November 3, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“[Shemaiah, a false prophet in Babylon] So why have you not reprimanded Jeremiah from Anathoth, who poses as a prophet among you?  He has sent this message to us in Babylon: It will be a long time. Therefore, build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.”

(Jeremiah 29.27-28)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

In Genesis 11, we read the story of “The Tower of Babel.” I would call this a “remnant story” be it was a story derived from the evidence of “a fall” out of which the survivors were transformed. It could simply be a myth or parable used to explain why there were so many languages among the peoples on the earth. To follow the story briefly, there was a time when everyone spoke the same language. We do not know what this “everyone” was. With the time signature of “they moved east,” yes a time signature as the biblical story of Adam and Eve said they moved to the “east of Eden” upon their expulsion, it would seem that it may allude to the descendants of the first parents of those who would become the nation of Israel. Perhaps what is presented in that story is a remembrance based on evidence discovered after “The Flood” receded. If so, then we might be able to assume (and assume is all we could do as there is no evidence one way or another yet discovered) that this is type of “judgment story” which coincides with what led up to and its consequences as we have heard in the “Noah and the Ark” story. It would make sense that such a meaning could be advanced. The singular language of those people before the Flood was, in fact, not necessarily a spoken language. Rather it could well have been the language of “sin.” They had that language in common which was and is both verbal and non-verbal. Because they spoke that language it would be apparent that Noah and his family did not. They spoke the language of God who was acting in righteousness to put sin to rest by destroying the earth, or at least their world, with a flood. God was creating the “great do over.” However, and we know this from the story of the “remnant of the flood” which was Noah and his family, that it was more a cleansing of the earth of the lot of sinful humans. It did not transform Noah, and probably not his wife, his sons and their wives either. They were witnesses to the great flood and the devastation it brought to their world. We might as easily visit with those whose lives were impacted by recent great floods as we have witnessed in the lower Appalachians and in the Hill Country of Central Texas. Physical changes are being made. Better plans to address future such disasters may be in place. Some may be inspired by the compassion offerings of food, supplies and human resource to sustain and rebuild communities. But how many lives of all the observers (globally because of social media) were transformed and changed so that they no longer live the same as they always did. How many said, “That is a terrible tragedy but it won’t happen to me?” They may have made some kind of donation, but most and nearly all didn’t. They did not change. They did not initiate investigations into their own “world” so see what disaster might “flood” over them and render them hopeless and in need of salvation. External changes do not guarantee internal changes. The hope is that such “do overs” would strike a chord of common sense and self-correction would be the order of the day. So what of Noah? Well, Noah was a vinedresser. Of all the things he preserved in the Ark, we know that he transplanted his grapevine root so that in the new land, he would have a running start on getting back to his winemaking. it would also mean he would return to his wine drinking. (He probably preserved plenty of wineskins on the Ark as well…they had to have something to drink and had 120 years to store it up before the flood. Knowing this he didn’t have to wait for the healthy and preserved root to take root and produce a harvest which would have been years. No, he could start “celebrating” right away and become drunk. His drunkenness had a consequence and thus created a “scattering of people” among his own family and sons Ham, Shem and Jepthath.

Now, Jeremiah is faced with another “fall.” It is the “fall of Jerusalem.” The Jerusalem exiles were carried away to the east and became residents in the land of beginnings (Abram, the Father of Faith as called by the Jewish people was from the Ur of the Chaldees which was in Babylon.) The story of Babel is linked to Babylon. It makes me think of “babble on.” Now there is a product called Babel which seeks to help others learn foreign languages so that we could all speak the same language differently and be drawn closer together. For what purpose is dependent on the intent of the speaker, of course. So what is the “babbling on” in Jeremiah? A false prophet of Israel who was one of the Jerusalem exiles in Babylon, writes back to Zephaniah, the appointed high priest of the remnant people in Jerusalem who was serving in the remnant of the destroyed Temple. The dialogue is evident in the following verses that Jeremiah is being called a false prophet because he sent the “Word of the Lord” for the exiles to be patiently enduring their seventy-year sentence of spiritual discipline. They were to practice their faithfulness and be reformed, renewed and thus returned to their home in Jerusalem. It was to be a time of purification of the heart, mind and soul as well as the body. It was not the plan of the false prophets who sought to facilitate a quick release by pleasing their Babylonian captors. Now the “double-speak” was well entrenched as they set about convincing the exiles to please the Babylonians by adopting that culture and climate “in God’s name and by His word.” Of course, nothing could have been further from the truth. Fortunately, Zephaniah read the letter to Jeremiah. Having seen what happened to the false prophets there in Israel, Ahab and Zedekiah who blinded for their blindness, he believed in Jeremiah and the word of the Lord from him. The word returned to Shemaiah that he, too, would be punished for promoting spiritual disobedience. God was tired of the “babbling on” in the language of sin, spiritual disobedience, of prophet, priest, king and subjects. It was a time for repentance and obedience both to God’s discipline and His promise. We would do well, mighty ones of God, to learn from this lesson and not become so adept at speaking the “one” language of sin and rather speak the language of the “ONE” who is the only way, truth and life which pleases God, builds up one another and leads the world through the valley of the shadow of death. Mighty ones, we are in that valley now and sin is flooding over us.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.