Reading the Bible Together

The Passage for the Day

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that they were building. 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Points of interest:

•  ‘one language and a common speech’—in yesterday’s passage, we noticed the vast variety of land animals.  God didn’t simply fill the world with one kind of animal—golden retrievers, for instance—but with all kinds: sheep, goats, pigs, deer, snakes, lizards, panda bears, koala bears, polar bears, giraffes, chimpanzees, chipmunks, and on and on and on.  It was the same with plants, fish, and birds.  From the get-go, the natural world was a teeming diversity.  That’s not the case here with the human beings, though; they’re all golden retrievers, as it were.  They’re in the same place, speaking the same language, and doing the same thing—making bricks.  Initially, there’s definitely something alluring about this singularity.  It feels like Utopia: they’re all together, with a common purpose, accomplishing great things.  And yet, I can’t help but wonder if something’s gone wrong.  With the rest of the world presenting such an amazing variety, why would human beings be so monolithic? There are indeed signs that this isn’t how it was meant to be.  In the chapter just before this one (which didn’t make the cut into the top 42 because, while on topic, it’s a bit dull), we read of various clans, peoples, and nations spreading out into their own territories with their own languages; it’s the ‘according to their kinds’ list for human beings.  Yet, here we’re back to one language and one place.  It’s as if the potential for a diversity of cultures is there, but it’s being suppressed or held back.
•  ‘and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth’—in yesterday’s passage, God had commissioned the human beings to multiply, spread out, and fill the earth.  He repeats almost the same commission to Noah in chapter nine.  In both places, the Bible calls this mission a blessing.  Apparently, the people of Babel disagree.  They devise this entire tower-building project as a way to resist God’s call to multiply and fill the earth.
•  ‘But the LORD came down’—the tower is impressive enough that it gets God’s attention, but the Babylonians aren’t entirely successful in building a tower that reaches heaven: God has to come down in order to get a closer look. 
•  ‘So the LORD scattered them’—God will not be thwarted in this regard.  Since they will not spread out and fill the earth of their own accord, he forces them to scatter.  Spreading out into a variety of nations and languages is so important that God is willing to force it to happen.
•  ‘the LORD confused the language of the whole world’—in a way, God is merely setting things back on course.  There was always supposed to be a diversity of human cultures, but the Babylonians had put a barrier in the way of that natural progression.  God simply removes that barrier.  However, because God has to force it to happen, what was meant to be a blessing is tinged with curse: spreading becomes scattering, and the resulting diversity is marked by confusion and misunderstanding.

Taking it home:

•  For you: Has confusion been plaguing your communication with your family, friends, or workmates recently?  Ask God to help you bridge the communication gap.
•  For your six: At bottom, the whole Tower Affair happens to the Babylonians because they suspect that God means them harm instead of good.  Are any of your six angry with or suspicious of God?  Pray that God would somehow communicate to them his good intentions toward them.
• For America: Yesterday, we took a moment to enjoy the diversity our nation experiences.  I think it is indeed one of our highest ideals to be the kind of place where anyone, from anywhere, can belong and thrive.   In many ways, we’ve been able to accomplish a pretty amazing diversity.  In just as many ways, we often fall far short of our own ideal; we can end up behaving a lot more like Genesis 11 than Genesis 10.  Pray that God would forgive us for the ways we reject or mistreat those who don’t seem to fit in; and ask God to give us the ability to live up to our ideal of honoring diversity.

Jesus Clears the Temple Courts

¹³ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

¹⁸ The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

²⁰ They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

Jesus Greater Than Moses

¹ Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. ² He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. ³ Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. ⁴ For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. ⁵ “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. ⁶ But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.

Warning Against Unbelief

⁷ So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,

⁸ do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the wilderness,

⁹ where your ancestors tested and tried me,
though for forty years they saw what I did.

¹⁰ That is why I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.’

¹¹ So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ “

Not Because of Israel’s Righteousness

¹ Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. ² The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?” ³ But be assured today that the LORD your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the LORD has promised you.

⁴ After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you. ⁵ It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ⁶ Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

The Golden Calf

⁷ Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger of the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the LORD. ⁸ At Horeb you aroused the LORD’s wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you. ⁹ When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water. ¹⁰ The LORD gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the LORD proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

¹¹ At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then the LORD told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.”

For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.

² Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.

⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.

⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

⁶ Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

⁹ Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.

¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.

¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

¹⁵ Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.

¹⁶ You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.

¹⁸ May it please you to prosper Zion,
to build up the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹ Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
in burnt offerings offered whole;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.