-J. Wilbur

Scene 1

Man's Monument

“A monument reaching to heaven!” thought the people. “That’s it!”

Man is the answer–unified man. We will build a city to gather our resources and sustain us. Man will govern himself. Go to; we will build a tower – a great monument up to heaven itself: a monument to symbolize man’s unbounded ability. It will rally all men together and make us a name – showing the glory of man.

Yet, thou shalt be brought down!

Man is hopelessly corrupt. “Go to,” said God to Himself, “let us go down and there confound their language.” The cup of His wrath was full.

For so long God had endured their defiance. And despite His great love and enduring mercy, they still would not love Him.

Why won’t they look at history and see the monumental events of the past? They simply would not.

There was the garden where disobedience resulted in separation from God: death. There was the flood which resulted from ultra-wickedness: all but eight died. Now this? A tower to reach to heaven? A blatant defiance of God’s command to “replenish the earth!”

A name, of all things – a name for man who returns to dust is what they chose over the glory and Name of their eternal Creator.

Judgment fell!

But still, God loved them. The reality is that in love He divided them into nations at Babel. He could see the end from the beginning and He knew that judgment was the only way to reach them.

So, to speak to them, He confused their language.

But, they wouldn’t listen. Their wickedness only increased.

 

Scene 2

The Old Wall

The monument at Babel remained unfinished. It now stood partial in its construction, for God did not accept the symbol of man’s glory into His heaven. It was now a monument only to man’s folly; a reminder of his unbounded confusion.

Over time, Babel’s tower waxed old and slowly decayed to nothing as all of men’s monuments do.

Their memory of it faded as well. They forgot about their hopeless confusion. Instead of repenting and giving glory to God, they built idols.

Despite this rejection, God loved man. And so once again He brought judgment. This time, however, the judgment was different and more severe – not intervention to stop them as the last time. This time, God withdrew from them to let them do what they pleased – to their own destruction.

But not all of them.

“Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house,… and I will make of thee a great nation.” said God to Abram.

At Babel, God confused language and separated men into nations. Now, He spoke to a man in clear language and formed a new nation. This man then “called upon the Name of the Lord.”

Abram was called out to head a holy nation, set apart for God; a nation governed by God alone. It would be unique and have a name: Israel, the “prince of God.”

All before Abraham had been supplanters of God’s authority. They built idols to glorify and obey. But Israel was called out. The living God of heaven was their king. Israel was called out to be obedient – as the light of God to the nations: the nations who knew only of looking to man.

Therefore, Israel was to remain isolated: set apart, a peculiar people. They were His alone. They were to love Him with all their mind, heart, soul, and strength.

God withdrew from the nations – at least for now. They had “no hope and were without God in the world.” But God withdrew from them in order to reach them. That was always His desire. Through Abram’s seed, God promised blessing to “all the nations of the earth!”

God loved the world. So, He built a wall of separation. The erected wall was later called the law of Moses. The law revealed God’s holy standards. It would keep Israel different. And by that difference it would bring blessings that would capture the world’s attention. It would one day cause the Queen of Sheba to travel hundreds of miles to Israel and say,

“Blessed be the Lord thy God.”

 

Scene 3

The Crumbling Wall

Walls are not popular. To most, they are perceived as suppressive, not protective. And whether there to keep one in or the other out doesn’t matter. The fact of its presence remains. The wall is there.

The law was given to protect Israel from the corruption of the nations – to keep them out. What a gracious thing in itself. But this wall had an even greater purpose. It surrounded the glory of God within. And so that great “middle wall of partition” stood to divide Israel from the Gentiles: to maintain a holy light for all.

It also allowed Israel to know and enjoy Him in a unique way. How He loved them and desired their fellowship!

His tabernacle was among them.

On one side of the wall lived people obedient to their Almighty Creator. They understood this, for in time they exclaimed in confidence, “all that the Lord hath said, we will do.”

On the other side of the wall existed those who in time would reach a state where their iniquities were said to be “full.” The obedient nation, when God’s cup of wrath spilled over, would be called upon to execute God’s judgment on those particular nations.

But the time came, and Israel would not. They would not do all that the Lord had said.

At Jericho they “committed a trespass in the accursed thing…and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel” (Josh. 7). Rather than remaining separate, the “accursed thing,” a Babylonian garment, was brought into their midst.

Even as the walls of Jericho came crumbling to the ground, so too was God’s great wall weakening.
The result was the deaths of 37 men; Judgment; And confusion in the nation!

The “obedient” nation itself defied the Name of their God. They defied His authority. The great wall, it turns out, was very weak indeed.

Time and again the prince of God rebelled. God’s great wall crumbled ever more easily through weakness in the people, for the wall is weak through the flesh. Israel simply had no power to obey.

In time, they demanded a king “like the nations” and “rejected God that He should not reign over them” (1Sam 8:7). They rejected His government.

Then they “...cast out the priests of the Lord...and have made...priests after the manner of the nations” (2Chron 13:9). They rejected His worship.

Finally, fully corrupt, Israel “hast gone a whoring after the heathen [nations], and because thou art polluted with their idols” (Ezek. 23:30).

They rejected Him.

The great wall remained, in a sense, for the people had still a name. But, in fact, it stood only in name, for the authority of that Name – Lord Jehovah - had been rejected. The wall was now little more than a decaying monument to what once was.

They had become just like the nations.

Israel would not!

 

Scene 4

The Rebuilt Wall

Walls have two sides. The nation of Israel was on one side and all the other nations were on the other. That fact never changed. Though Israel rebelled in their disobedience to the wall, the fact remained. The law was there.

The real question was, on what side of the wall is God?

For centuries God had been on the same side as Israel. Now, Israel had rejected Him – like the nations.

God, therefore, had once again to bring judgment!

God went to the other side of the wall to do it.

He judged Israel more severely than He had ever judged before. His rod was the very nations the wall had been keeping out. As Israel went to the nations for their idols of worship, so God brought the nations to Israel for their judgment.

He said to Israel, “I, even I, am against thee…” (Ezek 5:8). “… the God of Israel; … put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon…” (Jer 28:14).

Babylon is risen, is risen!

The holy city was sacked; the holy place, destroyed; and the holy people, dispersed into the nations. Israel had become hopelessly corrupt. So, God divided them.

Ichabod!

“And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city” (Ezek 11:23).

The prince of God was judged!

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…” Though they bore His Name, His glory had departed, for “they would not.”

But, still He loved them, for His mercy endures forever. And He loved the nations too.

So, from the “wrong” side of the wall…

“The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia…” He proclaimed throughout all his kingdom, “The Lord God of heaven hath … charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem…” (Ezra 1:1-2).

The temple, city and even its walls were rebuilt – all at the decree of an obedient Gentile.

Once again, God’s chosen people would be a nation holding to God’s law. Once again, they were behind the wall– being prepared to once again behold His glory.

Oh, how He loved them. Emmanuel!

 

Scene 5

God's Living Monument

Behind God’s wall, they were once again a separated people. The wall (law) was rebuilt; idolatry was destroyed; the holy city and temple were again inhabited.

Then one day, the glory appeared in Jerusalem, brighter than ever before, and with Him, the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.

Within the walls of Jerusalem, inside the temple, an old and frail man held a small Hebrew baby:

“the Seed of Abraham.”

In prayer, the old man said it all. “For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.”

The Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us.

God had told Abraham, “in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” And this was that blessed day!

The Son of God Himself was with Israel in Jerusalem! The Christ – the very “brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person…” was present. But, not just present in Jerusalem, He was inside the walls of the temple itself.

The glory of God had returned! Jesus!

All hail king Jesus! “Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

But wait.

No! Sorrow of sorrows.

How can it be? Again – again. “they would not…and Jesus went out and departed from the temple.” God’s house – their house – was “left unto them desolate.”

Ichabod!

The glory is departed, is departed.

Though the wall separating Israel from the nations was still there, it had lost now all its strength. The only strength it ever had was contained solely in the glory of the One who had now departed from it. And with His absence, the wall will fall.

Israel thought it indestructible. They maneuvered Jesus to the cross and never felt their position behind their wall stronger. After all, they had manipulated the great Roman authorities. That surely was power. How strong a wall can look on the eve of its destruction.

God did love Israel. And He loved the world too. But now, with His Christ rejected, there must be judgment - more severe judgment than ever before. Men must learn that He loves them!

And His judgment fell – again.

Swift, severe judgment!

“The tempest’s awful voice was heard; O Christ it fell on thee!” “O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.” “That bitter cup, love drank it up.”

The judgment fell on Him - Christ Jesus – in unrestricted fury. Such fierce judgment in such ferocious measure had never been seen in all of history.

He obeyed in all things – even the death of the cross.

He drank the cup of God’s wrath as it boiled over against the sins of Israel and the sins of the world.

“And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.”

The wall was “broken down,” even the middle wall of partition. God had built the wall, and God had broken it down. All nations could now have access to God.

“For God so loved the world…”

Then, God - the Son of Man - rose again!

Stephen, “looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and JESUS STANDING on the right hand of God… .” The glory left Israel, but it remains with God’s Son, for He is that glory!

The wall is fallen, but Christ Jesus is risen, is risen!

He is Lord! The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s standing monument. This monument says God is love, for He gave His only Son for our sins. This monument says God is righteous, for the resurrected Savior is for all nations. This monument is a man who has succeeded in ascending into God’s heaven, which man at Babel didn’t, for Jesus is accepted on the Father’s right hand. This monument gives the same hope to all men joined to Him. This monument brings believing man together in “the unity of ... the fulness of Christ.” This monument proclaims what Babel’s monument didn’t:

“Glory to God in the highest.”

A momentous event indeed. It was God’s plan from before the foundation of the earth. This slain Lamb of God is the very foundation of all God had ever planned.

“He was lifted up to die” that all the world might be drawn unto Him. His body was broken that all the world may know the Savior is a man. His blood was shed that all men might be redeemed, whosoever believeth.

“Now in heaven, exalted high.” This man is Lord!

It is finished!