7.12.24 - Babel’s Undoing
Genesis 12:1-4, 7-9
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will 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.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him…
Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
At the beginning of Genesis 11, we found these sons of Adam roaming in the east as exiles, far removed from the peace of Eden. At the end of our text we leave them confused and dispersed from the plain of Shinar, seemingly in worse shape than we found them.
Now remember those two problems that we started out with on Monday, the questions that begin to arise in Genesis 3 and loom over the entire Old Testament: Is there any way for humans to come back into the presence of God? And is there any way that humans can be all that God made us to be? The answer we find in the ruins of Babel seems to be no.
Time and again throughout these early chapters of Genesis, these humans prove to be the kind of creatures who give in to their fears and insecurities. And even though God stands by them in faithfulness and proves his resolve to put the world back together, they still just can’t quite manage to trust him, and instead they keep on resorting to violence and oppression, hiding their weakness behind veils of pride.
But it’s no accident that Genesis 11 comes right before Genesis 12. Because when we turn the page, we find a man name Abram who is shown to be the exact opposite of these Babylonian builders in pretty much every way. He’s the guy who gave up all hope of a name and a legacy for himself by marrying a woman who was barren so that she wouldn’t be left destitute after her father died. Instead of giving into fear and clinging to safety and security in his home country and his father’s household, he gets up and leaves when God calls and follows him to a strange and foreign land. He doesn’t build a city, he pitches a tent. And instead of a monument to his own pride, he builds an altar of worship and calls upon the name of the LORD, never settling in the east, but journeying on in the land that God showed him. And it’s this guy that God takes and says, “I’m going make a name for you. I’m going to bless you and your family, and I’m going to use your family to bring blessing to all the families of the earth.”
2,000 years or so later, God himself would descend once again and put on flesh as one of Abram’s sons. And he would indeed be given the name that is above every other name and bring blessing to all the peoples of the earth. He would do for humanity the work that we could never do, perfectly reflecting the image of the invisible God. Instead of giving into fear and insecurity, he was perfectly faithful to everything that God commanded us, choosing even to suffer the violence and injustice that’s inflicted by the prideful empires of men. And after he was raised up from the dead, he ascended into the heavens, higher than Babel’s tower could ever reach, and raised up with him our humanity back into the presence of God.
The proof that this had happened, the proof that humans could once again be with God like we were made to be, came in the undoing of Babel’s confusion. On the day when church of Jesus was born, when the Spirit of God descended to dwell in the hearts of his people, some of the very nations that had been scattered from Babel were brought together in Jerusalem. The division that was caused by the confusing of languages was transcended so that the nations of the earth could be blessed by hearing the mighty works that God had done in Abram’s son, Jesus.
Acts 2:1-11
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”
Jean Restout, Pentecost, 1732, Louvre Museum.
