Ensign: Those Who Don't Build Must Burn

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3






AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS                       2 October 2015


This week the American Library Association celebrates Banned Books Week, and I suspect every library you go into will have a display of books that for language or subject matter or not being so "family friendly" (really, that term drives me nuts) is something parents or guardians don't want their kids to read because they might question a few things, a few values that out of their best intentions they want raised them with. Consequently, they assume no one else's kids should read them either.


Quick aside here -- I'm not sure whether I should be proud of this or nervous about it -- one of my nine-year-old daughter's favorite books from last school year IS one of the young adult "most censored" books of last year. And it's at this point in the devotional I'm either supposed to flagellate (look that up) myself for that or launch into a tirade about how the Bible is one of the if not the most banned book of all time. I'm not very good at doing what I'm supposed to do; ask around.


It's the science of daily life that eludes me.


Rather, I want to take a look at two building projects all the way back in Genesis. Beginning in chapter six, we come upon Noah who in a world where nobody is honoring the LORD but him and his family. The LORD is not happy about that, and He called Noah who "found grace in the eyes of the LORD" (verse eight, the first mention of grace in Scripture) to build the ark. I won't detail the dimensions and the journey, chapters six through nine do that, but the faith, along with the labor


that it took to build this at the direction of someone Noah had possibly never seen or heard from before (think about it, we don't pick up with the story of Noah until he's 500 YEARS OLD, Genesis 5:32) in a world that had so far never known rain much less a flood -- which since a Flood story appears in practically every ancient culture, the names of the protagonists are just different, you who don't believe should be asking how this couldn't be true -- is something we're hard-pressed for today.


"Those who don't build must burn. It's as old as history and juvenile delinquents." Today's title come from that line in Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, another frequently banned book. So after the flood, all human beings today are descended from Noah and his three sons. We're not told the length of time between the ark landing on Ararat or the rainbow signifying the LORD's promise and the building of the tower of Babel from Genesis 11, but I question whether the LORD Himself


was as much threatened by the proposal to build a city with that tower reaching unto heaven as much as knowing that all humanity assembled there could be wiped out with one blow. Yes, everybody spoke one language, or at least many dialects of one language. And as opposed to the ark that the LORD called Noah to make of gopher wood (possibly cedar or cyprus) and put together with pitch (essentially, tar), the people later in Shinar chose to make their city and tower from brick and slime.


You have to appreciate the irony of this ... at the LORD's direction we get materials that can handle flood conditions once you've done your part to assemble them, while if it's just our idea we have to settle for whatever is at hand. In "confound[ing] their language, that they may not understand one another" (Genesis 11:7) the descendants of Noah and his sons scattered, and what became known as Babel -- we're not told if it was destroyed but it may as well have been -- stood unfinished.


If we don't build what the LORD's hand is on, we may as well as be burning what we do.    


  







David




P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages you and me too. If I'm not or you'd like me to get lost, please let me know -- thank you!




Thank You, Lord, for Who You Are. Thank You that we can always come to You in in praise and prayer and thank You for supplying all our needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus.


Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence, there and around the world.




Thank You, Lord, for all of us You have placed in leadership and service here and abroad, as well as for the opportunities we have along with the promise of new life in You! And may we all seek and have a blessed week, Amen.