“Idol Factories: Noah, Ham, Canaan, & Nimrod” (Genesis 9:18 - 11:9) | 5/17/20
Genesis 9:18 - 11:9 | 5/17/20 | Will DuVal
This morning we are continuing our exposition of the book of Genesis. We’ve noted a recurring pattern of God’s provision, man’s sin, and God’s response of grace, and we’ve traced that pattern through each of our four basic relationships: relationship with SELF, with others, with the world, and with God. And this morning we’ll see more of the same.
Martin Luther said ALL sin is essentially a violation of the FIRST commandment: God’s prohibition against idolatry - ““You shall have no other gods before me.” (Ex 20:3) Idolatry as pastor Tim Keller defines it, is “when a good thing becomes the ultimate thing”. Becomes our “god”.
Unfortunately, as the OTHER great Reformer, John Calvin, astutely observed: “Our hearts are idol factories”. Or as God HIMSELF put it, in Genesis 8:21 which we studied just last Sunday: “the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.”
Now, speaking of Keller, he wrote a book years ago that I commend to you, entitled Counterfeit Gods, in which he argues that ALL of our hearts’ idols can basically be classified into 4 overarching categories. And I’m going to let his 4 categories of idols serve as our outline for this morning, because what I think we find here in Genesis ch9, v18 running all the way up through ch11, v9, are four distinct characters, four types of SINNERS, who each epitomize one of these 4 types of idolatry. There is the sin of NOAH, the sin of HAM, the sin of CANAAN, and finally, the sin of NIMROD. And as we’ll see, we might even consider each of their sins to be a unique distortion of one of those four basic relationships we’ve examined.
We’ve already been introduced to our fair share of sins by this point in the Genesis story: Adam’s pride, Cain’s anger, Lamech’s tyranny,the “sons of gods”’s lust. But this morning, as sin continues its spread OUTWARD, I want to continue to probe DOWNWARD with you, to try and get to the BOTTOM of our sin problem. Keller claims these are the 4 “ROOT idols” of our hearts: the sin behind the sin, if you will. The idols which, if they replace God’s position of centrality in our hearts, will give RISE to all the other forms of sin.
So let’s begin by reading together; the end of chapter 9, starting in v18, all the way up through the chapter 11, v9, skipping some sections of ch.10’s genealogy simply for time. Would you stand with me at home as you’re able… Genesis 9:18 - 11:9
The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.
20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.[c] 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,
“Cursed be Canaan;
a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”
26 He also said,
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem;
and let Canaan be his servant.
27
May God enlarge Japheth,[d]
and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,
and let Canaan be his servant.”
28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died…
10:1 These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood…
6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. 7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. 8 Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man.[a] 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and 12 Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. 13 Egypt fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 14 Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom[b] the Philistines came), and Caphtorim.
15 Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, 16 and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, 17 the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, 18 the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites dispersed. 19 And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. 20 These are the sons of Ham, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations…
Ch.11:1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused[a] the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.”
This is the word of the Lord (LET’S PRAY...)
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#1 - Now, the first root sin we discover here, in the ch9, vv20-21 with the character of Noah, is the idol of COMFORT. Keller defines comfort as “a longing for pleasure”. We might think of it as one’s relationship to SELF gone awry… gone wild. Caring first and foremost about yourself, your own creature comforts. That’s what Noah succumbs to here.
We read in v20: “Noah began to be a man of the soil and he planted a vineyard”. So far, so good. Farming is an honorable profession; perhaps the IDEAL profession - it was Adam’s original vocation from God, to tend the garden. Horticulturalists inform us that vineyards originated in Armenia, which is precisely where Genesis 8 says the ark landed. The vine is viewed in a positive light in MANY Bible passages, representing everything from a blessed wife in Psalm 128:3, to God’s chosen people Israel in Jeremiah 2:21, even Jesus himself in John 15:1 - “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” So Noah makes a good start, in his newly re-created post-Flood world.
But we read on, v21: “He drank of the wine”. Now, things get a little less clear, biblically. Has Noah sinned, already at this point? Depends on who you ASK, right? Someone asked me to do an “Ask the Pastor” podcast on the question: “Is drinking alcohol a sin?” Well, here you go:
On the one hand,
Ps 104:15 says wine is a gift from God: “[God made] wine to gladden the heart of man”
So Ecclesiastes 9:7 invites us to: “drink your wine with a merry heart”; see also Deut 14:26, Amos 9:14, Isa 55:1, Prov 31:6… we don’t have time to read them all...
In the NT, Paul goes so far as to INSTRUCT Timothy to drink wine, medicinally (1 Tim 5:23)
Even JESUS turned water into wine, his first miracle, at the wedding in Cana (John 2); he drank it at the Last Supper, with his disciples
*But on the OTHER hand, alcohol can be dangerous:
It was forbidden for Nazirites (Num 6:3-4), for priests (Lev 10:9 / Ez 44:21); and for kings (Prov 31:4-5); and even for the COMMON folk, God warned:
Hosea 4:11: “Beware of wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding.”
Proverbs 20:1: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.”
Prov 23:30-32: “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? ...Those who tarry long over wine… Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.”
While wandering in the wilderness, we hear the Israelites “[You have] did not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 29:6)
In the NT, we hear in Romans 14:21: “It is good not to . . . drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.”
1 Tim 3:8 - church leaders are not to be enslaved to it: “Deacons must… not be addicted to much wine”
Indeed, drunkenness, which was explicitly outlawed in the OT (Isa 5:22; 28:7; Prov 21.17; 1 Sam 1:14) is clearly still prohibited in the NT: Ephesians 5:18: “Do not get drunk with wine.”
So we discover that like so MANY things - money... sex... social media... - alcohol in and of itself isn’t inherently BAD, in fact, it is GOOD. But it’s all about how you USE it. And the DANGER with alcohol… money… sex… social media is that they are inherently ADDICTIVE. It is precisely BECAUSE they are good, they are so desirable, they leave us wanting MORE OF THEM, that they are so dangerous. Remember, our idols are almost ALWAYS good things that become the ultimate thing to us.
And that’s what happens to NOAH. V21: “he drank… and became drunk”. Now the guessing is over. The line has been crossed. A once “blameless, righteous Noah”, in chapter 6, proves here that he’s really no different from his now-drowned, former contemporaries; he’s no different from US - from you and me. Romans 3: there is NONE righteous, no not one. We are all sinners in need of God’s grace.
And as we saw with Cain’s example in ch4, sin begets sin. In this case, specifically with alcohol, it lowers your inhibitions, so it often leads - Habakkuk 2:15… Lamentations 4:21 - to the sin of immodesty. “Indecent exposure”, as our legal system calls it. And sure enough, rounding out Noah’s rap sheet in v21: “he became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.”
But we can safely assume it all started with a desire for comfort. Just a little wine. Just a little channel surfing, web surfing... and 4 hours later… I’d be comfortable if we had just a little more in the bank account… and you blink and your kids are all grown up, with memories of you stuck at the office. Or escaping to the comfort of the golf course. The volleyball [*hand] court. The casino... the bottle… the chatroom… the Cardinals game… how do YOU escape? How do you self-soothe?
Idol #2: is Ham’s desire in v22 for APPROVAL.
Keller defines it as “a longing for acceptance”. Now that might seem at first like an odd way to categorize Ham’s sin, but it’s a rather odd story, so consider it with me: we read in vv22, that WHILE Noah is lying drunk and naked in his tent: “Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.” Now, what was Ham’s sin? Was it seeing his father’s naked? V23 makes it seem like it: “Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness.” Shem and Japheth, the two OLDER sons, go to great lengths to avoid seeing Noah’s nakedness. But think it through with me: Ham needs some help with his homework, so he knocks on Noah’s tent flap. No answer. So he says, “Dad, you still awake?” Still no answer. So he peaks inside, and right smack dab in the middle of the tent: is Noah’s 600+ year old exposed body. And you thought walking in on YOUR parents was traumatizing!
Now, how can God hold Ham at fault for THAT? For all we KNOW, it could have very well been a legitimate “wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time” scenario. But here’s what we DO know. We know what Ham did NEXT. Did HE run and grab a blanket to cover Noah up?
No - He went and “told his two brothers outside”. Did he say, “Shem... Japheth… help! I accidentally saw dad naked and disgraced, and now I’m afraid I’ve dishonored and defiled him. What do I DO!?”
No. Clearly that wasn’t the conversation. That kind of response from Ham wouldn’t have merited NOAH’S response - his CURSE - in v25. No, here’s a kid, the youngest of 3, who’s never been able to keep up with his older brothers… maybe he’s not as big and strong as Japheth… not as wise and faithful as Shem… but now he’s finally got something they don’t: DIRT on DAD! So Ham thinks to himself, “Oh man, I have GOT to tell my brothers; they are NEVER gonna believe this!”
And Friend: do you know where your desire to share in the office gossip comes from? Why you flip through the tabloids while you’re waiting in the check-out line? Why you want to be the FIRST to know the breaking news and be the one everyone ELSE finds OUT from?
It’s a “longing for acceptance” gone awry. A deep desire for BELONGING, gone wrong. It’s a distortion of that second basic relationship: my relationship with OTHERS. Namely, I care WAAAY too much about what they think!
See, ever since the Fall, we’ve been a TRIBAL people. We think of relationships in terms of insider-outsider; who gets included, who gets excluded. And there’s only so much room within the tribe. There’s only so much “relational capital”, to go around. It’s a zero-sum game. We can’t ALL be included, we can’t ALL be friends, or else friendship gets watered down and has no meaning. So in our desire for APPROVAL, to be accepted and belong, what we DO is push OTHERS to the margins, so that we can occupy a more central place within the tribe.
That’s why your in-laws drive you crazy. Cuz for a long time, they had their OWN tribe you weren’t a part of, but it included your SPOUSE, who you’re now trying to start your OWN NEW tribe with, and the zero-sum mentality says the only way you get to a place of unique intimacy and closeness with her is by replacing her old tribe. You’ve got to convince her they’re all insane and annoying and insanely annoying, so that THEY get excluded so that YOU can be included.
The danger with the APPROVAL idol is that it can be harder to diagnose than the comfort idol. People start to NOTICE when you’ve got a drinking problem. A social media addiction. A pornography addiction. But the need for approval is subtler. In fact, it’s often applauded. I mean, you are a “people PLEASER”, after all.
But you’ll do what you have to to scratch that itch for acceptance. Run off to share a laugh with your brothers instead of covering up your father’s nakedness.
Compromise your values to fit in with the “cool crowd”. This is the stereotypical teen-aged idol. But I assure you: it is not just a teen problem. I know adults TWICE my age with every bit as much a GOSSIP addiction as any alcoholic I know.
Do YOU desire approval from others more than you desire God’s approval? And what lengths are you willing to go to, to get it?
Idol #3, typified by Canaan in ch.10, is CONTROL.
Keller defines this as “a longing for things to go according to my plan”.
We start in ch.9, v24, and we hear: “When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,
“Cursed be Canaan;
a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.””
Now, the obvious question is “CANAAN? Why Canaan? I thought you said HAM sinned against Noah? Why isn’t he cursed?” I kind of wonder if he was, if Ham is the reason Jews can’t eat PIG today.
That’s just a bad joke. The REAL reason Ham ISN’T cursed by Noah is because he has already been BLESSED by God. Back in v1 of ch9: “God blessed Noah and his sons...”. And what God has blessed, no man can curse. Just ask king Balak.
So Noah’s curse falls instead on Ham’s next-of-kin, actually, according to ch.10, Canaan is Ham’s FOURTH son, but he really acts here as a REPRESENTATIVE for ALL of Ham’s line, because as we discover in ch.10, in what scholars call the “table of nations”, there’s not a good apple in Ham’s whole bunch.
For sake of time and attention span, I’m not gonna walk you through the entire genealogy of ch.10. Suffice it to say, vv1-5 outline the sons of JAPHETH, who fathered the “Indo-European nations”, vv21-31 detail the sons of SHEM, who fathered the Semitic peoples, most importantly, the Israelites. But right in the middle, vv6-20 we get HAM’s lineage. And let me just highlight some names for you here, and see if any of them ring a bell:
-Egypt (v6)
-Babel (v10; as in, Babylon)
-Assyria (v11)
-the Philistines (v14)
-the Canaanites (v15)
-Sidon (v15)
-the Hittites (v15)
-v16: the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, 17 the Hivites,
-Sodom & Gomorrah (v19)
Anything stand OUT to you about that list, if you know much about OT History at all?
Ham’s genealogy, mostly through his descendant CANAAN, reads like a “Who’s Who” of Israel’s worst ENEMIES!
And what was the primary SIN of CANAAN, of the Canaanites? This people who defy God SO egregiously that he justly orders the Israelites to utterly annihilate them a thousand years later under the leadership of Joshua, when he sends Israel into the Promised Land?
Leviticus 18: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying… “You shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. 4 You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God.” (vv1-4)
Simply put, Canaan followed his OWN rules. His OWN statutes. Because he had been CURSED to be a “servant”, naturally, like Cain in ch4, who rebelled against his curse to be a nomadic wanderer by attempting in vain to build the world’s first CITY, here too, Canaan tried to REJECT his curse of servitude by becoming his OWN master. Becoming a GOD unto himself. He didn’t want Yahweh calling the shots. Telling him what to do. He wanted control.
And there’s this really interesting, cursed connection between our need for CONTROL and our relationship with the WORLD. In fact, if you read on in Leviticus 18, God lists a bunch of the Canaanites’ sins, and then in vv24-25, he warns the Israelites, ““Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, 25 and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.” And we mentioned last week, the connection between God’s curse on humanity in ch.3, and his curse on CREATION. Romans 8: all of creation is groaning, awaiting redemption.
Because the world was made BY God, FOR God. God is the Sovereign King, with absolute authority over every square INCH of it. And that means our sinful desire for CONTROL - to be the ones calling the shots, to live, like the Canaanites, according to our OWN statutes, our OWN rules - throws our whole WORLD out of whack.
Just consider our current WORLD circumstances. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the global MELTDOWN it has caused, is every control-freak’s worst nightmare, isn’t it? You want to know if CONTROL is your idol? How bad are you wigging out right now?
And as much as things really do STINK right now, in a lot of ways, cuz it’s challenging our comfort idols as well: no volleyball, take-out food is NOT the same! It’s all soggy and cold by the time you get it home; first-world problems, I know. But on a more serious note: people losing their JOBS, some of you, here at West Hills… people losing their LIVES (thank GOD, no one here, yet): but this disease is terrible. And YET, as Christians, we have to accept the fact that God is his perfect Sovereignty is allowing it to continue to run its course. And I can’t help but wonder, if at least ONE of the “greater goods” that God is accomplishing THROUGH the coronavirus, is reminding a whole bunch of control-freaks of who is really in charge here. There are a whole lot of rich, smart, powerful people who are used to calling ALL the shots in life stuck at home right now scratching their heads. Meanwhile, “Our God is [on his throne] in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” (Ps 115:3)
Last idol, #4 - we see it with Nimrod in ch.10, who oversees the construction of the Tower of Babel in ch.11 (NOT written in chronological order): POWER.
Keller defines power as “a longing for influence or recognition”
And how is Nimrod described? In v8 of ch.10? He was a “mighty man... the first on earth to be a mighty man.” v9 says even GOD takes note of Nimrod’s might. But any question of his virtue is shattered in v10, where we hear “The beginning of HIS kingdom was…” Nimrod’s might was all about building HIS kingdom. Not God’s. And that’s confirmed by the kingdoms he spawned: Babylon, Akkadia, Assyria… these were massive EMPIRES, ancient world super-powers; Nimrod makes the most powerful world leader today look like a NOBODY; he was a mighty man indeed, but not one in whose footsteps you’d want to follow. Because even the most powerful of leaders will one day have to answer to another King. The KING of kings.
Nimrod - whose name means “we shall REBEL” - by the way, you have to give him credit: he put up a good fight. It’s just not a FAIR fight. Cuz he’s rebelling against an omnipotent God, in ch.11, in constructing this tower.
There are SO many interesting details to all these stories I have to leave out for sake of time - get yourself a good commentary on Genesis to keep you busy during quarantine - but let’s just skip to v4: ““Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth”.
3 notes here; we’ll work our way backwards:
God had commanded Noah’s offspring in ch.9, v1 to “multiply and FILL the earth”. Instead, they endeavor to build a city “lest they be dispersed and HAVE to fill the earth”, and obey God. So many practical applications for us here. Jesus sent US to go make disciples of all nations, but we won’t even cross the STREET to tell our neighbor about him. Our life group is reading through the book of Acts right now, where God even uses persecution to scatter the church, so his gospel really can go out to all nations; meanwhile, we’ve got life groups who’ve been meeting in the same holy huddle for YEARS now. God wants to fill the EARTH with his glory; but we’re more concerned with our own comfort, approval, belonging, control/power… it’s VULNERABLE to invite someone new into the LG, to witness to unbelievers. So we don’t do it.
They say, “Let us make a name for ourselves”. Again, it’s about THEIR power, their kingdom. THEIR fame, their glory. We were created, Isa 43:7, for GOD’S glory. We are here, Ps 34:3, “to exalt HIS name”. But they want to make a name for THEMSELVES. Influence. Recognition. They bring to mind their later Babylonian descendant, King Nebuchadnezzar, who we find almost 2 millennia later in Daniel ch4, walking on the roof of his royal palace overlooking Babylon, wondering aloud - ““‘Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?’”” (v30) Friends, that is a DANGEROUS place to be. Just read the rest of that chapter, Daniel 4, and see how it works out for Nebuchadnezzar. Are you building GOD’S kingdom, or your own? Pursuing GOD’S glory and fame, or your own?
Third, they say, “Let’s build a tower with its top in the heavens”. John MacArthur notes: “Revelation 17:5 indicates that all the false religions of the world find their way back to Babel.”” Because what IS religion? Religion is man’s attempt to work his way UP to God. To build a metaphorical tower up to heavens. And this story illustrates just how absurd that idea is: friend, do you know, that your attempt to “work” your way UP to heaven is EVERY BIT as RIDICULOUS as the idea that these people could build a physical tower up to it! Religion says: “I’ve got to be good enough.” I read my Bible this morning, that’s a brick. Said my prayers last night, that’s another brick. Whoops, had an impure thought, cracked a brick. The idea that with THAT kind of system, you could EVER reach heaven… that you could ever even GET OFF THE GROUND, that you’d be left standing on anything OTHER than a massive pile of cracked bricks, is preposterous.
But here’s the GOOD news, friends: God isn’t WAITING for you to build up to him. Religion is man trying to climb up; REVELATION is God graciously coming DOWN. And we hear in v5: “ the Lord came down...” And I’M thinking, “Oh, they’re gonna get it now…!” But just like he did with Adam & Eve, with Cain, with Seth, heck, with the 3 examples we’ve already EXAMINED today! With Noah, Ham, AND Canaan, already, God has once again responded not ONLY with justice, but with undeserved GRACE. To Noah, he sends Japheth and Shem, to cover his nakedness. To Ham, God honors his promised blessing, and let’s the curse fall to Canaan. And even in CANAAN’s case, we’re gonna discover next week in ch.15, that the reason God allowed the Israelites to stay enslaved in Egypt for over 400 years is because of his merciful patience with the Canaanites, to give them a chance to repent of their sins.
And here too, with Nimrod and the other tower-builders, just when you think God is gonna wipe them out of existence with a mere word, instead, he SAVES them… from THEMSELVES… in v7, by confusing their words. Humanism says, “Together, we can do ANYTHING we put our minds to! :-) ” Here, in v6: God recognizes, “Oh NO - together, they can do ANYTHING they put their minds to! :-O ” And that’s not a GOOD thing, when “the intentions of your heart are evil from youth”; cities are just more highly concentrated areas of sinners living in closer proximity; that’s why people wanna escape out to the suburbs. Let our sin BREATHE a little...
So in v8, God GRACIOUSLY disperses them “over the face of all the earth”. And like I said, there are SO many other interesting dimensions to this story
- we could look at what Jesus says about half-built towers, in Luke ch.14…
-we could dissect the inversion of the Tower of Babel story in Acts ch.2 at PENTECOST, when instead of man going up, God comes DOWN as the Holy Spirit, and instead of confusing their language, God miraculously allows people of EVERY language to hear the gospel in their own tongue;
-we could note, as MacArthur does that: “This was the first real city of man in the new world; built for man’s glory. It was a preview of a later city called Babylon, which was a preview of a final Babylon that will be built by the Antichrist at the end of human history.” When the world will be RE-organized once again under a central world government, central currency, etc. And we could discuss at LENGTH the dangers of globalism.
-AND YET, we could highlight God’s redemptive power, how he promises to one day flip the script and ““[For my decision is to] gather nations,
to assemble kingdoms…
For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples
to a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
and serve him with one accord.” (Zephaniah 3:8-9; see also Isa 2:2-3)
We could look all the way ahead to Revelation 21, the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city that God will send DOWN to us, since our attempts to build up are all in vain.
But here’s where I want to end; friends: you have an idol. Comfort. Approval. Control. Power. It’s not a matter of “if”, it’s a question of “which one”, and “how bad is it”. If you’re as good at sinning as I am, you score high in all FOUR categories. But admittedly, I’m pretty competitive. But here’s the thing: God can and will and WANTS TO intervene GRACIOUSLY on YOUR behalf as well… to save YOU from YOURSELF as well, and he’s made a way to cover your sins and FORGIVE them eternally, but it’s NOT you building up; no - he had to come DOWN. And he did it, for YOU. The manger, the cross, the empty tomb. He lived, died, and resurrected...