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“Beginnings and Endings, Part V”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc6SSHuZvQE
We are continuing in our Series, “Beginnings and Endings.” This is Part 5. We have completed in the first Four Parts, our examinations of the aspect of “Beginnings” as they occur in both the Old and New Testaments. Tonight, as you might imagine, we will move into the aspect of “Endings.” As I begin this Discussion, I have accumulated five pages of just Biblical references. I have not yet added my own thoughts or any commentaries to these verses. My first thought is that we may be here for a while. Surely, there will, at the very least, be one – perhaps two more – Installments. Before we begin, I would like to share with you all an entry from the publication, “I Never Knew That Was In The Bible,” from their article, “END:”
“The word “end” is much used in the Bible, and its meaning is usually clear. In Jeremiah 29:11, however, the word occurs in the kjv in a passage which promises a future, rather than an “end” in our usual understanding of the word, to the exiles in Babylon: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” The Hebrew word is aharith, which may mean not only “the termination of a period of time,” but also “the latter part of a period of time,” or “the future,” or “prosperity.”
Which of these meanings it has in a particular case depends upon the context; in the Jeremiah text it appears with tiqwah, a Hebrew word for “hope.” The contemporary versions render “an expected end” (kjv) as “a future and a hope” (nkjv, nasb, nlt, rsv), “a future with hope” (nrsv), and “a future filled with hope” (cev). God’s assurance, two chapters further on (Jeremiah 31:17), that “there is hope in thine end” (kjv) is now rendered “there is hope for your future” (nasb, niv, nlt, nrsv, rsv).
Proverbs 23:18 reads in the kjv, “surely there is an end, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.” In the following chapter the kjv translates the same Hebrew words differently: “there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off” (Proverbs 24:14). The nrsv reads “Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off” (23:18); “you will find a future, and your hope will not be cut off” (24:14).
In Psalm 37:37–38 the word aharith is used in the sense of “posterity,” as was recognized by both the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate. The kjv renderings are “the end of that man is peace” and “the end of the wicked shall be cut off”; the nrsv now reads “there is posterity for the peaceable” and “the posterity of the wicked shall be cut off.” The nlt renders the verses as “look at those who are honest and good, for a wonderful future lies before those who love peace. But the wicked will be destroyed; they have no future.”
END IS NOT YET: The expression “the end is not yet” means that “further, often worse, things must happen or be experienced before a process, series of events, etc., is completely finished.” The saying comes from Matthew 24:6: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet” (kjv). The contemporary versions render the kjv “the end is not yet” as “that isn’t the end” (cev), “that is not yet the end” (nasb), “the end is still to come” (niv), “the end won’t follow immediately” (nlt); the nkjv, nrsv, and rsv retain the kjv phrasing. The parallel in Mark (13:7) has the same wordings as Matthew, except the nrsv, “the end is still to come”; the parallel in Luke in the kjv reads “the end is not by and by” (21:9).
Manser, Martin H. ; Fleming, Natasha B. ; Hughes, Kate ; Bridges, Ronald F.: I Never Knew That Was in the Bible!. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000, c1999, S. 137
Let us turn, now, to the Old Testament, and examine the occurrences of both the word and concept of “Endings.” We read in Genesis 2:2: “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.”
Albert Barnes writes: “Then finished. - To finish a work, in Hebrew conception, is to cease from it, to have done with it. “On the seventh day.” The seventh day is distinguished from all the preceding days by being itself the subject of the narrative. In the absence of any work on this day, the Eternal is occupied with the day itself, and does four things in reference to it. First, he ceased from his work which he had made. Secondly, he rested. By this was indicated that his undertaking was accomplished. When nothing more remains to be done, the purposing agent rests contented. The resting of God arises not from weariness, but from the completion of his task. He is refreshed, not by the recruiting of his strength, but by the satisfaction of having before him a finished good {work}.”
Although the word “end” does not next appear in the verses I am going to share, certainly the concept of “endings” is conveyed in the Fall of Man. Adam and Eve had not only enjoyed an idyllic life of ease, peace, pleasure and beauty, they were in regular communion with the Creator God Who apparently daily came down to the Garden to fellowship with them.
When the serpent appears and speaks to Eve, the potential for unspeakable catastrophe is introduced. Here they were, two people, living in Paradise with no one else who could invade their Territory, or threaten the perfect existence they had come to know, and I am sure, enjoy! They only had one Commandment to follow: Do not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They both knew, and understood the Law; it was neither ambiguous nor restrictive as the entirety of the rest of the Garden was available to them as an All-You-Can-Eat Buffet of unimaginable delights to the palate.
When tested by the serpent, Eve's immediate response indicated a thorough understanding of the only Law she and Adam had to obey. If fact, to the Law that merely commanded them not to eat the fruit, she added that they were not even supposed to touch it! They could have, if they wanted to, learned to juggle the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They could have used the fruit to play catch, tennis, or baseball. As long as they did not take a bite, they were safe from the curse that was threatened for eating it. But Eve did bite, and then gave to Adam who also partook of the fruit. And that was it... Paradise was lost. All that they knew: the innocence, the ease, the joy, the pleasure, the Buffet, and the close relationship they knew with God had all come to an end!
Matthew Henry writes, “We have here the arraignment of these deserters before the righteous Judge of heaven and earth, who, though he is not tied to observe formalities, yet proceeds against them with all possible fairness, that he may be justified when he speaks. Observe here, I. The startling question with which God pursued Adam and arrested him: Where art thou? Not as if God did not know where he was; but thus he would enter the process against him. “Come, where is this foolish man?” Some make it a bemoaning question: “Poor Adam, what has become of thee?” “Alas for thee!” (so some read it) “How art thou fallen, Lucifer, son of the morning! Thou that wast my friend and favourite, whom I had done so much for, and would have done so much more for; hast thou now forsaken me, and ruined thyself? Has it come to this?” It is rather an upbraiding question, in order to his conviction and humiliation:
Where art thou? Not, In what place? but, In what condition? “Is this all thou hast gotten by eating forbidden fruit? Thou that wouldest vie with me, dost thou now fly from me?” Note, 1. Those who by sin have gone astray from God should seriously consider where they are; they are afar off from all good, in the midst of their enemies, in bondage to Satan, and in the high road to utter ruin. This enquiry after Adam may be looked upon as a gracious pursuit, in kindness to him, and in order to his recovery. If God had not called to him, to reclaim him, his condition would have been as desperate as that of fallen angels; this lost sheep would have wandered endlessly, if the good Shepherd had not sought after him, to bring him back, and, in order to that, reminded him where he was, where he should not be, and where he could not be either happy or easy. Note, 2. If sinners will but consider where they are, they will not rest till they return to God.
II. The trembling answer which Adam gave to this question: I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, Gen_3:10. He does not own his guilt, and yet in effect confesses it by owning his shame and fear; but it is the common fault and folly of those that have done an ill thing, when they are questioned about it, to acknowledge no more than what is so manifest that they cannot deny it. Adam was afraid, because he was naked; not only unarmed, and therefore afraid to contend with God, but unclothed, and therefore afraid so much as to appear before him. We have reason to be afraid of approaching to God if we be not clothed and fenced with the righteousness of Christ, for nothing but this will be armour of proof and cover the shame of our nakedness. Let us therefore put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then draw near with humble boldness.”
We read of God evicting our first parents from the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3:22-24: “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”
Matthew Henry writes, “Sentence being passed upon the offenders, we have here execution, in part, done upon them immediately. Observe here, I. How they were justly disgraced and shamed before God and the holy angels, by the ironical upbraiding of them with the issue of their enterprise: “Behold, the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil! A goodly god he makes! Does he not? See what he has got, what preferments, what advantages, by eating forbidden fruit!” This was said to awaken and humble them, and to bring them to a sense of their sin and folly, and to repentance for it, that, seeing themselves thus wretchedly deceived by following the devil's counsel, they might henceforth pursue the happiness God should offer in the way he should prescribe.
God thus fills their faces with shame, that they may seek his name, (as we read in Psalm 83:16). He puts them to this confusion, in order to their conversion. True penitents will thus upbraid themselves: “What fruit have I now by sin? Have I gained what I foolishly promised myself in a sinful way? No, no, it never proved what it pretended to, but the contrary.” II. How they were justly discarded, and shut out of paradise, which was a part of the sentence implied in that, Thou shalt eat the herb of the field. Here we have, 1. The reason God gave why he shut man out of paradise; not only because he had put forth his hand, and taken of the tree of knowledge, which was his sin, but lest he should again put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life (now forbidden him by the divine sentence, as before the tree of knowledge was forbidden by the law), and should dare to eat of that tree, and so profane a divine sacrament and defy a divine sentence, and yet flatter himself with a conceit that thereby he should live forever.
Observe, (1.) There is a foolish proneness in those that have rendered themselves unworthy of the substance of Christian privileges to catch at the signs and shadows of them. Many that like not the terms of the covenant, yet, for their reputation's sake, are fond of the seals of it. (2.) It is not only justice, but kindness, to such, to be denied them; for, by usurping that to which they have no title, they affront God and make their sin the more heinous, and by building their hopes upon a wrong foundation they render their conversion the more difficult and their ruin the more deplorable.
2. The method God took, in giving him this bill of divorce, and expelling and excluding him from this garden of pleasure. He turned him out, and kept him out. (1.) He turned him out, from the garden to the common. This is twice mentioned: He sent him forth (Gen_3:23), and then he drove him out, Gen_3:24. God bade him go out, told him that that was no place for him, he should no longer occupy and enjoy that garden; but he liked the place too well to be willing to part with it, and therefore God drove him out, made him go out, whether he would or no. This signified the exclusion of him, and all his guilty race, from that communion with God which was the bliss and glory of paradise. The tokens of God's favour to him and his delight in the sons of men, which he had in his innocent estate, were now suspended; the communications of his grace were withheld, and Adam became weak, and like other men, as Samson when the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him.
His acquaintance with God was lessened and lost, and that correspondence which had been settled between man and his Maker was interrupted and broken off. He was driven out, as one unworthy of this honour and incapable of this service. Thus he and all mankind, by the fall, forfeited and lost communion with God. But whither did he send him when he turned him out of Eden? He might justly have chased him out of the world (Job_18:18), but he only chased him out of the garden. He might justly have cast him down to hell, as he did the angels that sinned when he shut them out from the heavenly paradise. But man was only sent to till the ground out of which he was taken. He was sent to a place of toil, not to a place of torment. He was sent to the ground, not to the grave, - to the work-house, not to the dungeon, not to the prison-house, - to hold the plough, not to drag the chain. His tilling the ground would be recompensed by his eating of its fruits; and his converse with the earth whence he was taken was improvable to good purposes, to keep him humble, and to remind him of his latter end.
Observe, then, that though our first parents were excluded from the privileges of their state of innocency, yet they were not abandoned to despair, God's thoughts of love designing them for a second state of probation upon new terms. (2.) He kept him out, and forbade him all hopes of a re-entry; for he placed at the east of the garden of Eden a detachment of cherubim, God's hosts, armed with a dreadful and irresistible power, represented by flaming swords which turned every way, on that side the garden which lay next to the place whither Adam was sent, to keep the way that led to the tree of life, so that he could neither steal nor force an entry; for who can make a pass against an angel on his guard or gain a pass made good by such force? Now this intimated to Adam, [1.] That God was displeased with him. Though he had mercy in store for him, yet at present he was angry with him, was turned to be his enemy and fought against him, for here was a sword drawn (Num_22:23); and he was to him a consuming fire, for it was a flaming sword. [2.] That the angels were at war with him; no peace with the heavenly hosts, while he was in rebellion against their Lord and ours.
[3.] That the way to the tree of life was shut up, namely, that way which, at first, he was put into, the way of spotless innocency. It is not said that the cherubim were set to keep him and his for ever from the tree of life (thanks be to God, there is a paradise set before us, and a tree of life in the midst of it, which we rejoice in the hopes of); but they were set to keep that way of the tree of life which hitherto they had been in; that is, it was henceforward in vain for him and his to expect righteousness, life, and happiness, by virtue of the first covenant, for it was irreparably broken, and could never be pleaded, nor any benefit taken by it. The command of that covenant being broken, the curse of it is in full force; it leaves no room for repentance, but we are all undone if we be judged by that covenant. God revealed this to Adam, not to drive him to despair, but to oblige and quicken him to look for life and happiness in the promised seed, by whom the flaming sword is removed. God and his angels are reconciled to us, and a new and living way into the holiest is consecrated and laid open for us.”
As we continue in Genesis, Adam and Eve become parents. They have two sons, Cain and Abel. In the same way it is almost beyond comprehension that two people were not able to simply obey one Commandment, we have here in the first two human beings to be born the next phases of incomprehensibility: The older brother murders the younger brother! There were only two people born on earth, and somehow they couldn't live in peace with each other. Violence and lawlessness slowly but surely becomes the rule of the day until finally we approach a second catastrophic ending:
The Flood. The population of the earth had degenerated to such a deplorable state that one of the most terrifying verses in all of Scripture defines the sorry state they had fallen to: We read in Genesis 6:5: “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
The Preacher's Homiletical says of the above: “Sin does not take long to spread. A few ages ago and it only existed in one or two hearts; but now it is almost universal in its prevalence. A little while ago the world was new and pure, dwelling in joy; now it is old in sin, contaminated by wickedness, and frowning with woe. There is a terrible contagion in moral evil. It soon spreads from the individual to the community, from the centre to the circumference of social life.
1. The organic unity of society is favourable to the spread of moral evil. The domestic life of man affords great opportunity for the progress of either good or evil. If an evil disposition, or a wicked habit gains possession of one member of the family, it is very likely to influence the rest. This intimate community of daily life renders the inmates of the household potent in influences which shall form the character and destiny of each other. The family bond is intimate, and sensitive, and one touch of good or evil passes forcefully through it into the human soul. And in common society itself there are many and varied connections which are fraught with potent influences to the mind and heart of man.
The master influences his servant; the manager influences those under his control; and the casual intercourse of daily life is influential in determining the moral character of multitudes. Hence a message flashed on the wires of our domestic and social being, reaches to known and unknown destinies. The words we speak to-day, may to-morrow determine the mental and spiritual condition of many people. Hence the conditions of our social existence are favourable to the dire contagion of evil.
2. The native willingness of the human soul to do evil is favourable to the contagion of moral wrong. Seldom do men need to be reasoned into the evil pursuits of conduct, and if they do, a fallacious argument is sufficient to convince them. They do not even require to be solicited or invited to the wrong, they are willing, nay, eager, to find companions who will join them in their carnal pleasures. The unregenerate soul goes in quest of evil, and will work it greedily. It has a native tendency to sin. Hence we are not surprised to find the world rioting in moral wrong, when it is utterly destitute of that love to God, which alone can keep it right. We have here the sad picture of a degenerate world.”
And next we read God's lamentable reaction to that degenerate world in Genesis 6:13: “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
Albert Barnes writes, “And the land was corrupt. - In contrast with Noah, the rest of the race were corrupt - entirely depraved by sin. “It was filled with violence” - with the outward exhibition of inward carnality. “And God saw this.” It was patent to the eye of Heaven. This is the ground of the following commission. The directions concerning the ark embrace the purpose to destroy the race of man...
The end of all flesh. - The end may mean either the point to which it tends, or the extermination of the race. The latter is the simpler. All flesh is to be understood of the whole race, while yet it does not preclude the exception of Noah and his family. This teaches us to beware of applying an inflexible literality to such terms as all, when used in the sense of ordinary conversation. “Is come before me,” is in the contemplation of my mind as an event soon to be realized. “For the land is filled with violence.” The reason. “I will destroy them.” The resolve. There is retribution here, for the words “corrupt” and “destroy” are the same in the original.”
God's judgment of the ancient world was not against all living things; He spared eight human beings: Noah, his wife, his three sons, their three wives, and male and female representatives of the animal kingdom. Of clean animals, seven pairs were saved; of unclean animals, just one pair survived. But even here, there was not a permanence. Noah and his family did not become a family ordained to live out the rest of their lives aboard an ocean-going Ark. The rain that fell for forty days and forty night came to an end, as did the waters of the Flood from covering all the inhabited land.
We read regarding this new end of temporary conditions in Genesis 8:1-3 and 6: “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; and the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated... And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:”
John Gill writes: “And the waters returned from off the earth continually,.... Or "going and returning" (s); they went off from the earth, and returned to their proper places appointed for them; some were dried up by the wind, and exhaled by the sun into the air: and others returned to their channels and cavities in the earth, or soaked into it:
and after the end of the hundred and fifty days, the waters were abated; or began to abate, as Jarchi and the Vulgate Latin version; which days are to be reckoned from the beginning of the flood, including the forty days' rain; though Jarchi reckons them from the time of the ceasing of it; so that there were from the beginning of the flood one hundred and ninety days; six months, and ten days of the year of the flood now past;”
F.B. Meyer writes, “Traditions of the Flood are found in every country, from the tablets of Babylon to the rude carvings of the Aztecs, proving man’s common origin. “God remembered Noah.” He could not forget, because He had entered into covenant with him and his. Though the floods have been abroad on your life for long years, God has not forgotten you. Sooner might a woman forget her babe! Noah’s window only looked upward. It had no outlook on the waters, therefore he sent forth the birds. Dove and raven issued from the same window, so the child of God and the wayward, willful child may issue from the same family; but the former cannot find satisfaction with what satisfies the other, but wings its flight back to God. Through God’s grace Noah stepped out into the new world-the world of resurrection. His first act was the burned-offering of consecration, which was followed immediately by promise.”
When the waters sufficiently receded, and the land sufficiently dried so that all who were on the Ark could open the door, and come down the plank to restart their lives, we read what should have been a new and good beginning based on a new Command from God Who saved them from drowning with the rest of the population: “Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth” (Genesis 8:17).
Further we read in Genesis 9:1, “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” The earth was formerly filled with a violent population. They, and the violence, were now gone. God instructs Noah and his family to “replenish” the earth.
Matthew Henry writes, “We read, in the close of the foregoing chapter, the very kind things which God said in his heart, concerning the remnant of mankind which was now left to be the seed of a new world. Now here we have these kind things spoken to them. In general, God blessed Noah and his sons, that is, he assured them of his good-will to them and his gracious intentions concerning them. This follows from what he said in his heart. Note, All God's promises of good flow from his purposes of love and the counsels of his own will.
Now here we have the Magna Charta - the great charter of this new kingdom of nature which was now to be erected, and incorporated, the former charter having been forfeited and seized. The grants of this charter are kind and gracious to men. Here is, 1. A grant of lands of vast extent, and a promise of a great increase of men to occupy and enjoy them,. The first blessing is here renewed: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth (Gen_9:1), and repeated (Gen_9:7), for the race of mankind was, as it were, to begin again.
Now, (1.) God sets the whole earth before them, tells them it is all their own, while it remains, to them and their heirs. Note, The earth God has given to the children of men, for a possession and habitation. Though it is not a paradise, but a wilderness rather; yet it is better than we deserve. Blessed be God, it is not hell. (2.) He gives them a blessing, by the force and virtue of which mankind should be both multiplied and perpetuated upon earth, so that in a little time all the habitable parts of the earth should be more or less inhabited; and, though one generation should pass away, yet another generation should come, while the world stands, so that the stream of the human race should be supplied with a constant succession, and run parallel with the current of time, till both should be delivered up together into the ocean of eternity.”
But they didn't multiply upon the earth and replenish it as God had commanded them to do. They congregated, instead, into a rebellious and defiant throng, following Nimrod, a leader described as “a mighty hunter before the Lord” (Genesis 10:9). The Hebrew word “paniym” translated “before” has been understood to denote opposition and impudence.
Albert Barnes further explains, “The expression, “before the Lord,” intimates, not merely that the Lord was cognizant of his proceedings, for he knoweth all things, but that Nimrod himself made no secret his designs, pursued them with a bold front and a high hand, and at the same time was aware of the name and will of Yahweh. This defiant air gives a new character to his hunting, which seems to have extended even to man, as the term is sometimes so applied. His name, which literally means “we shall rebel,” is in keeping with the practice of an arbitrary and violent control over men’s persons and property.
The good new beginning God had intended for the survivors of the Flood and their descendants, for the good of man and the earth, was once again defiled by sin and rebellion. Instead of a new beginning, another new ending had to be enforced. We read of God's review of the appraisal of this new turn of events beginning in Genesis 11:6: “And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.”
Of this new ending, Matthew Henry writes, “We have here the quashing of the project of the Babel-builders, and the turning of the counsel of those froward men headlong, that God's counsel might stand in spite of them. Here is, I. The cognizance God took of the design that was on foot: The Lord came down to see the city, in verse 5. It is an expression after the manner of men; he knew it as clearly and fully as men know that which they come to the place to view.
Observe, 1. Before he gave judgment upon their cause, he enquired into it; for God is incontestably just and fair in all his proceedings against sin and sinners, and condemns none unheard. 2. It is spoken of an act of condescension in God to take notice even of this building, which the undertakers were so proud of ; for he humbles himself to behold the transactions, even the most considerable ones, of this lower world. 3. It is said to be the tower which the children of men built, which intimates, (1.) Their weakness and frailty as men. It was a very foolish thing for the children of men, worms of the earth, to defy Heaven, and to provoke the Lord to jealousy. Are they stronger than he? (2.) Their sinfulness and obnoxiousness. They were the sons of Adam, so it is in the Hebrew; nay, of that Adam, that sinful disobedient Adam, whose children are by nature children of disobedience, children that are corrupters. (3.) Their distinction from the children of God, the professors of religion, from whom these daring builders had separated themselves, and built this tower to support and perpetuate the separation. Pious Eber is not found among this ungodly crew; for he and his are called the children of God, and therefore their souls come not into the secret, nor unite themselves to the assembly, of these children of men.
II. The counsels and resolves of the Eternal God concerning this matter; he did not come down merely as a spectator, but as a judge, as a prince, to look upon these proud men, and abase them. Observe, 1. He suffered them to proceed a good way in their enterprise before he put a stop to it, that they might have space to repent, and, if they had so much consideration left, might be ashamed of it and weary of it themselves; and if not that their disappointment might be the more shameful, and every one that passed by might laugh at them, saying, These men began to build, and were not able to finish, that so the works of their hands, from which they promised themselves immortal honour, might turn to their perpetual reproach. Note, God has wise and holy ends in permitting the enemies of his glory to carry on their impious projects a great way, and to prosper long in their enterprises.
2. When they had, with much care and toil, made some considerable progress in their building, then God determined to break their measures and disperse them. Observe, (1.) The righteousness of God, which appears in the considerations upon which he proceeded in this resolution. Two things he considered: - [1.] Their oneness, as a reason why they must be scattered: “Behold, the people are one, and they have all one language. If they continue one, much of the earth will be left uninhabited; the power of their prince will soon be exorbitant; wickedness and profaneness will be insufferably rampant, for they will strengthen one another's hands in it; and, which is worst of all, there will be an overbalance to the church, and these children of men, if thus incorporated, will swallow up the little remnant of God's children.” Therefore it is decreed that they must not be one.
Note, Unity is a policy but it is not the infallible mark of a true church; yet, while the builders of Babel, though of different families, dispositions, and interests, were thus unanimous in opposing God, what a pity is it, and what a shame, that the builders of Sion, though united in one common head and Spirit, should be divided, as they are, in serving God! But marvel not at the matter. Christ came not to send peace. [2.] Their obstinacy: Now nothing will be restrained from them; and this is a reason why they must be crossed and thwarted in their design. God had tried, by his commands and admonitions, to bring them off from this project, but in vain; therefore he must take another course with them. See here, First, The sinfulness of sin, and the wilfulness of sinners; ever since Adam would not be restrained from the forbidden tree, his unsanctified seed have been impatient of restraint and ready to rebel against it. Secondly, See the necessity of God's judgments upon earth, to keep the world in some order and to tie the hands of those that will not be checked by law.
(2.) The wisdom and mercy of God in the methods that were taken for the defeating of this enterprise in verse 7: Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language. This was not spoken to the angels, as if God needed either their advice or their assistance, but God speaks it to himself, or the Father to the Son and Holy Ghost. They said, Go to, let us make brick, and Go to, let us build a tower, animating one another to the attempt; and now God says, Go to, let us confound their language; for, if men stir up themselves to sin, God will stir up himself to take vengeance. Now observe here, [1.] The mercy of God, in moderating the penalty, and not making it proportionable to the offence; for he deals not with us according to our sins. He does not say, “Let us go down now in thunder and lightning, and consume those rebels in a moment;” or, “Let the earth open, and swallow up them and their building, and let those go down quickly into hell who are climbing to heaven the wrong way.”
No; only, “Let us go down, and scatter them.” They deserved death, but are only banished or transported; for the patience of God is very great towards a provoking world. Punishments are chiefly reserved for the future state. God's judgments on sinners in this life, compared with those which are reserved, are little more than restraints. [2.] The wisdom of God, in pitching upon an effectual expedient to stay proceedings, which was the confounding of their language, that they might not understand one another's speech, nor could they well join hands when their tongues were divided; so that this would be a very proper method both for taking them off from their building (for, if they could not understand one another, they could not help one another) and also for disposing them to scatter; for, when they could not understand one another, they could not take pleasure in one another. Note, God has various means, and effectual ones, to baffle and defeat the projects of proud men that set themselves against him, and particularly to divide them among themselves, either by dividing their spirits, or by dividing their tongues.
III. The execution of these counsels of God, to the blasting and defeating of the counsels of men, Gen_11:8, Gen_11:9. God made them know whose word should stand, his or theirs, as the expression is, Jer_44:28. Notwithstanding their oneness and obstinacy, God was too hard for them, and wherein they dealt proudly he was above them; for who ever hardened his heart against him and prospered? Three things were done: - 1. Their language was confounded. God, who, when he made man, taught him to speak, and put words into his mouth fit to express the conceptions of his mind by, now caused these builders to forget their former language, and to speak and understand a new one, which yet was common to those of the same tribe or family, but not to others: those of one colony could converse together, but not with those of another. Now, (1.) This was a great miracle, and a proof of the power which God has upon the minds and tongues of men, which he turns as the rivers of water.
(2.) This was a great judgment upon these builders; for, being thus deprived of the knowledge of the ancient and holy tongue, they had become incapable of communicating with the true church, in which it was retained, and probably it contributed much to their loss of the knowledge of the true God. (3.) We all suffer by it, to this day. In all the inconveniences we sustain by the diversity of languages, and all the pains and trouble we are at to learn the languages we have occasion for, we smart for the rebellion of our ancestors at Babel. Nay, and those unhappy controversies which are strifes of words, and arise from our misunderstanding one another's language, for aught I know are owing to this confusion of tongues.
(4.) The project of some to frame a universal character, in order to a universal language, how desirable soever it may seem, is yet, I think, but a vain thing to attempt; for it is to strive against a divine sentence, by which the languages of the nations will be divided while the world stands. (5.) We may here lament the loss of the universal use of the Hebrew tongue, which from this time was the vulgar language of the Hebrews only, and continued so till the captivity in Babylon, where, even among them, it was exchanged for the Syriac. (6.) As the confounding of tongues divided the children of men and scattered them abroad, so the gift of tongues, bestowed upon the apostles (Acts 2), contributed greatly to the gathering together of the children of God, who were scattered abroad, and the uniting of them in Christ, that with one mind and one mouth they might glorify God.
2. Their building was stopped: They left off to build the city. This was the effect of the confusion of their tongues; for it not only incapacitated them for helping one another, but probably struck such a damp upon their spirits that they could not proceed, since they saw, in this, the hand of the Lord gone out against them. Note, (1.) It is wisdom to leave off that which we see God fights against. (2.) God is able to blast and bring to nought all the devices and designs of Babel-builders. He sits in heaven, and laughs at the counsels of the kings of the earth against him and his anointed; and will force them to confess that there is no wisdom nor counsel against the Lord.
3. The builders were scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. They departed in companies, after their families, and after their tongues, to the several countries and places allotted to them in the division that had been made, which they knew before, but would not go to take possession of till now that they were forced to it. Observe here, (1.) The very thing which they feared came upon them. That dispersion which sought to evade by an act of rebellion they by this act brought upon themselves; for we are most likely to fall into that trouble which we seek to evade by indirect and sinful methods. (2.) It was God's work: The Lord scattered them. God's hand is to be acknowledged in all scattering providences; if the family be scattered, relations scattered, churches scattered, it is the Lord's doing.
(3.) Though they were as firmly in league with one another as could be, yet the Lord scattered them; for no man can keep together what God will put asunder.
(4.) Thus God justly took vengeance on them for their oneness in that presumptuous attempt to build their tower. Shameful dispersions are the just punishment of sinful unions. (5.) They left behind them a perpetual memorandum of their reproach, in the name given to the place. It was called Babel, confusion. Those that aim at a great name commonly come off with a bad name. (6.) The children of men were now finally scattered, and never did, nor ever will, come all together again, till the great day, when the Son of man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and all nations shall be gathered before him.”
Here, as we examine the “Endings” aspect of our Series, we have a record of all the good “Beginnings” God had in mind for His Creation which had to be abruptly stopped due to sin and rebellion: Mankind's habitation in the Garden of Eden, the population of the incessantly violent pre-Flood world, and the scattering of the descendants of the survivors of the Flood. In each case, we see mankind knowingly and defiantly going his own way, apparently thinking that he can do as he pleases without God's response, or his suffering any repercussions. In each case, we see a God Who says what He means, and means what He says. The Almighty moves, and, quickly, to intervene and bring to a end, man's noncompliant, intractable, and stiff-necked will to do things in opposition to the God's Will.
Next week, as we continue in the Book of Genesis, we will be introduced to the family of Abraham, and God's next effort to begin a good thing with mankind, and the endings that God has to impose because of the sins of even His chosen people.
I hope as many of you as made it tonight, can join me next week.
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Beginnings and Endings, Part V.”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on August 1st, 2018.