sermonette: Restoring Pure Speech
Reversing the Tower of Babel
Mike Ford
Given 11-Oct-03; Sermon #FT03-03s; 19 minutes
As I sat in
Sabbath Services about a month ago in Victoria, British Columbia, I was listening to Martin's sermon on meditation. And he asked that we turn to Zephaniah 3 verses 8 and 9, which you could be doing. Zephaniah 3 verses 8 and 9. And when I heard that, I sat up and took notice. Actually, I was already sitting up. I hadn't slumped over at that point. But I was afraid he was going to trample all over my sermon and I was going to have to sever our friendship of over 30 years, maybe kick him out of being best man at the wedding. Who knows? And then of course this morning John trampled the rest of it, so. I can't do much, but I think it's
God's will. I see God's hand in this. In Zephaniah 3 verses 8 and 9, we have first of all a prophecy of Armageddon and then in verse 9 a prophecy of beyond. Therefore, wait for me, says the Lord, until the day I rise up for plunder. My determination is to gather the nations to my assembly of kingdoms, to pour on them my indignation, all my fierce anger, all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. After this outpouring of God's anger, let's notice what he does, for then I will restore to the peoples a pure language. That they all may call on the name of the Lord to serve Him with one accord. So on
Christ's return, We will receive a new language, a pure language. Why is this necessary? What's wrong with the languages we have now? And if we need a new one, why can't we just use one that we already have like English? I know that one. Well, to answer these questions, let's take a look at verse 9, and let's break it down and examine it more closely. I think that it falls into 4 natural divisions.
God says He will restore. To the people, a pure language. The King James says he will turn to the people of pure language. The Hebrew word translated restore or turn is hayha, H A P H A K, and it means to change, to overturn. To return So God will restore to us. He will return to us a pure tongue. This means He's going to give us back a language. That we had in the past. When did we ever have a pure tongue? A pure speech, and where did it go? Well, this is my own speculation, but think about this. What happened to the language that God gave Adam and Eve? God personally taught them. Do you think you would give them anything less than a pure tongue, a pure language? In the 1700 years that led up to the flood from Adam and Eve, I'm sure that variations to this language developed. I'm sure that regional differences came about, that colloquialisms respond, but the basis for all speech was still the same, the language that God gave Adam and Eve. Now the Bible lists 9 generations that went from Adam and Eve to Noah. While Noah was living, 6 of those forefathers were still alive. Now you think about it, my mother and father are still living, but all of my grandparents are dead. Noah could speak with Euss. Adam's grandson His great great great great great great grandfather. Adam lived another 695 years after Enos was born, and then on the other end, Enos lived another 84 years after Noah was born. Do you think Noah spoke the same language as his father and his grandfather and Enos? Well, of course he did. Did you not speak the same language that your mother and your grandmother taught you? So if Noah spoke the same language as his progenitors, his direct ancestors, as I think he did, then after the flood, that would be the language that was spoken by everyone who descended from them all the way up to the tower of Babel, approximately 115 years after the flood. So let's go to Genesis 11. We haven't been there in a while. Let's go to Genesis 11 and verse 1. Now the whole earth had one language. And one speech. The same language and the same speech that God gave to Adam. In verse 4, as we heard earlier, the, the people began to build a city and a tower and to make a name for themselves. In verse 6, the Lord said, indeed, the people are one. They all have one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now, nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let us go down there and confuse their language that they may not understand one another's speech. Now Noah was still alive at this time. Was his speech altered as well? What it says in verse 9. The Lord confused the language of all the earth. Uh, does this mean he separated the universal language into many separate parts, or did he just give new languages to all the people? We do not really know. I'm in I'm inclined to think that he gave everyone, including Noah. A different tone. At Christ's return, He will restore to us a pure language. Speculation on my part, of course, but it's interesting, is not it? I think this language he's going to restore to us is going to be the one he originally gave Adam and Eve. Now let's turn over to Ephesians 4 and verse 29. This pure language that we are going to receive implies that our current speech is impure. How so? Well, in Ephesians 4 and verse 29, we have a well known ammunition, and I would like to read it to you from the amplified Bible.
Ephesians 4:29. Let no foul or polluting language. Corrupt communication in the new King James. Nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk ever come out of your mouth, but only such speech as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, then it may be a blessing and give grace, God's favor to those who hear it. Well, what constitutes foul or polluting language or corrupt communication? I think some words or phrases are obvious. Things like obscenities are taking God's name in vain. Even I think most of us understand euphemisms and such. Evil words, unwholesome speech, worthless talk, foolish silly expressions are not to come out. Of our mouths. Well, has it ever occurred to you that the language we speak are so full themselves of filthiness or unwholesome. Sometimes downright silly speech. Now let's take English for example since it's the only language I know, I can't really tell you about any others, but I'm sure it's the same for all languages. If I wanted to meet someone on a certain day of the week, I would say I'll see you Sunday or Monday or Tuesday or whatever. The names of the days of the week, just like the names of the month, honor pagan gods, the day of the sun, the day of the moon, the day of Thor, the day of um. Can't think of Friday, but Yeah, yes, thank you. I knew that I was testing you. But anyway, the days, the months all come from pagan sources. Astrological references peer our language. The Gemini space program comes to mind. Superstitions are part of our language. The word lunatic comes from the Latin word for moon because people used to think that the moon made you crazy. And then there are the peculiarities of our speech. I've heard it said that English is the most difficult language of all to learn. I do not know if that's true, but I wouldn't doubt it. I read in various sources that the number of English words ran from a low of 250,000 to a high of over 3 million. Of these 3 million words, about 200,000 are in common use. An educated person has a vocabulary. Of about 20,000 words. And in a given week we will use roughly 2000 of those words out of unavailable 3 million. The sheer numbers of words are overwhelming. And how in
the world are you going to learn all those rules that govern their usage? Is it wood W 00 D or is it wood W O U L D? Is it there, T H E R E or there T H E I R, or if you're from the south, there T H E Y Apostroe R E. If the plural of box is boxes, why can't the plural of au beauxes? It's just there is there is so many available options. Is it any wonder that we have miscommunication? What about political correctness that has pervaded society? If you're in jail, are you a prisoner or a client of the correctional system? If you're out of work, are you unemployed or non-waged? A major reason we ended up homeschooling our kids was because I was so disgusted with what I read in their textbooks. There is a book by a historian named Diane Ravitch called The Language Police. This lady spent years studying how textbooks are written. And she discovered that educational publishers. Apply rigid, politically motivated standards to the words that can be used in school materials. Try writing a book on United States history without making liberal use of the words America or Americans. Both of which publishers claim suggest geographical chauvinism. This is true. Did you know that the word fraternize is sexist, can't be used. The phrase Adam and Eve should not be used, and if you must, it is Eve and Adam. The state of Massachusetts prohibits the depiction of Asians. As studious, intelligent. Or having strong family ties. I do not know about you, but it's always irritated me to be called studious or intelligent. The appendix in Ms. Ravitch's book listing banned words. It goes on for 30 pages. Sensitivity is one thing. Stupidity is an entirely different arena. And then there is the gobbledygook in our language that permeates legal forms and government bureaucracies. Don't even get me started on government bureaucracies. I have a file of serinent material where I clip things and I have some outtakes here that I do not even recall where they came from, but This was in an article, and they spoke of an involuntary conversion of a 747. They were not speaking about a religious experience against the airplane's will. The involuntary conversion of 747 means it crashed. Another report Stated, talked about negative patient care outcome. He died. This is my favorite. The helicopter suffered and I'll wait till he See, that's the problem with different languages, right? They had to wait for that to be translated to Irwin and Irwin back to the Boyers. Yeah. And Irwin had a cipher through which of the 6 languages he speaks did he want to put that into. OK, my favorite on this one. The helicopter suffered an uncontained blade liberation and failed to maintain clearance from the ground. A blade fell off and it crashed. And do not even get me started on people that insist on using obscure words or large words to stroke their own vanity. One of my pet peeves is reading movie reviews, and I have to have a dictionary by my side to read a simple movie review. It's hard enough for those who speak English as their first language to understand this, how much difficult, more difficult it is for those where English is their second language, and there are millions of those, as you know, living in the US right now. God will restore to the peoples a pure language that they all may call on the name of the Lord. How many languages and dialects exist today? How many have disappeared over the millennia? We do not know. We have no idea. A pure language is needed so that we can all, all of us call on the name of the Lord with one tongue so that we all understand God's word without ambiguity or uncertainty or doubt. I heard Paul Harvey say on one of his newscasts that California has 1600 court interpreters and of course needs many, many more. 1 million Californians speak little or no English, including the new governor elect. Fully one quarter of the state of California, 25% of the state were born in other countries. There are over 200 languages and dialects used in California alone. The tower of Babel all over again. Uh, I do not want to throw you a curve Irwin, but I'm going to insert a sentence here because we stopped at the Tennessee Aquarium on the way here and they had an exhibit of seahorses from around the world. On the one for the island nation of New Guinea. We had a picture of the tribesmen. And I wrote down exactly what it said. It said they were once notorious as headhunters. I assume that means they are no longer headhunters. I do not know if they have Cannibals Anonymous or what, but they are no longer headhunters. But this is what I thought was so interesting. Over 1000 languages, 1/5 of all languages in the world are spoken on New Guinea. 1000 languages on that one little island nation. What would it be like if we all spoke one language all over the world? Would life be better for us? I do not really think so, not without God's
Holy Spirit. It, it's let's take English again for an example. The United States used to export cars and computers and steel and so on, and now all we export is our culture. I picture some poor nomad in a tent in Iraq and he's got a satellite receiver and he watches 24 hours a day of Baywatch or some such, and he thinks that Americans are sitting over here drinking their buds and their cokes and driving new cars and watching girls in bikinis, and he's learning his English. That's where he's getting his English. Without God's Holy Spirit, a universal language would be a fiasco. Can you picture the entire planet taking God's name in vain in one language? 5 billion people using the F word. It would happen 5 billion people saying dude, or using the word like 10 times in one sentence or a. Remove the language barriers without God and life doesn't improve, I think more likely life as we know it would end. Pornography is already a huge industry. It would just become mainstream. And I do not think religious wars would diminish if everyone spoke the same language, they would all be falling over themselves to convert people to their ways, causing additional wars. Now granted different languages. And different cultures creates Uh, different ideas of worship. So one universal pure tongue is necessary so that all people using God's Holy Spirit can call on the name of the Lord. Now once this happens, It says and Zeph and I, we can serve him with one accord. Now I've already stated that I believe this pure language is going to be the same as the one that Adam spoke all the way down through Noah. But people speaking this language back then did not serve God with one accord. We heard a lot about that this morning. I read earlier in Genesis 11, the whole Earth had one language and one speech. But instead of serving God, they tried to build a tower up to the heavens. They were so puffed up with pride that they thought they were on a par with God. God said, the people are one, they have one language, look what they are doing. The population did not serve him with one accord. They revolted because they did not have God's Holy Spirit. That will be the overriding difference in the
kingdom of God. We read earlier in
Zephaniah 3:8 that God is going to pour out on them, on the people of this world, his indignation, all of his fierce anger. And the remnant that's left will be chastened. And humbled, and God will restore his pure language. And because His Holy Spirit is working on all of us, we will serve him with one accord. What a wonderful time we have to look forward to, brethren. No more misunderstandings. Due to language barriers, no more cross wires, no more racial epithets, offensive or foul speech, no more corrupt communication, no more political correctness. Everyone is speaking and hearing pure words. Worshiping God with one accord. Let's close in Zechariah 14. And in Zechariah 14, I want to read first of all verse 16, then go back to verse 9. Zechariah 14, verses 16 and 9. And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left, the remnant. Of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the
feast of Tabernacles. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth. In that day it shall be. The Lord is one and his name one.