Imagine yourself in a room full of everything you’ve ever known: music, TV, family, friends, just anything and everything. Then *poof* all of it’s gone… silence encompasses you, not even the voices in your head are talking to you. You try to scream but nothing comes out. Total isolation, inability to communicate with anything/one…alone… Scary thought isn’t it? This could be a reality, and in some cases it is. Together we will take a journey from extreme to extreme, and we’ll figure out just what it takes to overcome such perils, so that we will live in fear no more!
Our journey begins…
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11: 1-4)
That almost sounds like something we’d do today. Use the things around us to make a name for ourselves, be it music, art, poetry, or even a skill. They used their best assets to attempt to make a name for their selves and come together in unity so they wouldn’t be lost over the entirety of the world. However, there’s more to the story…
But the lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth and they stopped building the city. (Genesis 11: 5-8)
They couldn’t talk to anybody, they couldn’t understand anything, and they weren’t in their comfort zone anymore. They were scattered around the world, with foreign objects. Total isolation…. Alone once again! However, let us take a closer look as to why this happened, to see where they went wrong, so we can better understand their perilous situation. For this we jump ahead to Deuteronomy chapter 5.
“I am the lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and forth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Deuteronomy 5: 6-10)
Thus, according to the first two commandments we can’t have any other gods, nor worship any false idols, which is what the men of Babel were doing. By building the tower to “make a name for them,” was essentially making themselves and the tower into an idol to be worshipped by fellow man. So, one could say isolation comes from sin. The men broke the commandments before Moses brought them down from the mountain, and were punished by being segregated from their fellow man.
However, God isn’t the only one that segregates man. Man does it, probably more often! This is overwhelmingly evident in our society; any club, church, group, music, poem, alienates people. I know you’re probably thinking, “What are you talking about?” Think about it: some churches are Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic, etc; women’s clubs, fat clubs, skinny clubs; rock music, pop, rap; every aspect of our lives alienates somebody. Being alone at some point in your life is inevitable according to today’s standards, but I’m here to tell you otherwise!! We aren’t supposed to be alone we are a family… together!!
Our country offers some remedies to this crisis with the pledge of allegiance stating “Under God indivisible,” and the support our troops slogans of “United We Stand,” and on our money it claims “In God We Trust.” However, how deep does this “unity” really go? Sure it flared after 9-11, but what about the troops before now, they needed our support and where were we? The devil flared his head and scared us into unity and again we find ourselves falling down to the feet of false idols in our country, troops, and even our government… so in essence we were segregated even further from the one thing that really matters, God! God is the one who unites us all, if we so choose to be united in his grace.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worth of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body, one spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been give as Christ apportioned it. (Ephesians 4:1-7)
We are all part of the same system. We all belong to the one true God, we all have the one spirit flowing through us… so why can’t we live that way? Why do we let the world divide us through false idols and hypocrisy? It shouldn’t happen that way, and the only reason it does… is because we let it. Furthermore, some people may not be happy with their position in the kingdom of God, but fear not there’s a system behind it. Each person plays an integral role in his plan:
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13)
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. (1 Corinthians 12: 4-6)
So, as Christians, people of God, we need to stand together and take up our part of his plan. It is through us that the rest of the world is prepared for their part in it. So, our country’s slogan of “United We Stand” can easily be appropriate for us as well, however it’s just a matter of doing it. With so many different churches preaching the same thing, this shouldn’t be a problem, but if you listen to what they say you’ll understand why: The close-mindedness is what kills our unity. People from Pentecostal churches stick to their values and morals, while Baptists have a different view, Methodists have theirs, evangelists have theirs, it’s a never ended thing. This is what drives people of God apart. Alone is what you find when you don’t belong to a church, but it shouldn’t be like this, we’re all apart of the same system, we just have different positions….
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all give one Spirit to drink. (1 Corinthians 12: 12-13)
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:27-28)
We are the body of Christ, united we work for God through his spirit which runs through us all. Divided we fall into the grip of the Devil, worshiping man-made idols and everything that this world would want us to do. Walk above the influence, and fall not into temptation; lean on your brothers, especially if they’re from different mothers; we are one… together we shall stand united and fight the good fight!
-Andy J. Graves
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