C.A.C SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON FOR August 30 & September 6, 2020 THE UNITY OF BRETHREN. UNITY ONE: BEFORE AND AFTER CREATION. LESSON FOUR : TOPIC – THE UNITY AT BABEL

By | August 30, 2020

C.A.C SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON FOR August 30 & September 6, 2020 THE UNITY OF BRETHREN. UNITY ONE: BEFORE AND AFTER CREATION. LESSON FOUR : TOPIC – THE UNITY AT BABEL

CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH WORLWIDE
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
THEME: THE UNITY OF THE BRETHREN
UNIT ONE: BEFORE AND AFTER CREATION
August 30 & September 6, 2020
LESSON FOUR
TOPIC: THE UNITY AT BABEL
Memory Scripture
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 11:4)
Imagine the amount of resources as well as time it would have taken for those people to erect this tower to heaven. Yet, God dispersed them. He who embarks on any project outside God’s programme for him has only successful wasted God’s resources, and will not go unpublished. Beware!
BRIEF COMMENT
The establishment of the city of Babel is as good as tracing the history back from Nimrod (the great hunter before the Lord), down side Kush, Ham and Noah (Gen. 10:6-10). The growth and its stability were favoured with God’s covenant for Noah and his descendants. They were graced to speak in one language. Saddening though, this oneness was negatively used to agree to a singular project to showcase their adamic nature, in trying to hijack the control of the earth from God, their Maker (in the same manner Lucifer tried to ‘dethroned’ God in heaven; Isa. 14:12ff; Ezk. 28:1ff), and to make a name (the name God didn’t give them) for themselves. To this end, their inordinate ambition brought them God’s judgment, resulting in language disorder and total dispersion — the result of uniting against God and His eternal programme.
The reason for their unity was the ambition to make name for themselves. They wanted to proudly display how mighty and knowledgeable they were in their desire to be independent of God, the Creator. Ordinarily, God would have appreciated their unison in coming together as one entity, if it were to duly represent His righteous will; but the reverse was the case. They determined to get to heaven differently from God’s platform, and this would not just be. They sought to bypass God’s plan — shortcut; quick fix. No one does without consequences. God is only interested and enthused when the acts of unity are well played, when they are traceable to, and linked with Him and His holy will. And this He wants from men (Eph. 4:13ff). Obviously, He frustrated their plan for His eternal purpose. Only His plan can stand the test of time. Don’t try anything He hasn’t endorsed in the first place.
Devotional Bible Readings For Week One
Mon. Aug. 24: No Alliance With Wicked People (Exod. 23:1,2)
Tue. Aug. 25: O God! People Unite Against You (Psa. 83:1-4)
Wed. Aug. 26: O God! See Confederacy against You (Psa. 83:5-8)
Thur. Aug. 27: O God! Deal With Your Enemies (Psa. 83:9-12)
Fri. Aug. 28: O God! Scatter Their Confederacy (Psa. 83:13-18)
Sat. Aug. 29: No Conspiracy Against God Stands (Isa. 8:9-10)
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS
1. Seeking self-glory and selfish gain cannot fulfill God’s motive for the unity of His people.
2. When a man decides to accomplish his own goals or ambitions, regardless of whose ox is gored — God or man, He should be ready to contend with the just God who rewards everyone accordingly.
3. This calls for sacrificial living on the part of all of us. We must strive to do God’s biddings regardless of how deeply it pinches. Only then can we enjoy His support and blessings on our endeavours, thus delivering us from wasted efforts.
BACKGROUND SCRIPTURES: Romans 1:18-28
AIM AND OBJECTIVES
AIM: To show that whatever is done in unity out of God’s will, no matter how great and important it may seem, can only attract God’s sanction, not favour.
OBJECTIVES: At the end of this lesson, readers are expected to be:
i. able to defend the fact that God is all the time interested in man, look after and supervise his activities from time to time;
ii. able to show the dangers of daring to play on God’s intelligence, or being rebellious;
iii. able to prove that all at our disposal are to be progressively justified in promotion God’s programmes for the enlargement of His kingdom; and
iv. showing signs of being more resolute to continually accept and appreciate God as the overall Controller of the universe Who never condones any rival.
INTRODUCTION
TEXTUAL SOURCE: GENESIS 11:1-9
From time immemorial, there has always been respect for the indispensability of unity. No wonder God has to bless the first family on earth to live as one without shame (Gen. 2:25). Unity is central in the performance of any group or organisation, and unity produces success. We saw this clearly in the life of Adam and Eve. When they were united in God’s purpose and programme, they kept enjoying His blessings, until when they chose to conspire (negative unity) with the devil against God’s command of love. It is also to their credit that even when they misfired and were punished, they didn’t separate or abandon each other. Unity must continue, but in God’s will and love. Those were the focus of the previous lesson.
This is lesson 4. The world then, following the fall (cf. Gen. 6:5,6)), had a wrong intention and wicked agenda to unite against God’s purpose, plan and programme for man. They conceived a great project that would bring the entire humanity under one umbrella in a place.. They were actually on a war course with the Lord who had programme and commanded man to multiply, spread and subdue the earth. This made God to come from His dwelling and cause confusion that prompted their dispersion.
Whatever the case may be, when a man, or group of persons choose to conspire against God, they are in for collision with Him like an egg attempting to collide with a rock. May we not waste our lives and resources, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
INTRODUCTION TO EACH DIVISION
This lesson is divided into two sections I and II. Each sections is further divided into A and B.
DIVISION I: THE MOTIVE OF THE UNITY:
This division I of this lesson is THE MOTIVE OF UNITY, with a further sub-division into: A. One World; One language and B. Over-Ambition. Here we would see the faithfulness of God as regards His covenant upon the descendants of Noah, as He gave them the skill to communicate in one language, provisions and knowledge. Upon this, they united and motivated themselves inordinately to put up the singular project they thought would connect them to the Heaven of God. It was like they were trying to equate themselves with God in making name for themselves. So, they arrogantly flouted God’s provision for man to occupy the face of the earth, preferring instead, to remain clumsy at a point building a kingdom for themselves.
DIVISION II: THE DIVINE RESPONSE:
Division II is about God’s divine and timely response to their act of foolishness, negative motive and wrong attitude to His eternal plan for the universe. God had from the beginning given man all he would need for life and godliness. Why the thought of building a tower to heaven? After all, God did not deprive them of Himself. Hence, He quickly looked down to frustrate their rebellious effort, stopping them from continuing with the project, and scattering them abroad.
LESSON OUTLINE
I. THE MOTIVE OF THE UNITY
A. ONE WORLD; ONE LANGUAGE
B. OVER-AMBITION
II. THE DIVINE RESPONSE
A. DIVINE ASSIGNMENT AND DECISION
B. DIVINE JUDGMENT RELEASED
LESSON EXPOSITION
I. THE MOTIVE OF THE UNITY (Genesis 11:1-4)
Motive is an idea or communication that makes one want to act on something. It is the basic prompting for an act. This definition implies that hardly would anyone do anything without something actually pepping him up to do it, whether negative or positive. Most saddening is the fact that man has not always acknowledged God, and given Him His rightful place. No wonder the people at Babel desired and decided to build a tower high to heaven to reach God, whether or not He wanted to see them.
A. ONE WORLD; ONE LANGUAGE (vv. 1-2,4)
Now the whole earth had one language and one speech (v. 1).
i. The whole world here indicates the descendants of Noah that survived the flood (Gen. 9:1). They came from the same father and thus had one language and one speech. Is there anything bad in that? No, of course, until godless motive began to spring up in them.
ii. The pursuit of erecting the tower at Babel originated and got developed from the oneness of the people’s voice. They could hear themselves well. They could agree because of the same language they spoke. It was easy for whosoever that muted the idea to convince the others into buying into it, given that they spoke the same language.
iii. The city Babel was the first record of a strong centralised society, self-sufficient civilised world after the fall. But the privilege of speaking the same language ran into their head to attempt to live independent of God, their Creator.
iv. Is God to be blamed for allowing them to be one language? No! It was a God-given instrument of unity among them, but the Adamic nature that had become part of man (cf. Gen. 6:5,6; Rom. 3:23) move them to abuse this privilege. The carnal mind can’t please God.
v. Their God-occasioned oneness became an instrument of conspiracy in the hands of the rebels, leading them to implementing the plan of the devil dropped in their heart against God (cf. Matt. 22:34). They didn’t want to be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth (v. 4c) against God’s desire for multiplication and subduing the earth.
vi. You are already going towards destruction as soon as you begin to set yourself above the level of God’s programme and provision for you. It is more than disastrous to think you can outsmart God.
B. OVER-AMBITION (vv. 3-4)
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 earth” (v. 4).
i. v. 2: Migration was part of the ancient world. They moved from places to places for the best places to settle down. This united group of people went in search of a suitable portion of the land, and settled there. But obviously, they soon forget God’s promises, blessing, and command of multiplication (1:28).
ii. Going outside of God for self-interest results in neglecting divine purposes and assignments, and that is suicidal (Prov. 14:12).
iii. v. 4: They desired to build for themselves a city and a tower, make a name for themselves. Obviously, they weren’t working with God. They side-lined Him. No one side-lines God and gets away with it. Can anything a man builds, or name he makes for himself stand, if God is not involved (Psa. 127:1-3)?
iv. The unanimous inordinate ambition for building a tower that will reach heaven, and making a name, made them God’s rival, an affront on their Creator. They were so wrongly motivated that they set out to do a very thorough but strenuous job (v. 3). Working outside God’s will is wasting one’s precious life and resources.
v. v. 4: They cooperated with the devil just as he did in the beginning in attempting to overthrow God (Isa. 14:12-15). Don’t build towers and names God isn’t happy with, lest they come down on your head in the end.
vi. God gave them the wisdom and skill to build but they abused it; used it against Him. Don’t misuse God’s grace.
vi. Those not contented with what God has for them can be very dangerous, because they may not care an inch for other people’s lives, and they are ready to do anything to get all they want.
LESSONS DERIVED
1. Great things can be done in unity when the undertakers are numerous and mutually motivated.
2. We must be careful with what we use our cooperation for, so as not to go against the will of God.
WORK TO DO
The Tower of Babel is an example of how not to undertake a project, or decision that is contrary to the will and command of God. Relate this to how some churches are engulfed in building great cathedrals instead of the Great Commission.
SUGGESTED ANSWER TO WORK TO DO
i. Of a truth, most projects embarked upon today in most churches are like building the tower of Babel.
ii. It is a pity today, that most of our state-of-the-art cathedrals are cathedrals of doom. Some cathedrals built today have human flesh and blood as their foundations. For God’s sake, can people expectedly meet with the awesome God in this kind of environment?
iii. Most towers of Babel called cathedral, today, are built at the expense of evangeliam, missions, and the due welfare of the congregants.
iv. Prevalent today is the occurrence of building cathedrals of competition instead of building people for the kingdom.
v. Many church founder take pleasure in in and prioritise the big size of structures erected. They proudly claim, “I am the senior pastor of a church of 50,000 worshipper in a single service.” But what their baseless pride beclouds their spiritual eyes from seeing is the fact that, so many of such members aren’t heaven’s candidates.
vi. What is the benefit of a cathedral built where countless jobless youths swam around, poverty among members is alarmingly increasing without any step from the leadership to help such people out?
vii. There are even several occasions where the senior men of God are the sole contractors of such lofty, mouth-watering projects.
viii.Revival programme as well as open-air Evangelistic outreaches in so many quarters have become means of fundraising because our cathedral has to be a befitting one, the best among others without caring an inch about the sources of such money.
ix. Building people for God’s kingdom the ultimate cathedral we need, now. These structural infrastructures would not aid salvation of souls when they are wrongly prioritised. In fact, they can send some sinners further away from Christ and the Church. Therefore, build people to build God-glorifying cathedrals.

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