NO.10/ ON ANTICHRIST #3 THE PLOT THICKENS
“Sound familiar? This is humanism at its finest; same ideology, same everything.
But note what God did...”
When Adam and Eve transgressed against God, while the CONTENT of their world remained the same, the CONTEXT of how they viewed it had changed.
A great illustration of this can be found by observing that when created, "Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame." (Gen.2: 25 NIV). However, once they ate of the forbidden fruit, "then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." (Gen 3:7 NIV).
What happened? They were now getting "knowledge" from a source of information offering a new standard and CONTEXT to how they viewed themselves
It just didn't stop there. Along with a new way of looking at each other, this poison tree would change the way they now viewed their world.
"God blessed them and said to them, 'BE FRUITFUL and increase in number; fill the earth and SUBDUE IT. RULE OVER THE FISH IN THE SEA AND THE BIRDS IN THE SKY AND OVER EVERY LIVING CREATURE THAT MOVES ON THE GROUND." (Gen 1:28 NIV)
While it is clear God gave Adam and Eve dominion over all the creatures of the earth, somehow they expanded this thought to mean that they had rule over OTHER MEN. This is not a detail we're given in Genesis, but it should be evident from our own experience of the world that, at some point in time, Adam and Eve's children gravitated toward this BELIEF and began to form governments of rule which dictated the ways and means of others.
This brings us to Nimrod, a biblical character mentioned in both the 10th and 11th chapters of Genesis. Meaning "rebel or The Rebel" in Hebrew, it is thought by many scholars that this name was more a nickname capturing how Nimrod carried himself than his actual name (which many believe to be Gilgamesh, a historical figure of lore in many ancient historian's writings).
Nonetheless, Nimrod was one of the sons of Cush who was one of the four sons of Noah. Described as a mighty warrior and hunter before the Lord, Nimrod was part of a movement of men (all offspring of Noah) who scattered the earth after the flood subsided as their innate nature to "subdue the earth" kicked into high gear.
Nimrod himself is attributed with the founding of multiple cities as men scattered abroad, namely "Babylon, Uruk, Akkad, and Kalneh, in Shinar" (Gen. 10:10). As an historical "aside," historians have noted that Gilgamesh (again, believed to be Nimrod) hated God (YHVH) and believed in a philosophy that men were their own master of fate. This belief in and of itself is probably what moved Nimrod to found multiple cities, and also IMHO why he was a noted "might warrior." As master of his own fate, He was determined to succeed and compelled to "make his mark" upon the world.
This is where the story gets interesting.
"Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, 'Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly.' They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 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; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.'" (Gen. 11:1-4 NIV).
While there are lots of moving parts to this story, note WHY the people wanted to do build a tower: THEY WANTED TO MAKE A NAME FOR THEMSELVES. Translated, with Nimrod (the rebel) as their leader, this act of building a tower to the heavens was to be a monument to their direct defiance of God's rulership. THEY WOULD RULE THEMSELVES AND LIVE LIFE AS THEY PLEASED.
Sound familiar? This is humanism at its finest; same ideology, same everything.
But note what God did.
"If as one people speaking they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. So the Lord scattered them from over all the earth and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel - because, there, the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there, the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth." (Gen.11:5-9 NIV)Fascinating, isn't it? But here's the underlying point of the story. God DID NOT confound the language and scatter the people to stop them from EVER building the tower. He did so to DELAY THEM FROM BUILDING IT!!!!!!!!
That's what we'll talk about next time.
