"Building Babel" January 3 Readings: Genesis 8-11

Today's Reading - Genesis 8-11

Background

There are several significant issues in this reading. Noah leaves the Ark and is given a new set of instructions from God. Mankind is given meat to eat and the death penalty is established to show the sanctity of life - life is so precious that if you take it, you sacrifice yours. God also promises not to destroy the world by flood again and gives the rainbow as a sign of that promise. This set of promises and instructions is often called the Noahic Covenant.

Chapter 10 is often called the Table of Nations, showing how the nations of earth descended from the three sons of Noah. This teaching has been twisted (completely unjustly) to sanction racism, but it does show how the earth was settled.

Then we encounter Babel which is the beginning of a world system that will not be destroyed until just before the Second Coming of Christ. Babel is a human political, economic, and religious system in which human beings build their own path to God and to glory without submission to God devotion to his glory. God separated the nations not because he wants the races separate but because he desired to frustrate the system of human, humanistic enterprise. God is working to unite a people around Christ.

Devotional - Building Babel 

The Tower of Babel is steeped in symbolism, and perhaps much of that is in the eye of the beholder - read in by our own prejudices and ideas. But it is a significant moment in world history, one that resulted in the Babylonian empire and the world system that Jesus will destroy at his Second Coming. It is an economic system designed to give man meaning through wealth and possessions. It is a political system in which mankind rules himself and builds that famous "one-world governmentt" that we have heard so much about. And it is a religious system built on false gods, on spiritual error and compromise.

In Genesis 11:4 we see some of the basics of the Babel system that would be the core of a world system that stands in opposition to God.

"And they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.'”

First, the Babel system is based on human effort. They built a tower with its top "to the sky." Whatever this structure was, it was likely an attempt to build a spiritual high place, a connection to heavenly places. Mankind has always been drawn to religion that is rooted in human effort and human merit - religious activity, ritual, and works. Our faith is rooted in the work of Christ for us not our works for him.

The Babel system is also man-centered rather than designed for the glory of God. "Let us make a name for ourselves." We come to God in worship to glorify him, to praise him, and to honor him, to bring our hearts and lives under his Lordship. But under the Babel system, it is all about me. What !blessing can I get? What makes me happy and content. God (or the gods) serves my needs rather than me serving his glory.

The fundamental difference is seen in the last line. God had said, "be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth." Here, these people decided that they had a better way. Rather than walk in obedience to the revelation of God they listened to their own reason, their own common sense. Christianity is about obedience to God's wisdom revealed in the word - even when we do not understand why. The Babel system judges God's word by human reason and intellect.

The Babel system is by people and for people rather than under the direction of God. It is a product of the whisperings of the Serpent in the Garden - you can become as gods! Don't submit to the Divine, become your own divinity. Ascend to the throne yourself.

We are called to submit to God and give glory to him in all things. Babel is horrified by that idea. It calls us to rise up and follow our hearts live for our own glory. It is the wide road to destruction.

Father, may I live for your glory, not heeding the call of the Babel system to live by my reason and for my own glory. 

Think and Pray

Which system are you living under?
Do you live by the word of God or by your own reason?
Do you follow your heart or the commands of God's word?
Do you live for yourself or for the glory of God?