Bible reading for January 3 – Genesis 8-11

The flood changed a lot of things. After Noah left the ark, mankind no longer had the same kind of control over the animals – now they would be afraid of us (9:2). Man’s diet would change, no longer being exclusively plant-based (9:3). And people’s lifespans would shrink to the level we consider normal today (11:10-26).

But one thing remained the same – sin, the innate desire to pull away from God and to glorify the self. The flood could wash away the outer effects of man’s sin, but couldn’t penetrate the hardness of all our hearts (8:21). As a result, Noah surrendered to drunkenness, and Canaan despised his father for his weakness (8:20-22). The cycle of sin began anew.

And it quickly reached a new pinnacle of pride. In today’s passage, the people of the world decided to glorify themselves, to make a name for themselves (11:4). Instead of obeying God’s command to fill up the whole world with people (9:7), they decided to remain in one city (11:4). And as a visual expression of this pride, they began to build a mountain for themselves in the middle of a plain.

We may not try to glorify ourselves with tall brick buildings anymore, but don’t we still take pride in our engineering? We have built bridges across Lake Ponchartrain, and skyscrapers like the World Trade Center. We have launched ourselves into space, landing on the moon, and sending satellites to the farthest corners of the solar system. We’ve developed computers powerful enough to beat the world’s masters at chess, and connected enough to allow people all over the world to read these words as soon as they are posted online.

But unless we turn again to God, submitting our wills, our energy and our intelligence to His service, all these things will disappear. The Egyptians and the Hittites once dominated the Middle East, and yet even their languages are spoken no more. The Roman Empire once commanded all of Europe, but all that is left of it is ruins. Europe once dominated the whole earth, but tore itself apart in unimaginable carnage between 1914 and 1945. And the divisions within mankind, enshrined in the many languages given birth in today’s passage, will continue to destroy us until we surrender to the Prince of Peace and live by His law of love.

No, the waters of the flood couldn’t wash away human sin. But the blood of Christ can. Let us give ourselves to Him – and to one another – before it’s too late.

Genesis 11:1-9 (ESV)

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
4 Then 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, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.
6 And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
8 So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.