:: S ::
"Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."- Genesis 11:4, TNIV
:: O ::
What is this Babel story about? The world, we are told, had one language and a common speech.
The narrative structure of Genesis 11:3-4 seems to echo of the creation story we read about in Genesis 1.
Like God, we see the ability for man to create, to act according to his own volition and will.
Yet, something seems to be amiss here, which is picked up in the verse that follows, where God is determined to foil the people’s grand plans to build the infamous tower of Babel.
Heaven, in simple terms, can be simply thought of as where God’s rule prevails, where His purposes and will are established. And so we look forward to heaven, as Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, when His kingdom will be established fully here on earth.
Genesis speaks of a people who have been created in His image and His likeness, to live in relationship with God and each other, and to take dominion over the earth.
Dominion, I think, not in the sense of tyrannical worship, but rulership as a gardener would tend his garden, to use the Eden imagery. The earth was to be a place that would support life and growth, where all creation would take its place – in synchrony and harmony.
But the chaos and confusion that Babel suggests a humanity that has tried to usurp the power and position of the Creator God, to turn the created order on its head. Man was no longer carers God’s garden, but built themselves instead a city, a tower that would raise them up to the heavens and put them on equal footing as God Himself, on par with His purpose and will, triumphing over their own strength and their own image, seeking to make their own name great.
The narrative structure of Genesis 11:3-4 seems to echo of the creation story we read about in Genesis 1.
Like God, we see the ability for man to create, to act according to his own volition and will.
Yet, something seems to be amiss here, which is picked up in the verse that follows, where God is determined to foil the people’s grand plans to build the infamous tower of Babel.
Heaven, in simple terms, can be simply thought of as where God’s rule prevails, where His purposes and will are established. And so we look forward to heaven, as Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, when His kingdom will be established fully here on earth.
Genesis speaks of a people who have been created in His image and His likeness, to live in relationship with God and each other, and to take dominion over the earth.
Dominion, I think, not in the sense of tyrannical worship, but rulership as a gardener would tend his garden, to use the Eden imagery. The earth was to be a place that would support life and growth, where all creation would take its place – in synchrony and harmony.
But the chaos and confusion that Babel suggests a humanity that has tried to usurp the power and position of the Creator God, to turn the created order on its head. Man was no longer carers God’s garden, but built themselves instead a city, a tower that would raise them up to the heavens and put them on equal footing as God Himself, on par with His purpose and will, triumphing over their own strength and their own image, seeking to make their own name great.
:: A ::
If this is true, then we can see why so many of man’s projects are doomed to languish. God simply will not allow the systems and power structures of this society we have created for ourselves to last for eternity. This concrete jungle we have paved over the earth, the garden that God once walked through in the cool of the day, the garden man once walked with God.
The earth is groaning – as governments and nations strip the earth of its resources with callous abandon. Health epidemics, natural disasters and rising temperatures plague us. Wars break out, as each man seeks not for God’s will to be done, but every man for his own.
The earth is groaning – as governments and nations strip the earth of its resources with callous abandon. Health epidemics, natural disasters and rising temperatures plague us. Wars break out, as each man seeks not for God’s will to be done, but every man for his own.
:: P ::
This is, perhaps, the call to return to Kingdom purpose and will.
Father in heaven, holy is your name. May Your kingdom come, Your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
Father in heaven, holy is your name. May Your kingdom come, Your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
