Babel and Abraham

Babel

Genesis 11:1–9 NKJV

1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

“What the sons of Noah brought forth” begins in 10:1 and culminates here.

God sets the boundaries of the nations Acts 17:26

Acts 17:26 NKJV

26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,

But men and women were created to “have dominion”. Their DNA is full of the unquenchable desire to order their surroundings, leave a mark and rule the earth. Not each other, but the earth, as image-bearers of God.

But sin twisted that, and men began ruling over women (Genesis 3:16) and each other (Genesis 4), dominating, murdering, establishing their OWN kingdom where they reign supreme.

Millions of kings don’t get on so well. So eventually one will raise himself up and promise a collective kingdom that will take the place of the lost kingdom of God.

Come. Let us make a name for ourselves.

Brick, mortar - familiar tools to the Israelite slaves, and a reminder of what Egypt was for them.

The kingdoms of this world.

The allure and seduction of the trappings of glory. The delicacies, the beauty, the lights and pleasures of the world,

Come - let us gather ourselves together. United. Working together. Building our own kingdom. Music, merchandise, gold, silver, silks, cinnamon, spices, wine and oil in abundance.

But it always ends the same way. Israel knew how it was.

Wine and oil for Egyptian males. For women, children, and others, only pain, toil, degradation and slavery.

For one to live in a grand palace of brick, another must make the bricks.

For one to have 70 virgins in a glorious harem, 70 others must be enslaved and degraded.

The weak are enslaved to build the kingdom of the strong. This is why America can never be the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God isn’t built on the genocide of California Indians or the enslavement of African Americans. We need to understand that and listen to our history.

When your goal is to build Babel, it will always devolve into oppression, slaughter and tyranny. It cannot be otherwise. There has been no exception in the history of the world.

But in the middle of the building of the city of man, God is at work building HIS kingdom.

He is frustrating the efforts of the tower builders. Earthquakes, famines, droughts, wars, disease, hurricanes, and so on are used by God to dismantle the kingdoms.

Abraham

Genesis 12:1–9 NKJV

1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. 6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. 9 So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.

Instead of “Let us make a name for ourselves” - God says,

“I will make your name great”

Abraham is one of the most significant men in the history of the world. Every religion must deal with him in one way or another.

And yet, he himself was a man of remarkable simplicity. He never owned any land except a grave. He never built a city. He never built walls.

He never built a civilization, or write a book, or rule over a kingdom. He didn’t command armies.

He is famous for one thing. He believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.

Now, centuries after the fall, God breaks through the silence by calling one man out of darkness into light.

Abraham is called out of Ur, the same land as the Tower.

Where the Chaldeans are rebuilding their kingdom, which will later be called “Babylon”, God is calling Abraham out.

He doesn’t tell him to “win Babylon for Jesus”. But he calls him out, and makes of HIM a whole new nation, under a whole new principle.

The kingdom that God promises can only come from the word and power of God. It will only come in God’s time, in God’s way, when God is ready.

To illustrate this, Abraham and Sarah are barren. They have no children. And nothing he can do can speed that up.

He will eventually panic and go in to Hagar, and she will give birth the natural way. But Ishmael will be rejected. He is still a sinner, born with the sinful desire to enslave and control. His life is filled with contradictions, as all of our lives are.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

The kingdom will not be built on Abraham’s ability to have children. Otherwise, why not build a harem and have 1000 children to carry on your legacy. This was the way of every tyrant in the ancient world.

Now we call it “A Whole Army of Christian Babies”, or “militant fecundity”

We got off track, and started building the wrong kingdom.

Harems are right around the corner. If the kingdom comes through a multitude of children, women’s bodies are limited - so you need more and more of them. It is the only logical conclusion.

But that isn’t the kingdom of God. Jesus corrects Nicodemus here and says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Two citizens. Two kingdoms. The kingdoms of men populated by the offspring of flesh and blood. And the kingdom of God, populated by those who are born again by the spirit of Christ, filled with his spirit, resting in the promise and waiting for his coming.

Paul calls it the difference between the child of the flesh and the child of the promise.

Romans 9:7–9 NKJV

7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” 8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”

Babel depends upon wealth, power, and control. The bricks have to be made.

But the kingdom of God is based on one thing - promise.

That God is preparing a king. This king will execute justice and righteousness and lovingkindness in the earth. He will gather his children together and utterly destroy the wolves who devour and destroy.

He shall reign forever and ever.

Isaiah 9:6–7 NKJV

6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

This is how it develops over the centuries.

Isaiah is ministering to Israel at the time when King Ahaz is obsessing over Babel.

Assyria, Aram, all of the kingdom builders are warring.

And God reminds the Jews of his ancient promise.

I will make your name great, and in your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.

The land of the kingdom is the whole earth.

The king is the Lord Jesus

The people are all who are engrafted into him by faith.

And it is God who builds that kingdom.

So Abraham, who could have built a home, built a wall around it, started conquering it - he understood the difference between Babel and the Kingdom of God.

So he lived in tents. He traveled from place to place.

And look at the text - he built an altar wherever he went.

As it turns out, the altar is next to the shrines of Canaan!

He is dedicating the whole land to the kingdom of God and the city to come.

He understands that the kingdom has something to do with the sacrifice.

Later, when he offers Isaac, he says, “God himself will provide a sacrifice.” Jehovah-Jireh. God will see to it.

On the mount of the Lord, God will see to it.

Hebrews 12:22–24 NKJV

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

What a glorious kingdom! And Abraham saw it by faith. We see more - the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest of the old. The lights are turned on.

But we do not yet see the fulfillment. And the temptation is to try to build that tower ourselves.

Instead of saying what Abraham learned.

“In the mount of the Lord, God will see to it.”

He already saw to it on Mt Zion, on Calvary, in the empty tomb.

We don’t spread that kingdom with the tools of the flesh.

Only God builds the kingdom, and he has chosen the foolishness of the preaching of the Gospel to tear down strongholds and release the prisoner.

For our part - we wait. We rest. We keep the everlasting sabbath of the gospel.

God now accepts our works! shame and fear and death are gone forever!

Go into all the nations. Rest in God’s promise. And when things around you are falling apart, remember that God will see to it.

He will provide the lamb. He will provide the kingdom. He will build the city.

Hebrews 11:10 NKJV

10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.