FOOLISH CLAIMS AND CRUMBLING TOWERS



A Sermon On:

GENESIS 10.1 - 11.9


PREPARED BY

KEN GEHRELS

PASTOR

CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH

NEPEAN, ONTARIO


"I'm sorry mom. I didn't mean to. Honest."
And with that, Sandra came out from the family room, bleary eyed from too many hours in front of the computer monitor. Cruising the net, chatting with cyber friends. Fun stuff. But she got so focused that she forgot all about a promise to take her sister to the library and get a few groceries needed for breakfast tomorrow.

Sandra got all absorbed so that the world was lost. But don't be too hard on her. She's by no means the only one. How about the puck hog on your team? Really a nice guy, and he means well. It's just that once he has the puck he gets totally obsessed with "go to the net, go to the net, go to the net." Can't see that he's being triple teamed while team mates are in the clear.

So caught up in doing their immediate thing that they don't see what's around them. Miss it completely, like the proverbial absent-minded professor who mumbles as he wanders around campus, absorbed in the intricate ramifications of Schrodinger's wave equation. Stuck in their own little world.

Today we're going to read about a group of people in that same situation - caught up in their own little world, unable to see further than the end of their back yard. We're introduced to their leader in a listing of the family tree that descended from Noah. His name is Nimrod, and we meet him in Genesis 10. He's a tough guy type of leader -- lots of macho, muscle and a few brains to boot. Develops quite a following, and with those people sets up cities.
Chapter 11 details for us his magnus opus - his career-crowning project.

GENESIS 10.8-112; 11.1-9 p.10



"Nimrod, Nimrod, he's our man. If he can't do it, no one can."
A descendent of Noah through Ham, who used his strength and smarts to build cities, lots of them. Everybody knew him. Think strong, think Nimrod.
Look what he can do - a superb inventor, developing advanced construction techniques. It seems that in the generations after the flood people had been using stone and mortar for their buildings. Now, with strong man Nimrod at the helm, they develop a new system with bricks of baked clay, and a binding compound out of asphalt, which was found in great quantities just below the surface in that area of Babylonia. (Remember this is modern day Iran and Iraq, where much oil is found.)
They work on it, perfect it, and take great pride in it. Another great accomplishment for them and their famous leader.
They're proud of it; see a future in it; so -- max it out, push the envelope:"Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
This would be it. This would establish their reputation as master builders, super humans, no matter what else happened. Their wonderful building skill and greatness would be the glue that would hold their human empire together. And Nimrod would be their king. Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the LORD, would now become known as Nimrod, the mighty builder, who really doesn't need the Lord. He can do it all by himself.

It's all they can think about. They eat, sleep and dream this project.
Nothing else matters.And the God who made them, to whom they matter, watches. A jilted lover. Left totally out of the equation, not factored into their vaunted formula for success in life. Like the parent calling Sandra, but calling in vain, God the heavenly Father wasn't being heard -- not at all -- by Nimrod and his gang on the scaffolds of Babel.
And so, God being God, unwilling to sit in the shadows and to be crassly shoved to the sidelines, God gives a simple wave of His divine hand, and scatters pip-squeak Nimrod and his gang like leaves in an autumn wind. Game over.
"Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves...."
In the cosmic scheme of things it is totally absurd. Look again at the context. We have just witnessed Almighty God sending a devastating flood that has killed every member of the rebellious human race except Noah and his family.
The scene we read about today is only a few generations after that. Everyone still remembered. Given what ch.10 tells us, Nimrod and his people were just beginning to repopulate the world. Now already they think they are pretty big. Pretty capable. "Can get by with a little help from my friends."
..... God?
.... Who?

It is totally absurd; as absurd as a fly, that lives in a 5X5m room together with an elephant, standing up and proudly proclaiming itself the most important and influential power in that space, and living in total disregard of the elephant.
One day, in its foolishness, it will get squashed.

It's really so terribly absurd that God even becomes sarcastic about it - Gen 11.6: "If they do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them." If you're wondering about that phrase, realize that it's said with divine tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Humanity raves and stomps around - Nimrod, the mighty warrior, with many cities to his credit; his people, gathered together at Babel, building the biggest and best yet. Overwhelmed by their own success -- just like that team mate who happens to make a few good fakes and rushes up the ice, scores a goal or two and suddenly thinks he's the whole team, Mr.Indispensable.
Till God cuts him off at the knees.

Nimrod's the first example of this sort of narrow, almost blind self-interest. But not the last. It's as if the Lord looked into the stubborn, easily distracted human brain and said, "No - they won't get it the first time. Better tell them again."

And so, later in the Old Testament we encounter great King Nebuchadnezzer, in Daniel 4, ironically also a king of Babylon. He looks over his kingdom and says "Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?" And God drives him to insanity so that he ends up living outside the city, driven away from civilization, no better than an ox.

Come the New Testament and Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool who says, "Self, you have laid up enough for years. Sit back, relax and take it easy. You have it made." That night God took away his right to live.

And King Herod, in Acts 12 - he appears before a crowd of his subjects, makes a speech and the crowd responds, "This is the voice of a god, not of a man." "Immediately," says Acts, "because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died."

Nimrod, Nebuchadnezzer, the rich fool, Herod. People with foolish dreams and visions; blinded by their own thoughts of personal greatness. People forgetting all about the One who is truly great, the One who demands an accounting from all His subjects, the one who alone is to be bowed down to and worshipped on account of his magnificence
- People forget about God Almighty.

The fellow for whom our church here is named, John Calvin, got to thinking about all of this and said, "If God isn't acknowledged, and doesn't give His blessing, everything we attempt is going to crumble into dust. God has declared war on the unlimited arrogance of humanity; anything we try to do without seeking His approval and guidance will end up, somewhere in time, as meaningless nothingness -- even if every creature under heaven, including all the angels, were to offer their assistance. (Calvin, Genesis p.331 adap.)

And so - what's the point?
Bottom line for you and I?

Well, finally Nimrod serves as a huge "Heads up!" for us.
His story is like those sets of sharp grooves cut into the pavement on approaches to stop signs; the ones that make a huge racket when you drive over them. They're meant to get the attention of sleepy drivers and warn them to wake up and pay attention.

Read Nimrod and wake up.
Stop your racing through life. Foot to the brake for a moment. Look carefully both ways. Check where you're going.

Tell you what Nimrod's trouble was. It wasn't that he didn't believe in God. He did. He'd be as ready as the next guy to admit that there was a God, ....somehow, ..... of some sort.
Problem was, he couldn't figure out where to place Him in life. So, like some consultant's report which is a square peg in the government's round hole, he shelves the idea. Nimrod figures he can reach for his faith if ever comes to an occasion where he needs or wants it.But you and I both know better. I mean - how often does the consultant's report come off the shelf once it's placed there?
And, let me tell you, while we sit here and say, "Not me, buddy, I'd never be like that" it's very possible for us to go down precisely the same road that Nimrod travelled.
Real easy.

Goes sort of like this.
We get busy. Set goals. Reach achievements. And feel good about it.
And there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with that -- at all.
In fact the Bible calls us to that -- to make use of the talents, resources and opportunities that the Lord puts in our path.

Problem happens along when we get so focused on the goal, and so busy, so absorbed, so tired - perhaps - in trying to get there that our Creator Lord gets squeezed out of the picture. It's when the projects, challenges and moments of life swallow up the space that has a reserved sign on it -- reserved for the Lord.
It can happen in some rather blatant ways. Like when we go full bore and get all tired during the week and Sunday becomes a day where all we want to do is kick back with a coffee and the morning paper. Church time, worshipping the Lord time -- " ah, maybe next week. Right now it's just too much to ask."And in the mornings, or evenings, we're just too busy to take time out for a few moments of quiet in prayer, and scripture reading. Mealtimes, at best, begin to feature a quick, "Amen, pass the grub" rather than a heart-felt "Thank-you" to Him from whom all blessings flow.
Or come time to buy a house and we reach for the absolute most we can possibly afford. And it begins to control us -- we end up working the extra hours to make the payments, leaving us unable to do any volunteer work for Kingdom causes, and - support them financially?? - sorry. Tithing -- don't think so.

Or when we head off to work -- consider for the moment. Why do it?
Just for the bucks?
To push yourself up the corporate ladder?
To do what you like to do, just because? Does it ever occur to you that God's placed you there. Do you do your level best in order to please Him? Do you strive to represent Him there as best you can, a public ambassador for Him? Or does He get stuffed in the hip pocket till quitting time?
Here's a challenge.
Take a piece of paper, and write on it the 3 most important things in your life.
Then write down the 3 goals you'd really like to see accomplished in the next 10 years, or 5 years if you prefer. Recognise this - in our lives, each one of us is building a legacy, a monument, a tower of activities and accomplishments by which we will be remembered. They'll all be different towers - but we're all building. Question is - does our tower have our name in blazing colour right across the top, proudly listing all the amazing stuff we did? Does it lift our name on high?
Or does it proudly advertise, lifting way up high where everyone can see it, the name of Him who has been lifted up on a cross in order to provide eternal life, new life, life as a child of the King of Creation --
life to you and me?

What do other people see?And, as He gazes into the private corners of your heart and mind, what does Jesus Christ see?While He was here on earth he said, "If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me." In the end, Nimrod lost it all. Because he got side-tracked, blinded, by stuff that in the end really didn't matter. It crumbled into dust.
God's simple word to us is - "People of God, heads up!"