All Things Are Possible 8-2-09
Last month we celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. This monumental feat in which the United States sent three astronauts roughly 384,000 kilometers to land on an airless rock and then to return, safely. This is but one of many examples of mankind doing the seemingly impossible.
We tend to admire achievements of this sort: the construction of the Pyramids, the Great Wall, and the Panama Canal; and the Battles of Thermopylae, Masada, and the D-Day invasion of Normandy. We glory in our technological supremacy.
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:1-9 NIV)
The people in the ancient post-diluvian world gloried in their ability to build and maintain a common identity. But God stripped them of this vainglory, halting their construction and separating them by the mighty gulf of language.
His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. (Luke 1:50-53 NIV)
He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble. (Proverbs 3:34 NIV)
God frustrates the plans of men. Our “mighty deeds” are nothing compare to the glories that God has revealed. We landed men on the moon, but God created the moon! We build a building, but God built this universe! Now with these mighty deeds comes the expectation that great things will be accomplished. So when the mighty among us fail, we are hit with a devastating blow to how we look at the world.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:23-26 NIV)
Notice that when Jesus says that it is impossible for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, the disciples become clearly agitated. They ask “who then can be saved”; with the implication that if the rich couldn’t enter, then who could! But Jesus explained that just because man cannot do anything about his state, God can! What is impossible for man is possible for Jesus! So remember to cling to the one who can save you – Jesus Christ.
-Charles Peterson