The Book of Leviticus is about God gathering mankind unto Himself! The Biblical Tower of Babel Account is about God scattering mankind across the face of the earth!
Polar opposites, it seems!
The former (Leviticus) is about the forgiveness of sin … the latter (Tower of Babel) about the growth, the promulgation of sin!
In Eden man overstepped his God-given bounds.
At the Tower man overstepped his God-given bounds as well.
Man being banned/scattered from the Presence of God!
Leviticus, on the other hand … calls man back into the Presence of God!
The first eleven chapters of Genesis (1-11) has thus seen man go from Eden to Babylon … form Paradise to Confusion!
Cain (the first murderer), when he was rightly expelled from God’s Presence, built a city and named it for his son. “And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a CITY, and called the NAME of the city, after the NAME of his son, Enoch.” Genesis 4:17
At the Tower of Babel … mankind also built a city (and a tower) with a view of making a name for themselves! “And they said, Go to, let us build us a CITY and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a NAME, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4
Mankind trying for immortality (a perpetual “name” for himself) apart from God. Having been banished from God … because of blatant sin!
Both in Cain’s building project and that of the citizens of Babel … humanity separated from God. (Not even mentioning the horrendous debacle of Adam and Eve back in Eden, that expulsion.)
With the Book of Leviticus (the center of the Pentateuch) and its noble goal of bringing God and man back together again!
“Babylon” meant (in the native language of those people) “the gate of god!” But the Lord God of Heaven and earth changed that meaning to “City of Confusion!”
Babel … man’s attempt to get to God without dealing with his load of sin! “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto HEAVEN ….” Again, Genesis 11:4.
From Eden to Babel … looks to me like sin has become progressively (retrogressively) worse, more rebellious, more open and aggressive against God!
And in Leviticus chapters 1-7 … God gives remedies to that awful (deadly) sin … the Five Offerings of Israel, mostly involving Blood Atonement!
I have been so impressed in this current Leviticus Series … how the whole Bible ties together with a central Message … “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” As Isaiah 1:18 expresses man’s dilemma and God’s amazing Solution!
God DESIRES to commune with us!
Oh, wonder of wonders!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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