Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Confusion, Part 4

Centuries passed...kingdoms were built...and destroyed...
            Death and destruction followed mankind like they were a hunted species.  People continue on paths disaster.  False gods rose, and idolatry was rampant throughout history.  All the while, a remnant of Shem's family remained faithful, watching and waiting and praying for salvation to come and right all that had gone wrong with mankind's fate. 

...until one day, another sort of family huddled together, far away from the site of Babel, which was still a center for evil, selfishness, death and idolatry.  This group, however, gathered for a sacred purpose.  For centuries now, this little strain of Semite people had been gathering, as commanded by God, to celebrate the harvest.  The Feast of Weeks was upon them, and the Hebrew people gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate.  Among them was a ragtag collection of misfits that, at first glance, did not look like they belonged together at all - fishermen, tax collectors, women of questionable histories, along with intellectuals and priests.  This group gathered in a room this Feast harboring a deadly secret, fearing for their lives and desperately awaiting for the promised deliverance.
            Suddenly there was in that place a sound like a violent wind.  As Peter, son of Shem Abraham, Isaac and Jacob looked on in amazement, what looked like tongues of fire came down to rest on each of them, and as people began to open their mouths, an amazing discovery was made.  This little group of warrior nobodies was speaking in languages not known to them, and the descendents of Shem that had gathered from all over the world to celebrate the harvest - parts of the family that had been unable to communicate with each other since that day so long ago - discovered that they could understand one another!  They each heard their own language spoken with ease!  The barrier of language was being broken down by the very Spirit that had placed it there to begin with - in His mercy.
            As rumors of drunkenness began to take hold, Peter, son of Shem, stood to set things right:
            "Fellow Jews, and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain..."

            And the God of all wisdom and clarity began on that morning to restore unto His people that which had been lost on that other morning over 2,000 years before in the place known as Babel - the place of confusion.  The promised helper had come, and the journey of the restoration of humanity had begun. 

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