Rebellion in Babel

I absolutely love living in Alpine, California. Our property borders the Cleveland National Forest where there are no street lights to obscure our view of the night sky. Some nights when there is no moon light we can see the edge view of our own Milky Way galaxy. I remember as a small child at six grade camp, being able to observe Saturn through an 8” tracking telescope and how much of a thrill that was to gaze upon its rings. On another occasion I was also able to see a couple of Jupiter’s moons, Haley’s comet and the surface of the moon through my own 6” tracking telescope. So it’s hard not to come to the same conclusion that King David did when he wrote in psalm 19 “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork”.

After the worldwide flood, as civilization begins to grow, people begin to move further away from the area where the ark came to rest. God commanded Noah and his three sons to be fruitful and fill the whole earth. As Noah’s descendants traveled westward, they came into the area known as the Fertile Crescent. There they began to settle and build cities in the plain of Shinar. This area was very fertile due to the annual local flooding from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. These early settlers, instead of obeying God and filling the whole earth, decide to stay in one place and build a great city. Listen to what is probably the voice of Nimrod as he declares to the people in Genesis 11:3 “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth”.

Once again people are in rebellion against God and His command to fill the whole earth. They begin to build a very large city and ziggurat. These massive brick structures were not alters to God but were observatories where these ancient people looked for answers in the sky. In fact, there are many ziggurats in the plain of Shinar that have survived to this day.  We know that most if not all ancient civilizations worshipped the sun, moon and stars in some form instead of the One, True and Living God that created them. History has recorded that human sacrifices were offered on the tops of these pagan monuments even to the point where children were sacrificed to molded gods of bronze. 

The story line in the book of Job was written about this period of time, when a man was still the priest of his own family. Towards the end of the book of Job in chapter 38:4 God asks Job “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” and goes on to ask in verse 31 “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loose the belt of Orion?” How did the writer of Job know that the Pleiades were a cluster of stars? Or that they are gravitationally bound with one another because of their close proximity in our galaxy?  In fact, two of the eight stars that make of the Pleiades are actually a binary star system revolving around one another. Since the telescope would not be invented for another 3500 years how did the writer of Job know so much about astrophysics?  God goes on to ask Job “Can you bring out the “Mazzaroth” in its season? Or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs?” 

The Mazzaroth pre dates the Babylonian Zodiac and is thought to be a system for re-telling the story of God’s plan for salvation. Some theorize that God wrote His plan of salvation in the stars using the constellations on the ecliptic.  The Theory explains how God used the names of each star along with their apparent brightness to teach His plan of salvation to Adam and Eve’s descendants. Many will disagree but scripture teaches in Psalm 147:4 “He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name.”

It’s because of man’s rebellious nature that God conceived a plan to redeem His creation even before the foundations of the earth were laid. He loves us so much that He gave up His own Son, who humbled Himself to the point of death on a wooden, Roman cross. As we wait for the second coming of our Messiah, mankind will continue to build skyscrapers that touch the sky and launch manned spacecrafts to land on distant planets. Scientists will continue to search for the answers to life but for me the answers have always been right in front of us “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork”. Selah!