More needs to be said about the Spirit's descent. Not only is God now tabernacling with his people by the Spirit so that they know him. God has, by the Spirit, overcome the divisive effects of Babel.
You will remember the story from Genesis 11. People living together with one language make this decision,
"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."
In response God descends and confuses their language to scatter them and frustrate their efforts and to make what might have been possible (?) for them impossible.
The promise to Abraham that through him the whole world would be blessed occurs in the context of this dispersion and confusion.
At Pentecost we read,
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"
It is worth noting that people are not drawn back to one single language, but rather God speaks to them one message in their varied languages. Babel is not, in this sense, reversed, but overcome! The spirit acts so that people might be built together into a building, declaring the name of Jesus, gathered from every place on the face of the earth.
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"...whooaa come take my hand, we're riding out tonight to case the promised land..." -Bruce Springsteen. A blog about promises, place, hope, pleasure, the future, joy and...
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- Philip Britton
- a young doctor who wants to be a preacher, a follower of jesus who recognises the importance of serving the poor tangibly, trying hard to be a song writer, cooking and quaffing regularly, husband, rookie father
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5 comments:
Can you offer any help in understanding verse 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."
I think God realised that the unity and progress people could achieve with one language would tempt them to depend on themselves not on God. Thus God takes this drastic step for their own safety. Also, humanity was instructed to 'fill the earth' when God blessed them in Eden, but with one language they had gathered in one place to build Babel, hence God scattered them, achieving what they had failed to do on their own.
But why say "nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them"? Were their plans limit to things that one would expect men to be able to do or were their plans beyond that? Does that make sense??? Surely there are limits to what all of us can do.
I'm not sure Jill, but I guess I always read this with a tinge of sarcasm in God's voice, like you would insult someone by saysing "well I guess you're just perfect then'. They would convince themselves that nothing was impossible for them to achieve, and thus forget their real dependance on God.
Verse 6 is about the magnitude of human achievement that would be possible if humankind came toether in a goal driven unity.
What would be possible for them is clearly not a God overthrowing power - the Lord 'descends' to their tower that was supposed to reach to God.
That their goal driven unity is an affront to the plans of God is obvious (see Laura's first comment about the original earth-filling responsibility).
The magnitude of their possible achievements would therefore just be magnified rebellion.
As it is a rebellion against God, it is therefore the way of judgement and death (see Genesis 3-10).
God's intervention of scattering can be seen as an act of grace grace I suppose, but I would suggest that it is primarily judgement, and that God acts to bring grace and redemption in this context of judgement (Genesis 12 - the covenant with Abraham).
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