The thing about music
Early on in Genesis, before much had a chance to happen, humans already completely ruined the amazing world God had created. So much, in fact, that he destroyed the world. He sent a flood and wiped out all but a faithful few. He sent a rainbow to promise that he would never do something like that ever again.
Well, he also did something rather interesting to ensure he wouldn’t regret his decision to spare the world from another cleansing.
(Genesis 11:1, NASB) Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words…. (4) They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” (5) The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. (6) The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. (7) Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” (8) So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth….
When God took away their ability to communicate easily, he prevented them from becoming too powerful. He also made it more difficult to spread the gospel later on.
You may remember the story about the day of Pentacost, when the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues to overcome God’s original curse.
(Acts 2:5, NASB) Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. (6) And when this sound [of rushing wind] occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. (7) They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? (8) And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? (11) …we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.”
God used the apostles despite their poor language skills. He gave them the words to say. Their message could not be held back by any language barrier. Our own mission doesn’t even have such boundaries. I haven’t met a Finn or a Swede on this choir tour who hasn’t spoken English quite fluently. And even aside from that, our medium is music, which transcends language barriers.
In his “Great Commission”, Jesus instructed us to go “make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19, NASB). And he doesn’t qualify that statement, either. According to Wikipedia, there are 206 sovereign nations in the world today. Whatever nation you’re in, there are disciples to be made.
What we are doing right now is God’s work. We are going into three of the nations. Don’t forget our mission.
I think maybe I’m just feeling combative or something, but I want to pick this apart a little.
If God cursed mankind not to understand each other’s speech, and if God in His power used people who did not speak well (and didn’t even speak the language they were using) to preach His Word, why should we bother with education?
How many people did you meet on your choir trip who were not already conversant with your religious beliefs?
Actually, most of them. Even at the Adventist schools, most of the students were not Adventist, and many of them were not even Christian.
Well, I’m only fluent in English, and I certainly do not have a theology degree, but if God wanted me to preach, he would certainly give me a way to do it, right? I don’t think that just because he imparts his Holy Spirit to some in the form of extraordinary preaching ability, he will expect any less of our continuing education.