Gen 11:9 (Babel part 1) a babel fish and a beautiful bride

Gen 11:9   [the tower/city] was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth. (ESV)

Hope these blogs aren't getting too long. I'm really enjoying writing them. It's such a great way to meditate on God's word. Not as intense and scary as preparing for a preach, but more focused than simply reading the bible and thinking about it in my head.

Now it's time to see why I struggled with French at school. How much easier it would have been to put Douglas Adam's fictitious "babel fish" in my ear than learn page after page of French verb endings.

It turns out that languages were a spanner that God purposely threw into the workings of human culture and communication to make it difficult for people to work with one another. You see, instead of spreading out across the earth people had gathered in one place and built a tower to demonstrate their power and strength.  God steps in and fractures their common language shattering and scattering humanity into the nations. Even since then empires have risen covering vast regions of the world, progress has been made with ever greater technical and architectural achievements but sooner or later arrows, bullets or bombs have rained down and the sun has set over another "great kingdom" and risen on another.

While the world is still thick with conflict, as I write, nations and culture are being redeemed through the glorious gospel of Jesus, God's only son. People of difference races, colours, languages and likes are being painstakingly pieced together into one new humanity, one new man in Christ. A new eternal kingdom is growing up among the flowering and fading of the others. Hearts and minds are being joined across the fractured boundaries of a thousand tongues and for those with eyes to see it is glorious! Just as the redeemed relationship between God and man is better by far and unimaginably more glorious than before the fall, so the rejoining of nations is infinitely richer and more radiantly colourful than the homogeneous humanity that built an ill-conceived tower to the heavens.

When the sickness is healed in culture and evil eradicated, when different people groups are intertwined and united together in Christ, the result will be a bride of dazzling, jaw dropping beauty befitting her perfect groom. Jesus you are amazing. Your gospel is so much more than fixing me and making me presentable at your table. The Spirit and the bride say come! 

Does this have any practical implications for me apart from awe and worship? The fact that difference and diversity are united in the gospel to the glory of God means that I should seek to reach out to people from different nationalities, languages and dialects, build a church that reflects something of the cultural richness around me, and not be phased if God transplants me from my own culture to another. Closer to home it means that I can delight in the fact that my wife and I are different, and know and celebrate a unity that God has wrought in us. Tomorrow we celebrate 11 years of marriage. I can still see the moment in my mind when my beautiful bride came in to sight and walked down the aisle towards me. My eyes never left her for a second. God's plan for unity in diversity is truly glorious!

 Il adviendra en ce jour-là que le descendant d'Isaï
se dressera comme un étendard pour les peuples,
et toutes les nations se tourneront vers lui.
Et le lieu où il se tiendra resplendira de gloire Isaiah 11:10

Or as babelfish.yahoo.com automatically translates it from French to English:

It will occur in this day that the descendant d' Isaï will draw up itself like a standard for the people, and all the nations will turn to him. And the place where it will be held will resplendira of glory Isaiah 11:10

That place that will be a "resplendira of glory" is the church!