I have to thank my friend, Rev. Samuel Padget for today's thought. I had heard it before but after talking with him it settled deeply into my spirit.
At the beginning of Genesis, God told mankind to fill the earth. The idea was for mankind to spread out and not just stay in one place. God repeated that command to Noah and his family in Genesis 9:1. Yet here in Genesis 11 we see mankind deciding to try and stay in one place (verse 4).
God’s solution was to confound the languages which caused mankind to break apart and fill the earth as he commanded.
God believed that man needed to move away from the secure and safe and launch out. He believed it so much that even when He created woman He said, "for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife." Yet today we see more and more people wanting to stay safe and secure. We have people who aren't facing economic challenges. They are staying with mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, and having extended adolescence. We celebrate the idea of a safe and secure world where everything from food, housing, and a job are provided for us. We are averse to risk. It seems to me, we are fighting against launching out.
Thoughtful quote: "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." -- E.E. Cummings
When I look at history it is those who launch out who make a difference in the world. I have long argued that God wants to make us "all we can be" and how can we be that if we refuse to launch out.
Now some may say this doesn't matter anymore since the world is full of people (I could point out there are other planets in this solar system, but I will save that for another time). When we get to the New Testament we see another command, Go into all the world (Matt 28:18; Acts 1:8). We see Jesus commanding his people to go, not to stay someplace safe but to go. He wants us to launch out and make a difference in the world.
So are you willing to Go? Are
you willing to take a risk and launch out into what God has called you to? Then light the fuse and launch.
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4 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.
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6 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.
7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 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.
10 These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
11 And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
12 And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:
13 And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
14 And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:
15 And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
16 And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg:
17 And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.
18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:
19 And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.
20 And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:
21 And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.
22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:
23 And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
24 And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:
25 And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.
26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27 Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.
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