Word of Salvation – Vol.22 No.16 – January 1976
Confusion Of Speech
Sermon by Rev. C.W. Oppelaar, Th.Grad on Genesis 11:8b, 9a; Acts 2:11
Scripture Reading: Genesis 11:1-9.
Suggested Hymns:
Psalter Hymnal: 324:1,2,3; 379:1,2,3,4; 304:1,2; 384:1,2,3,4; 327:3.
“They quit building the city, which accordingly was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the whole world’s language.’”
“We hear them telling in our own languages the excellencies of God.”
Brothers and sisters, girls and boys,
There, in Babel the Lord confused the speech of all the people. I believe that the confusion of language was much more serious, than only that the German and French, English or Japanese language came into existence.
For, would it really be the intention of the Word of God to just tell us how the many languages in the world came into being?
The science of language could easily find that out.
The Lord does not reveal to us in his Word what man can find out for himself with his science. But what man cannot find out, cannot understand, that is what God reveals to us in the Bible.
Namely: the meaning of life, the origin of life, the purpose of life, and the salvation from misery and the guilt of sin. What no eye has seen, and what no ear has heard, and what has not entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for all who love Him.
There, in Babel the Lord confused their speech. That is much more serious than that in Babel so to speak Italian and Chinese came into being.
Oh yes, the difficulty of the many languages can be overcome. At school our children can learn several languages. At the International Conferences in a very clever way the difficulty of the several languages has been overcome, by interpreters and a special sound installation: you just take a special head telephone and while a Russian is talking in his own language, you can hear him in English or French.
And yet … do we understand one another?
The confusion of speech would still be there, even if all the people in the world would speak Dutch.
The older people complain that they can no longer understand the young people, and that they can no longer keep up with the time in which they live.
And the young people of today are shaking off all the talking of the older people: they can no longer understand what the older people say: or they just do not want to understand.
And what a misunderstanding between parents and children. Between employers and employees. Between the rich and the poor.
What a misunderstanding between the intellectuals and the workers. They no longer listen to one another. They grow away from each other. They no longer know one another.
At the meetings of the United Nations and in the Conferences between the East and the West the same word, but used by someone else, has a completely different meaning.
A great man once said: Man has his language to hide his thoughts.
And when the message of God about salvation through Christ is preached in the world? Natural man does not understand the things which belong to the Spirit of God.
Perhaps the confusion of language, that people no longer understand one another, perhaps that is at its worst between the many different Christian churches.
At least, that people do not understand each other is often felt in the churches in the most bitter and painful way.
In the great Reformation of the church in the 16th century the heart of the Gospel was again put in the right place.
And what is the heart of the Gospel? That the road back for a sinner, to God, is not a road from man to God, but the road FROM GOD TO MAN!
It is not a deed of the sinner, through his good, pious work, his sacrifice etc, but a deed of God’s sacrifice, God’s grace.
But congregation, although the church of the Reformation so courageously took up the fight against humanism, after a while humanism again came into the church.
The humanism, which had begun with the first fall into sin: We are as God, we decide what is good and evil, we do, we know, we build….!
That humanism again came into the churches of the Reformation. In many different ways it was again: pious man, trying to save himself.
And the strong church of the Reformation fell to pieces in a hundred churches and a thousand opinions, everyone talking at the same time, everyone arguing about his own petty opinions and theological systems.
People lost each other, became strangers for each other, and together made very dark the great work of Christ’s salvation.
Confusion of speech. Oh, it is much deeper than that there now are many languages. What is it? It is the big gap of no longer understanding each other as Christians. It is that the sinner is separated from His God. That the sinner is deaf for what his God has to tell him. How do we find back the way? The way to God and to each other? Not by putting some straw or hay in the gaps which separate us. And not by all kinds of philosophies and new ideas. For usually they are only a cause for bitter fighting. The way back, to God and to each other, wouldn’t that be the way of our Lord Jesus Christ?
That is the ideal of the Reformation. That is why this morning we deal with: THE WAY BACK TO GOD, AND TO EACH OTHER, THROUGH CHRIST.
On the pilgrimage of mankind to happiness, which we call history, on a certain day the people came to a beautiful country. Then they looked at each other and said: now we won’t keep on seeking, here we want to stay, here we will build paradise, the great happiness. Here we want to be safe and rich. And therefore they built a city, with a strong wall, and a high tower. And therewith they angered the Lord.
Why was the Lord angered by this? The teacher at school long ago used to say: those people were terribly rude, and thought they could do everything. So to speak they put up a ladder against heaven and now finally they would climb the ladder and would take hold of and bring down happiness and salvation and safety. Pure humanism, the teacher of the 6th grade at school used to say. But when people do as if they are so big and when they say they can do everything, and know everything, are they really so sure of themselves then, so safe, so happy, so big, so strong?
A boy, who is in his first year at high school, who already smokes so many cigarettes, that everyone would say: he is a man already … well, is that boy so sure of himself? And a world empire which tells us fantastic stories about rockets and powerful hydrogen bombs, just to show how very strong it is, well, does it really feel so wonderfully safe? Those people of so many centuries ago and the people of today, with their strong city and their strong tower, who do everything themselves, who build their own happiness and pluck heaven out of the sky, are those people so sure of themselves, and their salvation? Or were the people of those days and are the people of today only very much afraid, really?
There must have been a lot of those towers of Babel in the land of Shinear. There have been found several of them. They were tower temples. They were towers for prayer. Ladders, set up against heaven, to be able to flee to God. Ladders, to be able to get God down to earth. Ladders of frightened people who thought they could do everything, and who deep down in their heart knew very well they could not do anything. Towers of boasting which actually said: “Yes, we pluck our happiness out of the sky and out of heaven.” But which at the same time said: “O God, we put the ladder ready for Thee. Please, come down to us, for we are so afraid.” Little man, who wants to be safe. Everywhere men build these towers. The monk with all his hard trying in all his good works to earn heaven, he builds such a tower. And that philosopher with his humanistic optimism. That pious man with all his religious experiences. And that liberal man, that modernist, with all his broad principles and opinions. And peace? Who has peace with God and with himself and with his fellow man? Who feels safe and secure?
Therefore they called that city: Babel.
In the Babylonian language that name means: gate of heaven. But in Hebrew that name means: confusion. Yes, that is how it goes in history. The people in a thousand different ways want to make a gate of heaven. But finally it all turns out to be confusion!
But is that all that God in the Bible has to say about us and to us? Thanks be to God… no!! Much later a fleeing young man roams through a lonely, hostile country. He is a young man, who wants to get all happiness himself, for time and eternity. Therefore he steals from his brother, and deceives his father. He thought he had plucked happiness out of the sky, and that he had God’s blessing for time and eternity in his pocket. But he had nothing!! All those covenant promises, which he had seized for himself, they were empty, vague, meaningless! And very, very poor, and very lonely that night he lies under a cold sky, with his head on a stone. Everything spoiled, everything lost. JACOB!
But then it came. The real ladder from heaven. And the angels went up and down that ladder. And that ladder just reached his lonely, cold miserable spot. His life had become one big confusion. A Hebrew Babel! And God in His incomprehensible and unmerited grace made of it: A gate of heaven; a Babylonian Babel. How is that possible? How is that possible for all time and all people? How is that possible today, for an over-tensed, frightened, terribly clever and strong and yet so nervous mankind? How is that possible for you and for me?
In much later days the Saviour met a man called Nathanaei. And to him the Lord said: Nathanael, that ladder from heaven, which all people are looking for and want to build themselves: I am that ladder. That gate of heaven, that road to happiness! That is ME! Thou shalt see the angels ascend and descend on the Son of Man. That was the ideal of the Reformation.
Oh, what a wonderful thing if all churches, especially also the Protestant churches would return to that only gate of heaven, Jesus Christ. He is the only bridge over the huge gap of the confusion of speech between man and man and between man and God.
On the big pilgrimage of man to happiness which we call history, the people came into that beautiful country. They said to each other: here we will stay. Here we will stay together. No, we do not want to spread throughout the big dangerous world. We will stay together. We will help one another. We will protect one another. We will hang on to each other. That is security. That is power!
Well, that congregation, is still the same desire of men, today. Today, the big motto is: “Let us do everything, together! Let us socialise everything.” Today we have our world organisations, our UNO and our U.N.E.S.C.O. And three quarters of the time in the churches, in society, in the state and world politics is used for conferences to bring everything together! And yet … modern man is so lonely. He feels unsure, threatened, jittery with insecurity; yes very lonely. Despite all efforts in conferences etc. to come to a better mutual understanding, man feels hopelessly lonely! We do not understand each other! And when you are really down in the dumps, who then really shows understanding for and pays attention to someone else? Literature and the consultation rooms of psychiatrists, preachers and solicitors are full of people with many inward conflicts, cracks and misunderstandings. Why is all that? Would this perhaps be the answer to this very frightening question: people talk so much, and cannot listen anymore? Just look around you when you have a birthday party with 24 guests, friends, uncles and aunties: everyone is talking … and no one listens!! Everyone talks … about himself. My children can do this, and my car, and my television and my holidays, and I said and of course I do this and so on. Everyone talks. Why actually do we talk such a lot? For nobody is listening!!
Until the Day of Pentecost. Then the confusion of speech is lifted. Through the work of the Holy Spirit. Then on that day everybody understood everybody. Even if one would have spoken in Chinese, we would have heard it as English or Dutch. How was that possible? The Spirit of God came in the hearts of all the people, there. Then, people forgot to think about themselves. Then, people denied themselves. And they only talked about the great works of God. And when people do that, speaking about the great works of God, everybody understands everybody else. And if we would do all those things!!! All of us!
To speak much about God’s great works. If all churches would do that! To speak about God’s grace to sinners through the sacrifice of Christ. One day, when the work of the Spirit is finished, then people of every tongue will confess Jesus as God and Saviour. Then everyone will understand everyone else. Then all the tears of the lonely will be wiped away.
The people in Babel built a city. For in all their wanderings and seeking for happiness they longed for a home. Therefore they built a tower in that city, a high tower. They wanted to be able to see that tower, wherever they went, so that they would be able to find the way back. The way home. They did not want to lose one another. The way home. The way back. The longing for this way back home is rooted very firmly in all of mankind.
When man gets older, the way back … from all his errors and failings. The way back … Oh, if it would be possible: to once again make a new beginning.
Every man, even the biggest, the strongest and richest has deep within himself that longing for home, for quietness, for safety, a longing for a warm atmosphere where everybody can be himself, where everyone can be as happy and untroubled as a child. Oh God, give me a home Give me a big sign for the way back! Do we really feel at home in the Church? One of the ideals of the Reformation was: The church must again be our home! The fellowship of the believers, that is what we must have again! Is the church our home? Oh God, show me the way back, the way to Thee, the way to one another!
Congregation, God gives it, the end of the Bible says. I saw the New Jerusalem descending from God. The eternal Home. It comes from above, for no man can build it. And the gates are always open, for Jesus’ sacrifice makes the way back a perfect reality.
Infinitely big is the city, 2000 miles its length. 2000 miles its width, for God is waiting for all His children. The New Jerusalem, the ideal church, our Home, God’s Father-home. And the most fantastic thing about that city is that length and width and height are the same. So, 2000 miles is the height of that city. What kind of a fabulous city is that? 2000 miles high?
THAT ISTHE FINISHED TOWER OF BABEL!!! Our home is ready. God is waiting for us. Jesus has established the way back. His sacrifice on the cross brings to fulfilment the longing for the tower of Babel, which became a failure. His cross becomes the big sign for the way back. The old ideal of the Reformation: only through His sacrifice, only through His grace, only through His infinite mercy and compassion, it is the only solution for all people who lost the road.
YOU AND I…!
Amen.