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So, as you can tell, this lesson is not connected to the current book study. On April 23rd, Pastor Joe presented a message that "piggy-backed" on Pastor Matt's Sermon that morning. It was a cool idea to "dig deeper" into the surface of what was covered in the service. We had a laugh when one of our regular leaders, Fred Potter, gave the opening remarks on what we would be doing that morning. He presented Pastor Joe's "artwork" on the white board as "1 of only 30 pieces in this design". He started the bidding at $75,000 because he felt $150, 000 may be out of reach for some... LOL (who says Christian don't know how to have fun??) ;p
Our passages for this week are as follow --
Genesis 11:1-9
New International Version
The Tower of Babel 11 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward,[a] they found a plain in Shinar[b] and settled there. 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. 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; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 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. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
and --
Acts 2:1-13
New International Version
The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost 2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them. 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,[b] 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
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To start, Pastor Joe's illustrations represented the Bible as the entire story of God's Plan.
For Creation, he had a sketch of the globe. This covers Genesis 1-2 which gives us God's vision for mankind. We were to gain wisdom by fellowship with Him and then, in time, spread His message to the World*.
Next, of course, comes The Fall of man. He had a broken heart for this one. Genesis 3-11 encompass this bit. The Tower of Babel* was representative of man's plans from that time forward.
The Road to Redemption is covered by the remainder of the Old Testament. He drew a piece of highway here.
The Redemption itself encompasses most of the New Testament. A basic image of the Cross was used for this.
Finally, the Restoration of Mankind is found in Revelations 21-22. For this, Pastor Joe showed a heart shining with sunbeams.
After this, we broke into the table groups for a while; then he had each table tell the room different points that were brought out. There were 4 questions on our discussion sheets --
1) What are the similarities and differences in these two passages?
Of course, the obvious connection here centers on language, but beyond that are the source and motivation in each scenario. At the Tower of Babel, men were trying to promote themselves and show their power by building something taller and grander than anyone had seen before. Points in relation to this were "self-naming", "lest we be scattered", and arrogance in refusal to obey God. This resulted in God's intervention of creating confusion and division through new languages which showed both His judgement and His mercy on them.
Conversely, at Pentecost, the single language they started with while they were obeying God in waiting on the Holy Spirit was "scattered" into other known languages; only they all carried the same message. This maintained their unity and, while the event itself took them by surprise, there was no confusion in what had happened. The were gathered in Jesus' Name, not their own, with the plan to be scattered in order to spread His message. The only question on the minds of those touched by the Holy Ghost was, "What does this mean?" (see Sermon Summaries for the answer)
Both language changes came by the power of God for opposite reasons.
2) Why did god scatter those at Babel? (Read Gen. 1:26-28 and 12:1-3)
Issues of pride and rebellion were brought up. Also, in the Babel story, we have Nimrod, son of Cush as the evident leader. (see Ch. 10) So now you know why that name has become an insult over time... ;p
A key point I brought out, after having heard it preached on at a former Church, was this -- "nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them" (vs 6)*. At both Babel and Jerusalem, this was God's reasoning for intervention via language. At Babel, He didn't want them to have that much power; but at Jerusalem, He was GIVING them power so that "nothing they plan to do (in My Name) will be impossible for them!! It was also brought out that there were large gatherings of people in one location in both cases.
3) How did God reverse Babel at Pentecost?
The fact of the people's cooperation under God as opposed to working for themselves was instrumental in God's decisions at both times. While His confusion of languages forced the people to scatter against their will*; which effectively cursed them, His gift of foreign languages at Pentecost gave them the most important tool they would need to scatter and share His Word. This showered blessing on them.
Man changes over time, but God never does. His love and mercy are evident at all points in history, including today. This truth is the reason that not everyone present in the Upper Room "bought into" what was happening. In this, God was showing us that, even in the midst of a move of God; the sinful nature of man will cause some to doubt. (it wasn't wine*, it was the Holy Spirit causing the "ruckus") ;)
4) What are some implications for us today? Among the responses on this, we heard the following: All God's promises are "yes" and "Amen"*, we need to embrace that. We (or at least some) need to be able to speak other languages in order to spread the Word of God as we/they are called of God. At the same time, we all need to be conversant in the ever-evolving language of the younger generations. We are closer to Christ's return than ever before; time is short. Finally, one of the ladies at my table, Grace, brought out the point that the "language of how we live" or our testimony is equally important to any form of spoken language. Amen!!
-- God Bless!!
Footnotes:
1) Just a word about "spreading His message to the World" -- some think that Adam and Eve were just 2 people God chose out of millions already here; but Science refutes this by having proven a single mitochondrial man and woman from whom we all started. (and btw, Noah's son's encompassed all 3 major types of humans as we have today) (this is why I said, "in time..." The book of Genesis alone covers approximately 2,400 years. Food for thought, isn't it?? :)
2) See Sermon Summaries for "Babel vs ba'vel"
3) In looking back at verses 6-7, I realized that verse 7 reads, "Let US go down..." (emphasis mine) This is another reference which proves the existence of the Trinity. :)
4) During my search for further proof of the events at Babel (for those who may doubt), I found the following articles. One focuses on language while the others are on the scattering of people in Ancient History -- (also notice the map of Human Migration in the images below)
https://christiancourier.com/articles/the-tower-of-babel-legend-or-history
https://faithalone.org/grace-in-focus-articles/the-tower-of-babel-and-the-scattering-of-men/
4) Concerning the wine, they would have had to drink A LOT or drink it straight, as it was customary in that time to mix it 3:1 with water due to limited sources of clean water.
5) 2 Cor. 1:20
