At Church of the Messiah on May 9, elder Rob Wilson began his sermon with Gen 11:1: "Now the whole earth had one language and the same words."
He noted that the problem at Babel was the purpose for which the people were united: They were united in rebellion against God. And so God decided to divide and scatter them (v 8).
God's purpose, though, is to one day unite the world, with people calling upon God in unity using pure words (Zeph 3:9). The miracle of tongues at Pentecost (Acts 2) was a major step toward the reversal of the events at Babel.
He contrasted unity for the wrong purpose (Mark 15:13; Acts 19:33-34) with unity for the right purpose (John 10:15-18; Rev 7:9-12). That unity can be expressed in a diversity of languages---many languages, one devotion to God.
At Church of the Messiah in Xenia, Ohio, we have been following a lectionary that goes through the Pentateuch in three and a half years, with accompanying readings in the prophets, psalms, and New Testament. This blog chronicles things that we have been learning along the way.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Bible Thinks Workshop with Baruch Kvasnica: Walking with God
The first Christians referred to their movement as "the Way" (Acts 9:2; 19:9,23; 22:4; 24:22). They were people who walked with ...
-
Exodus 28 describes the special garments that would be made for the Israelite high priest "for glory and for beauty" (verse 2). ...
-
The Bible affirms that those who are generous with their assets will tend to prosper. One striking statement of this principle is given by...
-
In 1 Corinthians 15:3-9, Paul mentions a number of individuals and groups of people to whom the resurrected Jesus appeared: Cephas (Luke 24...
No comments:
Post a Comment