Daily Lesson for January 18, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 11 verses 1 through 9:

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.2And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.3And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.4Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ 5The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6And the Lord said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’8So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

“LORD confuse the wicked, confound their words,” (Psalm 55:9) the Psalmist prays.

And the LORD does this indeed. 

The LORD does not leave this world to its own devices, but — in the words of the prayer for the Holy Innocents — “frustrate[s] the designs of evil tyrants”.

The Tower is a symbol of might and strength and the wealth and power to uphold it. It’s design is meant to “make a name”.  But the LORD knows will never be enough for the tower builders to simply make a name for themselves. They will wish to do far more. As the LORD says, it is “only the beginning of what they will do”. Their purposes are much broader reaching, much higher in their ambition. They wish not only to build a tower but to build a city, build an empire.

But God does not leave this world to the fate of empire and empire builders. God comes down in the story. God intervenes. The LORD steps into history to thwart the schemes of wickedness. The LORD gets involved.

Their are many things which disturb us now in this world. There are wars and rumors of wars and weaponry whose powers are beyond comprehension.  As Dr. King said, “our technology has surpassed our morality.”

But the LORD will not leave us to our own devices. The LORD intervenes.  The LORD gets involved. The LORD comes down. 

Our God still comes down.