The story of the Tower of Babel is one of my own favorites from the Old Testament. The story comes from Genesis 11.
Everything was going pretty well in this story until the people decided to build a tower in their city that could reach heaven. Imagine the insolence of man, to assume the ability to reach the height of their Creator, to encroach upon God Himself, to blur the distinction between Creator and creation. The creation must know its place. The creation must pay respect to the Creator. With this balance intact, the world is right. Without it all harmony is disrupted.
God saw the people building the tower and realized immediately that by trying to get closer to God, they were actually moving further away. In order to prevent them from working together to achieve this unholy goal, and to forever punish them for their arrogance, He caused them to begin speaking different languages. In order to further separate the people, he scattered them all over the face of the earth, never to share such plans again.
Together we must take the positive message of this story, that collaboration can achieve great heights, and learn equally from the warning that arrogance when it comes to our relationship with God will only lead to our demise. The creation must adhere to the will and submit to the power of the Creator.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Noah's Ark and the Flood
Today we will discuss the story of Noah’s Ark and the great flood, which comes to us from the Genesis 6.
God looked upon the earth and saw the wickedness displayed by man and decided to wipe out his most cherished creation. It is with that motive that he created the great flood. God was ready to eliminate His creation all together, but then had a change of heart. He spotted one righteous one among His flock. It was Noah who inspired God to save His creation.
With a change of heart, God told Noah to build an ark to save his family. Then He told Noah to gather a male and female of all living creatures and save them on the ark as well. Noah finished the ark just as the rain started – a rain that lasted forty days and forty nights. Other than those saved on the ark, every living creature was destroyed in the flood. Finally the rain stopped and the waters receded, allowing the ark to come to rest safely on Mount Ararat.
When Noah disembarked from the ark, he immediately built an altar and worshiped his Creator. He asked God’s forgiveness for his sins, and for the sins of all disobedient mankind. God was pleased by this act of pure obedience and promised never to destroy all living creatures again.
Imagine the fury that it must have taken for God to decide to destroy all of mankind, His greatest creation. Imagine the sinful defiance of man necessary to drive God to that decision. It is with this fury in kind that many have mistakenly spoken of the wrath of God. But who brought this decision about? Not God, my friends. It was His own creation acting out against Him. God was merely trying to destroy the disobedience. To regain control over His greatest creation.
God looked upon the earth and saw the wickedness displayed by man and decided to wipe out his most cherished creation. It is with that motive that he created the great flood. God was ready to eliminate His creation all together, but then had a change of heart. He spotted one righteous one among His flock. It was Noah who inspired God to save His creation.
With a change of heart, God told Noah to build an ark to save his family. Then He told Noah to gather a male and female of all living creatures and save them on the ark as well. Noah finished the ark just as the rain started – a rain that lasted forty days and forty nights. Other than those saved on the ark, every living creature was destroyed in the flood. Finally the rain stopped and the waters receded, allowing the ark to come to rest safely on Mount Ararat.
When Noah disembarked from the ark, he immediately built an altar and worshiped his Creator. He asked God’s forgiveness for his sins, and for the sins of all disobedient mankind. God was pleased by this act of pure obedience and promised never to destroy all living creatures again.
Imagine the fury that it must have taken for God to decide to destroy all of mankind, His greatest creation. Imagine the sinful defiance of man necessary to drive God to that decision. It is with this fury in kind that many have mistakenly spoken of the wrath of God. But who brought this decision about? Not God, my friends. It was His own creation acting out against Him. God was merely trying to destroy the disobedience. To regain control over His greatest creation.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
The Creation
Today we will be discussing the very first chapter of Genesis in the Old Testament.
The first pages of the bible establish God as the ultimate Creator. Before the Creator there was nothing but formless emptiness. Before the Creator there was nothing but darkness. But then God created the heavens and earth. His spirit moved over this expanse as He prepared the creation of all that we know today.
On the first day God created light and separated darkness from light, establishing night and day. Next came the sky, and the land and the seas, and the sun, moon, and stars. On the fifth day He created every living creature of the seas and skies and gave them the ability to multiply. On the sixth day He created the animals.
But His favorite creation of all, the one that would give Him the most joy but also disappoint Him the most in times to come, was the creation of man. For on the sixth day God also created Adam and Eve. He molded Adam from clay and blew breath into him. He created Adam in His own image, from His own essence. He gave them everything – the whole earth – to rule over, care for, and cultivate.
Man was the ultimate creation for God – the culmination of all of His efforts. Man, too, has the ability to create. We take the gifts that God has given us and turn them toward our own creations.
On the seventh day God rested. We should also take a day of rest, a day to share with our fellow believers of the Lord Our Savior Jesus Christ, and look back upon the results of our work and say “It is very good.”
The first pages of the bible establish God as the ultimate Creator. Before the Creator there was nothing but formless emptiness. Before the Creator there was nothing but darkness. But then God created the heavens and earth. His spirit moved over this expanse as He prepared the creation of all that we know today.
On the first day God created light and separated darkness from light, establishing night and day. Next came the sky, and the land and the seas, and the sun, moon, and stars. On the fifth day He created every living creature of the seas and skies and gave them the ability to multiply. On the sixth day He created the animals.
But His favorite creation of all, the one that would give Him the most joy but also disappoint Him the most in times to come, was the creation of man. For on the sixth day God also created Adam and Eve. He molded Adam from clay and blew breath into him. He created Adam in His own image, from His own essence. He gave them everything – the whole earth – to rule over, care for, and cultivate.
Man was the ultimate creation for God – the culmination of all of His efforts. Man, too, has the ability to create. We take the gifts that God has given us and turn them toward our own creations.
On the seventh day God rested. We should also take a day of rest, a day to share with our fellow believers of the Lord Our Savior Jesus Christ, and look back upon the results of our work and say “It is very good.”
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