✠ Psalmody: Wisdom 1:7; Psalm 68:28b–29a; Liturgical Text; Psalm 33:6; Psalm 68:28b–29; Acts 2:2, 4a, 11b
✠ Lection: Genesis 11:1–9; Acts 2:1–11; John 14:23–31a
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
A lot can happen over the course of 100 years. There are some among us who can personally recount most of the changes that have come about in the world over the past century, having, by God’s grace, lived the majority of it. Many, many in our day consider it all to be progress, to be advancement, to be the betterment of mankind as we have come to make a name for ourselves in our greatness. But if we were to slow down, take time, not take so much for granted, and honestly think about what our own eyes have seen man accomplish in our lifetime, then hopefully we might begin to see not only the scourge that so many of our advancements have been upon humanity, but humanity itself a scourge upon good and godly living. Man’s heart is bent toward constantly forgetting God, forgetting one another, and toward accepting new things as good things. We enjoy being impressed with ourselves even when Genesis 11 gives clear warning that God will not be silent forever in the face of man’s arrogance and its replacement of Him with self-exaltation.
A lot can happen over the course of 100 years no matter where those years fall in the history of the world. A good long time ago, at the Lord our God’s doing, the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened in response to the wickedness of man and the whole earth was judged in the great flood. Noah and his sons were still living when, but a mere 100 years after the flood, the faithful great ark-builder witnessed his own descendants depart from rightful worship of the true God to that of self, seemingly while the ground was still soggy from evil’s washing away from upon the entire earth’s surface. Sadly, original sin still dwelt in the hearts of those upon the ark and all-too-soon readily took root and rebelled against the Creator. Any thought of self above God is rebellion, and also utter foolishness, for none of our thoughts can exceed the good ones that God has toward us in Christ Jesus. Within decently fresh memory of the flood waters it came to pass, as man journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. These indeed were advancements, progress that though allowed by God and best used for His glory and for the benefit of neighbor were put to use by the corrupted heart of man for self. Gain is most selfish when God is ignored, forgotten about, despised, and when man’s actions go blatantly against Him and His will.
Man’s heart bent toward sin has proven, even by our last 100 years alone, that we are zealous in our drive for advancement while being even better at naive failure to take time to consider how a new thing might be downright evil, destructive, and would be best tossed into the trash bin of history instead of embraced. What true benefit has television bestowed upon our world? Being lulled into stuporous, entertainment-driven lulls in our own homes while fed a constancy of flashing images that fry the brain’s ability to think extended thoughts is no blessing. Being like God and knowing good and evil as it takes place almost real-time in always-breaking news in cities, states, and countries far away is not a trait for man that the Bible encourages us to seek. Yet, we are now addicted to it. We would feel empty and confused if we took the talking walls out of our homes. This ought to give us concern.
The same for the internet. The small sliver of it used for the glory of God isn’t even measurable compared to the percentage of its traffic that is corroding the very souls of men. Not all advancements are good. The smartphone, and its instant, around-the-clock access to all depths of hell, in just 15 years’ time has our young people more suicidal, more anti-social, more confused, more withdrawn, more unhuman than any invention of progress that has ever come about in our world. It is now uncommon to see a person walking down the street without arm lifted, neck craned, mind and eyes enslaved to our six-inch pocket prisons. Not all advancements are good and we must…must begin praying to God for wisdom to see the true detriment that these things have upon our souls and to become aware of factors like money (mammon) and beating China have on bull-rushing into our own destruction. Sadly, those worldly motivations have led our current great again president to issue an executive order stating “To ensure the United States remains a global leader in this technological revolution, we must provide our Nation’s youth with opportunities to cultivate the skills and understanding necessary to use and create the next generation of [Artificial Intelligence (AI)] technology.” This order will thrust a highly-questionable, already demonstrably-demonic technology upon the nation’s children beginning in kindergarten. And we’re doing it out of pride. We are consistently consumed with the desire to make a name for ourselves oblivious to the great human cost that things bring. I do not tell you to go home and take the sledge hammer to your electronics, although cutting off the hand if it causes you to sin is a godly admonition, but most certainly to take nothing for granted that is a means for words, teachings, messages, evil beings to enter into your heart and mind through eye, ear, and mouth. Take a look at your life and see if the things from which you feed are giving you beneficial food, or may it be a toxin that you have simply always assumed was okay or even good, because of what has come to be considered normal in the past 100 years.
And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” A city built for self with a tower in the heavens cannot be one used for God. Its top in the heavens indicates the desire of the heart to replace God and His pesky rules and religion with that of self. Like most sinners engrossed in the pleasure of sin, be it from the day’s advancements or not, for man is good enough at sinning to not need a tower or a smartphone to do the deed, their words reveal that they were conscious of their actions and potential consequences. All people show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them. Sin blinds us into either thinking that we can get away with sin without God taking notice or worse, that we actually stop caring if God sees or not. For, is this not what the Scriptures teach that the wicked hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: He hideth his face; he will never see it. Oh, see how our own hearts deceive us! Pray that we never grow callous. For, the more that we sin and not receive immediate consequence, and sin again and again with more no consequence, the flesh then grows bolder in its sin, is quicker to indulge, taunts God, self-medicates with the lie that He will never see it, and mocks Him with further increased sin in His silence. We forget or maybe don’t even realize that God’s quick punishment of our sins is merciful. It is punishment as from a loving Father which He means as deterrent and a call to repentance, so that we are kept from deeper plunges into dark desire. But it is the time period of lack of immediate consequence in which man is tempted to speed up his dash down the path of wickedness. Such foolishness only provokes the Lord’s anger to grow greater.
Believers are tempted to think similar doubting thoughts about God. Is He asleep? Is He blind? Has He taken a break to relieve Himself the way that Baal was mocked by Elijah to be doing? We cannot ever question God’s timing although we are tempted to be dissatisfied with His judgments or delayed lack thereof. We are given the inspired words of the psalms by which to pour out our hearts to Him so that He and we both now what our hearts truly desire. Righteous ones desire to be vindicated and more so for God to vindicate His great Name to which all goodness is tied, thus showing all acts of evil to be offenses against His blessed Name.
What then is both the terrible punishment of the wicked and the relief of the righteous in Genesis 11? The first holy movement is that the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. But is it not that God is already everywhere? Sees all of our sins? Sees all of our thoughts and desires that lead to sin? Sees all our buildings for a making of a name for ourselves? Indeed, He is truly omniscient. He sees everything. He knows everything. He is omnipresent. He is everywhere. Lord, grant us the righteous humility to remember this always and to live our days with lives of virtue before your all-seeing face! The phrase the LORD came down thus points us to the fact that because of the lack of immediate consequence in what is thought to be the silence of the LORD, His hiddenness, His never seeing it, is but for a time before He comes down upon man in righteous anger, wrath, and punishment. Real terror arises when God, Who previously was nowhere, is everywhere.
And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. In response to man’s three-fold intention to let us do for ourselves, the Almighty with one little word can fell wickedness. He needs not man’s strength or abilities to apply fantastic punishment, for compare the two great judgments of the flood and the confusion of languages. The prior was intense and forceful, but for a short period of time, done and over with. The latter is a punishment that still rings true in man today, with now more than 7,000 languages spoken in the world; an astounding method that God used to conquer wickedness, yet sure and easy. Man can have no kingdom, no one language of his own, for look what we begin to do; nothing that we propose to do will be withheld from us. Regrettably, what man proposes to do is too often wrought with wicked desire and intent. Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls. The confusion of languages divided the kingdom of man that was working toward a goal that it knew to be against God’s will, but tried it any, thinking God to be asleep; to be away.
But the Lord has come down. He has come in the flesh in the Son Who has kept His promise and sent down to us the blessed Holy Spirit upon us. Real joy arises when God, Who previously was nowhere, is everywhere. The result depends on if one’s god is God or self. For the godly, the descent of the Lord is most delightful and welcome transcending even the division of languages. What may be a current impenetrable barrier of speech between you and a foreigner may be overcome if both sets of eyes behold a crucifix, the sure symbol of salvation in Jesus. Then, not sharing any common words except for possibly alleluia or amen that many a language adopt, a fellow saint of another tongue could be discovered because of the Holy Spirit seeing to it that the Gospel has gone out unto the four winds of the earth.
Dearly Beloved, don’t return to Babel. Don’t mindlessly accept into your life the advancements or desires of man that are focused on making something of ourselves, mindlessly or otherwise. We need this not. We have God the Holy Spirit Who comes to fill the hearts of His faithful people and kindles us in the fire of God’s love. May God grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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