. If all works as they plan, this service will provide customers with a single phone number that, when called, will simultaneously ring all of your phones-cell, home, office, etc. Among a dozen amazing features, it will provide an online account similar to an e-mail account where you can listen to or view your voicemail. That’s right, it will transcribe your voicemail and can even send it to you as a text message or e-mail. And though it may sound like I am trying to sell you on this service, there is no sale necessary: Google Voice will be absolutely free.
My initial reaction to this product was an increased amazement at human accomplishment. It was less than 150 years ago that humans even figured out how to record or transmit the voice. When one considers the scope of 6,000 years of recorded history, the advances of the last century and a half are staggering.
After my heartbeat returned to normal over this technological advance, I pondered a question that I didn’t see posited in the nerdy articles I read: what might God think of Google Voice? It would be presumptuous of anyone to give some definitive answer to that question, but I think a few considerations from God’s word might help us understand how we should view the progress of human tools based on how God does.
The first consideration is the Bible’s teaching that God made Adam and Eve in his own image. In Genesis 1-2 we read of the responsibilities and privileges God gave our first parents-naming animals, ruling over the creation, filling the earth with God’s glory, and working the land. These were all expressions of God’s own rule over his creation, making Adam and Eve vice-regents of God’s kingdom.
So as we consider how God might view Google Voice, there is one level on which he must be pleased with the way his image bearers are displaying his creativity and wisdom in the area of communication (which God, whose Son is the Word, deems very important).
However, there is another level on which God must be having a good laugh. We are so thoroughly impressed with the sophistication of our communication system while God needs no such system. Not one of the articles I read about Google voice included, “As impressive as Google Voice is, let us remain humbled as we consider that God the Almighty is all-present and requires no technology to communicate universally.”
Throughout the Bible, God scoffs at man’s prideful gloating in technology. He confused the language of humans to squelch the building of the tower of Babel. He consistently defeated Israel’s enemies when his people had inferior military technology or none at all. On the communication front, God told Elisha the military plans of the Syrians, causing them to wonder who was spying for Israel (2 Kings 6:8-23).
With these considerations in mind, perhaps we could compare our technological advances to a child building a sandcastle on the beach in front of the 5-star resort his father built. We can be impressed with our hand-dug moat and multiple towers. We even feel the smile of our father as he sees us emulating his work on an elementary scale. But as we sit back to look on our mansion in the sand, the pride in our work is kept in perspective as we gaze in awe at what our father can do.
Pastor Chris