Have you ever been misunderstood?
If you’ve ever been to a country where you don’t speak a language, you probably have a story of a time when you’ve been misunderstood. I went to Hungary on a month-long mission trip some years ago. One of the other American girls, Marsha, and I went to the “mach” or supermarket. I really wanted some almonds, but we couldn’t find them. We flagged down one of the workers and said, “Angulu?” (“English?”).
He said, “Nem (no), German?”
We said, “Nem, Spanish?”
He said “Nem” and we all laughed.
Marsha and I pulled out our Hungarian-English dictionaries and tried to find the word, “nut,” in Hungarian. Can you believe that we each had a different dictionary and neither had the word, “nut,” or anything similar? So, we tried to describe with body language what we were looking for. The man took us over to the bread section and pointed at some rolls. We said, “nem,” and tried to describe it another way. He took us to the cracker aisle. “Nem.” About five tries later we were finally brought to a display of nuts! “Igen, igen! (Yes, yes!)” we cried.
While this situation was funny, it also made me feel a bit unnerved to be in a country where to even buy a bag of almonds is a chore. If the misunderstanding had been a bit more serious, like I had gotten separated from the group and someone decided to take advantage of my vulnerability, I would not have been able to call out for the proper help. I definitely didn’t feel as secure and free to do as I wished while I was in Hungary than I am in America.
If the whole world spoke one language, none of these situations, real or imagined, would have been a problem. I even struggle in an English speaking country, whether because of different accents or because we are fallen creatures and do not fully understand the complexity of human communication.
Being misunderstood in a foreign country is one thing, but another thing is to be misunderstood in your native language, which happens all the time.
Have you been misunderstood recently? What is our motive for being understood and why is it so hard for us to communicate?
How has being understood and known caused you to turn from God?
Let’s take a look at the well known story of the Tower of Babel from Genesis 11:1-9 to examine this question.
Seeking security in something other than God
Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.
Genesis 11:1-2 (NKJV)
At this time in history everyone spoke the same language and this group of people recently moved. These two verses leave us with a lot of questions. To answer them, let’s look back to Genesis 9 where we find Noah and his sons just making landfall and receiving a covenant from God. Basically, after a long time of anticipating this huge flood, then several months floating around aimlessly in the flood, God blesses them with land–a secure place to start new. God further secures them by promising never to destroy the earth with flood again and gives them authority over the land, to care for and fill it with people.
You’d think God gave Noah and his family a pretty great deal, but obviously some of them weren’t satisfied with this, as we see in verse two, that some of them decided to travel east. If we continue to look at Genesis chapter ten, we get a better understanding of this migration. While this chapter seems to be a list of genealogy, we can also see that it describes the people as “divided” after the flood. Chapter ten also describes Nimrod, the grandson of Noah, as, “the first on earth to be a mighty man…a mighty hunter before the Lord.” (Genesis 108b-9a ESV) In the next verse, it tells of the beginnings of Nimrod’s kingdom in the land of Shinar, including Babel. Apparently Nimrod wasn’t satisfied with the security of life God had given him and his family and decided to set out to find it apart from God.
Wouldn’t we all like to say that we’ve never been like Nimrod? We’d love to say, “Look at all the provisions for life God has blessed me with! I have a secure life and I need nothing but to remain close to God.” Unfortunately, because of sin, we all have areas in our life where we seek security in something other than God.
Whether it’s finances, relationships, our homes, our family, or you name it, we’re always looking to something other than God for security. In my teens and early twenties, I had a hard time with friendships. I rested in the security of having a best friend. I clung to the idea of always having that person to “have my back.” I even spiritualized these relationships with my “sisters in Christ” because they encouraged me in my faith. However, I found out that when the friendships ended, I began to question my faith. Obviously my security was not with God, but with the friendship. Even now, I sometimes have to resist the temptation to find security in my marriage over my relationship with God.
Working to create security in something other than God.
This tendency of sacrificing myself to build a good name in friendships in my life is similar to what Nimrods people do in Shinar.
Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
Genesis 11:3-4 (NKJV)
In this passage we see that the people make their own bricks rather than using the abundant supply of natural stone known to that area of the world. Why would they labor to make each individual brick when they had natural resources ready for them to use unless they were determined to prove that they didn’t need help from God in securing land or building materials?
We also see that they use asphalt for mortar, which is a waterproof substance. Did they believe God’s promise to never again flood the earth? Why else would they make a strong waterproof tower?
Next, we see in verse four their mindset when they say, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves.” They are trying to become God, with a kingdom on earth that aspires to reach heaven. The only way we can reach God is if he comes down to us, which he did when he sent Jesus to die for our sins. They also try to make a name for themselves in the process of reaching God, rather than letting God be the Name above all Names.
Like Nimrod’s clan, I tend to have an “I don’t need anybody (or God), I can do it myself” attitude–working to create security in something other than God. I tend to make my life harder just so that I can prove that I don’t have to do things the way everyone else has done it by making my own “bricks.”
I find myself trying to serve God in my own flesh, rather than resting in the power of his Holy Spirit. For example, I know I’m a talented writer because others have told me so and have even won awards. If I just depended on my raw ability, however, I can only write so well. My best writing has always happened when I stop and ask God to lead me in what I need to say. I could make my own bricks, and write in my own strength, or I can use the bricks God gives me, and write from the Holy Spirit’s guidance in my life.
In addition to making my own bricks, I have also tried to make a name for myself. I was a competitive athlete from middle school through college. When I was a sophomore in high school I had my best season ever. I won my conference, was fourth in the region, and 19th in the state.
As I got increasingly faster through my sophomore season, I felt increasingly more distant from my teammates. I wanted to be fast, but like any teenager, I also wanted to be included. When I was crowned All State with a personal record time, I expected glory and praise from my teammates and classmates. When I walked into school that first day after the race in my commemorative shirt, I saw some of the girls from my team that weren’t at the race, smiled and said, “Hi!” They said, “Hi,” and walked away. I was crushed, hoping that they would at least ask about the race or congratulate me, but instead I felt snubbed.
What’s worse, is that I never got better than I was that season. In college, instead of being at the top of the field, I hung out in the middle of the pack. The further back in the race I was, the more depressed I was. I definitely put my self worth in my running abilities to the point where, soon after college, I quit running all together. It was ten years before I took up the sport again.
Just like the Babylonians went to extreme lengths to make their own bricks and build their own city with a tower that had its roots on earth and their tops in heavens, so can we have an “I don’t need anybody, I can do it myself” attitude. Our prideful towers of idolatry can be a lot like weeds. Have you ever tried to pull out weeds using just your hands? Some of them have shallow roots, but many of them, like dandelions, have roots that go deep in the ground. You can pull on them and get the flower and some of the leaves up, but the root stays fast in the ground. You need a gardening tool to really dig out the roots so that the weed doesn’t grow back. Our idols are often so deep rooted that we can’t get rid of them ourselves. God has to really do a work to uproot us from our sinful ways.
True security can’t be in anything other than God
When our hearts are open to God uprooting our towers, we will find that true security can’t be in anything other than God.
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man 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 nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Genesis 11:5-9 (ESV)
As the story concludes, we find that God sees that their seeking security and a name in themselves was no innocent effort. They were knowingly ignoring all that God had provided them with and chose to do it their own way. So, God saw that if this building effort fulfilled them and made them feel secure, everything that they propose to do in their own efforts will fulfill the same desire.
God knew that just because they felt secure for the time being, they didn’t have true security–a security that only comes from Him. So, God uproots them by confusing their language and dispersing them over the face of all the earth so that they couldn’t have the security of depending on each other. The only thing left for them to depend on now was God. God could have seen their sin and wiped them out like he did with the flood but He had already promised that He wouldn’t do that again. Instead, he extended them grace by giving them another chance at life in their new countries and he showed them mercy in saving them from their own self-destruction.
The story doesn’t end there, because as we continue on to verse 10 through the end of the chapter, we find the following generations leading up to Abraham, who leads us to the line of Christ through his son, Isaac. Genesis 12 begins with redemption of the people’s sin at the Tower of Babel through God’s promise to Abram (later to be called “Abraham”)–
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:1-3 (ESV)
This passage is much different from what God tells Noah and his descendants, which was basically, “Stay here and take care of the land and I won’t destroy the earth.” But with Abraham God said, “Go to a new land and I will make a name for you.” This is in stark contrast with Nimrod who tried to make a name for himself on his own.
Finding security from the Tower of Babel to Jesus Christ
What God does through the flood, the Tower of Babel, and Abraham all points to Christ. We learn through the flood that we need to seek righteousness or God will send justice for our sins. From the Tower of Babel we learn that we can’t seek security in anything other than God. Through Abraham we learn that if we trust in God, he will lead us to righteousness. Christ redeems us from our win and eventually Christ redeemed the dispersion and confusion through the unification of language that happens in Pentecost in Acts 2, and then at the end of this earth in Revelation 21 and 22 for an eternity on the New Earth.
For [Abraham] was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
Hebrews 11:10 (ESV)
Hebrews 11 talks about God’s people being exiled, strangers on the earth, constantly searching for a homeland–searching for security.
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Hebrews 11:16 (ESV)
This concept of there being an eternal place for which God’s children to abide is one that Abraham understood, but Nimrod did not.
Do you feel like you are uprooted, searching for a homeland?
Just like the Babylonians were dispersed and confused at the Tower of Babel, so have I had the experience of being uprooted. My bipolar disorder has cost me relationships and even caused me to move over 1,000 miles to a part of the country that I don’t like so that I could get help. Even after fifteen years, I don’t think I will ever feel at home in Orlando, Florida. And I don’t think I’m supposed to, because my true home is in Heaven.
My whole life I’ve felt like I’ve been wandering in a foreign land, speaking a language that nobody knows. In my extreme effort to build relationships like a tower in my own personal kingdom, I’ve constantly been disappointed by rejection.
The truth is, no one has been more rejected than Jesus. No one has surrendered to God more than he has. No one has endured a shameful, unjust death like Jesus has. No one’s death has been as victorious as Jesus Christ. His cross and empty grave is the connection between man on earth and God in heaven. Not some tower we construct ourselves.
Because of how God has so forcefully uprooted my towers of idolatry, I have been left feeling a lot like the Babylonians–dispersed and confused. There have been times in my walk with God that prayer and Bible reading have felt like God is communicating in Russian, the funny looking characters and all. I’ve cried out to God and didn’t hear anything or the response has seemed like a language I didn’t understand.
The only image of Christ in those times of not hearing from God that I could hold onto comes from the book of Revelation:
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Revelation 19:11-16 (ESV)
I cling to the hope that Christ will be coming back for his people for eternity, rescuing them from a world of sin.
This picture of Christ brings me back to my days of being entranced with fairy tales about damsels in distress. The damsels were always being rescued by their beloved prince charming. The prince was always riding in wearing his shining armor and riding on a brilliant white stallion aftering having slayed the dragon that held her captive.
I am that damsel in distress. I am trapped in a high tower with no windows and no hope of getting out. My only hope is for my King who will come riding on a white horse prepared to slay the enemies of pride which surround me.
I think all of us, even man-warriors who might be reading this, are a lot like a damsel in distress–we are all tired of building towers only to see them be knocked down and uprooted. We are all longing for our King to come rescue us, to fight for us, and to bring us into his eternal presence.
We all know, however, that while we need to be ready and waiting, we don’t know when Christ will come on his white horse. In the meantime, as God reveals the towers that cause distress in our lives, my hope is that we would all see that even in our selfish pride, God is showing us how we can depend on him.
Bethany Marinelli is an author and speaker out of Orlando, Florida. She also supports her husband, Andrew, in his auto repair business and homeschools her son, Arthur.
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