The persistence of sin
Saturday, Sept. 19
Genesis 9:18 – 11:25 Read it here Listen to it here

Sin, unfortunately, survived the flood along with the people.
The problem had never been that there were evil people in the world, but that there was evil in all people. Even Noah, who had lived a righteous life, was infected by the taint of sin.
This is far from the last story of the Bible to make clear that we can’t just separate the good people from the bad people. Even the best people carry in them the seeds of evil, and even the worst carry to potential for redemption.
Many, many years later, Jesus will tell the parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24-30). In many ways, it explains why the flood failed as a means of eliminating sin: Sin is so intertwined with the world that it cannot ultimately be identified and destroyed until both the good and the bad have grown alongside each other and can be clearly identified.
Today’s reading also contains the story of Babel. The people of Babel, who all speak the same language, become prideful. They decide, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
To counter their pridefulness, God scatters the people and leads them to speak different languages. In our fallen state we still become suspicious of people from other places or who speak another language (or even our own language, but with thoughts or accents we find unfamiliar and uncomfortable).
After Jesus comes to the earth, we’ll read another story in the second chapter of Acts that is almost the exact inverse of the story of Babel. In it the people are not scattered, but are “all together in one place.” While being people of many languages, they gain the ability to understand one another.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the disunity of Babel becomes the unity of Christianity.

Saturday meditation

Proverbs 2:1-5
My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Prayer focus
God, turn my desire for achievement and possessions into a desire for wisdom.

-Rev. Mark Fleming