By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé
In last week’s blog, we left you with God’s words, “Never again,” repeated five times as reflective of His state of mind following the Flood. We saw Noah building an altar to God and a new world being birthed – one inhabited only by righteous Noah and his righteous family. It looked to the human eye as though God’s desire for Eden to be reestablished was a foregone conclusion. God, of course, knowing the future, knew better. But, we‘re getting ahead of the Biblical story.
To repeat the above phrase, how things looked to the human eye, it seemed that Noah was God’s golden example of what mankind was supposed to be. As a result, he had found God’s favor. What must it have been like to, alone, in all the world, be chosen to be saved, along with his loved ones? What a high for Noah, what an affirmation of his life and the way he lived it! Spiritually and physically, rising above every other person alive, he had to believe in his own specialness.
To this, Michael wisely cautions,
“Be careful in this world not to believe your own press. Once you do that, the game’s over. It’s called on account of rain.”
Oh how true! After the rain of the Flood had ceased, there came another rain, one of sin reentering the picture of Earth. Scripture records it in Genesis, Chapter Nine:
“Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, HE BECAME DRUNK, and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders, then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.”
(emphasis added)
Genesis 9:20-23) NIV
During the entire time that Noah had been building the ark and was on mission for God, there is, in Scripture, not even a hint of sin on his part. Then, he was in close contact with God and all His instructions. In Christian parlance, we would probably term this amazing season as Noah’s mountaintop experience.
How easy it is to be obedient and on a spiritual high during such times! After the deliverance from the Flood, Noah had likely settled into everyday life but, having once enjoyed his intoxicating time with God, he apparently was seeking a shortcut back to that high. He found it in getting drunk on his wine.
Was this an isolated event in the picture of the society of that place and time? Sadly, no. As Michael well described it, others were also starting to “believe their own press.” Among those, were the people who settled in Shinar. 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…”
(emphasis added)
(Genesis 11:4) NIV
These folks were seeking their own kind of high. It wasn’t from wine; it was from self-worship. They, also, had come to believe their own press, their specialness. The thought of an altar to THEIR NAME was intoxicating to them.
What does this tell us about human nature then and now? We seek some kind of high as human beings. Why? We were designed by our Creator for this. Therefore, that desire is not the problem. The problem arises in the ways we seek to experience it. It has been famously said that there is no high like the Most High. How true this is! As stated, God created us for this and for that intoxication to be a result of our relationship with Him. It is when we search for it from other sources that we run into establishing idols and into “making a name for ourselves.”
Two points need to be made. First, note that the tower these people wanted to build was one “that reaches to the heavens.” This aspect of a high was a physical one in that it had height. Actually, so far, so good. They’re reaching for the heavens. This had spiritual potential. With the right intentions, it would have made an amazing altar to God.
But now comes point number two: their intentions.They meant to build, with their tower, an altar of sorts alright, but it was not to God; it was to MAKE A NAME FOR THEMSELVES!
What does Scripture say about towers and names? This connection between them couldn’t be clearer:
“The NAME of the LORD is a fortified TOWER; the RIGHTEOUS run to it and are safe.”
(emphasis added)
(Proverbs 18:10) NIV
GOD’S NAME is the TOWER of the righteous. When mankind started constructing a tower to promote their own name, this was then and, for that matter, remains today, sin.
Remember, in earlier times how happy God was when “people began to call on the NAME of the LORD?” (emphasis added) (Genesis 4:26) NIV. This, as we recall, was the beginning of prayer, a landmark event.
To review, what was the historical chronology? It is this: A people of prayer, followed by widespread violence, followed by the Flood and the saving of righteous Noah and family and a new chance at Eden, followed by Noah’s sin, followed by the sin of the tower to the people’s own glory. The plan for a resurrected Eden had failed.
Michael says it all:
“All these swirling tornados in the stories of all this – God is everything, but they could not see it.”
What would God do next? Was there another way to try a new Eden? He had vowed again and again that “Never again,” would he start afresh by means of a flood. But, having said that, start anew He would, though in an entirely different way, He would raise up a Chosen People who would, in a sense, begin the road toward the New Eden of His heart.
Michael says,
“ There is so much more to things than what we see.”
This was never truer than now, at this juncture in Scripture. How unseen all of the ramifications of God’s decision to choose this special people. In retrospect, we can see His intention to ultimately send Jesus through them and that, in so doing, He was, so many centuries before, moving Jesus one step closer to Jerusalem and to the cross.
On the other hand, there would be, with the Chosen ones, an all out effort, on the part of God, to bring Eden to a region named Canaan.
Once again, there would be covenant language, an altar and an attempt by God to do everything which would make the cross unnecessary. Did He see it coming in His omniscience? Of course. Would He give it all He had to avoid it? Without a doubt!
So, there was a man named Abram… Next week, we will meet him where God first finds him and begin the amazing journey on which God will take him. We will not just view all there is to see in this ultimate Abraham, we will begin to glimpse in this man, our own chosenness Michael and I hope that we will be able to well convey this to you. Michael often says,
“ If we are to truly find God, we have to look for Him in everything, for this is where He is.“ Surely, this is what we intend to do, as we continue the drama of history, the love story of the ages.