It’s a funny old world isn’t it. At times, so full of wonder and hope and good things. Debby and I just celebrated 14 years of marriage. Deep joy. It just keeps getting better!
But the world is also full of darkness. Think about some of the countries we come from. Evil heaped upon evil: Apartheid South Africa, the abuse of so many from the Phillipines who are promised good jobs which turn out to be something terrible, endless war in Sudan, Christians imprisoned and tortured in Eritrea. The world is dark.
We are a strange contrast, we and the world we live in. Capable of so much good and ruined by so much evil. Greatness and calamity hand in hand.
Well, this is the people and the world the Bible describes. God’s word is not all sunshine and roses. Some of what he exposes is not very nice at all. This is not the world of the Imaginary Jesus who simply smiles at everyone and blesses everyone and has tea with old ladies and NEVER CALLS ANYONE TO REPENT! The real Jesus, the real God is far wilder, far more dangerous, far more unlike us, far too unexpected, far too unreasonable in the demands he makes of us, than we would ever expect - as we shall see in the story of the life of Abraham over the coming months.
But as we shall also see, he is far more loving, far more full of mercy, far more gracious and compassionate and fatherly than we could ever imagine. He accepts us just as we are, flawed, broken, full of sin and mistakes. Just like he accepted Abraham.
Now it’s been a while since we left the book of Genesis, so this sermon is to set the scene, the backdrop, for the life of Abraham. We covered chapters 1-10 a few months back, so my first two points “From Light to Darkness” (dealing with Creation and Fall, chapters 1-4) and “Noah to Babel” (chapters 5-10) will get us up to today’s passage. Today’s passage I will cover in the last two points “Rebellion” and “Hope”.
1. From Light to Darkness
The Bible starts with the words “In the beginning, God” (Gen 1:1).
He is the Beginning. He is the Prime Source, the First Mover. All life is from him. He is everything, the Author and Sustainer of Life. He is the God who is there.
And he speaks. He is the God who speaks, who says “Let there be light!” (Gen 1:3) and there is light. What he says must happen, happens.
His word is powerful.
And his Word is personified in his Son Jesus. That is, Jesus is the perfect revelation of God. As Hebrews 1:1-2 puts it “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son”(ESV).
Jesus is the Word of God. And as we preach the word of God, we preach Jesus. That’s why we make a big deal of the Bible and of Jesus in this church. Because to preach Christ Jesus from the pages of Scripture is to meet with the same power that said “let there be light” – and if we are Christians we have experienced the power of his word to totally transform our lives.
In my dark heart God said “let there be light” and the sun rose and my life was transformed from the inside out. I was 19, in Drammen of all places(!), and the Lord commanded by the power of his word that my heart would be changed and from that day I would belong to him. Let there be light.
And this is the God who reveals himself to us in the opening chapters of the Bible. We see God. We see him in His glory. We see him powerful. Wonderful. Generous. Amazing. This is our God. Seated upon his throne he rules the world simply by the power of his word. Nothing is beyond his control. All of time and space is his to command. What a glorious King!
And then we meet us. In chapter 3, Adam and Eve, created as the pinnacle of God’s creation. Kings and Queens under God, eyes full of wonder, look to God…. and go “tttthhrrrbt!” and decide to choose for themselves the “best” way to live. Great. Good job guys.
The world has been pretty rubbish since then (chapter 3 of Genesis). Adam and Eve rebel against God, refuse to listen to his word, and in fact do the very opposite. And we’ve been following in their footsteps ever since. I won’t live life His way, I’ll live it my way. I will decide what is right and wrong. I will decide what is true for me. I will pretend to be God!
We see that attitude reflected immediately in Adam and Eve’s sons, Cain and Abel, deciding for themselves the best way to live. In chapter 4 Cain decided that Abel needed to die. Why? He was getting in the way of his worship of God! Abel was in his way, so he killed him. And things go from bad to worse.
Not surprisingly, then, God’s verdict on humanity in 6:5 is devastating. The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of every thought of his heart was only evil all the time. (NIV84)
From Light to Darkness. Once again, darkness covers the earth. We need a new word of Creation. We need the Lord to say once again “Let there be Light!”
2. Noah to Babel
The story of Noah opens in darkness. God decides to destroy the world. And He’s right. The world sucks!
And the judgement comes suddenly. As Jesus says in Matt 24:37–39 (NLT) “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. 38 In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. 39 People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes.”
How long do you think our world will last? Child abuse. Abortion on demand. Slavery. Sex trafficking. Fathers abandoning their families. Mothers abandoning their children. Cheating and lying and corruption in business, in government. On and on it goes. How long do you think our world will last? How long will God be patient? How long before the Flood of his judgement washes us away?
How long would you last?
“Me? I’m a good person.”
Really? Let me ask you a question - a question I asked myself. How much would you need to be pushed before you revealed what was in your heart. A guy cuts you off in traffic – how quickly does anger rise up? You want the latest this or that and can’t afford it- Do you think “I deserve it”. Feel hard done by. Feel jealous of those who can. Maybe start planning ways you can cut a few corners here and there.
In the movie “Taken” a man’s daughter is kidnapped. But he has a certain set of skills acquired over a long career that make him a nightmare to the baddies. You know I wish I had those skills so I could go and blow the bad guys away. How easily that thought comes to me. How easily I can imagine killing people because they are “bad”. How easily such a “good decent man” could become a killer. You take my kids… you threaten my wife… you push me too far. What would it take. Just a slightly different set of circumstances. How much would you need to be pushed before you revealed what was in your heart?
In Rwanda people were pushed – and revealed what was in their hearts. Those of a different tribe were “the enemy” and after a few months of indoctrination the touch paper was lit, civil war broke out - Neighbours turned on each other. Doctors let their patients die, because they were the wrong tribe. Teachers hacked their students to death – because they were the “baddies”. Normal people, different set of cirmcumstances. What a thin veneer civilisation is.
Don’t believe me? It happened here in Norway 60 years ago. In Notodden, friends and neighbours betrayed each other to their death. Guys going around saying “don’t join up with the Nazi’s” someone reported them and sent them to their death. So easy.
Noah’s story is a warning, a clear warning ringing across time: you are on a knife edge. The sword of Damocles hangs over our heads by a thread. Judgement can fall in an instant.
Each breath is a mercy from God given to us for ONE REASON and one reason alone – to give us time to repent to cry out “mercy”! Before the hair is snipped and the sword plunges down, before the word is given and the earth is covered in fire and all that is unclean will be burnt up and the world will be remade. And your choice is: are you the firewood, or are you taking shelter in Jesus (Fireproof!)
Because that’s the other part of the story. The part where into the darkness God says “let there be light!” In in 6:8 But Noah found favour with the Lord.
New life, new hope, a new heart for Noah. And so He listened to the word of God. He risked everything, built a stupidly massive boat (the Ark) on dry land, endured ridicule, and probably a lot of self-doubt. But in the end, when the floods came, he saved the world. Through him creation was rescued, and started again.
Through him we have a clear picture of the work of Jesus. He is our Ark, our Rescue Boat, carrying us above the danger of God’s righteous judgement.
You see, God wasn’t taken by surprise by our ability to turn light into darkness. Our sin and evil was anticipated, and dealt with. On the cross. Already predicted in 3:15 as God says to the “snake” Satan “And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
When God said “let there be light”, he knew the cost of giving that command. Pierced hands. Wounded side. Carrying the weight of our sin. And yet he said “let there be light”. There will be light, light for all eternity, because Jesus has absorbed our darkness in his own body and defeated it.
You want to be saved? Come to Jesus.
The alternative is to face God’s wrath… – which brings us to the people of Babel, building their tower to their own praise and glory. They had clearly learned nothing from the Flood.
3. Rebellion
The people in Babel still have the same old problem. Look at verse 4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky (lit: heaven). This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.” Let us build our own way to heaven. Let us make our name great (famous).
Here in chapter 11 we meet a group of people richly blessed. They all speak the same language – all the people on earth united by language “the same words”. What bliss! Imagine that! Imagine we all spoke the same language, could understand each other perfectly. Fantastic!
But what do they do with this great privilege. Do they fall down in praise and thanksgiving of God? Do they thank him for his blessing? Do they build an altar to worship him. Of course not! They build an altar to themselves: a great monument to their own greatness! “Let us build a tower to heavens” they say. It will make our name great. Let us be like God. High. Lifted up. Great.
They are also disobeying God’s command to fill the earth. They’re all gathered together.
Such blessing – look what God says about them in v6 “nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them!”. So blessed. But instead they turn blessing into rebellion.
Ironically, it’s pretty pathetic. They are trying to reach up to heaven – but even with their mighty tower, God still has to look DOWN to their tower. 5 But the LORD came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building.
Our attempts to out-God God are that feeble. And their blessing turns to judgement, as God comes DOWN and reminds them who is God, and who is not. He confuses the languages. He scatters them across the earth, as he had commanded.
The fact that we here all speak different languages reminds us clearly of one thing: we are not God. He will not permit us to be united in rebellion. Our babble of languages is a mark of shame. We are rebels.
We here in Norway are particularly blessed. We are rich beyond our wildest dreams. We live in peace in a society shaped by 1000 years of Christianity (even though we’re busy chipping that away, it still has a huge influence). We are the Babylonians, rich, blessed, with great power. And in the 40 years since we really became very wealthy, what have we done? Turned away in droves from God. Turned our churches into a mockery of the gospel, with liberal drivel or soft weak watered-down “Christainty” that offends no-one and saves no-one. Turned our back on the word of God.
I see no-one leading our nation in praise for God’s blessing. Calling us to repent and worship God Most High. And that worries me. For God’s patience is not everlasting. A Day has been set for judgement. We are in severe danger. We must warn our fellow citizens of the danger of rebelling against God.
Let’s pray now, thank God for his blessing, and pray for our friends and neighbours who are in rebellion against him.
We can pray because there is hope!
4. Hope
In the Bible study we’re going through the book of Acts. Acts chapter 2 is the day of Pentecost – when the disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit and He gives them speech – speech that everyone can understand like their own language! It’s a reversal of Babel. United in Christ, under God, we are truly together, finally. Babel’s curse is not eternal.
The book of Revelation ends with all of God’s people not scattered, but gathered together in a great city – a huge multitude of people from every tribe, nation, language- and people-group. It is the fulfilment of the desire of Babel. To be together, united, one. But that is not found outside of God. Sin always fractures and destroys us. To reach the city of Revelation, we need someone to defeat sin. And that is the serpent-crusher, the one promised in Genesis 3:15.
That is why the hope in this chapter (11) is found in the boring verses from v10 to v32. A genealogy. A list of births and deaths. Wow. But hopefully now after going through chapters 1-10 you’ll know that when you see a genealogy you go “HURRA!” because it means God’s promise in 3:15 is still coming! Every new baby that was born carried the hope of the world: maybe this one will be the one to crush the serpent. Maybe he can free us from sin and death.
And although this genealogy doesn’t end with Him, Jesus – it does end with a very significant person: Abraham (or Abram as he was first called). God calls one man out of this sinful rebellious mass of people, and declares him righteous, and makes an outrageous promise to him: I will make you a great nation, and all the families in the earth will be blessed through you.
This is the promise he made right in the beginning, in fact: to create a world that is “very good” (Gen 1:31) . And when we rebelled and broke it, he renewed that promise in Genesis 3:15 that one day a man will be born who will crush evil forever, and creation will be restored. Abraham is not that man. But Abraham is part of the fulfilment of the promise of that man. Because from Abraham’s descendants came Jesus, the serpent-crusher, the one who defeated evil once for all on the cross, dealt with our sin, and flung open the gates to the new Creation. Come one, come all. The price is paid. The way is open.
He is the tower to God, the gateway to heaven. There is no other way.
So if you are like the Babylonians, trying to build your own way to God, or your own monument to your greatness. If your life revolves around you, your desires, your purposes, your dreams – repent. Turn away from living for yourself, and turn to Jesus. Start living for him. Get your small ambitions replaced with eternal ones.
And turn every area over to him. Perhaps you’ve kept a little part back. “This is mine”.
No. All belongs to him. He is the King. He is the Creator. There is nothing in all of creation over which he does not say “mine”. Give up your rebellion, and give it up to him. He is a good King.
From light to darkness, from Noah to Babel. From the rebellion of Babel to the hope of Christ.
Let there be light in the darkness! Amen! Come Lord Jesus Come!
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