Genesis 11:1-9 *
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
оϋтως γάρ ήγάπησєν ό θєός тόν κόσμον, ώσтє тόν υίόν тόν μονογєνή έδωκєν, ίνα πάς ό πισтєύων єίς αύтόν μή άπόληтαι άιι’ έχηξωήν αίώνιον. Isn’t that great news? Don’t those words fill your heart with joy? Or don’t you know what I just said?
Even though I spoke very clearly, even though I was careful to enunciate every word, you probably couldn’t understand me because I was speaking Greek. And unless you sit down and study the language for a couple years, it is unlikely that you would be able to comprehend the meaning of those words no matter how many times I repeated them.
Why is that? Why are there so many languages (over 5,000)? And why can’t we understand each other? Why do we have to study for years and years to develop even a basic understanding of a foreign language? Some will say that the number of languages in the world is a testament to ingenuity of man. God’s Word reminds us that they are a testament to the sinfulness of man.
If you have ever failed a Spanish test, if you have ever
struggled to memorize a stack of vocable cards, if you have ever felt lost and
confused in a foreign country because you didn’t know the language, you can blame
an ambitious but misguided group of people who came together at a place called
The purpose of this sermon is not to complain about a few people who made life more difficult for the rest of us. The purpose of this day is not to long for a return to the good old days when everyone shared a common language.
Today is a festival day. Today is the Holy Spirit’s day. Today we thank the Spirit for creating faith in our hearts. Today we celebrate the fact that the Spirit continues to work through the Word and sacraments. Today we remember another day when God the Holy Spirit temporarily removed the language barrier.
And even as the tragic events of Genesis 11 unfold before us, we are still able to rejoice because we know that…
PENTECOST REVERSES THE BABBLE OF
I. The Lord’s judgment was well
deserved
II. The Lord’s mercy was undeserved
The text begins this way: “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in
The events of this chapter were preceded by the flood
(Genesis 6-9). Recall God’s purpose in
sending a flood to destroy the world.
Because the world had become so corrupt, because the people of the world
had forsaken the Lord, the Lord decided to start over with Noah and his family. After the flood waters receded, after Noah and
his sons and their wives left the ark, the Lord gave them this command: “Be fruitful and increase in number and
fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1).
God was giving the human race a fresh start. God wanted his people to repopulate the world he had created for them. But there was a problem. The flood wiped sinful man off the face of the earth, but it could not wash away the sin that lives in every human heart. Only a few generations later, God’s sinful creatures were up their old sinful tricks.
Instead obeying the Lord’s clear command, this is what they
decided to do: “They said to each other,
‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They used brick instead of stone, and tar for
mortar.”
Moses shares their construction plans with us for a
reason. The people weren’t stopping in
Maybe there were compelling reasons to stop here. Maybe this was an especially fertile area. Maybe there was an abundance of water. Maybe this was a great place to raise a
family. Even if all of those things were
true, this was the real reason for their reluctance to leave: “so that we may…not be scattered over the
face of the whole earth” (4).
God wanted them to go.
They wanted to stay. This blatant
disobedience was bad enough, but the sin didn’t stop with the construction of
the city walls: “Then they said, ‘Come,
let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so
that we may make a name for ourselves…” (4).
After the flood, Noah built an altar to give glory to God. His offspring built a tower to draw attention
to themselves. Noah’s
altar was a monument to God’s compassion.
The
Those foolish people, what were they thinking? They had the clear words of God. They had the clear command of God, and still they disobeyed God. What kind of people would do something like that?
The Lord says: You shall have no other gods (Exodus 20:3). And still there are some people who think they can’t be happy unless they have the newest and the best of everything. Do you know anyone like that?
The Lord says: You shall not use misuse my name (Exodus 20:7). And still there are some people who can’t utter a complete sentence without cursing. Do you know anyone like that?
The Lord says: I will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). And still there are some people who seem to fret and worry about every little problem that comes along. Do you know anyone like that?
The Lord says: Pray continually (I Thessalonians
The Lord says: Without me you can do nothing (John 15:5). And still there are some people who by their words and actions give the impression that they are the masters of their own fate. Do you know anyone like that?
Maybe we don’t aspire to build towers that reach to the heavens, but brick by brick, sin by sin, we erect a towering wall that separates us from God. We doubt him. We disobey him. We ignore him. And because we do, we deserve divine judgment.
So why are we still here?
Why hasn’t the Lord sent down the fire and brimstone? What is it that prevents God from destroying
the world right now and starting over again?
The same thing that kept him from destroying the builders
at
“The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building” (5). And it’s safe to say that he didn’t like what he saw. As the Lord watched the people working together, he recognized that this was only the beginning. If this building project succeeded, how long would it be before they decided to build a bigger city and a taller tower? And as each tower reached closer and closer to God, the people would drift farther and farther away from God.
God loved his people too much to let that happen. God had to do something to keep that from happening. And so this is what he decided: “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other” (7).
Without a common language, the workers couldn’t communicate. Without a common language, the building project ground to a halt. Without a common goal, unity was replaced with fear. Without a reason to stay together, the people were scattered over the face of the whole earth.
And because their speech sounded like babbling in each other’s
ears (a play on words in Hebrew and English), the abandoned city became known
as
At first, it looks like the people at
Martin Luther would disagree. In fact, he believed that God’s action at
We are still feeling the effects of that sin. This account makes us aware of the
consequences of sin, but it also brings into sharp focus the compassion of God. And for that, we give thanks. “Give
thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His
love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1).
Give thanks because God didn’t make the Plain of Shinar into a small black spot on the world map. He could have said: “I gave you people a second chance, but you blew it. That’s it. I’ve had enough. My patience has run out.” God had every right to say that, but he didn’t.
Give thanks because God doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve. He could say to us: “I’ve given you hundreds of second chances, but you blew it. That’s it. I’ve had enough. My patience has run out.” God has every right to say that, but he doesn’t.
Give thanks because God put his mercy on display for all the world to see.
On a sign attached to a wooden pole, on a sign inscribed in three
languages that trace their origins to
God’s Son died beneath those words. He didn’t look like the king of the Jews. He didn’t look like a king at all. But by his sacrifice on the cross, he guaranteed that we will live in a kingdom that will last forever.
Give thanks because Jesus didn’t stay in the grave. He rose from the dead to demonstrate his power over death. He appeared to his followers to prove that he was alive. He ascended into heaven to rule over all things for the good of the church, but not before he gave his disciples a promise.
Give thanks because Jesus made good on that promise seven
weeks later. On the day we call
Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came on the disciples. The sound of a rushing wind filled their
house. What looked like tongues of fire
came to rest on their heads. They
declared the wonders of God in different languages, and for a brief moment in time
the tragic effects of
As amazing as these sights and sounds must have been, they are overshadowed by the greatest Pentecost miracle, when on a single day the Holy Spirit brought 3,000 people to faith.
Remember the words I read at the beginning of the
sermon. Let me repeat them, but this
time they might sound a little more familiar to you: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John
The greatest miracle is not that God gives us the mental capacity to understand these words. The greatest miracle is that the Holy Spirit gives us the faith to believe these words. There might not be any special effects. There probably won’t be any speaking in tongues. But every time a baby is baptized, every time the gospel is shared, every time God’s people use God’s means of grace, you can be sure that the Holy Spirit is there, working to produce another Pentecost miracle. Amen.