The other day, I was struck by this statement of Paul’s in his address to the Areopagus: “He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” (Acts 17:26-27) That is, the Lord placed each nation in its particular place, within its particular borders, for the purpose (amongst others, no doubt) of encouraging them to seek him out.
The Lord did this back in Genesis 11. There we read of how all mankind spoke one language and lived in one place. In their vanity, they worked together to build a tower up to the sky so that they might make a permanent name for themselves. The Lord chose to frustrate their vanity and reserve the heavens for himself. “Therefore the name of it was called Babel, because Yahweh confused the language of all the earth, there. From there, Yahweh scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.” (Genesis 11:9)
I had seen Babel as punishment, but Paul sees it as grace. The Lord prevented mankind from competing with him, from trying to contest his ownership of the heavens. He took away their common language and flattened their tower by spreading them over the face of the earth. The Lord took away their vanity and pride so that they would stop trying to take over the heavens. He humbled them so they might become humble. In their humility, they might realize they were not the Lord’s competitors, but his creatures. Perhaps they would realize they were sinners whose only hope before this clearly Almighty God would be to appeal to his mercy. Perhaps they would stop gazing covetously at the heavens and look for an almighty and merciful Lord around themselves. After all, he is not far from each one of us.
A prooftext for God’s omnipresence, surely. But also a reminder that God did not reserve the heavens for himself. Instead, he left the heavens to dwell not far from us, to dwell with and amongst us, to suffer and die for us, and in his good time and good pleasure to raise us up with him so that, just as he ascended back up to the heavens after his crucifixion and resurrection, we might rise up to greet him, and dwell with him, in the glorious heavens to come.
And still, he is not far from each one of us.
The Lord did this back in Genesis 11. There we read of how all mankind spoke one language and lived in one place. In their vanity, they worked together to build a tower up to the sky so that they might make a permanent name for themselves. The Lord chose to frustrate their vanity and reserve the heavens for himself. “Therefore the name of it was called Babel, because Yahweh confused the language of all the earth, there. From there, Yahweh scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.” (Genesis 11:9)
I had seen Babel as punishment, but Paul sees it as grace. The Lord prevented mankind from competing with him, from trying to contest his ownership of the heavens. He took away their common language and flattened their tower by spreading them over the face of the earth. The Lord took away their vanity and pride so that they would stop trying to take over the heavens. He humbled them so they might become humble. In their humility, they might realize they were not the Lord’s competitors, but his creatures. Perhaps they would realize they were sinners whose only hope before this clearly Almighty God would be to appeal to his mercy. Perhaps they would stop gazing covetously at the heavens and look for an almighty and merciful Lord around themselves. After all, he is not far from each one of us.
A prooftext for God’s omnipresence, surely. But also a reminder that God did not reserve the heavens for himself. Instead, he left the heavens to dwell not far from us, to dwell with and amongst us, to suffer and die for us, and in his good time and good pleasure to raise us up with him so that, just as he ascended back up to the heavens after his crucifixion and resurrection, we might rise up to greet him, and dwell with him, in the glorious heavens to come.
And still, he is not far from each one of us.
1 comment:
You need to get mild concussions more often, if these three blog entries are any indication of what you are capable of (typed from a hospital chair as you waited for your wife to come retrieve you from Nebraska, where you rolled your truck a few times!).
Please do not examine the above sentence/paragraph for style.
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