The Earth repopulatedAt this point the flood has been over for a period of time and Noah’s children have had children who've also had children. They are completing God's will and repopulating the earth as he commanded in the beginning. However they come upon the Land of Shinar and they have a change in heart. They are tired of travelling and their fleshly desires get the better of them.
Genesis 11: 1 - 9 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 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. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.The Tower of BabelThey want to make a name for themselves when they reach the plain. So they start to build a great city and a great tower. They are trying to reach God with their own works so they build. God sees all this and is not pleased. The people have lost their first love and that is the love for the Lord. They have gone against what God has commanded them and are now going against his will.
From Separation to Completion
God has had enough at this point and knows that the only way to stop the cooperation of the people is to separate them. The one way to effectively separate them is to inhibit their conversation. Thus we have separate languages and God's will is ultimately accomplished. This mirrors what God wills for our lives in Christ. He calls us to separate our actions from that of the world that our testimony would win them to himself.
To love something and set it free
The following in a variation on a tale handed down through the generations. One day a young Christian man met a very beautiful young Christian lady and they started to court. They became quite interested in each other and the young man was even thinking about asking her to marry him one day.
Unfortunately her father got a job in a different city and her family ended up moving halfway across the city. Now she was not at an age to stay back so she went with her family. The young man was rather saddened by this and went to his local church pastor and asked him what he could do? The pastor being wise in his walk with the Lord looked the young man in the eye and told him, "Son, now if God really wants the two of you to be together he will make a way. If you love someone enough set them free and one day if the Lord's will it is they will come back one day." Now the young man was looking for a more natural answer than this and was rather frustrated by what the Pastor told him. He left in angst but eventually resigned himself to finish his studies and went through Bible College.
Years went by and the young man grew in his walk with the Lord. He was now in his last year of College. One day a letter came to him in the mail that was addressed from an address unknown to him. He opened the letter and to his bewilderment it was from the young lady he had courted years before. She told him that she was coming to town to visit some of her friends and that she wanted to see him. Now he had forgotten what the wise preacher had told him years before but thought it would be nice to see her again. He made arrangements to meet her a couple of weeks later.
God's Love for You and MeThe time came and he took her out for dinner. They talked for hours and hours, they just picked right up where they had left off. She then told him that she had come back to town to stay. The weeks and months went by and they were now courting again. They grew ever closer in their relationship and the day came the young man now asked the young lady to marry him.
The wedding day came and they professed their love before the congregation with the same preacher marrying them as the young man had spoke to years earlier. After the ceremony the wise preacher handed the young man a card and in the card it read, "God really wants the two of you to be together and he made a way. If you love someone enough, set them free, and one day if the Lord's will it is they will come back to you, one day." God loves us enough that he set us free. He created us with our mind, desires, and dreams. He wills for each of us to come to rely totally on him one day. For those that are saved in his grace and mercy and serve him faithfully we will one day be at the marriage supper of the lamb. He will tell us, for what you have done and the time of service well done thou good and faithful servant.
