Joe Stowell, in his book Perilous Pursuits, tells of a college Sophomore named Barbara, who kept finding herself in one sexually compromised relationship after another. Even in the church she attended, men would ask her out, and invariably ask her for some sensual gratification. Struggling with a deep sense of disappointment and confusion, she felt her worth had been trampled. She wondered why so many men were so willing to abuse her, and see her only as an object of their personal gratification. It wasn’t until the next semester in college that she got an answer to her quest. It began the process of liberation in her… Barbara realized thatn she was being driven by an intense desire to find a sense of worth and affirmation in having the attention of men. If men were attracted to and interested in her, she sensed her own worth. She felt like she counted for something. She discovered the lie that was pulling her to unhealthy people and sinful patterns.
Finally she exposed the truth: Significance is secured, not through our efforts, but it had already been established by the work of Jesus on Calvary – making her position in God the basis of a new life on earth.
In Ephesians 6 terms, Barbara put the cleats on her shoes and stopped sliding around in the slippery mud of earth. Remember, Ephesians 6 offers six pieces of spiritual armor: Belt of truthfulness, breast plate of right choices, cleats on the sandals of the Gospel that keep us anchored and significant. Then, as the occasion demands, the team locks together in the “blocking shield of faith”, wearing the helmet of salvation and grasping the dagger of the Word. All this is done, praying always, and keeping the intimate relationship out front. Barbara found her cleats and quit sliding around.
Key Principle: Only when I find my significance in my relationship with Jesus and live for His glory and fame, I will make a true mark for eternity!
God offered the table of the Nations in Genesis 10 to set up the story of how the nations came to be scattered and divided by Him in Genesis 11. We would tell the story in reverse of that – but a typical Hebrew way of telling the story is in “flashback mode” offering the EFFECT before the CAUSE.
If you look closely at the text, you will see the division of the people was FOUR WAYS: land, language, family and nation. The proper progression based on the next chapter is nuclear and extended families that were given varying languages separated into different “nations” (ethnicities) that inhabited differing lands:
Genesis 10:1 Now these are the records of the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and sons were born to them after the flood.
- EUROPE AND WESTERN ASIA: 10:2 The sons of Japheth were ... 5 From these the coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.
- AFRICA: 10:6 The sons of Ham were ... 20 These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, by their nations.
- NEAR EAST TO FAR EAST: 10:21 Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the older brother of Japheth, children were born. 22 The sons of Shem were ... 31 These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, according to their nations. 32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations; and out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood.
No, look more carefully and you will see the problem... The people wanted to build something significant, but they wanted THEIR STORY at the center of it all.
11:1 Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. 2 It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
Shared experiences conveyed shared values:
The people came from the experience of the ark, and as they bore children over a few generations, they found on the plain where they were living all they needed to build a society. Don’t skip past too fast – We need to notice several important truths hinted at in verses one and two:
The knowledge of a HOLY GOD was never more effectively communicated than when fathers taught children from the experience of facing God, and knowing that He was both a Savior and a Judge. Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives KNEW that God wasn’t kidding about judgment. Why didn’t their children’s children’s children? Because with time they removed themselves from an intimate knowledge of the Holy One. They slowly communicated through their lives that other things were more important than knowing, serving and loving God.There is a big difference between the knowledge of the Bible, and having a heart for God. Princeton, Harvard and Yale all began as Christian learning centers. Harvard used to require daily Bible reading! What happened to turn them from vital places to hollow shells of the faith? Some of our country’s greatest seminaries now teach a cold theology, devoid of a passionate walk with God. How does this happen?
Year ago, AW Tozer wrote: ““So often we are like the man that has gone out into the field. He collects rocks and puts them together and builds an altar. He then goes out and cuts a log into wood for the fire of the altar. He kills the ox, flays the meat and lays it out upon the altar. He then walks around the altar and cleans the rocks, rearranges them. He sings hymns about the wood. He takes up an offering to keep the rocks clean and neat, and then we leave, knowing something is wrong. The FIRE of God on the altar is not there. We forget the point of it all, and we celebrate “altar worship”.
It has happened many times in the Bible, and it is something we have studied many times in the text, but we dare not EVER gloss over it! There are three generations of a message – sometimes called the teaching of the “three chairs”:
- In the first chair is a vibrant believer that has encounterd God. Take, for example, Joshua, son of Nun, disciple of Moses. His faith was sold out. He saw God do great things – Jericho’s walls fell, the Jordan’s river was stopped. He was characterized by radical COMMITMENT of a God he had personally experienced.
- In the second chair was the generation of Joshua – the people that lived at the time Joshua was encountering God, but they were living life and observing God’s work. They knew ABOUT God (they were saved) and they knew ABOUT His works, but they were not walking in intimacy with God and did not experience God’s daily power. Their walk was a SOMETIMES power – a COMPROMISE of long stretches of SELF salted lightly with occasional “highs” with God.
- Into the world they brought the generation of the “third chair”, named in Judges 2 as the “generation after Joshua”. That group was describes as faithless. They did not know the mighty works of God personally (Judges 2:7 and 10) and did not walk with Him at all. Their values didn’t mesh with God’s purposes, and they DIDN’T FEAR GOD, so they lived in CONFLICT.
The fact is the story after the ark isn’t that unique. The problem wasn’t the first generation. The problem wasn’t the ungodly generation. The REAL PROBLEM is always the one in the middle – the COMPROMISED and HALF BELIEVING generation. Remember: “When you grow up in a world in which values are spoken one way, yet lived another way, you will have tragedy on your hands!”
Whole churches are doing this! One generation starts a work for God on some corner, praying and struggling and believing God for every need they have. They have a living walk that is characterized by excitement. They don’t have the right room sizes or right programs. It is often a messy thing. Their needs are met by prayer and sacrifice one to another. They are stirred in powerful moments of worship and study of the Word.
Time passes in that church and it becomes more established. The more organizational oriented and program focused people take over. The needs are met by a capable staff that has far too little time to pray. The place is clean and the music is excellent. Prayer meeting shrinks because there is just too much “program” to keep the thing going. Workers get tired and go home tired – not reflecting the hot heart of a walk with God – but reflecting a cooled programmatic approach. Children observe and grow up in the mix. They see it all. The fights that happen when people are not praying and are working too many hours -- the idolatry of ministry before God. In a sobering way, they profess NO walk with God, and don’t seem to really care. “That’s your gig, mom!” they say.
We must deliberately work to tear down that false sense of “spiritual” or we will blind the eyes of the generation coming behind us. Only if we have a HOT HEART and intimacy in our walk will our kids have any chance of seeing the truth.
In addition to the COOLED COMMUNICATION, 11:1-2 TEACH US SOME OTHER THINGS.
• THE NUCLEAR and EXTENDED FAMILY was the core of the society. It was designed that way, and no culture has been effectively able to thrive over the long haul while ignoring this basic unit established by God.
• LANGUAGE and COMMUNICATION was at the heart of what built the unity and society. The settling and civility worked because they could effectively communicate with one another. We cannot underestimate the power of shared communication. What is essential in communication? Shared beliefs and core values communicated through strong family units. The homogenous culture was the beginning point. It wasn’t the color of their skin, it was the ability to share common values and common experiences. If the common values were allowed to be reversed or eroded too rapidly or dramatically, the cohesiveness of the society becomes suspect.
The implication is clear – diversity of views is not always a strength. I am not speaking of race, I am speaking of core values. When a society can no longer share a common “right” or “wrong” it imperils the whole society from growing together. It becomes a litany of causes and a scary collection of special interests. What pulls it together? A singular standard of right and wrong! For our founding fathers it was Biblical truth, assumed to be both TRUE and GOOD.
If half of the University is teaching that absolutes exist – as in math and some science departments – and the other half of the university is teaching that “there are no absolutes” and “all truth is relative” – the house of education will not hold together. I want to be clear: I don’t want to live in a home built by an architect’s plan that did not believe in absolute and consistent physical principles. I don’t even want to sit in a chair made by someone who doesn’t believe in consistent physical principles. Weight loads need to be absolute, unbending and consistent. How the architect feels about it isn’t relevant to me. Let’s move on…
11:3 They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.
Shared values led to shared accomplishments:
The people saw the need to produce something. That wasn’t a bad thing – quite the opposite. They shared the advance of technology to the benefit of the community. Again, we are tempted to miss the richness of the verse. Look closer:
• Communication led to community, and community led to advancement. We must understand that for a society to move forward, there must be a desire to do something that helps others get ahead, and not just myself. I am not against the growing welfare society because they take money from ME – I am against it because it demeans THEM. I believe in productivity. God started man off in the garden with duties. We need to DO something – not just get benefits from those who have done something. People of every race, color and creed need to accomplish something – it is inherent in our nature. Too much given too easily produces unhappy, yes, ANGRY children. Work is GOOD. Work is GODLY. 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 reminds us that three things characterize a godly man or woman – sexual purity, a real work ethic, and a distinct view of life and death that shows the time outside of this body as the more “real” experience.• The verse says not only that they wanted to accomplish something, but that they wanted to benefit each other. Companies in our modern society must see more than profits. They have to be able to see that there is a benefit to giving help back to the society upon whom their profits were built. Employees need to be thankful to have jobs, and companies need to be deliberate in helping their workers have good lives – not just using them as machines for the profits of the investors. We have to SEE each other, and be deliberate about a society. When we cheat to get over on the man, we take from our brothers, our sisters, our communities, our nation. We are America, and we cannot afford to cheat our neighbor without cheating our own children.
11:4 They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
Shared accomplishments exposed a shared need:
The people all wanted to accomplish something that would show how significant they were. They wanted to mark their time on this earth with a symbol of power. They wanted THEIR STORY to be the story of history. Herein is the problem: the people were desperate for SIGNIFICANCE. They became obsessed with it.
Joe Stowell said it right: “We were built for significance. Our problem is not that we search for it, but that we search for it in all the wrong places." We think it is what WE DO. What we LEAVE BEHIND. It isn’t… it is in what we allow God to do IN and THROUGH us. It is in how we walk with Him in the quiet places, after the lights are off… after no one is watching and the accolades are all given out.11:5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 The LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. 7 “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.
A Shared need led to God’s Answer:
God wasn’t going to be second in the story – because He is the highest and He is always truthful. Any other god is a false hope. Any other pursuit is a DEAD END. So He confounded them, broke up their union and sent them packing… It was the best thing He could do to stop them from all perishing together on the FOOL’S ERRAND OF SELF SIGNIFICANCE that gripped them.
Wait a minute, doc! What happens when I live so wrapped in HIS significance? How will my needs be met? If I surrender myself to Him, how will I feel what I long to feel. You will see… Mature believers have learned something about their own needs – they are only really satisfied fully when they live life focused on serving Jesus by serving others. Things done for SELF are short lived. Only when I find my significance in my relationship with Jesus and live for His glory and fame, I will make a true mark for eternity!
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