At the age of 17, Joni Erickson mistakenly dives into the shallow end of water on a swimming outing. She suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed from the shoulders down. She spent months in rehab, struggled with deep despair, and faced a life she would never have chosen for herself. However, over time, God used what appeared to be a devastating interruption to impact millions with the gospel through her testimony, her books, her radio program, and her speaking opportunities. In fact, Joni has often said that God accomplished His purposes through circumstances she would have never planned for herself.
Most of us have experienced moments when God led us down paths we never expected. Noah certainly did! Noah went from being a preacher of righteousness (II Pet. 2:5), to building an ark, to residing in an ark for 377 days, to starting all over on earth with just his family and the animals saved on the ark. God had a plan that Noah could not fully see! Today, we often cannot see what God is doing, how He is going to do it, and why He is doing it in the first place. Yet, like Noah, we will find greater peace and protection doing “all the Lord commands” us to do. We must yield to God’s sovereign plan.
A Bigger Story (Gen. 10)
This chapter is filled with a long list of names. Chapter 9 is a new covenant that God makes with Noah right after the flood waters recede to dry land. Part of the covenant is instruction for Noah, Ham, Shem, and Japheth to have children and spread out (9:1). They needed to repopulate the earth! Chapter 10 gives us those results! This long list of names shows us where all the nations came from.
In December, Grace Baptist Church will celebrate its 53rd year of gospel ministry in Marshfield. November 2026 will mark our 5th year of ministry at this current location on Lincoln Avenue. Before we could pack up the old location on 9th Street, and before we could even begin building this new worship center, our leadership team sat down with an architect to begin planning how the building would look and be laid out. The planning was so detailed that the final drawings showed where every HVAC vent, each window, and every electrical outlet would be placed. Much work went on behind the scenes ever before the foundation was poured!
God was at work in history long before anyone realized it! Every family, nation, and generation fits into His big plan. We can only see a small piece of the picture, but God sees the whole story from the beginning (Genesis 1:1) to the end (Revelation 22).
We have a plan for the day or the week. Sometimes we even develop and try to implement a “5-year-plan,” but there are still unexpected things that come along and disrupt our plans. God knows the complete detailed picture of our lives from the foundations of the world! He knew your relationship conflicts, your financial struggles, your health complications, and your emotional scars. He knew your weaknesses, your temptations, your addictions, and your wanderings even before you were born! We often do not know what to do next to solve our problems, but God knows the full story from beginning to end.
God knows my life from beginning to end – my loving God is in control!
God is working a bigger story than you can see or imagine! Noah simply followed God one step, one day, at a time. He was told to build an ark and he obeyed. He was told to organize the animals for the ark and he obeyed. God knew what a worldwide flood would feel like. God knew how He would rescue Noah and preserve His creation. God knew how things would be after the flood was over! God also knows your battles and struggles, and He is simply asking you to follow Him one step at a time and trust Him with the bigger story He has for your life.
A Bigger Name (Genesis 11:1-4)
One worldwide language, the determination not to scatter across the earth, and the desire to build a tower to reach the heavens, shows us:
The people did not obey God’s command to replenish or fill the earth. God wanted them to spread out and they stayed together (9:1).
The people wanted recognition and significance.
The people had a self-focus, “Look what we can do,” instead of a God-focus that pointed to “Look what God has done and is doing.”
The Bible is timeless truth, isn’t it?! I mean, we struggle with similar temptations today! We pursue success, pile up temporal achievements, guard our reputation with a fear of man, and say, “Look at what I did! If you think that was something, wait until you see what I do next!” But what attention do we give the work and person of our great God? Pride can often disguise itself as ambition. Pride is a core sin problem! Listen to the scriptures:
Proverbs 16:18 declares “pride goes before destruction.”
James 4:6 warns us that “God resists the proud.”
James 4:10 goes on to admonish that we “humble ourselves.”
Simply stated, our life on this earth is not about making our name great. It is about honoring and lifting up God’s name! Do not let pride derail you from following the Lord. Confess your pride to God and walk in humility!
A Better Plan (Genesis 11:5-32)
The plans of man are no match for the will of God. God will not be mocked, and He cannot be out maneuvered. God disrupts their plans of recognition and significance with confusing their language. Did you see what the outcome of this Divine act was? The people scattered (11:8-9). The people finally did what God commanded them to do in Genesis 9:1.
I was recently driving back from Tomah after an appointment. The GPS said those ever familiar words, “recalculating.” Before I knew it, I was driving on a frontage road. I have never been on this road before, and I began to second guess what the GPS was telling me to do. However, a little way down the road I could finally see the highway to my left in the distance. The traffic was reduced to one lane, and they were traveling no more than 5 MPH! Leaving the highway felt all wrong in the moment, but I later realized it was actually the guidance I needed but couldn’t see for myself.
You see, what looked like a setback for the people, was actually God accomplishing His purpose for the people! What we will view as God’s interruptions are actually God’s guidance for our lives.
Sometimes we humans insist on learning the hard way! Don’t we? We become so bent on our own way that we either willfully ignore or become blind to God’s declared plan in scripture. Here are 6 ways we will ignore God’s plan that we learn from the Genesis 11:
We will live for our own reputation (11:4, “let us make us a name”). Instead of seeking God’s glory, they pursued their own fame and recognition. Have we become more concerned about our image, success, and influence than we are concerned about honoring God and obeying Him?
We will pursue unity without God. The people were united in rebellion, not in following God. The unity we seek must be sharply focused on God’s truth. Do we strive to build unity around the truth — the Bible?
We will trust our own abilities without dependence on God. The people in Genesis 11 believed they could build the city and tower through their own efforts and skills. Do we neglect our need to depend on the Lord as we work towards our goals?
We will resist God’s clear instruction. God commanded the people to spread out, and they chose to stay together. We know what the Bible says, but do we choose a more comfortable or ‘reasonable’ plan instead?
We will choose to follow the crowd. Everyone is Babel was headed in the same direction. It is easy to follow the popular opinions of the day. It takes courage to stand up for truth.
We will focus on building our kingdom instead of God’s kingdom. The people were focused on their project and city. Ambition is not wicked, by itself. However, are our personal ambitions causing us to neglect God’s mission of making disciples and glorifying Him?
Adam and Eve thought they could hide from God (after the fall). Cain thought he could ignore God’s sacrifice instructions and do his own thing – he also thought he could kill his brother in a fit of rage, not considering the heavy consequences. The people of Noah’s day thought they could embrace wickedness and get away with it (after all, it had worked for them so far). In the future portions of scripture, we will read of how Jonah thought he could out run God (and not preach to Ninevah). All of these people got away with nothing! God’s will was and is always accomplished. So, even when God changes our plans, He is still accomplishing His plan. Choose to personally yield to God’s sovereign plan.