Culturally Irrelevant

The contrast between the ”Shinarites” in Genesis 11 and Abram in chapter 12 is a perfect example of kingdom vs. Kingdom

The Shinarites ”said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks’” while Abram left his home behind and struck out into the unknown “as the Lord had told him.” They “settled” in the plain while Abram “traveled” from place to place. They said, let’s build ourselves a city with a tower to heaven, but he built a humble altar of worship and pitched a tent. They said “let us make a name for ourselves” but he “called on the name of the Lord.” They didn’t want to be scattered all over the face of the earth, while Abram followed God from Ur to Haran to Canaan to Egypt and back to Canaan.

Here’s the incredible irony. Everything they desperately wanted God freely gave to Abram, and much more. Everything they feared came upon them, while God settled Abram’s fears and carried him through difficult times into abundance, promise and legacy. They wanted to hole up away from the wide world while God thrust Abram out into the world and made him a blessing to many nations. They wanted a name and got nothing but confusion. God gave Abram a new name that lasts to this day.

Abram trusted God without evidence. He put his family, his fortune, his faith and his future into God’s hands, trusting an unsubstantiated promise. He went out not knowing where he was going, but he had a living word from a living God. He wandered in tents, exposed to the elements but full faith, fully surrendered. In exchange, God gave him protection, peace and favor with those around him, a great name and eventually a place to settle and call home. His only monument was an altar of surrender, and what did God have to work with in the natural? A barren woman who laughed at the promise and her 100-year-old husband.

Man has kingdoms. Lots of them. And they’re impressive, no doubt. I have kingdoms. Mostly little ones. In reality, we all tend to have our own little kingdoms we’re working on. But God has a great big Kingdom, and he operates his differently than we do ours. 

Here are some questions I continually ask myself. Whose kingdom am I building? Am I settling somewhere, getting comfortable and surrounding myself with protection, or am I letting myself get thrust out for the sake of others? Am I building any monuments to myself, even little ones? Am I helping someone else build a monument to themself or to a group’s hard work and smart planning? Am I still willing to risk everything to follow Jesus, to go whenever and wherever he might lead?

Most people glaze over when someone starts talking about the kingdom of God. We get the general idea, but the word kingdom isn’t appreciated since it’s outside our experience. For a voting democracy, the idea of life under a dictatorship is too foreign to carry any practical significance. But there’s a really great reason why Jesus’ first sermon topic was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near!” We’re easily caught up in the “kingdoms” of men because they’re all around us, and they’re pretty amazing, naturally speaking (Dubai comes to mind). It’s what we can see and hear. But God’s kingdom is so different. It’s not observed with looking or listening.

Some years after the flood of Noah’s day, a bunch of people got together and moved to a cozy little plain in Shinar (Babylonia). They baked up a ton of bricks and built a city with a massive tower in the middle (a ziggurat). Their motivation was to band together, muster their collective strength and wealth and make a name for themselves. Oh, and they wanted to build something that would reach to heaven, representing their amazing mad ”skills”.

On the surface you might think that these people were just acting on common sense. I mean, isn’t that pretty much what everyone does? You get together, build a city, put up a wall, pool your resources, fight off the bad guys and live happily ever after with your family and a little garden out back, right?

The catch is that they knew about God, the history of the garden, the fall and the flood. They knew God had a way of doing things, but they deliberately chose to leave God out of their plans. They wanted their own thing, something great that would be a monument to what they could accomplish without him. Of course, you know the rest of the story. God takes one look, doesn’t disagree that they have amazing skills, but foresees the danger of their rebellious independence and in mercy stops it before they have a chance to pull it off and self-destruct in a lifestyle of arrogance and self-indulgence. At the end of the day, they got off pretty easy.

A little segway. Clarity by contrast is a beautiful thing. Bite into a Gala apple from Wal-Mart and you’ll think you’ve got a really crisp, refreshing apple. But then sink into a Pink Lady from a local health food store and strap your taste buds down, cause it’s a world of difference. Or take that blue shirt you bought 2 years ago. It’s still a deep blue in your mind, even though you know you’ve washed it a million times. You wear it over and over, thinking it still looks great. But then one day you see it in an old picture and realize how faded it has become.

Ok, the point. Tomorrow I want to contrast the “Shinarites” from Genesis 11 with the story that immediately follows in Genesis 12. This is where it gets good.

Sometimes God is quiet. I don’t know why. I used to panic at the first sign of spiritual dryness. Quick, pray and read the word and confess your sins and put on a worship CD! Maybe God won’t ignore me if I surround myself with good Christian disciplines. Then I discovered Hebrews 3 and 4 and the concept of faith-rest. Now the quiet times are times of rest, of pruning, of patience and stretching. But, like any good coach, God continually takes me beyond my comfort zone in order to stretch me and condition me for what’s coming. Extended times in a shadowland are tough. For me a shadowland is a place of not understanding his purpose, not hearing or seeing his perspective. The waiting room seems to last too long. These places are usually new territory, places I haven’t been before, where I have to trust and just keep walking, being faithful with what’s in front of me, what’s in my hand.

I’m stuck in Genesis 2-3 right now. Among several thoughts that are marinating is Adam and Eve’s shame at their own nakedness and the knee-jerk desire to cover themselves and hide. Inevitably, in times of dryness and not hearing, all kinds of insecurities surface. There is always this temptation to hide feelings of shame and weakness. Throughout my life, in those key moments when I realize that I’m weak, broken, imperfect, vulnerable, inadequate, wounded…whatever, I begin to invent ways to compensate, to hide what is naked and exposed to criticism. I even use God-given gifts, talents and resources to cover up or distract from the areas where I’m vulnerable. Instead of going to God naked and hurting, I’d rather study more, pray more, talk more, work more. Anything to bury that sense of vulnerability. But God wants me to come as I am so he can hide me in Christ, clothe me in his grace and wisdom, lead me to still waters and fill me up with his love. I hear the essence of this kind of vulnerability and raw exposure in David’s songs to God. I’m just getting to that point in my life where I realize God is big enough to take it. To hear what I really feel. To listen to the reality of my life and not walk away.

But back to the silence. God is not in a hurry. I am, but he’s not. Trees don’t spring up quickly, but once they’re full grown, they’re powerful, fruitful and lasting. Early on, I felt more useful the faster I was going, the more I was doing. But that changes the more I take risky journeys into the Father’s heart. Sometimes those journeys are exciting and eventful. And sometimes they’re painfully quiet. Here are some words written in my notebook in all caps:

TIME  PATIENCE  SLOW TO SPEAK  LISTEN  WAIT  ASK  RECEIVE THANK  BELIEVE  SOAK  BE  WORSHIP  SEE  LOVE

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked!  They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1)