God’s Discipline

Genesis 11:1-9

Every person can avoid God’s discipline by knowing the issues that upset Him.

Introduction:

I spent much of my ninth summer on a bicycle. About a mile from our house the road went down a steep hill and turned sharply at the bottom. Coasting down the hill one morning, I felt my gathering speed to be ecstatic. To give up this ecstasy by applying brakes seemed an absurd self-punishment. So I resolved to simultaneously retain my speed and negotiate the corner. My ecstasy ended seconds later when I was propelled a dozen feet off the road into the woods. I was badly scratched and bleeding, and the front wheel of my new bike was twisted beyond use from its impact against a tree. I had been unwilling to suffer the pain of giving up my ecstatic speed in the interest of maintaining my balance around the corner. I learned, however, that the loss of balance is ultimately more painful than the giving up required to maintain balance. It is a lesson I have continually had to relearn. As must everyone, for as we negotiate the curves and corners of our lives, we must continually give up parts of ourselves.

M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled.

The people of Babel were enjoying the exhilaration of everything going their way. In their joy they seemed to forget the God who got them there.

Issue I. Language

A. The issue that God was concerned about was not the language alone, but it was where this unified language was leading them. Prior to the flood we don’t know how technologically advanced the people were. They might have been very good with tools and machines. They might have been able to do things similar to what people did just a few hundred years ago. Since the time of the flood and the time of Babel it has taken the world this long to get back to that place. One of the reasons they could do what they did was because of their unified language.

B. If you want to travel the world you either need to have a good knowledge of the major languages of the world or you might want to have an interpreter with you. When Jackie Poole went to Panama, the interpreter could speak the native language of the island, Spanish and English. When speaking with the people of the island he would mentally change the language to Spanish and then change it to English. As you might imagine this really slowed the communication process down and made it hard for these people to communicate with each other. Even when we do have a good interpreter there can be phrases that we use that don’t make sense when interpreted.

C. Now imagine how easy things would be in the world if we could remove that barrier. We could easily and smoothly speak with people from anywhere in the world and there would not be a need for interpreters. This had made it easy for the people in this passage to communicate with each other. It also made the increase in knowledge much greater. Making bricks and building a tower that reached the sky was a possibility because of the ability to communicate with each other easily.

D. In v. 1 we are told that the whole world had one language. I am wondering if this ability to do things had become their god. In v. 6 God says, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” This statement leads me to believe that God had been removed from the lives of these people. In v. 9, “The Lord confused the language of the whole world.” In v. 1 the whole world has one language, and in v. 9 the language of the whole world is confused.

E. God disciplined these people because their ability to do things had become more important than God himself. So God choose to make their ability to communicate much more difficult. We need to be careful that our abilities don’t become more important than God. A person who is smart of talented still needs God. They may be hard to convince of that, but they do need God. We should be careful that we are not pulled into that trap. It seems that in our society we are slipping that way. We have more technology than any generation before us. It seems like the parts of the world where God is really working is in the places where technology is at its least. Don’t let your technology stand in the way of your relationship with God.

Issue II. Location

A. In v. 4 the people are saying to each other that they do not want to “be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” This might not seem like a big deal, but when Noah came out of the ark God told Noah two times, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” They were to fill the earth. They could not very well fill the earth if they stayed in one place all of the time. They needed to spread out. They did not want to do that, so they choose to disobey the command of God.

B. Their desire to not be scattered over the face of the whole earth seems to indicate that they knew what God wanted. Instead they choose to do what they wanted. They decided they would rather stay in one place. The purposely choose to disobey God. They choose to do things their way rather than to obey God.

C. There are likely two events which would have followed the flood that would allow this dispersion to take place. First, following such a great catastrophe there would be tons of debris floating on the waters. These could have created floating islands that would have been carried by ocean currents. Animals could have climbed on these islands and floated all over the world. This would explain how kangaroos got from the Middle East to Australia. A meteorologist has hypothesized that following such a dramatic change in the earth would cause climate changes that would introduce an ice age. This ice age might have created some ice bridges in the northern hemisphere that would make it possible for animals and humans to move from Asia to North America. This would clearly open us tremendous avenues of possibility.

D. The real key here is that God told Noah and his family that they should be “fruitful” and populate the earth. It almost sounds like a minor offense. The truth is any time we rebel against God we are causing a major offense. I don’t see that there are misdemeanors or felonies in God’s system of justice. There is sin. These people choose to sin and God disciplined them. He forced them to do what he told them to do.

E. Please do not take the commands of God lightly. It is a serious offense whenever you rebel against God. We rebel against God whenever we sin. We might find that God will choose to correct us when we do wrong.

Issue III. Legacy

A. This gets into some pride that these people were dealing with. They knew if they stayed together they would be able to accomplish more. If they put their heads together they could make great things. So they decide that they will make a name for themselves. They will bring honor and attention to them. It is not something they are hoping to do for God. This is something they want to do to get attention for themselves. The way they will do this is by constructing a tower. They set out to build a tower and a city by which they could make a name for themselves. It was all focused on them.

B. The abilities that these people had developed are not able to be determined. The flood had caused a change in the technology of the world. Now the confusion of the languages would again cause a change in the technology of the world. The people of Noah’s day and the people who were building Babel could have been more highly advanced than we are. This event brought a great change into the world. They rebelled by refusing to disperse. Now they are prideful and trying to make a name for themselves. God sees what is happening and he forces this to change. He confuses the language of the people.

C. Can you imagine going to work one morning, and while you are working a big wind whips up and suddenly you can’t understand your coworkers. They are talking gibberish. I can imagine you might start looking for someone who spoke so you could understand them. The whole city of people is doing this. They are searching for someone who understands them. Maybe there were small groups of people who still understood each other. Those small groups got together and they set off to make their own home. When everyone spoke the same language, a legacy might have been important. After the language is confused priorities would be changed. Now people would be looking for the ability to communicate and ultimately survive. The legacy would not matter.

D. If the concern of a person is making a name for themselves they will find that they are under a great deal of scrutiny. They might end up like these people did scurrying around trying to find something they had lost. However, if our lives are marked by seeking God, we will automatically be making a legacy for ourselves. I have read several biographies of great Christian men and women. I cannot think of one who had the goal of making a name for themselves. They had a burden that gave birth to a ministry. Hudson Taylor knew from an early age he was going to reach the Chinese people for Christ. He was not trying to make a name for himself. He did not have a goal of have books written about him. He wanted to see those people come to Christ. That was his focus.

E. We need to examine our own lives and ask the question. Do I want to make a name for myself, or do I want to serve my Lord with all of my heart. When we set out to make a name we are letting pride drive our life. If we set out to serve God, then we are allowing him to fill us with passion and direct where we will go with that passion.

Conclusion:

It can be easy to look at these 9 verses and believe that God overreacted. Anytime we sin and rebel against God we are inviting God’s discipline into our lives. That is what God did. We know he had the ability to destroy the earth, but he choose to force them to do what he wanted them to do. I would challenge you to look at your life and ask yourself, who am I trying to please? Give yourself an honest answer. If it is someone besides God, you need to put God in the center of your life.