Read Genesis 11:1-9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The whole earth had one language and the same words. That means both husbands and wives knew what \u201cI\u2019m fine\u201d meant. Having one language and the same words, they understood. No one needed to be told what a word meant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imagine that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clarity of language is certainly God\u2019s will for us. The Second Commandment teaches us the right use of God\u2019s name\u2014that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His name but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks\u2014and the Eighth Commandment teaches us, among other things, to defend our neighbor and speak well of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So\u2014we must not lie and we must speak well of our neighbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what if the truth is unpopular. What if you have a crazy neighbor? What if your neighbor, or your neighbor\u2019s children, say that 2+2=5? What if they call good evil and evil good?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clarity of language is certainly God\u2019s will for us, and the history of the Tower of Babel is helpful in understanding both God\u2019s will for us and how we should speak to our neighbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We need to know\u2014and God, through Moses, tells us\u2014that some things are and should be impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve all heard and we\u2019ve all said something along the lines of \u201cYou can be anything you want to be when you grow up.\u201d But that\u2019s a lie. There are plenty of things you can\u2019t be, plenty of things you can\u2019t do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With a large enough imagination, the vast majority of things are actually impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Men aren\u2019t women. They can\u2019t be. Boys aren\u2019t girls. They can\u2019t be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a lot of things that marriage is and even more things that marriage is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a lot of things that love is and even more things that love is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We need to know that when the Lord says, \u201cBehold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.<\/em> Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another\u2019s speech\u201d (Genesis 11:6-7), when the Lord says that nothing they propose to do will be impossible for them, that\u2019s the worst way He could describe an unfaithful people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If nothing is impossible for them\u2014that is, if they think that nothing is impossible for them\u2014that means they think they can keep the requirements of the Law perfectly, win their way into a state of grace, and save themselves. But that\u2019s not possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If nothing is impossible for them\u2014that is, if they think that nothing is impossible for them\u2014they will teach their children that nothing is impossible for them, that men can be women and women men, that 2+2=5, love is love, and pride is a virtue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n See\u2014we need to know that some things are impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because pride goes before destruction. And love, true love, is defined by God in the sacrifice of His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins. 2+2 is always 4. And we need to do all that we can to raise our boys and girls to be men and women of virtue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look not to the world for what is possible. Look, rather, to the Lord for what is certain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He came down to them and confused their language so that they would not understand each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So they would know that some things are impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But here\u2019s the best news\u2014the Good News: in Christ and His Church, we are one people, and we have the one language of the Gospel, and we rejoice to know that our sins are forgiven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We don\u2019t have to imagine that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Jesus\u2019 name, Amen!<\/p>\n\n\n\n -Pr. Benjamin Tyler Holt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read Genesis 11:1-9. The whole earth had one language and the same words. That means both husbands and wives knew what \u201cI\u2019m fine\u201d meant. Having one language and the same words, they understood. No one needed to be told what a word meant. Imagine that. Clarity of language is certainly God\u2019s will for us. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}