The one who scattered us will bring us all back together for his glory.
6 "Look!" He said. "The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! 7 Come, let's go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won't be able to understand each other." 8 In that way, the LORD scattered them all over the world, and they stopped building the city.
9 That is why the city was called Babel, because that is where the LORD confused the people with different languages. In this way He scattered them all over the world.
You have probably been warned more than once about the danger of following the crowd. Jesus warned us that his followers would have to choose to stop following the crowds and choose the straight and narrow road that few people were willing to take. (Matthew 7:14) In today's scripture we will see the dangers of unity and how God dispersed a crowd without using any physical effort.
The new beginning that Noah received from God wasn't perfect, the floods washed away sin from the earth but it didn't cleanse the heart of mankind, the eight people that got off the ark still had a sin nature and it didn't take long for it to affect their lives.
Noah's children and grandchildren were supposed to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth but they didn't want to scatter like the animals did. They chose to move to the East as a group, and when someone decided to stop, they all stopped. Following the crowd was already a popular idea.
It seems like Nimrod was the first man to rise to power after the flood, he was a great hunter and he also became the first to invest in real estate, he took after Cain and built the first great cities that are mentioned after the flood. (Cain, Genesis 4:16-17; Nimrod, Genesis 10:8-12)
No more than a hundred years after the flood, while Noah's children and grandchildren are still alive, the world population is ignoring what happened and doing what they want. Some of the people that got off the boat are still alive, they had all of the facts about God's judgment of sin that caused the flood, but they didn't care.
God’s will for human beings is not that we find our joy in being praised, but that we find our joy in knowing and praising him. His will is not that we find our security in cities but in God whom we gladly obey.A great city with a famous landmark has been the dream of many people throughout history. The love of praise and the love of security are great motivations for the masses to stick together but this tower was also an attempt by Satan to get man to worship anything besides God.
This tower was probably a ziggurat, these towers were the center of religious activity that can still be seen around that area today. We saw that right after Noah got off the ark that he worshiped God properly but most his grandchildren followed the way of Cain and chose to do worship their way.
It may seem like a curse that we are all scattered around the world into so many different people groups with so many different languages and cultures but this diversity is actually a great tool that God created to prevent evil from going unchecked. One evil man is not likely to make much trouble but that can change quickly in the company of like minded friends.
The plans of evil world leaders are restrained through diversity, uniting the nations sounds like a great idea but think about all of the united efforts in world history that prove that human unity can also be extremely evil.
The unity of other countries was the only reason the Nazis were not successful at ruling the world with their evil schemes. The plans of the United Nations is right in line with Satan's desires for a one world, one government system under one ruler. The one who scattered us is the only one that has the authority to bring us all back together again and he is the only one that will bring us together without any evil intentions.
The next time the world is united it will be under the rule of the Antichrist, the world population will think it is an awesome idea to unite together but they won't realize that his unity will be for evil just the same as he did it at the tower that was built in Babylon.
Revelation 7:9 After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb.Someday God's people will enjoy unity again, the effects of sin will be washed away permanently and the one who scattered us will bring us all back together for his glory. Until that day comes we must strive while we are still here on Earth to bring glory to God through the unity that we have as followers of Jesus.
Following the crowd doesn't have to be a bad thing if you are careful to follow the crowd that will bring glory to God for eternity.
In the next post we will see that the fame that the people sought to have at Babel was realized in Abram because of his obedience and willingness to go in faith to a place he didn't know.
