Transcript Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s And unto God

IN THE BEGINNING
Genesis from the Creation
to Abraham
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Theme of chapters 7-9:
• “Noah, build Me an ark”
• Theme of chapter eleven:
• PS. 127:1
• Unless the LORD builds the house
They labor in vain who build it.
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• “Unless the Lord builds the house…”
• The city also is the symbol for the base
of operations for attack and aggression
– Cities start wars, not us rural folk
– Cities are the epicenters of hard,
unreasonable labor (think: the industrial
revolution)
• Cities are the centers of opposition to
God
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Ps. 2:2-3
• The kings of the earth take their stand,
and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His
Anointed: “Let us tear their fetters
apart, and cast away their cords from
us!”
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Ps. 2:4, 11
• He who sits in the heavens shall
laugh; the Lord shall hold them in
derision...11 Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the
Son, lest He be angry, and you perish
in the way…
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Babylon (in the OT and the book of
Revelation) is a symbol for all the
cities of the world, along with:
– All of our attempts to live by our own
means, with our own protection, apart
from God, and
– All or our attempts to actually oppose
the rule of God and God’s law over our
lives
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Every city of the world can be Babylon
(and is, to a degree)
– Brethren (and good women) what should
we do?
• Work with the Lord to build our houses
and our communities
• Try to bring as much Christian spirit,
attitude, and ethic to our communities as
we can
• Minimizing the degree to which our city is
like Babylon the Great Harlot
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Cities in the Bible are spared if even a few
righteous people live in them
• Gen. 18:23-26
• And Abraham came near and said, "Would You also
destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were
fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the
place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in
it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the
righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be
as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of
all the earth do right?” So the Lord said, "If I find in
Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all
the place for their sakes."
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Jonah 3:4-5; 10
• And Jonah began to enter the city on the first
day's walk. Then he cried out and said, "Yet
forty days, and Nineveh shall be
overthrown!" So the people of Nineveh
believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on
sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of
them... 10 Then God saw their works, that they
turned from their evil way; and God relented
from the disaster that He had said He would
bring upon them, and He did not do it.
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• We Christians are subjects of the evil
city
• But we can help deliver the habitants
from judgment
– By encouraging them to repent and
be saved
– By helping the leaders rule justly
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Jer 29:4-7
• Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all
who were carried away captive, whom I have
caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to
Babylon: build houses and dwell in them; plant
gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget
sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons
and give your daughters to husbands, so that they
may bear sons and daughters--that you may be
increased there, and not diminished. And seek the
peace of the city where I have caused you to be
carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for
in its peace you will have peace.
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• We are to love our cities and pray for their
deliverance (and contribute to “the Lord
building them”)
• Prov. 11:11
• By the blessing of the upright the city is
exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of
the wicked.
• Ps. 33:12
• Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people He has chosen as His own
inheritance.
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• The evil cities of the world are contrasted with
the City of God coming out of heaven
• Rev. 21:1-5
• Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for
the first heaven and the first earth had passed
away. Also there was no more sea. Then I,
John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband. And I heard a loud voice from
heaven saying… (cont.)
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Rev. 21:1-5 (cont.)
• ”…Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and He will dwell with them, and they shall be
His people. God Himself will be with them and
be their God. And God will wipe away every
tear from their eyes; there shall be no more
death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be
no more pain, for the former things have
passed away." Then He who sat on the throne
said, "Behold, I make all things new.”
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Men in the Bible who build cities get into trouble
– Men in the Bible who leave cities in obedience to
God, in search of the “heavenly city,” are blessed:
Heb. 11:8-10
• By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go
out to the place that he would receive as an
inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he
was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as
in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and
Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he
waited for the city which has foundations, whose
builder and maker is God.
•
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Back to the tower of Babel:
– The Lord came down to see the city
• When God “came down” in the OT, it was trouble
– Into the Garden after the first sin and asked
Adam, “Where are you?”
– To talk to Cain and ask, “Where is Abel your
brother?”
– He comes down to Mt. Sinai and scares the
Israelites to death
• Moses has to go up to meet Him and bring the
law back down
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• As a rule, in the Bible we are instructed not to call
Him down, for the Spirit already dwells within us:
• Rom 10:6-8
• But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way,
"Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into
heaven?' " (that is, to bring Christ down from
above) or, " 'Who will descend into the abyss?'
" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But
what does it say? "The word is near you, in your
mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith
which we preach)
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• We are instructed to go up to Him:
• Ps 24:3-5
• Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who
may stand in His holy place? He who has clean
hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his
soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall
receive blessing from the Lord, And righteousness
from the God of his salvation.
• Ex. 33:21
• And the Lord said, "Here is a place by Me, and
you shall stand on the rock.”
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• In the NT God “comes down” to us in our heart
by the Holy Spirit
• When should we call on the Lord God Jehovah
or the risen, glorified Christ (the now Lion of
Judah, the no-longer the meek sacrificial Lamb
of God) to “come done”?
– When we are calling for the Lord to judge
on sins and unrighteousness
– First in us, then in others near to us, then in
our community
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• II Cor. 10:3-5
• For though we walk in the flesh, we do not
war according to the flesh. For the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in
God for pulling down strongholds, casting
down arguments and every high thing that
exalts itself against the knowledge of God,
bringing every thought into captivity to the
obedience of Christ, and being ready to
punish all disobedience when your
obedience is fulfilled.
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• II Cor. 7:10
• For godly sorrow produces repentance
leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but
the sorrow of the world produces death.
• II Tim 2:25
• In meekness instruction those that oppose
themselves; if God perchance will give
them repentance to the acknowledging of
the truth; and that they might recover
themselves out of the snare of the devil,
who are take captive by him at his will.
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• Back to the tower:
• God the Father and the Son and the Spirit were
concerned that man’s wickedness would reach
new heights again in this coordinated effort
(causing man to return completely to the
antediluvian days of total wickedness and
violence)
• Also, man seemed to be planning on settling
down, whereas God had told them to be fruitful,
multiple, and (implied) fill the earth by spreading
out, not camping out in Shinar
GENESIS CHAPTER ELEVEN
• So the Lord confuses their language
– The men at Babel stopped building
leaving the tower unfinished--as it still is
today
– Recall the European Union’s building’s
unfinished look
• Babel in Hebrew means “confusion”
• Babel in Babylonian means “gate of the
gods”