/sermon by Mike Enns/
Greeting
-We do still have the sermon series
about the gospel of genesis. And I hope by now many of us like myself have
realized that the stories have more meaning and power than we give them credit
to and are not just good children stories like Trif thought us about the flood
last week and so today as well.
-The topic I want to talk about today
is, many have probably guessed it…that’s right. Dinosaurs
-I’m just kidding of course we are going
to talk about Alcohol right now.
-> Though dinosaurs will appear
as well despite very briefly.
-
At this point you are allowed be a little confused because you were probably
expecting some kind of tower.
But alcohol is a serious issue. And in the bible it is mentioned a lot of
times not to get drunk and even not to make others drunk.
->it is not only against the will of
God. It is dangerous, can destroy families and many sad stories start with it
just as the story of the Babylonian tower.
->In fact with the first human
hangover in documented history.
We can find the beginning of the story in genesis 9,18
-I will take you know a little bit
through this history and I know many of you might think it is boring even
though this history is more like blockbuster movie than any other story I know
and it’s true. But I like history so my opinion is biased and I know that it
might seem boring to some people.
-> That is why remember: I will be talking about dinosaurs. That is
interesting.
So After the flood Noah and his 3 sons
left the ark and Noah built himself a nice vineyard which he then enjoyed a
little to much and he was lying drunk and naked in his tent.
è
This
proves that Noah, even though he was a man of God was also only human and a
sinner like all of us
-The problem here is that his youngest
son Ham saw him and he was eager to shame him and told this sight to his
brothers Shem and Japhet
-They however were not as amused and
went walking backwards to their father to not see his shameful sight and dishonor
him and they covered him with a cloak.
- When Noah found out he was really
angry and cursed Ham who was called father of Canaan that it will be servant to
his brethren.
And blessed Shem and Japhet.
->After Noah’s death they
split up with their separate families and Ham got a few sons and one of them
named Cush got a very important Son himself named Nimrod. The great grandson of
Noah.
- He was the first King of Mankind and that
is the guy who built the Babylonian tower
-So let us read about it in Genesis
11, 1-9 ……..
So this Guy called Nimrod and his
people wanted to build a tower to heaven and God didn’t like it so he split the
people up while giving them different languages.
This is not all that happened
there.
-This is not some legend or Childrens
story to explain where languages come from like you might hear from others.
There is so much of importance in this
story
- I do believe it is very important to
understand Nimrod and his past to understand not only this story but also a lot
of circumstances reaching till today.
So let us first talk about this people
who apparently did not do what God wanted.
-
As
you remember Nimrod was the grandson of Ham and cursed by Noah to serve. But he
goes and makes his own Kingdom to rule. So clearly he is not following neither
God’s nor Noah’s will so there can not be a lot of blessing on this.
-And in fact from the Mountain where
the Ark landed Ararat in todays Turkey they went to Mesopotamia in todays Iraq and started there Kingdom there. This became
the start of the Assyrian Nation and the Babylonian Nation both bitter enemy’s
of Israel. The Babylonians even destroying Jerusalem and the Temple around
587BC.
So let this get in chronological order
of humanity. First we bring the sin to this world and God throws us out of
paradise than we behave so badly that God’s sends a flood to save a few and
promise out of love to never do something like that again and gives us a symbol
for our bond in the sky the rainbow. And 3 Generations later the humans are
already building nations to kill of God’s people.
And then we get so arrogant already that
we try to built a tower to reach God in the sky as we read in verse 4
This is in fact a very nice description.
-> Let me get you a better picture of
what happened.
-First the place Mesopotamia. It was not
an easy place to live in. You probably have heard about the Nile and how easy
and prosperous the regular floodings made the land to live in for the
Egyptians. Well Mesopotamia is between the Euphratis and the Tigris and they
flood unpredictable and violently. Historical evidence shows that a lot of
slave labor was needed to make it livable there.
And Nimrod the name literally means “let
us rebel” and that he did against God.
The tower reaching the sky was of cause not
really reaching the sky. even today
the tallest building is only 828 meters high and we still don’t even know how
vast the sky is.
-This tower was a symbol of arrogance
just like some ship we were told is unsinkable.
And just like the titanic was not
unsinkable this tower did not reach sky but only managed to stand as symbol for
its creator’s arrogance and ignorance
Just that this tower was much worse
The Temples in Mesopotamia where called
Ziggurat or Schiggorat which translates from Babylonian to “High , sky hill or
God mountain” and they are Temple towers
-This one is a recreation of the one in
Babylon by a german museum.
So when he built the tower to reach the
sky it is not only to challenge God but a temple to reach his new false God’s
and idols.
-3 Generations after the flood only it
came already to that. Turning your back on God and making your own false Idols.
That is awful! But this is not all.
There is historical evidence that he later became Marduk the highest God of the
Babylonian pantheon. So he not only made up false God’s but proclaimed himself
as such. Like the Pharaonians and the Cesars later continued.
That is unbelievable disappointing to
the bound with God… But wait Nimrod is
not finished yet.
God gave his first command to humanity
in Genesis 9,1:” “Be
fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”
And
now Nimrod Comes and tells his followers in verse 4:” 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.”
This is open rebellion against God’s
command. This is the story of human arrogance and ambition to be like God. What
a sad thing. A thing very much alive even today.
So how angry was God after this
disappointment? I would be absolutely furious. In fact I’m a still a little mad
at Nimrod and he died thausends of years ago.
So how angry do you think God was?
I don’t think he was. I can’t see any
indicator that he was.
-5Chapters earlier in Genesis 6 verse 5-6
we read: “And God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”6 And it
repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
God is not angry at us he grieves in his
heart about us and our wrongs.
Think about that. You can be angry at
anyone but to grieve it really has to mean something to you.
-So how much must we humans mean to God
if he grieves about us in his heart.
Have you ever thought about that? We
think about the consequences for us when we sin and we talked about it when we
talked about the first sin. It means we get death and separations from God if
you remember
-But have you thought about the
consequences for God that we are hurting his heart and he is grieving for us.
-He loves us
- That is why while Nimrod and the
humans pushed God away God makes a step towards us.
Come, let Us go down and there confuse their
language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” Verse 7
He actually says let us go down. The
almighty God as the trinity. The father, the son and the holy spirit stepped
down to stop them.
That is not punishment. That is love. He
is concerned with us.
I don’t think it was necessary for God
to step down himself if he was not
concerned
-That is more like a father seeing his
child poking with a fork in the power plug. He doesn’t take the fork away as
punishment but because the son is going to hurt himself.
We humans are so sinful and push God
away. Everyone. But God loves us. He is concerned about us and cares about us.
That is also why Jesus had to stop down
towards us and he took the punishment himself for us on the cross. God will
never push us away. He sacrificed himself for us.
He knew at that time of cause already
that for these humans there in Babel. The ones pushing him away, proclaiming
themselves God. For these arrogant and sinful humans, he will die on the
cross.
Because God knows who we are. He knows
I’m just as sinful as Nimrod the guy even I’m angry about and he still loves me
and cares about me and that is amazing.
Psalm 86:15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and
gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Slow
to anger and abound in love.
---------
-So
we learned what human sinfulness is capable of and saw a glimpse of what God’s
love is capable of. But I think we can still learn more from this story. And that is about Unity
and Diversity
->Furthermore
I haven’t talked about the dinosaurs yet that I promised you .
-
Unity is a very good thing. I think Bulgarians who fought for so long to be
united and independent think so too. But is that true?
here
we clearly learn that unity is not always good.
-
In verse 6 we read: “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.”
-
So the people
were so united no one disagreed when they were doing something stupid
So
Unity when you are united in the wrong thing is very much bad.
We
just had elections here and probably not everyone is happy with the candidate
elected so they will agree with me.
-For
the other are other examples like one that Jesus gave about the body in 1st
Chorinthians . If we all unite and site with the eye we would be only eyes and
if we all agreed on the food is the best our body would only be feet. -> That is not good
So
the actual problem is that they all united in Nimrod. A human. And we know they
are not perfect.
But
I can understand Nimrod was pretty cool from human perspective.
In
Genesis 10 verse 8 and 9 : “Cush begot
Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. 9 He was a
mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.”
-That
sounds already pretty cool till you realize that at that time where still dinosaurs
running around so imagine what he did to be a mighty hunter.
-do
you remember that Nimrod later became Marduk the Babylonian God.
Well
his symbol is the mušḫuššu.
->that
translates to “fierce snake”
So yes it is most likely that
he actually fought dinosaurs. And if that is not impressive I don’t know.
But here we learn not to unite in people
or follow them because we think they are impressive or for any other reason.
And to ensure that and make it easier God divided us in different languages.
God gave us diversity so we can help
each other stay and only unite in the right way. The one way. ->Jesus Christ.
-because like Jesus said we see the
splinter in our brothers eye and not the plank in our own.
In the story of Pentecost in acts 2
verse 4-6 we read: “And
they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other
tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.5 And there were
dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.6 Now
when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded,
because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
-God divided us by language to be
separated in the world but he unites us in the fellowship of the holy Spirit
So when Trif is standing here
translating I want to see it as a symbol. He is standing there not because we
should be united in human language, values or standards but in God.
->He is standing here because the
holy spirit unites us and we are brothers and sister in God.
I think we see that there is enough
wrong kind of unity in this world. Racism and nationalist groups a gaining
power everywhere and Terror is an everyday topic.
-And when we have diversities for
example in elections or in families, …with friends we should be reminded that
we are united in the fellowship of the holy spirit.
Or how Jesus said it in 1corinthians
12 verse 12 and 13 about the example of the body I gave earlier: 2 For as
the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body,
being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by
one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether
slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into[c] one
Spirit.
In the end I want you to take with you from
this Sunday that this story about the Babelonian tower is not only about the
human sin but even more so about the unimaginable love of God the Father and
Jesus Christ has for us, as well as about the Unity and fellowship we do have
in the holy spirit.
-Amen
_____________________
Sermon by Mike Enns
New Life Church Varna
November 13, 2016
