Schoolmaster to Christ
GENESIS CHAPTER 11
Schoolmaster to Christ
GENESIS CHAPTER 11
Scripture Reading: Genesis 11 (KJV)
This chapter is of interest to the spiritual mind. It records two great facts: the building of Babel and the call of Abraham. In other words, man's effort to provide for himself, and God's provision made known to faith; man's attempt to establish himself in the earth and God calling him out of it, to find his portion and home in heaven.
‘And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there . . . And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’
The human heart always seeks a name, a portion, and a center in the earth. It knows nothing of aspirations for heaven, heaven's God, or heaven's glory. Left to itself, the human heart (human nature) will always find its objects in this lower world; will always "build beneath the skies." Only God's call, God's revelation, and God's power, can lift the heart above this present world, for man is a groveling creature, alienated from heaven; allied to earth. In the scene before us, there is no acknowledgement, no looking up to, or waiting on God. It was never in the thought of man to set up a place in which God might dwell; to gather materials for the purpose of building a habitation for Him. God’s name is never mentioned. On the plain of Shinar, man’s object was to make a name for himself; and such has been his object ever since. Whether we contemplate man on the plain of Shinar, or on the banks of the Tiber, we find him to be the same self-seeking, self-exalting, God-excluding creature. There is a melancholy consistency in man’s purposes, principles, and ways; always seeking to shut out God, exalting self.
It is most instructive to view this Babel confederacy in its early display of mans genius and energies regardless of God. In looking down the stream of human history, we easily perceive a marked tendency to confederacy or association. For the most part, man seeks to compass his great ends in this way. Whether it be Philanthropy, Religion, or Politics, nothing can be done without an association of men regularly organized. We need to see this principle, and mark its incipient working. Exhibited on the plain of Shinar, we see the earliest model of a human association. Inspiration presents its design, its object, its attempt, and its overthrow. If we look around today, we see a whole filled with associations. It is useless to name them, because they are as numerous as the purposes of the human heart. But it is important to point out that the first of all these was the Shinar association, for the establishment of the human interests, and the exaltation of the human name – objects that are in competition with our enlightened and civilized age. But, there is one grand defect, God is shut out; and without God, man faces hopeless confusion. The Christian should only know one association – the Church of the living God; incorporated by the Holy Spirit, Who came down from heaven as the witness of Christ's glorification, to baptize believers into one body, making them God's dwelling-place. In every particular, Babylon is the opposite of this; and at the close she becomes "the habitation of devils" (see Rev. 18).
‘And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city.’
Such was the end of man's first association. Thus it will be to the end, "Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces . . . gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces" (Is. 8:9). How different it is when God associates men! In the second chapter of Acts, we see the blessed One coming down to meet man in the very circumstances his sin had set him. The Holy Spirit enabled the messengers of grace to deliver their message in the very tongue wherein each was born. This is precious proof that God desired to reach man's heart with the sweet story of grace! The law from the fiery mount was not thus promulgated. When God was telling what man ought to be, He spoke in one tongue; but when He was telling what He Himself was, He spoke in many. Grace broke through the barrier that man's pride and folly had caused to be erected, in order that every man might hear and understand the glad tidings of salvation – “the wonderful works of God."
The end was to associate men on God's ground, round God's center, and on God's principles; giving them one language, one center, one object, one hope, one life. This gathering was Divine and they would never be confounded again; their name and place would endure forever; this forever reached to heaven, because it was built by the omnipotent hand of God Himself. It gathered them around the glorious Person of a risen and highly exalted Christ, uniting them all in one grand design of magnifying and adoring Him.
At the close, in Revelation 7, we find, "All nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," standing round the Lamb; and, with one voice, ascribing all praise to Him. Thus the three Scriptures may be read in a most interesting and profitable connection. In Genesis 11 God gives various tongues as an expression of His judgment; in Acts 2 He gives various tongues as an expression of grace; and in Revelation 7 we see all those tongues gathered round the Lamb in glory. Therefore, it is much better to find our place in God's association than in man's. The former ends in glory, the latter in confusion; the former is carried forward by the energy of the Holy Spirit, the latter by the unhallowed energy of fallen man; the former has for its object the exaltation of Christ, the latter the exaltation of man.
Finally, all who sincerely desire to know the true character, object, and issue of human associations, should read the opening verses of Genesis 11. On the other hand, all who desire to know the excellency, beauty, power, and enduring character of Divine association, should look at that holy, living, heavenly corporation in the New Testament – the Church of the living God, the body of Christ, the bride of the Lamb.
May the Lord enable us, in the power of faith, to seek out and apprehend these things; for only in this way can they profit our souls. Points of truth, however interesting; Scriptural knowledge, however profound and extensive; Biblical criticism, however accurate and valuable, may leave the heart barren, and the affections cold. We want to find Christ in the Word; and, having found Him, to feed on Him by faith. To do so imparts freshness, unction, power, vitality, energy, and intensity, all of which we desperately need in this age. What is the value of a chilling orthodoxy without a living Christ, known in all His powerful and personal attractions? Sound doctrine is immensely important. Every faithful servant of Christ feels himself imperatively called upon to "hold fast the form of sound words." But, after all, a living Christ is the very soul and life, the joints and marrow, the sinews and arteries, the essence and substance of sound doctrine. May we, by the power of the Holy Spirit, see more beauty and preciousness in Christ, and thus be weaned from the spirit and principles of Babylon.
We shall, God willing, consider the remainder of Genesis 11 in the next lesson.
