Babel Redeemed

The Here and Now to Eternity

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563)

Jesus Begins His Ministry

14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:14-21

Let us Consider Christ’s Lineage

I remember reading through Matthew 1 as a teen-ager and not understanding the importance of it. They were just names: some I recognized and others I couldn’t pronounce. It wasn’t until I had to teach Sunday School and as I prepared for Advent with my family where I came to see the richness of where his lineage becomes our inheritance. Read Michelle Ami Reyes thoughts below:

But this is not just a message for Christmas. It’s important as we consider the complicated issue of race and as we consider Black History Month as parents, educators, and ministry leaders. It’s also important as we tackle the discussion of racism, as we unlearn misinformation and false messages that have been directed towards us and others, and as we seek to love our neighbors as ourselves. Not only is Christ’s lineage important as it reveals God as a promise keeper and covenant keeper, but it is important because it shows in the new Covenant that His love and grace extends to Gentiles as well. (Hebrews 8:6-13)

Related to this, I’m brought to thoughts of my own lineage. Does God use our heritage in our sanctification? I’ve come to the conclusion that he does: It’s important for me (with Lunar New Year that just passed on my mind) to consider how I can teach my children about their heritage, not just their spiritual heritage, but where their grandparents came from, the history behind why we are here when their grandparents started life on the other side of the world. Is it important to teach them these things? Does it matter? Will you wrestle with me a bit longer here?

Let Us Go Back to Where It All Began: Babel

We see in Scripture, that children of man wanted to “build [themselves] a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and … make a name for [themselves], lest [they] be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” As I read some commentary about this passage, I found that over and over again it is stated that man wanted to build a large empire in this one place. Babel was a statement of defiance against God’s command to “fill the earth” and scatter. They wanted to stay in one place and build a name for themselves. And we see here that in His mercy, God stops them in their tracks by confusing their language and then scattering them as He had intended. And while He diversified our languages, preventing us to further sin, we have to ask, “since diversity was a consequence of sin, does that mean diversity will be no more in the new heaven and new earth?” Trevin Wax poses this good question in “Babel and the Beauty of a Thousand Tongues” and gives us an answer:

“…isn’t it fascinating to see how different languages are a result of our sin, and yet God takes even the effects of our sin and transforms them into something that will give Him praise? At the end of time, God is not going to obliterate all languages. Now He sees the diversity of languages as part of the beauty of His creation. Every tongue, tribe, and nation will praise God. The different languages won’t go away. They’ll all be in service to praising King Jesus. It’s amazing to consider how God will transform even the effects of our sin and somehow put them in service to praising King Jesus!”

Not only does God intend for all nations to worship (Revelations 7), but he calls us to make disciples of all nations today (Matthew 28:19-20) as He has always done even in the Old Testament as previously mentioned and shown in Christ’s lineage. And oh, the implications this has for us as individuals, for our nation, and for the church! Where would many of us be if not called by God as a Gentile? Is it right for any one nation, tribe, culture, race, or color to claim superiority over another? Might I dare to ask even for one religion to claim superiority? As when Christ came, he did not Lord superiority over others (John 3:17) even as the Son of God, but healed, loved, discipled, and died. As His church, should we not do the same? These are all questions to consider as we think about the heart of God and how He uses our backgrounds sand heritage in His plan for our salvation.

Let Us Consider Christ’s Humanity

As we consider the question of does God use our background, race, ethnicity in our sanctification let us look to Luke 4:14-41. This passage really came to my attention when I had to teach it in 2021. I was making videos going through “Teach Me to Worship” Curriculum for our children as we were all virtual at the time and I was so blown away and blessed by the humanity of the situation in which Jesus, who had grown up in this town, proclaimed in the Temple before his neighbors and community that He would be the one to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy. Here is a excerpt from the Teacher’s Devotion:

Can you even imagine the people of Nazareth coming to church on that Sabbath? They had gathered for worship, and Jesus came to the front of the synagogue to read. He pulled out a prophecy they all would have known. They all would have recognized the passage. They let the words of hope float over their ears with the anticipation that God would one day send them a Savior to free them from all oppression. Then the bombshell dropped—Jesus said this prophecy had been fulfilled in their presence that day. What? That little boy who had run around with the ball—the Savior? That young man who had built the chairs in my house? That teenager who had sailed on my boat? He’s the Savior?

As the next three years progressed, He did all He said He would do. Can you imagine their faces when they heard the news He had given sight to a blind man? Can you picture their amazement when they heard about His releasing a woman who had bled for 12 years? Can you see that shock when they realized their worlds had collided? They had seen Jesus—in the words read to them.

Teach Me To Worship: Reading of the Word Leader’s Devotion

Jesus was born into a family, and into this town and community. It was all in His plan for our salvation.

Christ, fully God and fully man.

God perfectly planned it. It was prophesied and Jesus fulfilled it.

He was born to Mary and Joseph, conceived by the Holy Spirit.

In Christ’s humanity, He experienced what it was like to be a son, to be part of a family and community. To be the son of a carpenter from Nazareth. He experienced what it was to be looked down upon. Nathanael first asked upon meeting Jesus, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” It was all so very intentional so that He could sympathize with us. (Hebrews 4:15) He experienced what it feels like to be part of a shunned community. So God uses it all. He, through Christ, took up our humanity and everything included in it—the sin, the brokenness, our backgrounds, our ethnicities, our communities—all of it—and He redeems it.

Man’s Maker was made man
that the Bread might be hungry,
the Fountain thirst,
the Light sleep,
the Way be tired from the journey;
that Strength might be made weak,
that Life might die.

—Augustine

Let us Consider Our Background

I often wonder how different our lives would have been if my parents had been educated past elementary school. I grew up hearing my father say, “You don’t know what it feels like to really be hungry.” On my husband’s side, his parents were able to finish college and even go beyond, but they are not without trauma as well. As his paternal grandfather was separated from the rest of the family and his grandmother never found out what happened to him. What a traumatic loss it must have been and still continues to be for many Koreans separated by north and south.

And so I am compelled to teach my children about their heritage, because I know the importance of knowing that one is beautifully created, bearing the image of God. And it’s important for them to hear about the hardships endured, not only so they can learn from it, but so they can see God’s hand working during hardships. I also know what it is like to hate myself and be ashamed of my own race. Constantly bullied as a child for being one of the handful of Asian Americans in my school, I learned to be ashamed of how I and other Asians looked. In middle school a girl looked at my Korean friend and said, “why don’t you open your eyes wider like Rosy does?” I happened to have bigger eyes than my friend and in that moment I did not feel pride for having bigger eyes or acceptance, but I felt shame and I felt awful for my friend. This is just one instance.

My daughter came to me the other day and asked, “do I draw Asian eyes correctly?” And in her question, I know she has noticed the often times offensive caricature drawings of Asian eyes. But she has also come to me and said proudly in reference to Joanna Ho’s book, “She has eyes that kiss in the corners,” noticing an asian actress or athletes on media. I’m so thankful for this changed narrative in her life.

Once I was a young girl who hated herself and when I became a Christian I struggled with my identity even still. I felt like I had to change myself to fit into this new community I became a part of. If only I had known that God embraces all of me, even the part of me who had a funny Bronx accent not typical of Asians. If only the kids in my youth group had been taught to embrace all of everyone, even if they are different. I hope you are seeing a pattern in what I am writing. One cannot separate oneself from ones heritage, how they were brought up, and where they were raised. While the individual is important to see and each story is unique so is the history behind a people group. It’s important to understand that God uses all of who we are for His glory and as image bearers we should steward our identities well. To hate one’s culture is to hate part of who God created you to be. To foster this in yourself and to help your children to do the same is to appreciate who God has made you to be. These are all important to ones identity even the hard parts of our stories. And our children need to hear it all, but not for knowledge that will puff up, but for how God redeems it all in Christ. For healing. For an understanding that they are beautifully and wonderfully made. Also, for an understanding and an appreciation and love for others as well.

Let us Consider Other’s Cultures and Backgrounds

Equally as important, if not more is how we teach our children to see others. In light of black history month, I am so thankful for all the resources that are out there to lead educators and parents to resources and book lists to teach our children. I’m not here to share book lists as there are so many others doing a wonderful job of this. And yes, teach world history and American history. Introduce your children to different foods. Travel with them where you can. But also, I want to say this:

We must teach history and about other cultures/religions/beliefs in light of the Gospel. Why? Very simply, we live in a broken world. And history has shown again and again that there are absolutely without a doubt oppressors and the oppressed. In fact, Christ was born into a people group that was constantly oppressed and had been for so long. And it’s absolutely important to see how Christ did ministry in the midst of Roman rule as a Jew. His ministry was never politically driven, it was merely to seek and save the lost. It transcends and encompasses all as He died for all. The incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ brings salvation, healing, and hope to the oppressed while in the same breath forgiving and transforming a sinful oppressive nation, in essence saving them as well. There is no need to hide or deny the sins of an oppressive nation unless said nation would like to continue to live in the state of sin. It’s important to teach our children the beauty of diversity in language, food, culture, but also to teach the ugly truths in history as well. To hide or deny these things would bring the message to our children that the Gospel does not apply to these parts in history.

There has been a lot of hurt individuals and people groups that have been hurt from Christians even to the point of death. It’s an ugly history. And even today hard to deny and hard to face. But friends where does your allegiance lie: is it country, radical religion, moralistic beliefs? Let us face these hard questions for our children and with our children. Let our allegiance be found in the Gospel of Christ: to love God and love neighbor and when I fail and sin, repent and be forgiven and have a hope that one day I will sin no more. Just plain and simple.

Let us Consider Our Eternal Heritage

Oh how I long for peace in our nation, in our world! How I long for repentance where wrongs have been done and healing for the oppressed. How I long for the day when we will all come together, every nation and tribe, to worship in Spirit and in truth. Where there will be true equality under God our Father. I’ll leave you with the following:

Reversal of Babel

On the Day of Pentecost, we see an initial reversal of Babel. God gives everyone understanding so that instead of God’s mighty works being proclaimed in just one language – Hebrew, for example – they can be proclaimed in many languages. O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise!

This is the end of Babel and the beginning of a new humanity.

Instead of people climbing up to God, we testify that God came down to us – not in judgment, but for salvation.

Instead of people gathering in one location to make their own name great, we are now scattering all over the earth to make God’s name great.

Instead of language being a barrier to man’s mission of self-glorification, languages are now redeemed in order for the Triune God’s mission of glorifying Himself to move forward! Trevin Wax Babel and the Beauty of a Thousand Tongues

Let’s teach Babel Redeemed to our children. Until next time, I’ll save a seat for you at the table.