Hi Lane,
You probably will not read this until after your holidays, unless you take the computer along, but that doesn't matter for this note. I just thought about it during the sermon.
About thirty years ago my father-in-law came over with my mother-in-law. We lived in Burlington behind an apartment, right on the lake in the former stage coach stop-over between York (Toronto) and Niagara Falls, a huge mansion where we enjoyed being for four years. My father-in-law didn't know a word of English. In the apartment building lived Mr. Shepherd, a 96 year young man who of course didn't know a word of Dutch.
These two older men got together and "talked" for close to an hour. We stayed away from them because they would probably have felt embarrassed about however they were communicating. We did hear them singing together once in a while, each in their own language, various hymns and children's Bible songs. We later were told how many children each one had; somehow they had told each other that and other facts.
I had always found that an amazing event to have witnessed. They were serious at times, at times laughing. Both told us later that it had been easy because each had noticed the other one was a Christian. That must be an universal language!
Bram and Mineke van Overbeeke
Monday, August 25, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Language An Expression of Community
Babel & the Gift of Language
Introduction: We are a people made to belong. Many are conscious of a desire to be a part of something larger, something embracing, something beyond oneself. When you “belong”, you can be said to be part of a community; the larger the community, the more a part of it you might feel. If you are not “in community”, the crowd highlights your separateness, that you are NOT a part of what’s going on.
Today, we look at HOW we experience community. TURN TO GENESIS 11
Review Last look, we drew out an underlying idea from the Story…God has a purpose for the city:
a. A place of refuge for Cain, a similar refuge today for the poor, the minority, all in need of protection.
b. A place to shine, to maximize one’s giftedness to the glory of God. [technology gains allowed Babel to be built higher with brick and mortar than could have been done with stones and tar]
c. A place to seek and find spiritual life.
i. Gen. 11:14—“…with its top in the heavens…”
ii. Acts 17:27—God places all people where they are most likely to seek Him.
Compels spiritual searching: Cities were places built around the highest tower, worshiping the god of that city.
Today: Toronto’s tallest temples are built by banks and brokerage houses;
it’s a place where money is venerated.
Ottawa’s landscape is dominated by the towers of Parliament:
it’s a city where power and influence is central.
We learned that the core difficulty of urban life is that we gather in the city to make names for ourselves. That weakness can be treated by resting in the fact that God names us himself, and by seeking to know the name which God has given us.
We experience true spiritual rest as we discover the name God has given us.
Today, we take a second look at the story of Babel and will learn that…
Language is a gift from God that enables TRUE community life.
Gen. 11:1 ¶ Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.
Gen. 11:2 It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
Gen. 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.
Gen. 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.”
Gen. 11:5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
Gen. 11:6 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.
Gen. 11:7 “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
Gen. 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.
Gen. 11:9 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.
This is a negative illustration of language as the means of community. Here the expression of our selfishness comes through our use of the gift of language.
We have all been victims of the selfish use of language. Our kids’ earliest words included the term: “MINE!”
I. We have Language because it is a gift from God and we are image bearers!
a. Language is a good gift from God.
b. Language marks us as made in the image of God.
i. This is one of those gifts that comes in the package.
ii. We speak, we understand, we think, we look to the future, we savour the present and the past, etc.
So then, how do we know that language is a gift from God?
Language comes from God:
he spoke and the world came into being; Gen 1
he spoke and gave a name to Adam Gen 2
Adam spoke and gave names to the animals Gen 2
he spoke and his people preserved his words for our benefit; Isa. 32
he names us and communicates his personal blessing by the act; Isa. 62; Rev.2
he gave us the gift of language as a means of reflecting his nature.
He names us/we name the animals and one another.
He speaks to us/we are to speak to Him and one another.
He speaks for all eternity/we speak and our words should endure through time.
Language comes from God.
We have Language because it is a gift from God as His image-bearers.
II. We best use Language when it glorifies God.
a. Our words express our thoughts.
i. Language gives us the ability to Express our thoughts.
ii. Our greatest thoughts concern the idea of God.
Without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God,
and the weightiest word in any language is its word for God.
The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer.
b. God intends that language be used to highlight his glory.
1Pet. 4:11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
APPLICATION: Read the Psalms! The Psalms use words to give praise to God in every imaginable circumstance—for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.
We have Language because it is a gift from God, as His image-bearers.
We best use Language when it glorifies God.
III. Our Language glorifies God when it connects us.
a. When it connects us in true community.
i. True community begins in the Trinity.
1. John 17—as we are one.
2. John 17—may they be one.
From the Trinity, the exhortation of Paul derives its gravity…
ii. True community means we build one another up.
b. When it results in “building up one another.”
1Th. 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
Our words can be effective at weaving grace into another’s heart.
i. Mercy gifts transform a heart, convincing the hearer that God’s love transcends the pain of the moment.
ii. Exhortation gifts motivate a will to take action toward God and others where there is confusion and hesitation.
iii. Encouragement gifts move hands to obedience, where there is fear and paralysis.
iv. Admonishment gifts stimulate a mind to action, where temporal goals have overshadowed eternal good.
We have Language because it is a gift from God.
We best use Language when it glorifies God.
Our language glorifies God in true community.
IV. We misuse language when we seek to make a name for ourselves.
a. Thus, we are quite concerned that we not be misunderstood or that we appear blameworthy.
b. Thus, we think first about how our words might reflect on us.
c. We use language to glorify ourselves and to accumulate respect for ourselves.
V. Our problem.
a. Our problem is just like Isaiah’s.
b. We all need the divine solution given to Isaiah, who had seen the Holy One Whose Image Isaiah was to bear:
Isaiah 6:5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
6:6 ¶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.
6:7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”
a. 6:5 My lips are unclean
b. 6:7 this has touched your lips
c. 6:7 your guilt is atoned for.
COMMUNION: as the elements touch your lips, contemplate what they memorialize! You have been touched by the holiness of God’s own throne; you have been cleansed by the forgiveness of God through Christ’s death; you have been made new…your lips now release the very blessings of God.
Benediction:
Col. 4:6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.
LANGUAGE is a HIGH-IMPACT instrument.
May your conversation be motivated by grace, to develop the one with whom you speak.
Introduction: We are a people made to belong. Many are conscious of a desire to be a part of something larger, something embracing, something beyond oneself. When you “belong”, you can be said to be part of a community; the larger the community, the more a part of it you might feel. If you are not “in community”, the crowd highlights your separateness, that you are NOT a part of what’s going on.
Today, we look at HOW we experience community. TURN TO GENESIS 11
Review Last look, we drew out an underlying idea from the Story…God has a purpose for the city:
a. A place of refuge for Cain, a similar refuge today for the poor, the minority, all in need of protection.
b. A place to shine, to maximize one’s giftedness to the glory of God. [technology gains allowed Babel to be built higher with brick and mortar than could have been done with stones and tar]
c. A place to seek and find spiritual life.
i. Gen. 11:14—“…with its top in the heavens…”
ii. Acts 17:27—God places all people where they are most likely to seek Him.
Compels spiritual searching: Cities were places built around the highest tower, worshiping the god of that city.
Today: Toronto’s tallest temples are built by banks and brokerage houses;
it’s a place where money is venerated.
Ottawa’s landscape is dominated by the towers of Parliament:
it’s a city where power and influence is central.
We learned that the core difficulty of urban life is that we gather in the city to make names for ourselves. That weakness can be treated by resting in the fact that God names us himself, and by seeking to know the name which God has given us.
We experience true spiritual rest as we discover the name God has given us.
Today, we take a second look at the story of Babel and will learn that…
Language is a gift from God that enables TRUE community life.
Gen. 11:1 ¶ Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.
Gen. 11:2 It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
Gen. 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.
Gen. 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.”
Gen. 11:5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
Gen. 11:6 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.
Gen. 11:7 “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
Gen. 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.
Gen. 11:9 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.
This is a negative illustration of language as the means of community. Here the expression of our selfishness comes through our use of the gift of language.
We have all been victims of the selfish use of language. Our kids’ earliest words included the term: “MINE!”
I. We have Language because it is a gift from God and we are image bearers!
a. Language is a good gift from God.
b. Language marks us as made in the image of God.
i. This is one of those gifts that comes in the package.
ii. We speak, we understand, we think, we look to the future, we savour the present and the past, etc.
So then, how do we know that language is a gift from God?
Language comes from God:
he spoke and the world came into being; Gen 1
he spoke and gave a name to Adam Gen 2
Adam spoke and gave names to the animals Gen 2
he spoke and his people preserved his words for our benefit; Isa. 32
he names us and communicates his personal blessing by the act; Isa. 62; Rev.2
he gave us the gift of language as a means of reflecting his nature.
He names us/we name the animals and one another.
He speaks to us/we are to speak to Him and one another.
He speaks for all eternity/we speak and our words should endure through time.
Language comes from God.
We have Language because it is a gift from God as His image-bearers.
II. We best use Language when it glorifies God.
a. Our words express our thoughts.
i. Language gives us the ability to Express our thoughts.
ii. Our greatest thoughts concern the idea of God.
Without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God,
and the weightiest word in any language is its word for God.
The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer.
b. God intends that language be used to highlight his glory.
1Pet. 4:11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
APPLICATION: Read the Psalms! The Psalms use words to give praise to God in every imaginable circumstance—for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.
We have Language because it is a gift from God, as His image-bearers.
We best use Language when it glorifies God.
III. Our Language glorifies God when it connects us.
a. When it connects us in true community.
i. True community begins in the Trinity.
1. John 17—as we are one.
2. John 17—may they be one.
From the Trinity, the exhortation of Paul derives its gravity…
ii. True community means we build one another up.
b. When it results in “building up one another.”
1Th. 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
Our words can be effective at weaving grace into another’s heart.
i. Mercy gifts transform a heart, convincing the hearer that God’s love transcends the pain of the moment.
ii. Exhortation gifts motivate a will to take action toward God and others where there is confusion and hesitation.
iii. Encouragement gifts move hands to obedience, where there is fear and paralysis.
iv. Admonishment gifts stimulate a mind to action, where temporal goals have overshadowed eternal good.
We have Language because it is a gift from God.
We best use Language when it glorifies God.
Our language glorifies God in true community.
IV. We misuse language when we seek to make a name for ourselves.
a. Thus, we are quite concerned that we not be misunderstood or that we appear blameworthy.
b. Thus, we think first about how our words might reflect on us.
c. We use language to glorify ourselves and to accumulate respect for ourselves.
V. Our problem.
a. Our problem is just like Isaiah’s.
b. We all need the divine solution given to Isaiah, who had seen the Holy One Whose Image Isaiah was to bear:
Isaiah 6:5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
6:6 ¶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.
6:7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”
a. 6:5 My lips are unclean
b. 6:7 this has touched your lips
c. 6:7 your guilt is atoned for.
COMMUNION: as the elements touch your lips, contemplate what they memorialize! You have been touched by the holiness of God’s own throne; you have been cleansed by the forgiveness of God through Christ’s death; you have been made new…your lips now release the very blessings of God.
Benediction:
Col. 4:6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.
LANGUAGE is a HIGH-IMPACT instrument.
May your conversation be motivated by grace, to develop the one with whom you speak.
City LIfe at Babel
The City & The Tower of Babel
We’re in need of a break. It’s summer and many are away, losing themselves in cottage life, hoping to put aside for a time the hurry and stress of life here in the city. That raises lots of questions for a reflective mind:
• If we are all made in the image of God, then why do many of us find refuge in the forests of the north, rather than enjoy renewal by gazing at people in a crowded downtown?
• If we are made in the image of God, why do we need the city, to live near other humans; why can’t we spread out at the greatest distances possible?
• If the references to “the city” in Genesis are negative, then should we not view the city as a place to be abandoned rather than inhabited, to be demolished rather than rebuilt?
Let’s take these in reverse order…
I. The negative references to “city” in Genesis do not reverse the positive intentions of God regarding urban life.
Gen. 10:32 ¶ These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.
Gen. 11:1 ¶ Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.
Gen. 11:2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
Gen. 11:3 ¶ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
Gen. 11:4 Then they said, “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.”
Gen. 11:5 ¶ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.
Gen. 11:6 The Lord said, “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.
Gen. 11:7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
Gen. 11:8 ¶ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
Gen. 11:9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
KA Matthews …unique in ANE literature.
a. There are negative references to “the city.”
i. Genesis 4:17—Cain built a city.
Gen. 4:17 Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.
ii. Genesis 11—Babel expressed the first urban rebellion.
1. Rebellion by gathering rather than scattering.
2. Rebellion by building a “gate” to the heavens, reaching God by human means, rather than God reaching humankind. YET …
b. The city plays a central, positive role in Scripture.
i. Abraham was “looking for a city!
Heb. 11:9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;
Heb. 11:10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
ii. God sent Jonah to a city for the sake of its residents. Jonah 1-4
And in our destiny…
c. A city is the culmination of redemptive history.
i. The city comes down from God.
Rev. 21:1 ¶ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more.
Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.
ii. The city has a river.
iii. The city has a tree.
Rev. 22:2 …On each side of the river is the tree of life producing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month of the year. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations.
God’s intention from before time was to build a city, a tree-inhabited city, a city where He himself would dwell, where the nations would come to worship, where all peoples would find life, where every nation would experience healing. The Garden of Eden was the first sprouting of that city.
It’s shocking, but : A REDEEMED LIFE IS AN URBAN LIFE.
#2 • If we are made in the image of God, why do we need the city, to live near other humans; why can’t we spread out at the greatest distances possible?
II. The city is intended to be a place for humans to thrive.
a. The city is a place of refuge.
i. Cain founded a city for his own protection. Gen. 4
ii. Moses established cities of refuge for those in need of protection.
Num. 35:6 “The cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to; and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities.
Num. 35:11 then you shall select for yourselves cities to be your cities of refuge, that the manslayer who has killed any person unintentionally may flee there.
Num. 35:12 ‘The cities shall be to you as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands before the congregation for trial.
b. The city is a place where people achieve their potential.
i. Cain’s offspring invented musical instruments, metalworking, etc.
ii. By Babel’s time, new technology was in evidence.
Gen. 11:3 ¶ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
iii. Cities today continue to be places for creative work.
c. The city is a place likely to stimulate spiritual seeking.
Gen. 11:4 Then they said, “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.”
i. In social, even rural, isolation, people tend to believe what they’ve been given.
ii. In a crowded place, people are often challenged to consider alien perspectives of life.
iii. God uses such settings to entice people to seek Him.
Acts 17:25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
Acts 17:26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
Acts 17:27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
Acts 17:28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’
So, if this is all true, then what went wrong at Babel?
iv. All the good of the city intended by God was set aside by those who gathered on the plain at Shinar.
1. They gathered when they should have covered the earth.
a. To make a NAME for themselves.
b. God said that those who gave themselves to Him would receive “A PLACE AND A NAME.”
2. They conspired against God by their desire to build a “gateway to heaven.”
a. 11:5 Victor Hamilton …even though they build the tower, it is so far from the heavens that God must come down to see it.
b. Cities were places built around the highest tower, worshiping the god of the city.
Today: Toronto’s tallest temples are built by banks, brokerages; it’s a place where the power of money is revered.
Ottawa’s landscape is dominated by the towers of Parliament: it’s a city where power itself is central.
#3 • If we are all made in the image of God, then why do many of us find refuge in the forests of the north, rather than enjoy renewal by gazing at people in a crowded downtown?
III. We need time away to lower the pressure, slow the pace, before we forget how to rest.
There is a fourth question:
• What is the central problem that shows up here in Babel and in our own lives?
a. To make a NAME for themselves.
APPLICATIONS:
1. Naming: Set aside your former method of finding your name & significance…
a. Your family name
b. Your vocation
c. Your reputation, your character, etc.
2. Naming: Understand the Name that Christ has given you…
John 10: I know my sheep and call them by name.
Rev. 2:17—I will give a new name, known only to the one who receives it.
a. In serving…others (helping them to find their own name!).
Eph 2:10—good works, prepared for you to walk in.
YOU are God’s workmanship (poema, POEM); you are God’s work of art.
b. In being part of a new community…(too close to know what I’m really like)
c. In being intimate with Jesus… (Mark 3:12—“appointed to be with Him”)
Mark 3:14 He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach
Mark 3:15 and to have authority to drive out demons.
Mark 3:16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);
Mark 3:17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder);
Mark 3:18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot
Mark 3:19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
3. RENAMING IS THE GOSPEL: God gives us a name of our own.
Isaiah: yad vashem, a place and a name, even for the faithful foreigner, the upright eunuch, otherwise without seed.
Is. 56:5 To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial,
And a name better than that of sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.
4. Renaming prepares us for The END of all things:
The nations will be called to Jerusalem to worship the Lord and to receive life.
Today, people are drawn to cities: over the past decade, we became an urban people [more than half the world’s population now lives in urban centres].
When the Kingdom of God is fully established, the New City will come down from heaven, and all peoples will find all that they long for as they come to that city.
Summary
a. In serving…others (helping them to find their own name!).
b. In being part of a new community…(too close to know what I’m really like)
c. In being intimate with Jesus… (Mark 3:12—“appointed to be with Him”)
We’re in need of a break. It’s summer and many are away, losing themselves in cottage life, hoping to put aside for a time the hurry and stress of life here in the city. That raises lots of questions for a reflective mind:
• If we are all made in the image of God, then why do many of us find refuge in the forests of the north, rather than enjoy renewal by gazing at people in a crowded downtown?
• If we are made in the image of God, why do we need the city, to live near other humans; why can’t we spread out at the greatest distances possible?
• If the references to “the city” in Genesis are negative, then should we not view the city as a place to be abandoned rather than inhabited, to be demolished rather than rebuilt?
Let’s take these in reverse order…
I. The negative references to “city” in Genesis do not reverse the positive intentions of God regarding urban life.
Gen. 10:32 ¶ These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.
Gen. 11:1 ¶ Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.
Gen. 11:2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
Gen. 11:3 ¶ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
Gen. 11:4 Then they said, “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.”
Gen. 11:5 ¶ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.
Gen. 11:6 The Lord said, “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.
Gen. 11:7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
Gen. 11:8 ¶ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
Gen. 11:9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
KA Matthews …unique in ANE literature.
a. There are negative references to “the city.”
i. Genesis 4:17—Cain built a city.
Gen. 4:17 Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.
ii. Genesis 11—Babel expressed the first urban rebellion.
1. Rebellion by gathering rather than scattering.
2. Rebellion by building a “gate” to the heavens, reaching God by human means, rather than God reaching humankind. YET …
b. The city plays a central, positive role in Scripture.
i. Abraham was “looking for a city!
Heb. 11:9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;
Heb. 11:10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
ii. God sent Jonah to a city for the sake of its residents. Jonah 1-4
And in our destiny…
c. A city is the culmination of redemptive history.
i. The city comes down from God.
Rev. 21:1 ¶ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more.
Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.
ii. The city has a river.
iii. The city has a tree.
Rev. 22:2 …On each side of the river is the tree of life producing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month of the year. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations.
God’s intention from before time was to build a city, a tree-inhabited city, a city where He himself would dwell, where the nations would come to worship, where all peoples would find life, where every nation would experience healing. The Garden of Eden was the first sprouting of that city.
It’s shocking, but : A REDEEMED LIFE IS AN URBAN LIFE.
#2 • If we are made in the image of God, why do we need the city, to live near other humans; why can’t we spread out at the greatest distances possible?
II. The city is intended to be a place for humans to thrive.
a. The city is a place of refuge.
i. Cain founded a city for his own protection. Gen. 4
ii. Moses established cities of refuge for those in need of protection.
Num. 35:6 “The cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to; and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities.
Num. 35:11 then you shall select for yourselves cities to be your cities of refuge, that the manslayer who has killed any person unintentionally may flee there.
Num. 35:12 ‘The cities shall be to you as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands before the congregation for trial.
b. The city is a place where people achieve their potential.
i. Cain’s offspring invented musical instruments, metalworking, etc.
ii. By Babel’s time, new technology was in evidence.
Gen. 11:3 ¶ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
iii. Cities today continue to be places for creative work.
c. The city is a place likely to stimulate spiritual seeking.
Gen. 11:4 Then they said, “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.”
i. In social, even rural, isolation, people tend to believe what they’ve been given.
ii. In a crowded place, people are often challenged to consider alien perspectives of life.
iii. God uses such settings to entice people to seek Him.
Acts 17:25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
Acts 17:26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
Acts 17:27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
Acts 17:28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’
So, if this is all true, then what went wrong at Babel?
iv. All the good of the city intended by God was set aside by those who gathered on the plain at Shinar.
1. They gathered when they should have covered the earth.
a. To make a NAME for themselves.
b. God said that those who gave themselves to Him would receive “A PLACE AND A NAME.”
2. They conspired against God by their desire to build a “gateway to heaven.”
a. 11:5 Victor Hamilton …even though they build the tower, it is so far from the heavens that God must come down to see it.
b. Cities were places built around the highest tower, worshiping the god of the city.
Today: Toronto’s tallest temples are built by banks, brokerages; it’s a place where the power of money is revered.
Ottawa’s landscape is dominated by the towers of Parliament: it’s a city where power itself is central.
#3 • If we are all made in the image of God, then why do many of us find refuge in the forests of the north, rather than enjoy renewal by gazing at people in a crowded downtown?
III. We need time away to lower the pressure, slow the pace, before we forget how to rest.
There is a fourth question:
• What is the central problem that shows up here in Babel and in our own lives?
a. To make a NAME for themselves.
APPLICATIONS:
1. Naming: Set aside your former method of finding your name & significance…
a. Your family name
b. Your vocation
c. Your reputation, your character, etc.
2. Naming: Understand the Name that Christ has given you…
John 10: I know my sheep and call them by name.
Rev. 2:17—I will give a new name, known only to the one who receives it.
a. In serving…others (helping them to find their own name!).
Eph 2:10—good works, prepared for you to walk in.
YOU are God’s workmanship (poema, POEM); you are God’s work of art.
b. In being part of a new community…(too close to know what I’m really like)
c. In being intimate with Jesus… (Mark 3:12—“appointed to be with Him”)
Mark 3:14 He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach
Mark 3:15 and to have authority to drive out demons.
Mark 3:16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);
Mark 3:17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder);
Mark 3:18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot
Mark 3:19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
3. RENAMING IS THE GOSPEL: God gives us a name of our own.
Isaiah: yad vashem, a place and a name, even for the faithful foreigner, the upright eunuch, otherwise without seed.
Is. 56:5 To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial,
And a name better than that of sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.
4. Renaming prepares us for The END of all things:
The nations will be called to Jerusalem to worship the Lord and to receive life.
Today, people are drawn to cities: over the past decade, we became an urban people [more than half the world’s population now lives in urban centres].
When the Kingdom of God is fully established, the New City will come down from heaven, and all peoples will find all that they long for as they come to that city.
Summary
a. In serving…others (helping them to find their own name!).
b. In being part of a new community…(too close to know what I’m really like)
c. In being intimate with Jesus… (Mark 3:12—“appointed to be with Him”)
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