I Love The Night

Image
  “It was a glorious night. The moon had sunk, and left the quiet earth alone with the stars. It seemed as if, in the silence and the hush, while we her children slept, they were talking with her, their sister — conversing of mighty mysteries in voices too vast and deep for childish human ears to catch the sound. They awe us, these strange stars, so cold, so clear. We are as children whose small feet have strayed into some dim-lit temple of the god they have been taught to worship but know not; and, standing where the echoing dome spans the long vista of the shadowy light, glance up, half hoping, half afraid to see some awful vision hovering there. And yet it seems so full of comfort and of strength, the night. In its great presence, our small sorrows creep away, ashamed. The day has been so full of fret and care, and our hearts have been so full of evil and of bitter thoughts, and the world has seemed so hard and wrong to us. Then Night, like some great loving mother, gently lays ...

Is God the Author Of Confusion?

Question: How can it be taught that God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33), when God Himself is quoted as saying “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” (Genesis 11:7)?

Answer: There are a couple of approaches to find our answer, the first being to recognize the involvement of three languages: Hebrew, Greek and English. The Hebrew word translated “confuse” in Genesis 11:7 is balal, better be understood as “pour together” or “mix.”

The second approach is to look at the narrative again. God commanded Noah and his descendants to spread out, fill the earth; instead, they came together in one place. Rather than obey God’s command to fulfill His purpose and receive the subsequent blessing of ruling the earth as His vice-regent they kept to themselves, even speaking the same language. Genesis 10 contains the table of nations as they were divided according to their languages, but Genesis 11 gives the details of how the languages came to be.

Is God the author of confusion? No. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, the church is reminded that gifts are to be used in accordance with God’s purpose. Using the gifts wrongly to creates akasatasia (disorder, disturbance) where God intends peace. Paul is addressing the way people speak in church, especially when more than one person has something to say.

Popular posts from this blog

Rock Me, Epictetus!

The Smooth-flowing Life