Genesis 10-11 Unity & Diversity – The Bible Teacher's CommentaryPaul Bucknell
Cultural DecayCultures are protected from fast decay because of an agreement on standards and stories which serve to uphold those values. Cultures begin to break down when outside ‘stories’ are introduced and different ways of life seem possible. The isolation of different groups has restrained the growth of wickedness by establishing many different cultures across the globe.
Further accelerating the speed of wickedness is the force of creating a world culture. People from different cultures are able to communicate with people from different areas. Education has increased the usage of world languages like English. Automatic translation services on the web and elsewhere are rapidly enabling others to transfer information to others. These ‘impurities’ seeping into each culture bring each culture closer and closer into the world. We need to be careful as we step into the 7th millennium! Dangers of Modern World CultureWhen we look back at Genesis 11:1-9, we find the isolationism of many cultures is being destroyed. Wickedness is increasing but so is the Gospel. 4000 new churches in the Ukraine in the past ten years. India with its vast number of isolated villages with their own languages are fast become evangelized. The development of these tall towers in the ancient world is significant. Each tower results from the ambition of man to show himself as greater than his neighbor. The destruction of the Twin Towers is at least a warning from God not to glory in himself. This does not restrain man, however, bigger and taller with Dubai the biggest bidder now. Applications• Diverse cultures are reminders of God’s way of preserving mankind so that God’s plan of redemption will be worked out in earth’s history through our Savior Christ Jesus. • We should not be fooled into thinking one culture is better than another. Each have their positive and negative traits. Instead we should remember that the problem of each of these cultures is no different from the sin that has entered the human race through Adam and that was passed on through Noah’s sons through Noah himself. • Time is now short. War and disease can devastate large numbers of the people on earth but unless technology is taken away from us, we have the capability of combining our arrogance in a secular world culture. Temptation will increase. How can we escape the word’s culture encroaching into our lives? Our children? Home schooling is one means but in the end it starts and remains with the purity of the heart and how much we have kept the world out.
Reflections
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