Dan Berry (ArtistOfWords) Offline

Where Do You Want To Live?

Genesis11:1 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 the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

Let's focus in on verse 4 for just a moment. These people who had come to this area decided to be united in purpose. They banded together and shared ideas of what was best for their culture.

When we see mention of building a city it is important to remember that this is not a city as we might think of it today. It's not a city amid multiple cities. This city is the center of everything...it is the nation even if there may be outlying areas.

So they said let's be united in one purpose. Let's do things that no others have done before. We will have great soaring buildings that reach to heaven. We are advanced and we reason together.

Others will know who we are by the great things that we do. Look at all we have done and our greatness. Are there any who are greater than we are right now?

We do all of these things because when united there are none greater than us the people of this great city. We are great in number and in power and have reached to heaven where even our Creator resides...truly we are great.

Can you just imagine the thoughts of this group of people? It really should not be that difficult. If you just listen today, you may hear the same speech and the same manner of thought.

When we unite in our desire to be something greater than God, our desires and our behaviors then become something that is not pleasing to God. Is it any wonder that this people were dispersed by God? Let's look now at verse 6.

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.

God observed that they indeed had united and for them all things had become similar including their obvious attempt at being greater than He in their aspirations. God, in His wisdom, knew that this tower would only be the beginning.

If left unchecked, this people would continue to defy God and not give Him the worship He deserved. God then confused their language and the people could no longer be united.

The sin of the people in Shinar was the desire to reign over the world and determine their own destiny apart from God. They organized themselves around their own power and skills, but it was a show of pride and rebellion against God.

Once again, think of today and what you may know and see in the land around you. Does any of this sound familiar? We each have that sinful nature within us that if left alone will lead us into rebellion against God.

Solomon once said there is nothing new under the sun; meaning that we continue to repeat the same things over and over. Everything we know has been done before. The same reasoning we see from Babel we see also today.

God destroyed Babel's effort by multiplying languages among the people, making it impossible to communicate with one another. This may explain to the world's varied racial and ethnic groups.

During this time, humans increasingly rejected God and embraced idolatry, sorcery, and astrology. We see mention of this in Isaiah 47:12.

Isaiah 47:12 Stand fast in your enchantments
and your many sorceries,
with which you have labored from your youth;
perhaps you may be able to succeed;
perhaps you may inspire terror

Similar verses indicate following paths other than those of God. We see this in the commandment given in Exodus 22:18 and then again in Deuteronomy 18:10.

In both of these verses we see mention of pagan practices of idolatry, sorcery, and astrology as they attempted to bypass God with their own wisdom. Now some today will say that is not fair.

We need to realize though that God's ways are not the ways of the world as we find written in verse. Let's briefly look at one of those verses.


Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

As a result of the people of Shinar's general spiritual condition, God allowed them to follow their own sinful desires. God then turned to Abram to begin revealing a way of salvation for humanity.

God confused their speech then scattered them allowing them to remain in rebellion by their own choice. We see this again in Luke 1:51.

Luke 1:51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;

What exactly was that spiritual condition of Babel though and why is it important for us to know of it today? That answer can be found in Romans 1.

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;

27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,

30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

We could spend all day discussing these verses from Romans 1 and I urge you to spend some time doing so on your own. For now though, let's just focus on a few aspects and realize how it affects us today.

In verses 18-20, we see the undeniable truth that is already out there and always has been regarding the truth and attributes of God. He has made it known to mankind since the beginning and there will be wrath to come for disobedience to God.

In verses 21-23, we see a process that begins in the mind of man. We begin to say we know who God is yet withhold the honor and thanks to Him. We begin to think we know more than God or begin to redefine what God should be by our own wisdom.

We become foolish in the eyes of God and we begin to engage in idolatry as we putting things in precedence of the worship of God. These are in images of man's creation. We see mention of all manner of animal but even today we have several new idols.

If we need example, look no further than our typical human behavior today. What is of importance to most people today? By far, the most idolatrous thing that we serve is our own wealth. We gather and hoard. We buy without having money making us in debt and going against God's teachings.

Maybe that is not an issue for you though. It is important to know that anything that is put before God becomes an idol. How about missing out on time you would normally be in worship of God to explore your own personal interests...sports, tv, games, family concerns, etc.

In verse 24 and 25 we see that God allows people to follow their own lusts and desires of their heart when they refuse to honor Him. This happens when mankind begins to reason that they know better than God and begins to alter the meaning of God's Word for their own benefit.

When we begin to serve the creature (ourselves) rather than the Creator (God), we are putting an idol before God. Sin is defined as willful disobedience to God. If God's Word declares something as sin then it is sin. It does not matter what we think or how we as humans reason in our own foolish wisdom.

In verses 26-28 we see description of dishonorable and shameful acts of the flesh. In other scripture it is referred to as an abomination before God. That may upset some people but as we have already seen...God's ways are not the world's ways.

We also need to be aware that even if we do not commit these acts ourselves that we are also guilty of sin if we support this thought process or if we actively ignore it. With that said-God is still love.

God desires all to come to repentance and loves all of those in sin, no matter what variety of sin that may be. It is written that if we are guilty of breaking one law that we are also guilty of breaking them all (James 2:10).

Look again at these verses and realize that there are as many types of sin as there are shades and hues of color in the spectrum. All are still sin. That is why Jesus calls on us to examine ourselves for any sin and then remove the log from our own eye so we can remove the speck from another's.

29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,

30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

We are all guilty of at least one of these sins and not one of us is better than another. This is the mindset of our culture. This is the mindset of the world. This is the mindset of Satan the deceiver and accuser as he reminds us all that we are unworthy.

32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

The penalty for sin is death. That does not mean that we enforce that penalty but God surely does. Jesus said not to fear the one who can kill the body but rather the one who can destroy the soul in Hell.

We must become that people that are set apart if we are to truly follow God. In Revelation we hear that if we are lukewarm that God will spew us out of His mouth. He would rather us be hot or cold. There just is no in between.

We cannot serve two masters Jesus or we will hate one and love the other. We must choose each day whom we will serve. Will we follow the world as the people of Babel and wait for our the consequence of our actions by God's wrath?

Or, will we choose this day and each after to follow God in spirit and in truth? That is saying that not only do we claim God's authority and power but that we submit to it in love and worship.

We can live in Babel or we can live in a place of peace without confusion, tears, heartache, pain, depression, worry, doubt, and death. Jesus is that way to the place of peace. Where do you want to live?