Pastor Sam preached from Genesis 11:1-9. He said that sin has separated us from God and one another. But through God’s grace, we are given the power of God to experience true unity and fill the earth with God’s truth, beauty, and goodness. Lector: Lisa Tant
Pastor Sam preached from Genesis 11:1-9. He said that sin has separated us from God and one another. But through God’s grace, we are given the power of God to experience true unity and fill the earth with God’s truth, beauty, and goodness.
Lector: Lisa Tant
INTRODUCTION
Iraqi Family in CG – even under the best of circumstances, the cultural and language differences made it confusing and difficult. This is the consequence of what happened at the Tower of Babel.
The narrative of the Tower of Babel is not mankind trying to reach God or mankind trying to be like God. It is mankind trying to overtake God. It is the story of a power struggle – the power of mankind and the power of God.
If you were to say, “Its not supposed to be that way.” You’d be correct. From the beginning, it was to be one force working together. In Genesis 1, God creates Adam and Eve in his likeness as his image-bearers and tells them to “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.”
Its not very far into the Bible where we see God saying the same thing. In Genesis 9:1 and 6. “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image And you, be fruitful and multiply, teem on earth and multiply in it.’”
Even after Adam and Eve sinned, even after Cain killed Abel, even after mankind became so violent and evil that God wiped them out in the flood, God tells the one family that he saved the same thing he told Adam and Eve.
God’s purposes for mankind (you and me) did not waver. Being image-bearers of God, having his likeness, in the power that gave us, we are to reproduce making more image-bearers and then, fill the earth with the truth, beauty, and goodness of God.
Here we are in Genesis 11, where not only is God the Creator, but he is also God the Savior because he saved this family. But despite God being their Creator and their Savior, mankind had other ideas of how to use their power. It is humankind's power move against God and God’s subsequent power move that has drastically affected every nook and cranny of human relationships and world history.
In the passage, we see that sin separates us from God and one another, but through God’s unwavering purposes and grace, we are given the power of God to experience true unity and fill the earth with God’s truth, beauty, and goodness.
As I stated, this narrative, in these 11 verses, we see a great power struggle like we’ve yet to see. We have the power of mankind and the power of God. With mankind, we have a Power with a Perverted Purpose, and the God, we have a Power with a Particular Purpose.
Transition: Let’s look first at the power move displayed by humans (you and me). It was a power with a Perverted Purpose.
Power with Perverted Purpose
Let’s look at this power at work in verses 1 through 4 – Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
To be clear, there is nothing wrong with power. God has created us in his likeness, and with that he gave us a power to create, subdue, and retain order (creative and economical). Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with the unity of mankind. We are created to not be alone, to be one and unified. As a matter of fact if you take the second-half of verse 4 out, it seems like great story.
This family found a nice piece of land, discovered the technological advancement of how to make bricks and efficiently build a city. Then they built a giant sky-scraper as the featured attraction. Even the Lord said in verse 6, “they are one people, and they all have one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”
That sounds like a Linkedin quote, “When there is clear communication, unflinching teamwork, and an impeccable vision, nothing is impossible for you.” Seriously, we have put people into outer space…recreationally, put a intelligent vehicle on Mars, created computers which we now carry in our pockets.
But the problem wasn’t mankind’s power, it was their purpose. Look again at verse 4, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the earth.”
It is why they did what they did that makes this narrative tragic. It was a perversion of who they were as God’s image-bearers and what they were meant to do. They decided that they were not about God’s image, but their own (mirror rather than light). They also decided to settle where they were and build an impressive city so that they would not be dispersed throughout the land. This is in direct opposition to filling the earth.
11 chapters into the Bible and we have this family, mankind, desecrating our sacred identity as image-bearers of God and desecrating our sacred responsibility to fill the earth with the truth, beauty, and goodness of God. It is a complete self-implosion of what it means to be human. Here’s the major issue that leads to the subsequent consequences: mankind, the Great Family, became unified in a purpose that was not the purposes of God.
But this is more than just some flub or some flippant idea. It is collaboratively deliberate. They didn’t just build some roads, houses, and office building. It was an act of aggression against God. First, they built a tower with its top in the heavens. The word “top” here is the Hebrew word for head. The head of this giant tower is going to pierce through the heavens. It was a monument to the power of man. (giant human being)
The tower wasn’t mankind trying to reach God, it was mankind attacking God and his heavenly hosts. It was an invasion. They used all of their power and resources to build a tower that says, “My will be done in heaven as it is on earth.” It was a declaration to God that they didn’t need him. They were the best.
How do we do this? I don’t need you God, my power is enough. Its an attack on the heavenly realms.
Second, they were the only people on the earth. Who were the tourists to come view and be impressed by this city? No one. It was a statement to God and his heavenly hosts. So God came down to them to visit their impressive city. Verse 5 says, ”And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.”
Transition: And this is where we see the other power, the power of God, which I am labeling a Power with Particular Purpose.
Power with Particular Purpose
I want us to see how this passage fits together. In verse 3, the family of mankind says, “Come, let us…”, and then in verse 4, the family of mankind says, “Come, let us…” And we’ve just discussed what they did. But look at the beginning verse 7, “Come, let us…” This is what I’m seeing when I’m talking about a power struggle. Now, its God’s turn to show his power.
We read in verse 7, “Come, let us go down and confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So here, the power of God and his heavenly hosts, go down to the people and confuse them. It is an attack on their unity.
Its not just that there are different languages, but how often do we struggle to really communicate with people who speak our own language? It is a confusion on our understanding of one another. How often are we not on the same page with our agendas, plans, and ideas?
It should not take us very long to experience this (broken friendships, marriages, estranged children)
But the power of heavenly realms is not over. Look at verses 8 and 9, “So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.”
Again, look at how this passage fits together. What was the perverted purpose of the people? They wanted to make a name for themselves and they did not want to be dispersed. So what does the power of God do? It disperses them! He scatters them over the face of the earth. He punished them by giving them that which they feared the most. (This is probably a good place to start. Fill in the blank in your own life, “Lest I…” This is probably where you will be operating under your own power)
Its here we have, for the first time in human history, multiple ethnos, nations, peoples. We are further separated from one another. Think about the horrors and tragedies of having multiple nations (C.S. Lewis quote) “…hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history – money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, social classes, empires, and slavery. The long, terrible story…”
So the narrative goes like this: Mankind displays their power with a perverted purpose by trying to make a name for themselves and no longer fill the earth with the truth, beauty and goodness of God. Then, God comes down and displays his power by dividing mankind through confusion and scattering them. How tragic! How sad! And this is our story…we feel the effects of this every day of our lives.
But God’s power is not one with perverted purpose, it is a power with a particular purpose. God’s separating us into nations is not just a separation from one another, but also separated from God himself. Up to this point, God was the God of this family of mankind. Do you know what Genesis chapter 12 is? It’s the call of Abram (Abraham).
God divides the people into nations, and then God chooses a lowly, old man, with an old, barren wife and says, in Geneses 12:1-3, “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” – Genesis 12:1-3
God chooses, through Abraham, His own nation of Israel. And they would be a great nation, and they would be a blessing to the nations. God sends Israel out to be a light to the other nations. God doesn’t just bring this awesome display of power at Babel and call it a day. But God takes a particular people and says, “You’re mine.”
We see a succinct description of what happened in Genesis 11 and 12 in the book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 32: 8-9, we read, “When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.” – Deuteronomy 32:8- God gave the nations over to lesser gods, lesser Elohim, but he chooses for himself his own nation.
God chooses Israel, and throughout the Old Testament, through all of Israel’s drama, unbelief, rebellion, and terrible decisions, God again, comes down to us like he did at Babel.
But he comes to us in Jesus Christ. Not with great power, but as a baby.
Jesus would grow up in this confusing, scattered, power-hungry world. He would die on a cross experiencing our separation on a level we would never understand. Then three days later, we will see a display of God’s power that has changed the world forever when Jesus rose from the dead.
It is a declaration that the power of Satan, the power of sin, the power of death and all of our futile attempts to display power with a perverted purpose will not have the final word. But God’s particular purpose will prevail and he will accomplish all that he desires.
Despite our confusion and brokenness and power struggles, God’s power has not wavered in its particularity. Why? Because you’re here today. Hear this, you are a product of God’s particular purpose. By his power, and his power alone God saved you. Not because you have some talent he needs, not because he see great potential in you, not because you’ll never fail, but he saves simply because, in his power, he says, “You’re Mine.”
But God doesn’t just save you so you get to go to heaven. Do you remember what happens in Acts 1? They want knowledge, but he gives them power. Do you remember what happen in Acts 2? The Apostles, in the power of the Holy Spirit, started speaking in all the languages of the people gathered that day.
Do you see it? When the power of God’s presence works through his people, the consequences of Babel are undone. He saves you because he wants to give you the power of the Holy Spirit. He wants you to take that power and, once again, fill the earth with the truth, beauty, and goodness of God. That is power with a particular purpose.
Hear this, not only are you a product of God’s particular purpose, but you are also a possessor of God’s power…far more that you can imagine! God particular power has filled you so that, through you, the consequences of Babel can be undone.
(EXAMPLES OF POWER OF GOD WORKING IN OUR EVERYDAY LIVES)
CONCLUSION
Iraqi Family baptism – at that moment, we spoke the same language and understood one another fully…that we are dead in our sin and made alive in Jesus Christ, raised to walk in the fullness of life. God is undoing what happened at Babel and God wants to do that through you. Yes, sin has separated us from God and one another, but through God’s particular purpose and grace, we are given the power of God to experience true unity and fill the earth with God’s truth, beauty, and goodness.
COMMUNION - The Bible has been translated into thousands of languages and dialects. Today, thousands of churches in numerous languages are singing to the same God who saved them, praising Jesus, and participating in this same meal announcing the Lord’s death until he returns to make us one people with him.