The Scattering of Babel... and Why Your Church Needs it!
The story of the Tower of Babel. Is it just a simple narration included in the Bible solely to explain why there are so many different languages in the world, or is there more to it than that? I believe there is… much more!
I believe the account of the Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11 contains a timely, powerful, prophetic message to the Church as a whole, and to your local church in particular.
When the story opens, we see people journeying eastward. This is a picture of the mission-minded church pursuing Jesus’ Great Commission, going into all the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. All is well…. But then something interrupts their progress:
“And the whole earth was of one language and of one accent and mode of expression. And as they journeyed eastward, they found a plain (valley) in the land of Shinar, and they settled and dwelt there.” – Genesis 11:1-2 (AMP)
They stopped. They settled in and became a dwelling place. Instead of taking the Gospel to every creature, they “settled” for much less, being content to host the presence of God without reaching out much to people beyond their walls.
You may notice this happening in your church if it begins to “settle” into a life that revolves around church programs. Outreach emphasis and efforts may dwindle as people lose interest. There may be occasional mission trips, but they may become few and far between, and even then, they may be treated more as a fun experience for the participants, rather than a committed effort to selflessly reach out to a people group in desperate need of Jesus.
Stopping in Shinar
Not only did the people stop moving, but they stopped in the land of Shinar. Shinar has all sorts of negative symbolism associated with it. Shinar is the land of Babylon.
We are told that the kingdom of Nimrod began at Babel, “in the land of Shinar [in Babylonia]” (Genesis 10:10 AMP). That may not seem significant until you look at Nimrod’s attitude toward God. He was called, “Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.” That word translated “before” actually means “against”, and implies that Nimrod was in opposition or open rebellion to the Lord.
When a church stops “going into all the world”, and instead settles in and becomes a dwelling place, content to host the presence of God and build itself up, God seems to equate this with rebellion and idolatry, which is spiritual adultery. The church has left its First Love and is pursuing other interests.
When it is allowed to grow into its full maturity, this type of rebellion results in the horror that we see in Revelation 17:
“One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls then came and spoke to me, saying, Come with me! I will show you the doom (sentence, judgment) of the great harlot (idolatress) who is seated on many waters,
“[She] with whom the rulers of the earth have joined in prostitution (idolatry) and with the wine of whose immorality (idolatry) the inhabitants of the earth have become intoxicated.
“And [the angel] bore me away [rapt] in the Spirit into a desert (wilderness), and I saw a woman seated on a scarlet beast that was all covered with blasphemous titles (names), and he had seven heads and ten horns.
“The woman was robed in purple and scarlet and bedecked with gold, precious stones, and pearls, [and she was] holding in her hand a golden cup full of the accursed offenses and the filth of her lewdness and vice.
“And on her forehead there was inscribed a name of mystery [with a secret symbolic meaning]: Babylon the great, the mother of prostitutes (idolatresses) and of the filth and atrocities and abominations of the earth.
“I also saw that the woman was drunk, [drunk] with the blood of the saints (God’s people) and the blood of the martyrs [who witnessed] for Jesus. And when I saw her, I was utterly amazed and wondered greatly.” – Revelation 17:1-6 (AMP)
I once had a dream in which I saw a pastor of a church that within two months of this dream would declare itself to be a dwelling place for God’s presence. In this dream, I watched as the pastor recruited prostitutes to work for him in the church. There was already a group of prostitutes in place, working for him in the church. The pastor was bringing in another group of prostitutes and placing them within the church to begin working for him. It was one of the most shocking dreams I have ever had. This particular pastor is a very kind, dedicated man who is deeply devoted to God. How could this be?
I didn’t fully understand the symbolism of spiritual prostitution in the church until I realized that it meant that the pastor had gotten off course. He was no longer pursuing God’s will for the church. He had left pursuing his “First Love” (Revelation 2:4). Instead, the focus had turned inward to building up church programs and building facilities. Church members were being recruited to help accomplish these pursuits. They were being pulled away from pursuing God’s will for their lives, and were instead being put in place to serve the pastor’s will for the church. In doing that, they were turned into spiritual prostitutes.
There is nothing inherently wrong with filling positions of responsibility in the local church, but when a church leader pulls people away from God’s callings on their lives, turning them away from serving God to serving his own cause, for his own profit, serving his dreams and desires for his church, according to his own plan, rather than God’s, he turns church members into spiritual prostitutes.
In these churches you’ll notice that potential volunteers are rarely asked “What do you love doing most?” “What is your passion?”, or “What do you feel called to do?” Instead, you’ll hear questions focused on what the church needs. “Can you help us in the nursery?” “Could you help run the media projector?” “Would you be willing to give a couple of hours of your time each week to help us?”
Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with volunteering in a church, but you’ll notice that the emphasis in building a dwelling place is never on building up the people. The emphasis is on using people to build the church. So people are misplaced into positions for which they may be wholly unsuited, because those are the positions that need to be filled in order to build the institution and its programs. This often leaves volunteers discouraged, frustrated, unfulfilled and exhausted.
Mike Breen describes this issue very well in his blog post from April 4, 2012 entitled “The Plug-and-Play Problem of Church Leadership”.
Choosing the Materials
“And they said one to another, Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. So they had brick for stone, and slime (bitumen) for mortar.” – Genesis 11:3 (AMP)
This passage specifically points out substitutions that were made in the construction materials. Bricks were used in place of stone. What’s wrong with that?
The problem is that bricks are man-made. Stone is a part of God’s creation.
God made it very clear in Exodus 20:25 that “if you will make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone, for if you lift up a tool upon it you have polluted it.”
When the people begin building their church with their own materials, rather than God’s materials, it is no longer pure, as far as God is concerned. It is polluted. God’s church cannot be pure if it is built using man’s ideas, man’s blueprints, man’s material and man’s misguided efforts.
Additionally, slime was used instead of mortar. What’s wrong with using slime to create a house that’s dedicated to reaching Heaven?
Let’s take a look at where slime comes from…
Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon describes the origin of “slime” (or bitumen), saying that it “boils up from subterranean fountains like oil or hot pitch, in the vicinity of Babylon, and also near the Dead Sea, and from its bottom…” Basically, slime comes from the bowels of the earth.
Hmmm… what other place in Scripture is associated with the bowels of the earth?
Using slime to hold everything together takes this church to a new low.
“This [superficial] wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual (animal), even devilish (demoniacal).” – James 3:15 (AMP)
Building the Tower
“They said, ‘Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’”– Genesis 11:4 (NASB)
Outreach has, for all practical purposes, been abandoned now in the life of this church. The focus of their efforts instead has turned almost totally inward as they concentrate their efforts on being a dwelling place of God’s presence that has a reputation for touching Heaven.
They want to make a name for themselves. Being carriers of Jesus’ name is no longer good enough. Rather than “making themselves of no reputation” as Jesus did (Philippians 2:7), reputation becomes important. There has been a subtle but noticeable shift. They have essentially taken ownership of the church from Jesus, claiming it as their own. It is no longer Jesus’ church, but theirs, which helps to explain why God equates Babel, or Babylon, with harlotry and spiritual adultery.
Symptoms of this are an almost exclusive emphasis on church facilities and programs. New staff members are added. Volunteer recruitment efforts are almost constant. There is talk of remodeling the buildings and facilities. Funding campaigns may be started to acquire even greater, more massive buildings to house the ever-growing programs.
And yet, at the same time, you may notice less and less of an emphasis on outreach and missions. Training and preparation programs for outreach and missions may dwindle and cease due to lack of interest. Missions work may be reduced to simply sending money to a few established missionaries. The position of church Outreach Leader may become vacant as attention is focused inward on building the church itself and its programs.
Instead of the believers being equipped for God’s work by the 5-fold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers described in Ephesians 4, church leadership may be turned over primarily to preachers and worship leaders.
There is certainly nothing inherently wrong with preachers or worship leaders. On the contrary, both functions are vital to the life of the Church. However, these are not the roles that God ordained and prepared “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:12-13 NKJV)
In a church that “settles” for merely being a dwelling place for God’s presence, there is really no use for the members of the 5-fold ministry. It can be very difficult for them to find a voice or a useful place in such a church.
When apostles, prophets, evangelists and teachers are relegated to positions of spectators, rather than participants; and when pastors become more preachers than shepherds leading the sheep into God’s callings for their lives, the church suffers. Growth and progress are stunted or stopped. Sadly, the deep desires of the people to experience all that God has for them may never be fulfilled.
“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?” – Ezekiel 34:2 (NKJV)
Why Jesus Cursed the Fig Tree
“And as He saw one single leafy fig tree above the roadside, He went to it but He found nothing but leaves on it [seeing that in the fig tree the fruit appears at the same time as the leaves]. And He said to it, Never again shall fruit grow on you! And the fig tree withered up at once.” – Matthew 21:19 (AMP)
When Jesus came to evaluate this plant, He found only leaves. He found no fruit. When He found only leaves, He pronounced judgment on the plant and then moved on, away from it. To understand why He reacted this way, we have to understand the purposes of leaves and fruit.
Leaves provide a way for the plant to feed itself, through photosynthesis.
Fruit is grown to feed others.
Whenever Jesus evaluates a church plant, if He finds it completely focused inward, feeding itself, but neglecting to produce fruit to feed others, He cannot entrust that church with His highest calling. He has no choice but to move on to find another church that is reaching out to meet the needs of others. The first church may wither from the roots and seem as if it is dead.
“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” – 2 Chronicles 16:9 (NKJV)
You may be thinking, “But I thought the gifts and callings of God were without repentance!”
Yes, they are, but many are called. Only a few are chosen (Matthew 22:14). Of the many churches that are being called in this hour to become Apostolic Training and Resource Centers in preparation for the great harvest, most will not be chosen, but instead will simply become dwelling places, hosting the presence of God, but given no higher responsibility for participation in the great end-time harvest.
Called To Prepare Laborers for the Harvest
Bethel Church, in Redding, California, may be the most recognizable example of an Apostolic Training and Resource Center. In contrast to a “dwelling place” church, Bethel has many teachers in place, providing constant training and mentoring for people who are eventually sent out into ministry roles beyond the walls of their church. Bethel is one example, but there are many other churches that have answered the call.
In the summer of 2011, I attended a conference at the Church of Acts in San Antonio, Texas. The conference speakers included Bob Jones, Bobby Conner and Paul Keith Davis—all big names in the prophetic conference circuit. The Church of Acts, in contrast, was a relatively tiny church that didn’t even have a paved parking lot. I mentioned to one of the church members there that I was surprised that such a small church could draw such huge ministry names for a conference.
The church member replied to me that it is not a goal of the leaders of the Church of Acts to become a large church with a large building and thousands of members. Their goal instead is to provide the best training and preparation that they can, and then to send their members out to fulfill needs for ministry beyond the walls of the church.
The Church of Acts in San Antonio does not need to be concerned about becoming nothing more than a dwelling place for God’s presence. They have been chosen to be an Apostolic Training and Resource Center, and the pastor communicates that readily to the church members there.
If you notice more and more of the symptoms that indicate that your church has settled for being a dwelling place; if your pastor begins to declare that your church is a dwelling place, or worse yet, if God Himself tells the pastor that your church is a dwelling place, church leadership may mistakenly take this as cause for rejoicing. However, it may indicate that your church has been evaluated by God, and come short of the higher calling of Apostolic Training and Resource Center. Rather than rejoicing, it may be a time to mourn and re-evaluate.
But there is Hope!
When God finds a church focused in on itself, He certainly does not want to leave it like that. We see His compassion in providing a solution for that in Genesis 11:5-9 (AMP):
“And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and now nothing they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confound (mix up, confuse) their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
So the Lord scattered them abroad from that place upon the face of the whole earth, and they gave up building the city. Therefore the name of it was called Babel—because there the Lord confounded the language of all the earth; and from that place the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
The people of this “church” had turned their focus inward and had planned to build an impressive city and a tower in order to prevent them from being scattered. But being scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth was exactly what God wanted for them! His plan was for them to go into all the world and preach the gospel. God never intended for the church to become a dwelling place that simply feeds itself and grows fat.
From the very beginning, God had commissioned man to “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it….” (Genesis 1:28 NKJV)
May Your Church Be Scattered!
God has a history of causing His people to be scattered abroad whenever He has noticed that they were “settling” too much in one place.
He gives churches a chance to answer His call to send people out to do the work of evangelists and missionaries, but if churches choose not to do so voluntarily, God has other means of motivating His people. God can even use the devil and the persecution he brings upon the church to accomplish His purposes in sending His people beyond the borders of their comfort zones, as we see in Acts 11:19-21 (NKJV):
“Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word…. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.”
In the story of Babel, God used the confusion of languages to cause the people to be scattered. The confusion of languages was not God’s goal, it was simply the means that God used in that case to scatter the people into all the world. He could have used many other means to accomplish this goal. If God has to, He will send severe persecution in order to get us out of our complacency and comfort zones and send us out to where the people with needs are! He did that in Acts chapter 8. He will do it again if need be!
“And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.” – Acts 8:1-4 (KJV)
Why Does God Scatter His People?
God scatters His people in order to motivate them to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, as He has commanded (Mark 16:15). God even uses the devil’s own persecution of God’s people to accomplish His will in scattering His people.
In addition to this, God scatters His ministers in order to care for His sheep. Many of God’s people—His sheep—are already scattered across the whole earth, but they have inadequate access to the “sincere milk of the Word” and the “meat” of solid teaching that they need to grow up to be healthy, mature believers. Because of this, God scatters His ministers in order to feed His sheep. The sheep are already scattered! If we’re going to feed them, we must scatter!
“So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.”- Ezekiel 34:5-6 (NKJV)
“But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” – Matthew 9:36 (KJV)
When we reach out beyond the walls of our churches to feed others, we feed Jesus. As we have done to the least of these, we have done to Him! Jesus asked Peter no less than three times if Peter loved Him. Each time Peter assured Jesus that he did. Jesus responded by saying, “Then feed my sheep.” Feeding His sheep is one way that Jesus wants us to show our love for Him. Loving Jesus involves feeding His sheep.
What Should You Do?
What should you do if you find yourself in a church that has been declared to be a dwelling place by the church leadership?
Do not leave the church, unless and until God Himself tells you that it is time to go. If He does tell you to leave, do it the right way. Do everything you can to avoid any misunderstandings or hard feelings (James 3:2). Speak with your pastor privately. Obtain his blessing and agreement on your decision to leave. Allow your pastor, and possibly other leaders, to bless you publicly and send you out. It is essential that you leave with a good, clear conscience, having done all that you could to reconcile any misunderstandings or offences between you and any church members (Acts 24:16; Romans 12:18).
If God does not tell you to leave this church, there is a reason for that. God still has a purpose for you at this church. For as long as you remain at this local church, serve the other members in love, esteeming them worthy of more honor than yourself (Matthew 23:11; Galatians 5:13; Philippians 2:3).
Even if your church does not reach out to others beyond its walls, you can! In fact you are commanded to do this (Luke 10:37). Be alert to the needs in people that cross your path every day and reach out to help them. Do all of this without judging those Believers who choose not to reach out in the same way.
Pray that God will mercifully scatter the sheep, so that they can seek out support for the training and preparation they need to fulfill their callings to minister outside of the walls of the church. As Jesus Himself commanded us, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2 ESV).
Pray for this, even if it means that they must leave the local church. The alternative would be much worse. If the sheep are not scattered, they could remain in a church that may have already been passed over by God, Whose eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him. If they are scattered, they at least have a chance, but otherwise, tradition and habit may take hold, and they may spend the rest of their lives living below God’s best, in a church that has already rejected it.
May your church be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth! The people desperately need you!
Next: Cutting People Off
