Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “A City Called Confusion”. Isn’t it interesting that the end-time issue is the same as the beginning-time issue? So much so that the end-time power is named “Babylon”. A name dating back to the empire who took the nation of Judah captive. And that empire arose from the first real world empire near the beginning of earth’s history named Babel. There is therefore a similarity to all such human attempts to be “god”. To be “god” to oneself and to be “god” to everyone else. And that name is “Babylon” or “Babel”.
“Babel” in Hebrew means confusion, for at the time of that first empire, God confused their voices. The people in that early time were building a tower in defiance of God’s stated promise (“never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth” [Genesis 9:11]), and His explicit command (“God had directed men to disperse throughout the earth, to replenish and subdue it” [Patriarchs and Prophets pg. 118]). Therefore, God intervened and let the people have the confusion that reigned in their hearts. Confusion so blatant that they would distrust His promise and disobey His explicit command. In direct disregard and disobedience, they would band together and then conceive of such a plan… “to keep their community united in one body, and to found a monarchy that should eventually embrace the whole earth” and to build a “structure to a much greater height than was reached by the waters of the Flood… to place themselves beyond all possibility of danger” (Patriarchs and Prophets Pg.118). Hence the Hebrew interpretation of the word “Babel”… confusion. Whenever anyone disregards God’s promises and disobeys God’s commands, that one is surely “confused”.
But “Babel” does not mean “confusion” in the Babylonian language. To them, “Babel” meant “gate of the gods” (see SDA Bible Commentary volume 7 on Revelation 14:8). And this original definition helps us understand why the Bible uses “Babylon” as a generic term for apostasy. Sin can be defined as our human attempt to be “god”. Our refusal to have God as our Lord. And to have another “god”. A “god” of our own making. A “god” as we define Him to be, not as He really is. Even making ourselves our “god”. Here is the great delusion… the great confusion. For there is no God but God. There is no life in the universe but His life. And our craving to be autonomous (meaning self-government) is in reality self-destructive. It is separating us from our God, separating us from our identity, separating us from life.
God has made us to be like Him. To be loving and true. To be connected, committed and selfless. But we all bought the lie in the garden. The lie that our Creator God, our Father, is a liar and cannot be trusted. The compelling lie that each of us could be our own god… like our Creator God… “knowing good and evil”’ (Genesis 3:5, 22); deciding what is good and what is evil for ourselves. And so we become our own god. How confused! How lost! We crave the relationship that only our God can fill. But we do not trust Him. So we make our own “gate (or access) to god”. And if that was not bad enough, we then turn on our brothers and sisters and dictate, pressure and even compel them to believe-in and commit-to the god of our understanding. To believe-in and commit-to our interpretation of God, instead of believing-in and committing-to God Himself. So in this we are united to the world, committed to its wily methods. In this, we become Babylon. Like the Babylon of Daniel’s day. Like the Babel of Nimrod’s day. We become the determiner of God to man… and then use worldly methods to prevail upon others. And if we could, use the power of the world to compel. Shame on us!
Most of us are committed to the “what” instead of the “how”. We Christians believe that faith in God is our only hope (this is the “what”). Not always realizing that the real issue is “how” we come to such faith. Genuine faith is a personal commitment that each must make. It can be made in no other way. True Christians are those who voluntarily choose God and His methods. Not because they must. Not because they are coerced. Not because the law says so. Not because they are compelled. But because they choose… freely.
“Our will is not to be forced into co-operation with divine agencies, but it must be voluntarily submitted. Were it possible to force upon you with a hundredfold greater intensity the influence of the Spirit of God, it would not make you a Christian, a fit subject for heaven. The stronghold of Satan would not be broken. The will must be placed on the side of God's will” (Mount of Blessing pg. 143).
Babylon’s methods will not work. Only the truth, spoken in love. Only God’s methods will win us back to God.
“The truth is to be presented with divine tact, tenderness, and gentleness. It is to come from a heart that has been softened and made sympathetic. We need to have close communion with God, lest self rise up, as it did in Jehu, and we pour forth a torrent of words that are unbefitting, that are not as dew, nor as the still showers, which revive the withering plants. Let our words be gentle as we seek to win souls. God will be wisdom to him who seeks for wisdom from a divine source. We are to seek opportunities on every hand. We are to watch unto prayer, and be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks a reason for the hope that is in us. Lest we shall impress unfavorably one soul for whom Christ has died, we should keep our hearts uplifted to God, so that when the opportunity presents itself, we may have the right word to speak at the right time. If you thus undertake to work for God, the Spirit of God will be your helper. The Holy Spirit will apply the truth spoken in love for the soul. The truth will have quickening power when spoken under the influence of the grace of Christ” (Review and Herald, October 7, 1902).
AMEN! Babylon’s apostasy is in its interpretation of “who” God is and “how” God works. Babylon misinterprets God before the people. So the people end-up worshipping a false “god”. Babylon represents God “as severe, exacting, revengeful, and arbitrary… pictured as one who could take pleasure in the sufferings of his creatures. The very attributes that belonged to the character of Satan, the evil one represented as belonging to the character of God” (Signs of the Times 1/20/1890). It is the most dangerous thing to do… especially from those of us who claim to know Him. To misrepresent God before the people. It was Moses’ sin at the rock on the very threshold of Canaan. Moses’ misrepresented God to the people. Moses, whom the people trusted and believed to really know God. He struck the rock angrily and misrepresented God. As God said to Moses regarding this event, “you have not believed Me, trusted Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel” (Numbers 20:12 Amplified Bible). It is a terrible thing to misrepresent God!
Oh that we would never misrepresent Him! Oh that we would come to know Him as He is, not as we think He is! Let us pursue every avenue that God has given us to know Him, relate to Him, and thereby love Him is my prayer for us all. Let us not succumb to the temptation to be “Babylon” to ourselves or to anyone else.
With brotherly love,
Jim