Stephen
Terry, Director
All
Nations and Babel
Commentary
for the April 30, 2022, Sabbath School Lesson
"Now Cush became the father
of Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before
the Lord; therefore, it is said, 'Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.'
The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the
land of Shinar." Genesis 10:8-10, NIV
With the flood and the elimination
of the antediluvian world behind us, we could have started over and set things
right. Instead, we find things quickly going awry again. Like Cain, so many
generations before, Ham is cursed and his character that brought about the
curse influences his descendants. They produce mighty, military empires like
Egypt, with Put as an ally, and Babylon from which the Assyrians eventually arose.
They also settled Canaan, a land the Bible tells us was inhabited by giant
Nephilim who dominated the cities there up to the time of the Exodus. All these
civilizations would prove to be antagonists to the descendants of Noah's other
two sons. Therefore, we see the division of humanity once again between those
who follow God and those who choose to be independent of God's control.
This lends a mythological ethos
to the account like cultural origin stories for others who attempt to explain
ongoing animosities due to ancient curses marking enemies as evil and the
culture framing the story as righteous. This kind of narrative survives into
modern times as we can see with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No one can
say who threw the first stone or fired the first shot, but the flames of
conflict are nonetheless fanned by opposing mythos of who is evil and who is
righteous. Those cultural narratives allow each to spin the tale that they are
the godly line and will prevail over their evil opponents. But, it only reveals
that everyone is someone's evil. Even when the righteous have succeeded in
triumphing over the "evil" opposing them, with the destruction of their
enemies, they have also destroyed the check on the evil in their own hearts
which now has free reign to wreak havoc unopposed. For instance, during the pax
Judaica under Solomon the unchecked desire for power and control turned
inward, eventually splitting the kingdom and sprouting evil fruit that led to
corruption and assassinations. Eventually, the Jews became so corrupt their evil
could no longer sustain itself and the inner rot brought down the nation as the
descendants of Ham, primarily Egypt and Nimrod's Babylon made Judea their chew
toy. Babylon came off the greater victor, taking everyone and everything of
value to Babylon and leaving only ruins behind. Despite the Bible's tale of the
dispersal of the nations after the confusion of languages, Babylon never willingly
relinquished control over the rest of the earth. After Babylon's fall in the sixth
century BCE, and Alexander's later conquest of the city, even though it remains
in ruins today, the principles it extolled are very much alive, institutionally
if not geographically.
If the Bible were to have a different
name. were it not already taken, I would choose Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two
Cities." Written from a monarchist's point of view, righteous London is offset
against the evils of the French Revolution occurring in libertine Paris.
Freedom of expression in one is offset against the terror of the guillotine. Sydney
Carton, unappreciative of the freedom in London, squanders it in dissipation
and indolence when opportunity presents itself. But finally awakening to the
evil presenting itself in Paris, he gives his life in exchange for the life of
Charles Darnay, descendant of the evil Evrémonde family.
The Bible, at its heart, is the ongoing tale of Jerusalem and Babylon, one
righteous, one evil. While these may have been literal cities, their names are
metaphors. In those names we find "peace" and its opposite "confusion." Both
are found in Genesis where Salem is the city of Melchizedek and Babel is the
city of Nimrod and the beginning of his empire which will eventually destroy
the literal City of Peace. Despite the destructions of physical Jerusalem and
Babylon, this animosity continues to the end of the Bible where an angel
announces that "Babylon has fallen!"[i] and
the New Jerusalem replaces her rival on the earth.[ii]
The Bible tells us that Nimrod
sought to unite humanity under his rule until God intervened and it all broke
up into tribalism and confusion, then chaos and opposition arose. Since that
time there have been other Nimrods trying to unite the world under their rule,
usually by force. As Seventh-day Adventists we hold to the belief that that
will never happen based on our understanding of the image seen in
Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel, chapter two. Despite impressive empires such
as the Romans and the Mongols, no one has succeeded in bringing together the disparate
civilizations that cover our planet. Every attempt to do so has achieved the
opposite, sparking opposition both externally and internally that brings those
empires to their knees. Sadly, millions died in the process. We naively believe
that we are past all of that in our modern age. But death and destruction visited
upon humankind demonstrates we are not. Because such evil continues to breed in
our hearts, propaganda can easily incite resurrection of the murderous evils that
have continued to plague humanity.
These strongmen who seek to
impose their will on all others usually have little use for the Bible when it contradicts
their desires, but this does not mean that they will not use religion as a propaganda
tool to incite the masses to destroy those who would point out the
inconsistency between loving one's neighbor and destroying them. Making matters
worse, institutional religion, seeking power and control over the faithful, has
often sided with these dictators in return for the power of the state enforcing
their dogma over all who might be tempted to challenge the church's biblical
basis. Despite the humility that admits we are all wrong, we are all broken,
the church is often far more concerned about right dogma than about compassion,
empathy, and healing.
Our human tendency is to attempt
overcoming the confusion of Babel and seeking out those who are like us,
creating echo chambers that continually reinforce the idea that we are right
and everyone else needs to be fixed to see things the way we do. However, this
encourages demagoguery. The temptation to say exactly what people are wanting
to believe to create a following that will eventually build into political
power is often stronger than our selfish hearts can resist. Eventually, we can lose
control of our echo chamber when it gets subverted to the demagogue's purpose.
We are then left with the stark choice of becoming sycophants to that purpose
or being ostracized from the group we created. Long before social media
expedited this process, Ernst Röhm saw the truth of it when he lost his life on
the Night of the Long Knives after he was seen as a threat to Hitler's ongoing and
ever-increasing grasp for power. Sadly, because the demagogue panders to our
own desire for power in what we may feel is a powerless life, we are reluctant
to challenge the very force setting us up for destruction. This is especially true
if the demagogue has granted us any small power over others, for they will
remind us of the possibility of losing that power.
In the end, we cannot escape the
confusion of Babel through our own efforts. Peace can only come through
surrender to the author of peace, Jesus Christ. He is more than willing to
provide it. He said, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not
give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not
be afraid." (John 14:27) This peace is anathema to those who crave power at any
cost. Therefore, they will oppose it and what was intended as a blessing for
all will be seen as a divisive challenge. When that happens, Jesus advises, "I
have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you
will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
This is why books like Daniel are so important for that peace.
They reveal that the dictators do not win in the end. Like those who were
destroyed by the deluge while going about their lives indifferent to the evil
that had consumed their hearts, those who continue in that ancient immorality,
abusing and subjugating their fellow human beings, will continue those
activities, pursuing normal daily business until the flames of their evil consume
the world. With over 12,000 nuclear missiles at the disposal of the Untied States
and Russia, only the sanity of a few keeps that thread from unraveling, and
that sanity comes ever more into question, especially if a totalitarian hand on
the trigger suffers from a fatal medical diagnosis. Would they choose to take
the world with them? The only hope in the face of that potential for oblivion
is the promise of the resurrection. The earnest has been paid on our behalf
that we may have the resurrection promised. For that reason, despite the chaos
and confusion that are reigning in this world, we should not fear death. In
this, Christ is not only our redeemer. He is our example, both in life and
death.
Paul wrote to the Corinthian
church, "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been
raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is
your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God,
for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did
not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not
raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been
raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who
have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in
Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." (1 Corinthians 15:13-19) The
essence of our faith is the resurrection, and the importance of the
resurrection is an end to the fear of death. This is the limit of their power for
all demagogues. The fear of death at their hands is their ultimate weapon. Therefore,
they try hard to eliminate belief in God who alone has the real power of life
or death.