Genesis 11 (2022-01-01)

Two schools of thought

Good morning everyone, today I'm going to share Genesis Chapter 11 with you. After years of Bible study, I want to share with you what I have concluded so you can ponder on it to find out whether it makes sense.

Firstly, Genesis is the foundation of the whole Bible; Secondly, the first eleven chapters of Genesis are the foundation of the book of Genesis; thirdly, the first three chapters are the foundation of the first eleven chapters of Genesis; most importantly, chapter one is the foundation of the first three chapters.

As we have reached chapter 11, we need to figure out what the author is trying to deliver to us. Who is the author? It was Moses and he wrote it in the desert. It was written in the time when the Israelites were marching on in the wilderness. He recorded this as a means of telling Yeshua's descendants where the story began. This however is not the aspect we are going to focus on.

The most important point that Moses strived to underline for the first eleven chapters is two schools of thought. One is to make a name for themselves, who would become restless;  for the other, sadly there was only a tiny minority who would choose it that is seeking the name of the Lord.

People making their own names

Throughout the entire Bible, it's stated unequivocally that there are two paths for you to choose. People who endeavor to make a name for themselves, they will lead a life with sweat, you have to toil and moil to get your ends meet. The mindset is still wildly prevailing as the public believes the fate is in their own hands.

What is this school trying to tell us? It tells us that yes, you can make things great; you can make a name for yourself. Both chapter 5 and chapter 6 have told us that people have always been trying to make a name for themselves. This started as early as Cain's era, but they have all perished!

One of the gravest problems of the foundation of this school of thought is that they do not know when they will die. They are not bothered that they will be gone and what they have done is utterly meaningless. They do however believe it's great that making a name for themselves so that their name will go down in history. This is very short-sighted.

As for humans, they feel such a significant achievement that their name can be passed on for thousands of years such as Nimrod. But what does that really get you? This can be easily exemplified.

While we are alive, we have made a name for ourselves. When you and I lie in a coffin, our name is recorded in history, and is known for thousands of years. But what does that really do to the person who lies in the coffin? It does not make sense whatsoever! They would not know where their bones will be. The problem of this school of thought has been illustrated in Chapter 11. It actually causes people to become restless.

The main subject of chapter 11 is whoever wants to make a name for themselves will cause destruction.

Recently, I have figured out something tremendously important and I will share it with you here. People who want to pursue the path that makes their name known, become somebody famous such as an actor, or even a hero, then they will cause destruction.

The main topic I'm talking about is that people want to make their name known, will live a life that relies on their own skills, their own abilities as well as their own hands.

When we watch martial art films which contain a lot of fighting and strong violence, the artists always showcase their muscles and fighting skills. This category of films attract a lot of people especially those who are young. They then developed the school of thought of becoming a superhero such as superman or spider man. Children idolize Marvel heroes and even dress up with superheroes' outfits on the street imitating their idols with all sorts of actions. This is a typical example of the school of thought and it's deep-rooted in the human mind.

Have people done all the study? I don't think so! Have people really done thorough research and figured out what kind of people they are? Not really, as they just want to make a name for themselves.

In Genesis Chapter 11 stated that a group of people want to make a name for themselves, they turn it into a brand of hero. In order to give them a better head-start, not only do they make every effort into pursue such a career, they also go to Thailand to meet someone spiritually powerful to assist them gaining a better progression in their careers.

From a website where people share stories or news, they are saying someone in Thailand, called Dragon King or what king, and some actors said they went to the place before they made the name. Then they went to the place they worship the idol, and after they came back and they became famous actor, become a famous actor. They have this kind of story. At the end you know what happened? A lot of people pursue their name through the spiritual world. They want to make a name, and they don't, they cannot, they are not so successful to make a name. But do you know what happened? They go through the spiritual realm, try to link up with the spiritual realm. But, that kind of spiritual realm lead into the destruction of human life. You know what kind of destruction? Although people see they make a name out something, whether you are businessman building up your kingdom, your empire of your business, or build up something, like actor or actress, or whichever line you want to make a name, sorrow starts. So this school of thought was line up in the real world all the way to today. But in the Bible, this school thought is getting very popular, it is so popular, so that so many people rushing into this kind of things. If you read books, you will see a lot of people talking about this school of thought. Why people worship idol? Why people worship idol? You never seen a person to worship idol, go to that place without their own purpose, right? Because these people want to make a name, then, they went to this place, they have their own personal desire, and they want to achieve something. They actually went to the place and asked for the idol to help him. That's how it works. I have a classmate who is very interesting. They are intellectual people, but they went to the temple, kneel down and worship the idol, and ask for the son to go into the university, get a good university before the enrollment exam. That is something very interesting, right? And a lot of these things happen, but in the end, what happened? In the end, it causes destruction, or they call self-gratification? I didn't have never seen a person who kneel down before the idol, and pray something like this. Probably they have, but I never seen. They pray for someone else to make a name. I have not seen this. I have not seen some people kneel them before the idol, they pray for something not to do with themselves. So this school of thought in the Genesis Chapter 11, it inherited the time, the earliest before Noah’s time, right? Why the flood take away all the people during Noah’s day? It is because all these people pursue their own name and the full of violence. Let me say this. If a nation tried to pursue their name. You know what do they do? They try to invade all the neighboring country, right? They make a name, yeah. There this great hero at Mongolia, everybody knows the name of this Mongolian hero, the whole world knows, they invade Europe, Genghis Khan. So, everybody knows. But the problem is, God go against with this. The problem is, the Bible reveal that, this is the school of thought that go direct to become enemy of God and the Bible. God revealed in the Bible, and go against with this school of thought. To me, it is very very clear, I never tried to make God as an enemy of mine. Who am I? I don't want to be like that. You know, all the way, all the people trying to make the name of themselves, even Abraham, the famous Abraham, the father of Abraham, Terah, he is also idol worshipping. He is also idol worshipping. This is one school of thought. And later on, the grandson of Abraham, Esau, also inherited this same school of thought. Esau is the brother of Jacob, and you know what kind of curse he is getting? The curse is saying this, you live by your own sword, by your own caliber, by your own hand, by your own power, and he get curse, are you with me now? Whoever want to make a name for yourself, you will get curse, and that is the curse. But you say no, I see some people pursuing it and they successfully make a name for themselves. But if you pay attention to all these people, what did you see? These people all become restless. Do you remember Cain? Cain become restless. They make a name, right? Then, in the later part, they have another man, called Lemech. Lamech is some grand grand grandson of Cain. He's also living like a restless. To me, all these people are getting some sort of mental illness, mentally not healthy. They live like a restless person. Their whole life go on and on, because they pursue their own name. If you see his story, or if you know history, there are a full of the people like this. If Cain is avenged 7 times, then Lamech is 77 times. Can you see that? The whole world becomes full of violence, fighting and fighting, tricking or seven king, worrying, they have all these kind of things, called destruction. But men, human being forget one thing, forget one thing, what are you doing? What are you doing? I want to share with you, when I try to figure out all this, I told myself that I better do not want to be an enemy of Almighty God. Who am I want to go against with Almighty God. That is a big problem. Today, if you among of us, if one of you are pursue your own name, then you studied, pursue your own name make wealth, and make a fortune. What can you see? You can see your life until late your life today, you get to know, you get to know me and you're full of sorrow, full of problem and you lost your money. Then you say, oh, I am so, I'm so unhappy with the all these things happen.

The tower of Babel

Actually this school of thought is leading to destruction because it goes against with almighty God. Never pursue your own name. Never ever aim to be famous or a man of renown. Never ever want to be a hero. That exactly why I want to hide, I do not want to make my own name known. I want to make God’s name known, are you with me? So this kind of school of thought has gone through a full of our research. I have studied all and figured out very simple theory. If God goes against with it, don't do it. There are two kinds of people. One kind of people gets angry from God. Angry of God! The another actually gets favor from God. So I say Oh, I want to get favor from God. So I pursue the name of our Lord. In whole Bible, it reveals two schools. One school of thought is highlighted in Genesis Chapter 11. People wanted to build a tower and they built one. They tried to build a tower, indeed, they built one. Then God came down and said: “Oh you want to do this? If you really want to do this, no! I'm going to stop you.” Did God stop it? Yes, God, stopped it. Have the people successfully made their name known? No, they haven’t! No, because God goes against it. So one school of thought is to pursue people’s own name, and the worst, they do so by going through the spiritual realm, and that is the realm of devil! Can you understand? You may play around with devil. That will cause destruction! You think devil will help you. No, devil wants to kill you! After study this, I say, oh, I better pursue the name of God. Indeed, I can see the difference of these two schools clearly. They pursue two (completely) different things. Let’s come to the New Testament. Come to the New Testament, you can see the same line of pursuing, right? One pursues his own name; another pursues the name of God. The schools of thought lead one’s life. Either the earthly life, like this life (for yourself) or the eternal life, for the name of almighty God. Are you with me? But if you and I know one day, we'll pass away and everything’s gone, then why we're doing this? If we have no eternal life, everything become meaningless. If you and I have no eternal life and we live till we die, (what we live for?) Meaningless! Why we are pursuing something meaningless. Strangely, people try to fool themselves; they have a meaning. What kind of meaning? They live until one day they have nothing to do anymore? Bible explains these things seriously. Am I too theoretical? This is the research I have done and now I'm trying to tell you my research.

You know this Tower of Babel, I got to know it during the time I wanted to set a person free and she is my mom. One day my mom behaved strangely, kind of funny. And I thought this wasn’t my mom. You know my mom full of carnal desires, she was like that. And now she behaved so differently. I thought this wasn’t my mom and grabbed her and asked: “Who are you?” And Devil said: “Oh yeah, I'm Laoma.” Laoma? I said: “Who are you ? Where is my mom?” He said: “Oh, your mom? I took her away already.” I said: “Stupid man yeah, how stupid you are!” So then I casted out the spirit of Laoma. After the spirit out, I got my mom back. Once her back, you know, what she was telling me? This is real story, yes, a real story. My mom cried. I said to her what happened to you. You see, my mom said, I was taken away. Someone forced me and put a gun behind me. They had all kinds of very scary weapons that she couldn’t tell. Then my mom was forced to climb up a mountain and the mountain looked like a tower. The road spiralled up to the top. She was near the top by then. Meanwhile you know what’s happening? I was praying and demons were casted out. A huge angel stopped them, sent my mom back and saved her. So she told me all the story.

What kind of tower is this? (note: auto transcription stops here 27:01) What kind of mountain is this? And this is the mountain, the tower of Babel. Don’t challenge me about this. I know this is the tower of Babel. For whole life, my mom was trying on the earthly things. Even though, she is a good mom. She used to tell me if she could have had a better education, she wouldn’t live like now. Yes, she is very smart and can get along with people. She was quite clever and can talk well, but just she didn’t get a proper education. During earlier years, many her friends became a mayor or reached to high positions. Then I told her, fortunately, you didn’t get that position, otherwise you won’t know where you were now, might be in prison somewhere. You know if you pursue your name, what after you? Bribes, or you will abuse your power, your position. So this is the tower of Babel. You know what is the end of tower of Babel? After reaching to the top, there the cliff, you jump down causing your total destruction. A total destruction!

The pursuing of this kind school all goes into spiritual realm. Human being love to pursue spiritual stuff.

Another thing is language. Language is very spiritual. You know what Jesus said? He said: “the Word comes out of my mouth is live, is spirit.” The Word comes out of the mouth of Jesus Christ is a live and is a spirit! I am sure you can easily find the saying in Bible. Language is spiritual. In Genesis Chapter 1, God said something, then it happened. You see. He said something, then it wold happen. Realising this, I understand language is very spiritual and language is connected with spirit world.

So after that, then I said: “Oh, language is very spiritual. The language is actually connected with the spiritual world.” You know for those people who tried to build the Tower of Babel; God confused their language, then they stopped the project and the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth. After that, there are two school of thoughts, you can see the clear line but a few names with very few people. In the age of Noah, there was only Noah. In the age of Abel and Cain, there was only Abel. Only a few of them were recorded for pursuing the name of the Lord. If you read all the names in this chapter, I'm going to take away the fear of reading all sorts of names because you and I never know who they are and all the names are difficult to pronounce.

Pursue the name of the Lord

With the names, you can actually see a clear line which they called it as genealogy. The name is always pointing to the person who pursue the name of the Lord. All other people after recording of deaths are finished. No more talking about their descendants and only talking about the line of pursuing the name of the Lord. That's why the Genesis Chapter 11 recorded from verse 10 all the way to the end of verse 27. They tried to record Abram that will lead into the Genesis Chapter 12. It worth mentioning something like this: After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. Abram could be the eldest son and probably was born when Terah was in his 60s. So when Terah was around 60, he had the son Abram and lived 205 years. What happened to Abram? How old was Abram? (Later on, we will call him Abraham) When Abraham was 105 years old and his father passed away, did Abraham come back to Harran and attend the funeral of his father? No! Abraham never came back to Harran. That’s something interesting right?

In some sense, people tried to lay down a lot of things to God. At the time when Abraham was 135 years old, Isaac was around 30 years old. Abraham never brought his son Isaac back to their hometown. That is something interesting. What I am saying is, if we can compute this carefully, you will see people who are trying to pursue the name of the Lord, sometimes we have to lay down a lot of things. And I was hearing a sermon from a pastor who told the audiences: “Jacob never even had a chance to attend his mother’s funeral, this is a curse.” This is something very interesting. Is that important? That’s not important. Attending a funeral of a death is not important at all for a person who pursue eternal life and the name of the Lord, you will see a totally different kind of understanding of the whole thing. Even Abraham’s father was still alive, Abraham was 105 years old and he had never gone back to visit his father. What kind of person he is? This is the kind of people who pursue the name of God. Are you with me? Abraham laid down his father and many other things.

When I was talking about these things, a lot of people may criticize me, but do you follow this school of thought or you follow the other school of thought? Probably the other school of thought, you can perceive the person can be a failure person or a good person. Abraham failed to meet all these requirements, but the whole Bible is asking all of us to follow his path, the footstep of this Abraham. It is really shocking; how can God do this? God, how can you be pleased by this Abraham such a failure child? Do you have this kind of question? Do you have this kind of problem to understand this school of thought? The two school of thoughts, one will be led by this life and the other one will be led by eternal life. If you pursue this life, you can try to build the Tower of Babel which will cause your own destruction and everyone will pass away and eventually become a dust and meaningless. Dream, hatred and beloved one will all make no more sense. For the people who pursue eternal life, they look at the whole thing in a different perspective and a lot of things in this life will become meaningless. That’s exactly why it is so difficult for people to pursue and to understand this kind of school of thought who pursue eternal life.

I would like to encourage all of you to do your own research and try to figure out. For those things cannot be understood by you, that’s all right. You can do some research and you would say: “Oh, in the past I had been pursuing with the school of thought of Tower of Babel, and that’s why it would cost so much destruction in my life and it cost so much sorrow.” So today we repent, you know what repent means? Repent will change from this school of thought to that school of thought. Then you see things will be very different. God had prepared a salvation for all of us. God had told us this is the path of life and that is the path of destruction. How important to understand the first 11 chapters of Genesis? So come to the end, never build the Towel of Babel in your own life. I pursue the name of the Lord which is the path of eternal life. Thank you very much for bear with me for so long. We will go into the Genesis Chapter 12. See you next week.