Babylon And Canaan

by J.L. Ferguson | Category: God's Centre And Man's Centre | Feb 1963

God passes over well-nigh the first two thousand years of human history in the short space of the opening ten chapters of Genesis. It is a book of generations. We read, for example, of "the book of the generations of Adam" (Genesis 5.1), an expression only used elsewhere of the second Man, "the book of the generation of Jesus Christ " (Matthew 1.1). Then there were "the generations of Noah" (6.9), "the generations of the sons of Noah" (10.1), and "the generations of Shem" (11.10). But when we reach "the generations of Terah" (11.27) the main line of divine purpose in the Bible is unfolding. Thereafter we have a series of selected incidents and sayings, so set out as to form a continuous history of the people whom God chose from the loins of Abraham."

In the years following the expulsion from Eden we have traced for us the Cain line and the Seth line. Cain's son Enoch was a citybuilder. Another descendant showed the way to communal tentdwelling and cattle owning. Another brought in instruments of music; another, the craftsmanship of brass and iron. But in it all there is no indication of the knowledge of God. It must therefore have been a wholly corrupt, albeit impressive civilization, which was brought to an end by the Flood.

A cleansed earth soon saw the decline of the offspring of Noah in rapid moral decay. His great grandson through Cush was Nimrod, whose name probably is derived from Hebrew Marad, "to rebel." (See Gesenius, p.552 (a)). His description is significant, "a mighty hunter before the LORD". He was an early reversion in the new world to the men of the old Cain line. He was doubtless, whatever else, a hunter of the sort described in Micah 7.2. His hunting was in the field of the souls of men, where the city he founded will yet in its final form, traffic again. The expression "before the LORD" is not one of virtue. Rather it echoes from Genesis 6.11. Human sin is all known to God.

Nimrod had all the makings of a mighty empire-builder. First, he built four cities in the land of Shinar. Then, restless in ambition, he went into the land of Assyria and built cities there. He laid the beginnings of both the Babylonian and the Assyrian Empires. And as was the man, so were the empires to be. In all probability Genesis 11. 1-9 came historically before Genesis 10. 10. In which case as was the man, so also was his own generation. They sought a city and a tower which would reach to heaven, for to go out into space is an ancient human craving. There was a centre for man, but there is no record of a shred of the fear of God manifest among them. So the LORD scattered the proud in the imagination of their wicked hearts, scattered them through the confounding of their tongues. And though they were still proud in their scattered state, yet by reason of language barriers sin would now be enclosed and kept in some measure of cheek.

So by the time we reach Genesis 11 some two thousand years of human history have passed without any pattern of life emerging in the page of Scripture which would be to the pleasure or glory of God. It was not that the arts and sciences had not progressed. Far from it. Keller in "The Bible as History" writes of the archaeologists' discoveries of the Chaldean civilization as follows :"Under the red slopes of Tell al Muqayyar lay a whole city, bathed in the bright sunshine, awakened from its long sleep after many thousand years by the patient burrowing of the archaeologists. Woolley and his companions were beside themselves with joy. For before them lay Ur, the" Ur of the Chaldees" to which the Bible refers.

And how well its citizens lived, and in what spacious homes! No other Mesopotamian city has revealed such handsome and comfortable houses.

Compared with them the dwelling-houses which have been preserved in Babylon are modest, in fact miserable. Professor Koldeway, during German excavations there at the beginning of this century, found nothing but simple mud brick erections, one storey high with three or four rooms surrounding an open courtyard. That was how people lived about 600 B.C. in the much admired and extolled metropolis of Nebuchadnezzar the Great of Babylon. But 1,500 years before that the citizens of Ur were living in large two-storied villas with thirteen or fourteen rooms. The lower floor was solidly built of burnt brick, the upper floor of mud brick. The walls were neatly coated with plaster and whitewashed.... Ur of the Chaldees was a powerful, prosperous, colourful and busy capital at the beginning of the second millennium B.C."

But to us the chief point is-there was nothing there for God. The knowledge of His ways had died out in an age of prosperous materialism. The waters of sin were covering the earth and there was no place for Him to rest. He had no centre to which the godly might entreat, "0 send out Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me: let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy" (Psalm 43.8, 4). Centuries later Joshua said, "Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed" (Joshua 24.2, 3). The God who had the residue of the Spirit was in search of a godly seed. So he chose one solitary man, Abraham (Malachi 2.15), and in him He caused His great purposes to develop, whereby the tabernacle of God would one day be with men.

Babel means "confusion," and in the Babylonish confusion there was no centre for the God to rest whose ways are beautifully ordered and sure. In the divine mind was the glorious plan to establish in a land of their own a nation which would be uniquely His, and of whom one would centuries later write, "Who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen" (Romans 9.4, 5). There in the midst of that people would be the divine centre, the Place of the Name.

From the call of Abram till the children of Israel entered Canaan was a period of about four hundred and seventy years. There is no hurry in the ways of God. Moses sang prophetically on the shores of the Red Sea, "Till the people pass over which Thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, The place, 0 LORD, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in, The sanctuary, 0 Lord1 which Thy hands have established. The LORD shall reign for ever and ever" (Exodus 15.1648).

There was nothing of or for God in the feverish ambitions of Babel. But in Canaan's land, His people would build Him a sanctuary and He would dwell at rest among them. In all the places of their sojourning He too would walk, in tent and in tabernacle, until a man would arise who was after His own heart and then He would build His dwelling place on the heights of the Mount Zion which He loved - His centre.

Man's centre - God's centre. Today there is still "a great gulf fixed " although we are thankful for all those who are passing into the sphere of the divine will. We live in a day of subtle materialism, with mammon securely enthroned in the human heart. A day too of religious self-choosing when the plain New Testament precepts which ought to form the basis of the gathering of God's children are manifestly set aside. A day in which even warm-hearted evangelical Christians find it expedient to jettison doctrines which assuredly accompany our salvation, lest the progress of the gospel be impeded. A day of ecumenical conferences.

Yet God's centre is outside it all. There are things which are "of God" and they must be kept apart as sanctified for the Master's use: the word of God, children of God, the people of God, churches of God, house of God, to mention only a few. No message from God to men was ever clearer than the New Testament Faith, "once for all delivered unto the saints." It sparkles on the page of Scripture for all to see. "They then that received His word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2.41, 42).

Children of God,

baptized in water by immersion and added to

Churches of God;

which were grouped in districts, such as

The churches of Galatia;

all of which churches were forming

The house of God,

where the gifts of the Spirit could everywhere function and the will of God could be uniformly administered by

Elders in every church,

which elders formed a united elderhood as expressed, for example, in the five Provinces to which Peter wrote.

Yes, one divine centre in which the Lord can rest, walking where He rules, and from which centre His light and His truth can be sent out for the guidance of His children to His holy hill.

These churches of God are in being today, integrated into a unity which can only be of God, and forming His dwelling place as of old. This magazine is their publication; and if readers wishing to go further into these matters will write to the Editors they will willingly be given every possible help.

J.L. Ferguson | Feb 1963
God's Centre And Man's Centre