Presented to Swift Current Corps on 29 May 2011[1]
By Captain Michael Ramsay
Today Julie has spoken to us about the Lord’s calling her into missions. On Thursday Dusty and Laurie were confirmed as candidates for Salvation Army Officership. They are following the Lord’s leading in their life.
God created us all, humankind, and He didn’t ask too much of us for obedience at first – He simply asked us to fill and take care of the earth and then later of course, in Genesis 2:17, He asked us not to eat the fruit off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – and we know how well that went.
So in Genesis 11 and 12 we are a couple of generations after Adam and Eve and if we haven’t messed things up enough already by eating the fruit and failing to do one of the two things God asked us to do, in Chapter 11 we are making sure that we really mess things up by failing to do the other one: refusing to move, refusing to go when God sends us.[2]
And by this time we should certainly know better. God has already de-peopled Eden because of the first sin. He graciously, however, let Adam and Eve live long enough to raise their own children, the first two it seems cause them a lot of heartbreak as their one son murdered his sibling – but even then God is gracious – Adam and Eve have more children and Cain (Genesis 4), the murderer, is spared the immediate death sentence.
There is even more that happens between the garden and today’s story of Babel that the people should know about: Noah’s Ark (Chapters 6-9). God has already drowned the earth and much of mankind in His sorrow and has, in his love for Noah, not only spared Noah and his family but also bound Himself through a covenant never to destroy the earth with a flood again and - even more than that – God set his rainbow in the sky to remind us of this (Genesis 9:1-17). Our God is all-powerful and our God is gracious.[3]
But even with all of this history. Even with the signature of God written with a rainbow upon the covenant and set in the heavens above for all to see (Genesis 9:17). Even with all of this…the first thing God told mankind to do when He created us was to go, scatter, fill the earth and the first story recorded after the flood episode and after Noah and his sons die, the first thing it is recorded we do in the very first narrative in Chapter 11 is to dig our heals in and refuse to move. We are given the commission to go and fill the earth and instead we build a city with a tower and say, ‘thanks but no thanks God, I think I’ll decline the orders to move.’[4] In Genesis 11 they want to make a name for themselves by disobeying God and remaining behind after He has tells them to scatter, go, and fill the earth.
Now, of course, God vetoes their request to stay and just to show that He isn’t eternally angry He gives them a bit of a going away present – He gives them the gift of tongues, so to speak (Cf. Acts 2).[5] He confuses their language. They stop building this city and they stop building this tower and they go forth and fill the earth. There is a little bit of irony here too. They wanted to stay and build the city and the tower so that they could make a name for themselves by working together and staying put and now they have been remembered throughout history for just the opposite: becoming divided and scattering.
God will fulfill His promises whether we willingly follow along or not (cf. Romans 3:3,4) and in Genesis 11, we have the story of some people who suffered the results of disobeying God and staying behind when he told them to move but the story of humankind and God’s blessing doesn’t end here any more than the flood story ended with the destruction of man’s evil plans. Just like God saved humankind from the flood and blesses the world through His covenant with Noah (Genesis 6-9), if we flip to the end of Chapter 11, we see that God prompts someone to move again so that He can bless his descendents and the world through them. Terence E. Fretheim tells us that the journey of Abraham’s family from Ur can be understood as part of the migration from Babel.[6] Genesis 11:31 records, “Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.” He stopped. He started to move to Canaan, he stopped but even though he stopped, God didn’t stop there, Genesis 12:1-4:
The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
So in Genesis 11 and 12 we are a couple of generations after Adam and Eve and if we haven’t messed things up enough already by eating the fruit and failing to do one of the two things God asked us to do, in Chapter 11 we are making sure that we really mess things up by failing to do the other one: refusing to move, refusing to go when God sends us.[2]
And by this time we should certainly know better. God has already de-peopled Eden because of the first sin. He graciously, however, let Adam and Eve live long enough to raise their own children, the first two it seems cause them a lot of heartbreak as their one son murdered his sibling – but even then God is gracious – Adam and Eve have more children and Cain (Genesis 4), the murderer, is spared the immediate death sentence.
There is even more that happens between the garden and today’s story of Babel that the people should know about: Noah’s Ark (Chapters 6-9). God has already drowned the earth and much of mankind in His sorrow and has, in his love for Noah, not only spared Noah and his family but also bound Himself through a covenant never to destroy the earth with a flood again and - even more than that – God set his rainbow in the sky to remind us of this (Genesis 9:1-17). Our God is all-powerful and our God is gracious.[3]
But even with all of this history. Even with the signature of God written with a rainbow upon the covenant and set in the heavens above for all to see (Genesis 9:17). Even with all of this…the first thing God told mankind to do when He created us was to go, scatter, fill the earth and the first story recorded after the flood episode and after Noah and his sons die, the first thing it is recorded we do in the very first narrative in Chapter 11 is to dig our heals in and refuse to move. We are given the commission to go and fill the earth and instead we build a city with a tower and say, ‘thanks but no thanks God, I think I’ll decline the orders to move.’[4] In Genesis 11 they want to make a name for themselves by disobeying God and remaining behind after He has tells them to scatter, go, and fill the earth.
Now, of course, God vetoes their request to stay and just to show that He isn’t eternally angry He gives them a bit of a going away present – He gives them the gift of tongues, so to speak (Cf. Acts 2).[5] He confuses their language. They stop building this city and they stop building this tower and they go forth and fill the earth. There is a little bit of irony here too. They wanted to stay and build the city and the tower so that they could make a name for themselves by working together and staying put and now they have been remembered throughout history for just the opposite: becoming divided and scattering.
God will fulfill His promises whether we willingly follow along or not (cf. Romans 3:3,4) and in Genesis 11, we have the story of some people who suffered the results of disobeying God and staying behind when he told them to move but the story of humankind and God’s blessing doesn’t end here any more than the flood story ended with the destruction of man’s evil plans. Just like God saved humankind from the flood and blesses the world through His covenant with Noah (Genesis 6-9), if we flip to the end of Chapter 11, we see that God prompts someone to move again so that He can bless his descendents and the world through them. Terence E. Fretheim tells us that the journey of Abraham’s family from Ur can be understood as part of the migration from Babel.[6] Genesis 11:31 records, “Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.” He stopped. He started to move to Canaan, he stopped but even though he stopped, God didn’t stop there, Genesis 12:1-4:
The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
And so it is with Julie as she will embark on her mission journey that she has told us about today and so it will be with Dusty and Laurie as they follow the Lord’s leading into Officership which has been confirmed this week and so it should be for all of us. My question for us today is simply this. Is God calling you to follow Him into Ministry and if He is what are you going to do about it: are you going to stay behind and try to make a name for yourself or are you going to follow God into His blessing so that others may even yet be blessed through you? Let us pray.
[1] Based on an earlier sermon and article: Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Genesis 11:1-8, 31-12:4: So that we can make a name for ourselves’, presented to the Nipawin Corps, 14 June 2009. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/06/genesis-111-8-31-124-so-that-we-can.html And Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Genesis 11:1-8, 31-12:4: So that we can make a name for ourselves’, Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 70, December 2010 – January 2011, pp. 32-35. Available on-line: http://www.armybarmy.com/JAC/article5-70.html
[2] Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), p. 412
[3] Cf. John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Genesis/Exposition of Genesis/I. Introduction to the Patriarchs and the Sinai Covenant (1:1-11:26)/E. The City of Babylon (11:1-9), Book Version: 4.0.2
[4] Cf. Brueggemann, Interpretation: Genesis,(John Knox Press: Atlanta, Georgia), 1982, pp.97-104 and Michael K. Chung , ‘The Narrative of the Tower of Babel in Dialogue with Postmodern Christianity’, Presented to Fuller Theological Seminary (Fall 2005), P. 7.
[5] Cf. R.C.H Lenski, The Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles. (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 62.But cf. also Robert W. Wall, Acts. (NIB X: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2002), 55.
[6] Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), p. 411.
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