I this morning have seen a parallel in the Book of Genesis, chapters 1-11. In the Bible Accounts of Creation through the Tower of Babel.
The “deep” (chaos) permeated the Creation Story, initially anyway. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the DEEP. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the WATERS.” Genesis 1:1-2
Then soon, the “waters” of chaos appear again. At the Flood in the day of Noah! “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the FOUNTAINS of the great DEEP broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the RAIN was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” Genesis 7:11-12
Notice (remember) these two “water” episodes!
Next … with the world created, and the “depths” tamed, God focuses on a man named ADAM, creates him.
And similarly, as the flood waters so profusely deluged the whole earth, God focused on a man named NOAH!
Two men, now!
And finally … after Adam (and Eve and their son Cain) sinned … we read of a city being built. A clearly wicked city, founded by a murderer … “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 4:18
If not Eden, then a city without God’s blessing!
But, still in parallel, after the Flood … after mankind again sinned and sinned and sinned … another (wicked) city was built, Babylon! “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. And the LORD came down to see the CITY and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the CITY. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.” Genesis 11:4-9
Wow!
So, Genesis 1-11 gives us two (tragic) trajectories!
First: Water (chaos) … then godly Adam … then after sin entered, a (wicked) City!
Second: Water (lots of it, a Flood) … then godly Noah … then, after even MORE sin … a (wicked) City!
See the plot?
Man has progressively distanced himself from God!
Separation!
And this (ever worsening) separation (because of sin) … makes the Book of Leviticus (God longing to enter into fellowship with His creation) … all the more necessary!
God, a God of Grace and Love and yes, a desire to commune with His Own!
Hallelujah!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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