This week’s reading: Genesis 11:1-9
Hi Friends,
As humans continue to inhabit the earth and multiply, we have some more evidence that the effects of The Downfall are also spreading. This week we will read about a group of people who attempt to do that which our greatest enemy tried to do as well. It did not fair well for him, and it will not go well for this nation either. We are in Genesis chapter 11, verses 1 through 9. Listen to hear if you can tell where things go wrong:
“They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Gen 11:3-4 NIV
One language. Since all humanity sprang forth from the three sons of Noah, one would expect them all to speak the same tongue, even if they began using their own dialects. These next events talk about Nimrod, the son of Cush who was the son of Ham, Noah’s youngest, and sadly, godless boy. This people set out into the world to fulfill God’s command to “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” (Gen 9:1) Whether they did this in obedience to God, or whether they just wanted to conquer more of the land for themselves, is a whole other story. From their actions, one would think that they did not even think about God as they went about their lives. They occupy the region of Babylon first and settle there to make a home for themselves. The first thing they do is begin making bricks and using mortar to construct their homes. The significance here is that these are man-made building materials, as opposed to stones and tar which is God-made. This points to the nation desiring self-sufficiency and to center on their own power, apart from God. Do you see where I am going here? Next these people decide to build “a tower that reaches to the heavens.” (Gen 11:4) But if you paid attention to the entire verse 4 that I read above, you can clearly see their arrogance, can’t you? Let me pause a moment just so we are all on the same page here. Pride is the root of all evil because it dismisses God and centers on MMI. It also only thinks about others in terms of how it most benefits MMI. So each person here was turning their back on God and looking for ways to use one another to advance themselves. Sure for a while, they would work together to build this great tower for their own name…but how long would that have lasted had God not confused their language? All we have to do is look at human history to see how the saying, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” has happened time and time again to the destruction of so many nations. One leader claims higher power than the rest, and war literally breaks out. This issue here in Babylon, with Nimrod and company, is most definitely Pride which is the heart attitude that is behind all sin. And God was not about to allow this to happen.
Let us make. Again I hope we can see how this mentality is dangerous. Whenever we attempt to do anything outside of God’s design, without His Presence, we are headed for trouble! This MMI that I am always talking about is this Prideful, self-centered, self-absorbed, selfishness that caused our greatest enemy to fall from his position as one of the ArchAngels of God, and be thrown out of Heaven. Lucifer, the Angel of Worship, began worshipping himself, instead of leading others in worship of God, the only One worthy of worship! After convincing some angels and an actual rebellion breaking out, God, of course, won that war and cast them out of the heavenly realm and, at least some of these fallen angels, came down to this earth. Now taking the form of the serpent we talked about back in week two of this year, the devil continued his language of lies, deceiving Eve, and Adam was quick to follow suit. Both of them forsook God and sin entered into this world. What God had created as good and very good, the sin humans embraced, made things bad and very bad. Even though we humans were created in the image of God, this devil tried to create us into his own twisted, evil image. I say “tried” because, with God, there is always Hope. God had already planned, from before the beginning of Time, to send His Son to reverse the curse by taking it upon Himself. Now we all have the ability to repent, turn to God and be forgiven and redeemed and restored to our original nature, to be like God. We see clearly here, with the account of this Tower of Babel, humans continued to rebel against the rightful Lordship of God our Creator, even after The Flood. Once again I say, human nature is human nature. Yet as we read the Bible, as we learn from these humans who walked this earth way before us, we can choose to hold on to the good some did, and turn to God so we will not follow the Pride that many others lived by. Here we should see that, these people of Ham’s descendants were not doing the right thing, and so, we should not be surprised when things did not work out the way they had planned.
Reaching to the heavens. See the irony here: we humans were always meant to live lives that reached to Heaven, but not to usurp God! We were to reach for God, and work with God, to develop this lovely relationship with our Holy Father. We were never to attempt to “make a name for ourselves.” (Gen 11:4) This is Pride in its worst form, that MMI mentality the discounts God and all the blessings He would want to pour down upon us. “I will do it myself, and it will be even better than anything God could have planned.” That is the fallen heart attitude. And again, if we choose to live by it, we are heading for all sorts of trouble. I can almost see Nimrod and his companions, chests puffed up, nose in the air and fist clenched towards the sky, freely and willingly choosing to rebel against God. They also wanted to build this city and monument so they could live together as a group “and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Gen 11:4) This was in direct opposition of the command from God I mentioned above to, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” (Gen 9:1 my emphasis) Can you see all the disobedience that was going on here? Listen to this interesting tidbit I found on the internet, “In What Was the Sin That Condemned the Tower of Babel? Alyssa Roat offers a quote that gives insight into Nimrod’s frame of mind. ‘The ancient historian Josephus states of Nimrod, “He also said he would be revenged on God if he [God] should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1, Chapter 4).”’” Revenge on God for what? Being Holy? Doing the righteous thing? Not putting up with Pride and the horrible sin it produces? Can we see the evil mentality here? My Friends, we are to build a life that reaches to the heavens because it glorifies our God, Creator, King, Savior and Lord. Whatever we build, may it be in unison with God, as we follow His Plan for our lives.
Confuse their language. God knows what is going on, of course, yet I love how the Bible says, “But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.” (Gen 11:5) God is Omniscient, so He always knew mankind would rebel, once again. But see the respect God has for us here. He never forces us to make a decision, one way or the other. He never bullies humans into submission. He gives us choices, then let’s us choose. When we choose to obey, He is more than ready, willing and able to pour down blessings upon us. Those blessings may not always look like blessings we had in mind perhaps, but as we continue to work and live with Him, they do add so much good to our lives. But if we choose to disobey…? My Friends, a life apart from God is not living. We are choosing to exist apart from love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal 5:22-23) This is the precious Fruit of the Spirit, that are some of the characteristics of God, which we can only have, and imitate, if we are with God. They do not originate, nor can they develop in us, apart from the Holy Spirit. Once again, this is the Fruit of the Spirit, not of Diane, or fill in your name here. So here is the sad reality when we choose to disobey God, and live a life of MMI, we are choosing to experience hatred and apathy. We desire sorrow and heartbreak, chaos and confusion. We want anger and intolerance, cruelty and stinginess. We invite immorality and impurity, infidelity and irresponsibility. We crave harshness and violence, rashness and self-indulgence. These are all the very opposites of the Fruit of the Spirit. Do they sound familiar? Praise God not every human, but way too many live their lives by this wickedness, and do not think there is anything wrong with doing so! They neither know God, nor do many of them want to know Him. They speak the same language as their father the devil because they believe his greatest lie: “You can be the lord of your own life and have it all!” Here these builders of the Tower are trying to do just that. Yet because God is Love, He must stop them or else where would it end? God had just wiped out their ancestors because they had that same Prideful heart. Since God promised never to cause a flood like that ever again, He wanted to give them all the opportunities to repent and return to Him, their Creator. Please see God’s Mercy here as He confuses their language. If they could not understand each other, then they would obey God’s command to “fill the earth.” They would separate from those who did not speak the same language, and they could “increase in number.” They would move and inhabit other areas of the world, so that they could “be fruitful.” Fruitful not only in having more babies! But fruitful in, perhaps, seeking God and choosing to live with Him as it should have been from the beginning. Learning to display God’s Immaculate Nature, instead of this evil, Prideful MMI that they were beginning to think was right and normal. God was not trying to hurt these insubordinate and lost people. He was being patient with them as they continued to find their way. God always Hopes that, as we humans do this, we will find our way into His waiting and open arms. Then true Life can begin.
Come, let US go. Once again, we see the Holy Trinity in this verse in Genesis 11:7. God is not talking to angels or other human beings here. Only God has the power to perform such an incredible miracle as confusing their language. God also has the power to help those who speak different languages come together and hear the same Word of God. Not sure? I point us to the Book of Acts. Here God does the opposite for the benefit of those who are listening. Check out Acts 2:5-12, but here is verse 6, “When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.” (Ac 2:6) The Holy Spirit had just come upon the disciples of Christ in power, and set these men and women on fire. The Bible says that, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (Ac 2:4) When we attempt to live life for MMI, God will allow confusion in the Hope that we will stop, repent, turn to Him and be saved. As we even come close to Him, (think Prodigal Son here), God will run to us and open our hearts so that we will understand the His language. In other words, we will be able to recognize God’s Word and hear Him speak into our hearts. This does not mean everyone will instantly become born again. No. We each still must choose to, freely and willingly, want to be His. (see Free Will here) Yet the moment we do, God will take us up into His loving arms and regenerate us with the Holy Spirit. We instantly go from death to life. (see Jn 5:24) We will become New and no longer desire to live for MMI. Sadly, many may have this reality on their inside, yet continue to attempt to live as before. Yet in God’s Love and Mercy, He will allow this disconnect, this sense that something is not right within us, so that we will, once again, come to Him and learn to speak His language. He will teach us Truth. He will lead us by Righteousness. He will grow us in His Love and Grace. We will live for God the Father, and transform, glory by glory, into the likeness of God the Son, with the constant help and guidance of God the Holy Spirit. (see 2Co 3:18) When we surrender to Jesus as Savior and Lord, we receive the Holy Trinity. We become one with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit…then we learn to grow into this oneness. It is a journey filled with up’s and down’s, in’s and out’s, yet it is the only journey worth traveling. This New Life in Christ will grant us all our hearts desire, because all our hearts will desire is to be with Him, to live for Him, to love Him and love others as we love ourselves. (see Mk 12:29-31) In this New Life, we will find exactly what we were created to find: God in all things. This continues to be my pilgrimage and I wouldn’t change it for anything, or everything, this world claims to provide. Are you with me? Do you want to be on this trip too? Then won’t you join me?
Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think.
<>< Peace, Diane
