Ever since man has worked the ground to grow food and live off the land, scattering and gathering have been a part of life. First, the seed for crops is sown – spread out and scattered. That scattered seed is then watered, either by means of rain from the sky or different types of irrigation that have been designed or developed over time. The crop is cared for and tended to, and finally, when the time is right, what is grown is harvested. The seed that was first scattered is then finally gathered at the harvest.
Scattering and gathering is also a picture of what God has been doing with his people throughout history.
From the very beginning, God called his people to scatter. God’s instructions to the world’s first family was this: “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). Following the Flood, God called for his people to scatter again. “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth’” (Genesis 9:1). We might notice also that each time God called for man to scatter over all the earth and fill it, it had the promise of his blessing attached to it. It was therefore a good thing God was calling man to do. Scattering was sanctified!
Whereas scattering took place from the beginning, gathering will take place on the last day. In reference to his return on the Last Day, Jesus explained, “And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens” (Mark 13:27). In the very first days, God called for man to spread out and scatter, but on the last day, those who are his will be gathered together. Paul, who teaches about what that Last Day will be like in 2 Thessalonians, introduces his teaching with the words, “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him,…” (2:1). At that point, there will be no more need to scatter, for after all things have been carried out as the Lord said they would be, all that will remain is for Jesus to return to gather his believers together to be with him in the new heaven and earth at his designated time.
This morning, we see a smaller scale picture of the scattering & gathering in two major events that are sandwiched in the timeline of history. And we see it being carried out whether mankind initially desires to oblige or not. If God desires to scatter, and man rebels, God will make a way to ensure that his desire is carried out. Furthermore, where it would appear from a human perspective that there are far too many obstacles or hindrances in the way of the gathering of people of all tribes, nations, and languages all over the world, God will make a way, as he did on the Day of Pentecost.
Some might write off the account of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 as a man-made story to explain the origin of multiple languages. If the Bible is viewed like any other normal book, this account might conveniently suit such an interpretation. But the Bible isn’t like any other book.
However, even if it did read like any other book, then what would the context tell us? So far in Genesis, we have had only narrative accounts, including historical events with historical people and places named. From where would we suddenly be justified in writing off this event as a made-up tale to explain the origin of languages? What this account shows instead is the sad reality that even after the Flood, mankind was still naturally egotistical and rebellious against God. He continued to disregard God’s clear command to scatter, the command given both at creation and repeated again after the Flood.
But why should God be so bothered by this tower building? Why did this matter? Wouldn’t it be a good thing for people to band together? Why would God be opposed to that? Was he just salty that they disregarded his command?
The answer, in part, is found in the purpose behind the plan to build: “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves” (v.4). “So that we may make a name for ourselves.” Where were their hearts? Where was their concern? What does it mean to desire to “make a name for oneself?”
It means to make it about me. That was their concern. It has been and continues to be one of the greatest fears we face: insignificance. Irrelevance. The result is insecurity. Why else was there such a concern about making a name for themselves?
Doesn’t this reflect something rather telling about human nature? We know something is off. We’re naturally like the individual in the relationship who cannot trust, who has a paranoid fear that the other is either ready to move on or is cheating or it’s only a matter of time before they will.
That insecurity comes from the fear of insignificance, and it’s normal for us because it’s justified. We are so well aware of our offenses against a holy God that we rightly sense insignificance. We might mask it behind bravado or brash confidence, but even that is to go out of our way to make sure others don’t sense our insecurity. We posture and puff ourselves up to hide any scent of insecurity that others may pick up. We are terrified of our worst fear being realized: that we don’t matter.
And while we are so focused on our fear of not mattering, of not being significant, our attention is not on the compassionate God who loves with an everlasting love and longs for everyone to know that love. We’re so preoccupied with worry over being insignificant that we fail to turn our attention to the God who assures us that we aren’t! So we build, we achieve, we produce, we create, we… do whatever we can to make a name for ourselves, to be significant – the whole while overlooking the God who made us significant by redeeming us in the first place!
When we are so enamored with significance, we will resort to anything for attention. Even disobedience. Children disobey, yes, because they are sinners and disobedience comes naturally. But it is often more than that. As the competition for mom or dad’s attention intensifies (due to busy schedules and attachment to screens, for example), even the negative attention due to disobedience is still attention. And attention = significance in their minds.
By default then, it isn’t about God, which the people at Babel make abundantly clear in seeking to avoid the very thing God commanded them to do! They stated, “otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth” (v.4). There it is, plain as day – direct defiance to what God commanded them to do, and so casually, at that, as if it made perfect sense for them to want to avoid being scattered, to avoid doing the very thing God commanded them to do.
How relatable! Christian congregations have always reflected this same challenge. When a mission congregation is established, it starts with not only a genuine desire but also a need to reach out, to scatter, to carry out the mission Jesus gave his Church at Ascension. If they don’t grow, they won’t be around very long!
But, as God blesses those efforts and the mission congregation grows, its focus slowly starts to shift to internal priorities. Property is purchased. Buildings are constructed. Various ministries are established to meet the members’ needs. And the spirit of scattering to reach the lost becomes overshadowed by the preference to gather with the saints. Ministry becomes about maintaining and sustaining what has been built; scattering becomes work for others to do.
But the scattering and gathering are an ongoing cycle that will repeat until Jesus returns. It wasn’t only at Babel that the Lord scattered; he did the same thing after he gathered his Church at Pentecost! Those believers who had gathered from “every nation under heaven” (Acts 2) would be scattered back to their respective homes. The good news – the same news that had converted 3,000 souls on Pentecost – would be scattered to the ends of the earth.
That is the same cycle God calls us to today. Gather, as we do each week, so that the Spirit may continue in us the same work he poured out on his church on Pentecost – filling and fueling us with Word and Sacrament, to equip and stir us up to be scattered out again for his work each week.
It never stops and it will always be necessary. As long as we look to all of the wrong places for significance, it will leave a trail of sin, which calls for the ongoing pattern of confession and absolution. Again and again we turn away from God and to the world in so many little ways, looking for what only God can give. Instead of allowing us to stumble away in such selfish pursuits, he gathers us again and again to show us how much we matter to him by directing us to his cross.
And we are renewed. We are restored. We are refreshed to carry out the work of scattering once again to go gather in other souls to become saints as the Holy Spirit works the same work in their hearts.
It isn’t just on Sundays that God comes down to his people personally in Word and Sacrament; he has come down to his people personally throughout history. He did that very thing at Babel, too: “But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building” (Gen. 11:5). The Lord came down – don’t miss this! If God doesn’t come down to intervene, our situation is hopeless! God does this repeatedly in the OT, paying visits to mankind (pre-incarnate Christ), and thank goodness he does! (Gen. 18; Ex. 3:8 burning bush).
Yet the greatest “coming down” of the Lord was at the incarnation. When God-in-the-flesh was born into this world on Christmas, he did more than simply stop in for a visit; he lived and dwelled among those he came to save! What does that say about a personal God and how much he cares about his fallen creation?
This really gets at the other reason God was concerned about the building going on at Babel. In addition to the self-centered desire for significance, God’s name was at risk of being left on the back burner. God knows what happens when people make it a goal to make a name for themselves. When concern for our own name and reputation is what fills our hearts and drives us, then there is no more space in our hearts for the LORD. And that is the greatest tragedy imaginable.
The reason God wanted them to scatter? So that his name would reach the ends of the earth! So that no one would fail to be able to hear of the salvation promised only through him. The importance of this cannot be understated. Just recently in Bible Information Class, the question came up, as it often does: What about those in such and such places/countries who never had the chance to hear about Jesus? Well, this very lesson underscores why it was so important for God’s people to scatter and take God’s name with them. Because when that doesn’t happen, false religions and all forms of idolatry will fill the vacuum left in man’s heart.
So, for the sake of souls, God took matters into his own hands at Babel and forced his people to spread out. On Pentecost, God again took matters into his own hands and miraculously equipped the gospel to be scattered, removing any language barrier that might have hindered it. Still today God will take matters into his own hands to see that his Word is scattered. Where believers are reluctant to do so, he is not above taking matters into his own hands to see that this important work is carried out. After all, he desires that when he returns, it will be to gather a large harvest of souls for eternity. Let us then be a part of his scattering and gathering so that he returns on the Last Day to find the large harvest of souls for which he longs.