Tuesday: Further Disunity and Separation
Read Genesis 11:1-9. What happened here that makes the problem of separation and disunity worse?
The next events chronicled by the Bible after the Flood are the construction of the Tower of Babel, the confusion of languages, and then the dispersion of people, who so far had spoken one language.
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Perhaps attracted by the beauty of the land between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, and the fertility of the soil, some of the descendants of Noah decided to build themselves a city and a high-towered structure in the land of Shinar, today’s southern Iraq (Gen. 11:2).
Archaeology has shown that Mesopotamia was a densely populated region from earliest historical times. Among these people were the Sumerians, who are credited with inventing the art of writing on clay tablets. They built well-constructed houses and were masters in the production of jewelry, tools, and household utensils. Excavations have also uncovered many tower-like temples dedicated to the worship of various deities.
The descendants of Noah who settled in the land of Shinar soon forgot the God of Noah and the promises He had made to never again destroy the world by a flood. Building the Tower of Babel was a monument to their superior wisdom and skills. Their desire for renown and reputation, to “make a name for ourselves” (Gen. 11:4), was one motive for this building project. “According to the divine purpose, men were to have preserved unity through the bond of true religion. When idolatry and polytheism broke this inner spiritual bond, they lost not only unity of religion but also the spirit of brotherhood. A project such as the tower, to preserve by outward means the inward unity which had been lost, could never succeed.” – The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1, pages 284, 285.
The fall of Adam and Eve shattered the unity of the human race and God’s original plan. It resulted in confusion regarding worship; the widespread dissemination of evil and immorality over the earth; and ultimately the separation of humanity into many different cultures, languages, and races that often have been at odds with one another since.
| What are practical steps we can take to help heal the divisions of race, culture, and language that hurt us even in the church? |
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The tongues were used to divide the people at the Tower of Babel because the people had opposed God.
The tongues were used at Pentecost to give the gospel to unite all in the love of Christ.
When we use the gift of God for the purpose of God there will be unity.
How do you use your tongue?
After the flood things became worse, Noah cursed Canaan Ham's son because of Ham's sins. Gen 9:24-27.
Canaan refers to the people who originally settled the land we today think as Israel and its surrounding regions. Gen 10:15-19.
In earlier generations, prejudiced people regarded the descendants of Canaan as black people from Africa, and they used the curse of Canaan to justify slavery. But black people did not come from Canaan. Canaan was the father of the near-eastern people, most of whom were conquered by Joshua when Israel took the promised land.
Then came Nimrod the son of Cush. Gen 10:7-12. He founded Babel, the first organized rebellion of human beings against God. When he died, his wife Semiramis engaged in an adulterous affair and became pregnant. In an effort to retain power and to hide her misdeeds, she publicly declares that upon Nimrod's death he had been resurrected as the god of the sun,that Nimrod used his sun rays to make her pregnant. The Child born was Tammuz Ezekiel 8:14-17.
This led to the rise of sun worship, with people building towers pointing to the sun and using candles during worship. They worshiped Semiramis as the mother of god and Tammuz as the son god, the image of a mother holding a child represented them.
Then came the tower of Babel. This was rebellion against God's command to spread out over the earth Get 9:1. Man did not believe God's promise to never again flood the earth, so they built a waterproof tower to protect against a future deluge.
The potential of a fallen man is terrible and powerful. God divided man linguistically and geographically.
After the fall, man desired to be superior to his maker, thus building the tower to make himself popular.
Being one in faith. Faith in God. Faith that He is able to change us and to bring us back to our original destination, through Jesus. But above all, by cultivating love in our hearts we can all be connected, no matter how different our culture, social or educational states are. Love can bind us! Love is the key to bring us back together. The lack of love, real love, separates people. We are all one, in love! And God is love...
We cannot forget that this separation was a result of God's intervention among those unified with wicked intentions. They were promoting unbelief which would affect all within that community. By separating the people, God was improving their ability to become less affected by a few, and thus more likely to listen to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. God's interventions are always to save.
Sometimes culture is allowed to get in the way of perfect unity in the church, but if all receive the yoke of Jesus, all that separates and divides will be discarded from the life. (some will take this the wrong way)
The sin of Adam and Eve didn't only cause disunity and disruption it made us and our forefathers disregard God's initial power,original plan and his authority. The tower of Babel story is one of the saddest and most significant stories in the Bible. It is sad because it reveals the widespread rebellion in the human heart.The goal of these people was not to glorify God and lift up his name but to build a name for themselves.
In Genesis 9:1, God told humankind: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." God wanted people to spread out and fill the whole earth. By building the tower, the people were ignoring God's clear instructions.
Finally The tower was about convenience, not obedience. The tower of Babel story emphasizes the sharp contrast between man's opinion of his own achievements and God’s point of view on man's accomplishments. The tower is a grandiose project the ultimate man-made achievement. It resembles the modern masterstrokes humans continue to build and boast about today.
With this, God pointed out that when people are unified in purpose, they can accomplish impossible feats, both noble and ignoble. This is why unity in the body of Christ is so important in our efforts to accomplish God's purposes on earth.
Sometimes we live without knowing God is everything in our life, and we decide ourselves without involving him. That's we fail in many things to archive. so we learn to make God first for everything in our life regardless of our position, power and knowledge.
What were the languages spoken by this people in the time of babel??
no one really knows exactly what language was actually spoken before God confused the language at the Tower of Babel. All that scripture indicates is that the people there spoke one and the same language.
This account in Gen 11:1-9 is a striking example of the futility of the pursuit of unity for it’s own sake. There is a bit a contradiction between the title and presmise of today’s lesson, and the purpose behind what transpired in the focal story. What today’s lesson did not adequately flesh out is that is was God’s design for Noah’s descendants to be separated and scattered across the earth even before this incident. The people instead earnestly sought unity and cohesion in their purpose to build a safe habitat and a great name for themselves in defiance of God’s directive.
God orchestrated the dispersion of this post flood generation across the face of the earth and the establishment of multiple tribes and languages. He did something similar with the early church after Pentecost. Nothwithstanding Jesus’ clear commission to the church to spread the gospel beyond Judea and Samaria, the disciples were very slow to comply, and were more inclined to establish a power cluster in Jerusalem. God permitted persecution to come upon the early church in order for his people to fulfill the mandate to the spread the gospel to diverse places. It’s no small wonder that churches were initially established in places like Antioch and Rome without the direct input of any of the apostles because they were so slow to follow unequivocally the leadings of the Holy Spirit. Separation is not necessarily a vice. Likewise, unity of itself is not necessarily a virtue. However, unity in Christ is.
Chris, good thoughts, and you could have added the sad folly exhibited in Battle Creek as well, as the work meant to go to all the world was centralized and a huge institution erected for...who's glory? Our need is to posses the Light ourselves and then take it to the dark corners of our world, many which are close by.
Yes, united by the Light of the World, while we separate to share Him with the world. We can then all meet together around the Throne of God and the Lamb in perfect peace and eternal unity forever.
God gave Adam & Eve a beautiful garden, they were created in the image of God, but Eve didn't believe that, she thought she needed the knowledge of evil to be like God, which was probably correct, but the knowledge/experience of evil would bring suffering and pain to their lives from which God had been trying to protect them.
Before the flood all except Noah and family had only evil hearts, so God destroyed them all and saved Noah and started again, but the descendants of Noah didn't learn the lesson and now several generations later again everyone's hearts were evil again rebelling against God.
So God tried another plan .....
What lessons can we learn from the progressive "plans" of God??
obedience to God.
That generation after generation after generation ...., God in His compassion, grace, patience, loving-kindness (faithfulness to his covenant promises), mercy and forgiveness (Ex 34:6), is 'relentless' in offering opportunities for people to come to salvation because His preference/desire is that none perish (2 Pet 3:9). God is doing absolutely everything He can to save to the utmost from sin that, by its inherent nature, destroys (Rom 6:23; Jn 10:10).
In response we have 2 choices/options: walk in the way outlined by God that leads to life or walk in defiance of that way and thereby follow the way of death (eg, Deut 30:15-20).
Even church unity cannot correct the disunity between the natural man and God. This is the work of God's Holy Spirit within the heart to unify the mind of man with his Creator God.
The church’s function is to make man aware of his need and the opportunity God has provided for us to receive His own Spirit and connect with Him.