Unrestrained and Unguided: A Fresh Take on the Tower of Babel

00:00 - James Spencer (Host)
He doesn't want people to be left acting in ignorance and dealing with a broken world independent of him, and so the scattering isn't purely punitive. Humanity's capacity for prideful innovation has reached a dangerous level, when God's intervention was an act of mercy as well as judgment.

00:19 - Speaker 2 (None)
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00:54 - James Spencer (Host)
Hey everyone, this is Dr James Spencer, and you're listening to PREPPED, where we dive into biblical and theological topics, and we are going to be looking at a specific text today that I think is really interesting. It's one that has captured my attention as long as I've been involved in biblical and theological studies, and that's Genesis 11, 1 through 9, normally known as the Tower of Babel narrative. Now, after today's episode, maybe you'll rethink that title, as I have. I still refer to it as the Tower of Babel narrative because that's kind of what everybody knows it as, but I'm not really sure it's about the tower. So this narrative is just, it's much more than an ancient tale. It does speak to our human condition and the way that our capacities, our ambitions, our God giftedness really does relate to God's sovereignty and how we need to be dependent on him, and so we're going to delve into the historical context a little bit. We'll talk about some of the theological themes and we'll also talk about some of the enduring lessons that this narrative may have for our modern life, and I think, whether you're a student of scripture, a church leader or someone exploring your faith, this episode will help you really understand this narrative better, and it'll help you understand how it reveals these different dynamics between humanity and God. So, as always, I would just encourage you to share the podcast with others. Follow us on your preferred platform, check us out on social media. Go to usefulthegod.com and check out more of our content. Your engagement really does help us spread these conversations to a broader audience, and I'm deeply grateful for your support.

02:21
So now, with all that said, let's dive into this passage and see what Genesis 11, 1 through 9 may tell us. All right, so first things first is this is a deceptively simple narrative. It's only nine verses and it's really captured the imaginations of people for centuries. I think sometimes, when these narratives are short, they're actually more difficult to understand, because everything that we are not seeing is almost assumed by the people that it was written to. In other words, the ancient Israelites would have understood this narrative in a very particular way, and they would have had the background knowledge, the cultural and social background knowledge.

02:59
To really understand what this narrative is saying and what it's trying to convey, we have to sort of poke around at it a little bit, and so I would say that often, when I hear discussions about this passage, they center on the architectural details of the tower, and that tower is commonly identified as a ziggurat. Now, these ziggurats are sort of temple structures While they go up these long staircases and it sort of has a temple structure or a place for worship and sacrifice up at the top. They do tend to symbolize the human attempt to reach the heavens. The humans are sort of ascending this tower to get closer to a god, this tower to get closer to a god, and I think, while the ziggurat imagery is compelling, focusing solely on the tower structure really does risk missing the deeper theological truths embedded in stories. So I'm not 100% sure that I believe this was to be a ziggurat. I don't know how much bearing that actually has on the narrative. There have been a lot of people who have studied this narrative who would disagree with me on that, and so if it is a ziggurat, I think okay, great, that's interesting that the people who are building this tower are trying to get closer to God. I think that could be an interesting dynamic within the narrative. But I also think that the narrative is pointing us towards something different, and so the way I would think about this is even if it is a ziggurat, even if that is a component of the narrative, I would view it as secondary or supplemental, as opposed to primary and highlighted narrative.

04:45
We've got to first immerse ourselves in the culture and the historical context. In the ancient Near Eastern worldview, the heavens were seen as the dwelling place of the divine, and so building upward would have symbolized bridging a gap between humanity and God. That's true. Striving for divine proximity wasn't inherently wrong, and after we leave the garden wrong. And after we leave the garden, after Adam and Eve sin and God throws them out of the garden, there's this distance that's created, a separation between humankind and God, so that instead of enjoying the presence of God as God walks in the garden in the cool of the day, now there's this separation from God. We see it also with Cain, as he's banished from the presence of the Lord, he no longer gets to offer even the inadequate sacrifices he was hoping to be able to offer.

05:31
He's now banished from the Lord, and so being closer to the God in this case the triune God wasn't inherently wrong, and so this is part of the challenge I think that we have with this narrative is that Genesis 11, 1 through 9, the tower builders seem to be acting a lot out of ignorance. It's not as if they're trying to construct a society in which they're going to create their own God or even become their own gods. They don't understand what they're doing. All of these things that they're building, they're building for specific purposes, if you notice. They're building because they don't want to be scattered across the whole earth. Now, that could be construed as problematic, and I think it probably is problematic, because what does God tell humanity to do? He tells them to be fruitful, to multiply it, to fill the earth and subdue it, and so these folks are trying to sort of centralize in one single place.

06:30
Again, I think all of that is important background, but I'm not 100% sure it's actually the force behind the whole story. Similarly, when the builders come together and I think it's 11-4, they talk about let us make a name for ourselves. That's often construed as sort of a central problem within the narrative that the builder's pride has gotten in the way and they want to make a name for themselves. This is a statement that they want to be proud of the work that they're doing and they're doing this for their namesake. Now, that's absolutely true, but again, I think that there is a distinction that we need to make between, maybe, some of the motivations that condition the way that they're building the city, the reasons they're building the city, and the actual building of the city itself.

07:21
So there is a deep, underlying sort of understanding of this that I would say is rooted in number one the ignorance of God. The tower builders simply don't have a good understanding about who God is, what God's asking them to do, and so they're in the world, trying to sort of navigate a broken world. They're looking out at the capacities that they have available to them. They can all speak the same language, they can bake bricks and, you know, make these, make stones. They have the technology available to do what they want to do. And then they start saying, well, this seems right, what this looks like seems right, we can do it, maybe we should do it. And so I think there's a sense in which they're trying to struggle with the you know, survival in a broken world. They're trying to avoid something that they view as a negative being scattered, and so they come together to build the city and the tower.

08:19
Now, all that sort of gestures toward the way I'm going with this narrative, but I want to kind of backtrack and fill in a few other things, because I think to fully understand it, we need to understand also the placement of this story, which is significant. It's going to come after the flood narrative, where humanity is given this fresh start. Yet, despite those renewed beginnings, the human heart's inclination is toward sort of self-reliance. In other words, the flood after after the flood is, um, after the flood subsides, after the water subside, and you have noah and his family. What we see is sort of this brokenness of noah, that the brokenness of the world is going to continue, that the waters of the flood don't actually fundamentally change the human heart, that there are still going to be problems, there's still going to be a distance between humanity and that the waters of the flood don't actually fundamentally change the human heart, that there are still going to be problems, there's still going to be a distance between humanity and God.

09:14
And so I think that the Tower of Babel narrative is this sort of cautionary tale. Almost it's what could happen. We've already seen Adam and Eve leave the garden, cain trying to manipulate God and push him in a direction that he would prefer God to go worshiping God on his terms as opposed to on God's terms. Then we move into the sons of God and the daughters of men narrative, where we see these boundary crossings, these distinctions being blurred and collapsed so that the way God has ordered the world no longer matters. After the flood, we see Noah get drunk with wine, we see his son acting inappropriately toward him, and this is where we get the curse of Canaan.

10:00
Probably, the way I think about that narrative is, you see, this mix of sort of garden or vineyard imagery and intoxication by that garden or vineyard imagery. And so there's something that is good and beautiful and has arisen out of this post-Diluvian age, that Noah takes too far. He is now naked, and that nakedness creates a shame. And so there are some of these interesting echoes with what happens actually after the human couple eats the fruit in the garden. And so what we're, I think, supposed to understand here, despite all the details and oddities of even that text, what we're supposed to understand is that the fallen condition that started with Adam and Eve has not ended with Noah. And so now we're entering a world where, yes, god has redeemed the world. He's no longer going to send a flood. He solved a more immediate or near-term problem of the multiplication of human wickedness, but the knowledge of God in the world is still lacking.

11:03
And so, as we get to Genesis 11, 1 through 9, we're in this moment where what's going to happen Is it just going to continue to devolve, as it did before the flood, to a point where God has to do something? He's got to step in because if he doesn't, these are going to be real problems. And these people in the land of Shinar, this narrative where they're going to build a city in a tower, becomes this sort of moment where we recognize that human ignorance plays a huge role in the ways that we can create friction with God and further separate ourselves from him. And so I think the placement of this story is really crucial, that being the sort of front end part of the placement and the back end part of the placement being Abram. Abram is going to be called in Genesis 12. And what does God tell Abram? He tells him that he will make a great name for Abram. He will make Abram's name great. Who are going to make their own name and make their own name great? God tells Abram look, trust me, do what I'm asking you to do. Come out of your land, go into this land where I'm going to show you and I will make your name great. And so the positioning of this narrative is really crucial.

12:17
Because what we're setting up, I think, is the sort of redemptive arc that begins with Abram, who is the father of Israel, whose Israel is going to now become God's people. They are to show the nations the wisdom of God that's going to be conveyed to them not only through the stories of the patriarchs and even the Genesis 1 through 11. All of these stories have this sort of really Israelite flavor, but that God also gives them the law and he calls them to obedience. But he gives them a rooting and an understanding of the world through his revelation, by revealing himself to ancient Israel Now Israel has. They understand who God is. They're experiencing God not only through things like the Exodus or the wilderness, wanderings or what have you, but they're also given this sort of insight, deeper insight, and an understanding of how they are to live so that they can access God's presence, and they do that through the temple and the tabernacle. So you can kind of see how a lot of these things are starting to converge. A lot of these things are starting to converge.

13:23
And Genesis 11, one through nine, while it doesn't have all this temple imagery or the sacred space or what have you. What it is doing, I think, is setting up this moment where God is saying, wow, they really don't know who I am, they don't know how to interact with me, but look at this amazing capacity that they have. If I don't step in and this is in fact what happens in this narrative if I don't step in and this is in fact what happens in this narrative if I don't step in, if I don't do something right now, god says anything that they wish to do will be possible for them. So, in other words, the unguided and unrestrained human capacity is the problem in the narrative of Genesis 11, 1 through 9. All these other things, I think, can fade to the background, but that idea of unrestrained and unguided human capacity they have the ability to do this. That is the real problem in this narrative. All right, so let me go back and talk a little bit about different things here.

14:25
The land of Shinar, where the story unfolds, is actually another key detail. It's later associated with Babylon. Shinar is going to become sort of a recurring symbol of rebellion against God. Throughout, scripture overshadows the conflict between human kingdoms and divine sovereignty. Babel, therefore, is not merely about a tower. It's sort of a microcosm of humanity's ongoing struggle to align itself, or unwillingness to align itself with God's will.

14:57
The builders. Their unity is achieved through a common language, and that's facilitated this ambitious project, because it's so easy for them to communicate, because they all speak the same language, they are able to come together and leverage all the capacities that they bring with them. But it's their unity that is sort of driving, maybe, their increased self-sufficiency we could say so we talked a little bit about previously in Genesis, and I'm trying to sort of situate this whole narrative in what we've talked about with Genesis through the rest of the episodes of PREPPED, because what I'll say is we are created to be dependent on, not independent from, god, and so, as we have human capacities that are not dependent or don't lead us to, we don't see them as leading us to dependence on God. That then results in self-sufficiency. So what's really going on here? Well, the folks at the Tower of Babel, the people, are speaking the same language. That's a real benefit, because now they can coordinate together. They no longer have this sort of limitation that constrains their actions in a way that would allow them to understand their dependence on, as opposed to independence from, god. And then they have the technology, so they're able to actually create materials for themselves, that they can build the sea, and so I think this is where we see this sort of the unity of humankind the ability that they have, the capacity that they have is actually driving less resilience or less reliance, excuse me, less reliance on God, and that's going to become a problem, because, for God, what God is trying to do is he's trying to bring humanity back to where they can actually be human and flourish as humans, and to do that, there has to be a dependence on him. They have to know who he is and they have to recognize that, even with all their capacity, they are to be dependent on God and following his ways. So they're trying to find this, they're using this unity that they can cultivate, they're using their capacity that they have, and they are ultimately falling away from God. They're pulling away from him, all right. So I would say one of the central themes of the Tower of Babel, then, is this unrestrained and unguided use of human capacity. The builders had access to advanced technology from their time brickmaking and mortar and they utilize these tools to pursue their own glory.

17:47
And when I say that, I don't necessarily just want to emphasize pride. This is about their ignorance of what it means to be human. I think a lot of times we do this in an un-nuanced fashion. We talk about the Tower of Babel in an un-nuanced fashion. This is just a narrative of human pride, and anytime humans build something big and beautiful, this is a. You know we're thumbing our nose at God. I don't think that's quite the case here. I think that they are acting in ignorance. Their capacity and their language doesn't push them toward reliance on God. It doesn't push them toward reliance on God. It doesn't push them toward dependence on God. It pushes them to independence from God. And so when I talk about them pursuing their own glory, what they're really doing is they're looking out and, in the absence of any sort of revelation from God and any understanding of who God is, they're trying to make their way in the world.

18:46
So I have some, I suppose, some more empathetic reading of the Tower of Babel narrative, because what I see is I see these people trying to cope with a really broken, savage world without God. And you know, we've all been non-Christians at some point. We probably all had the experience of dealing with brokenness without God in our lives, and I think that it's even difficult for Christians oftentimes to be dependent on, as opposed to independent from, god. We often want to just take care of our own problems, and so you can imagine that, in ignorance of who God is, without any real understanding of what he needs, what he requires, who he is, you know how they're to relate to him, all of this project starts to make sense. So I would say that the pattern of human ambition that's detached from God's will, attached from an understanding of God that's going to appear throughout scripture.

19:43
So we can think of Pharaoh in the Exodus who you know, is oppressing Israel without really realizing he's actually opposing God's purposes. This is what's meant by the Pharaoh who knew not Joseph right. The Pharaoh who knew Joseph. He had a good idea of what God was capable of doing through his people, and so when he's watching what's happening through the efforts of Joseph, he's not viewing those things as a threat. He's recognizing that God is working through Joseph, and that's different than saying that Pharaoh knew the Lord right. I'm not saying that this dynamic doesn't really comment on the salvation of that previous Pharaoh, but it's a recognition that that Pharaoh understood something that the Pharaoh who knew not Joseph just didn't.

20:27
And so now, as the Pharaoh who knew not Joseph is looking out in his ignorance over what's happening with the Israelites and he sees the Israelites multiplying and growing, all he's seeing is threat. He's got the task of carrying forward and shepherding his nation forward and now he's got this sort of rabble of slaves who are just can't seem. He can't seem to control that population and he's concerned. So is it bad? Of course it's bad. There's no excuse for it. It doesn't matter whether it's you know, he's doing it for sort of knowledgeably, or he's doing it out of ignorance. What happens there is bad, but the point is that sometimes these things arise out of an ignorance of God as opposed to a direct rebellion of God, when we say I know what you want me to do, lord, but I'm not going to do it. Or vice versa, I know what you've told me not to do, but I'm still going to do it, okay.

21:27
So I think it's a cautionary tale, and it's especially relevant in the modern world, because today human ingenuity has really unlocked some incredible advancements, from space exploration to genetic engineering. Yet when these advancements are pursued without regard for God's purposes, they can become tools of destruction and division or idolatry. So if you think just about something relatively simple like social media, for instance, I've done a lot of conversations about social media. You can check those out on my other podcast, thinking Christian. But while social media offers this unprecedented sort of connectivity, it can also amplify division and foster unhealthy comparisons. We're already seeing it.

22:08
The same tools that build can also break, and so I think the builder's ignorance of God's purpose left them to rely solely on their own capacities. They sought unity and greatness, but they did so on their own terms because they didn't know what other terms there were, and so I think this narrative serves as a sobering reminder that human efforts, no matter how sophisticated, can lead us astray when they aren't rooted in a relationship with God. When they are, our efforts tend to lead us toward an independence from, as opposed to a dependence on, god. So this narrative is not about a rejection of human capability. It's not saying hey, don't use the capacities that God has given you. It's really saying how is it that we go about seeking the guidance of the Lord as we're exercising our human capacities? How is it that we can restrain our capacities and allow our capacities to be guided by divine wisdom.

23:07
So let's just pause a little bit and reflect on this from a personal perspective. You know how often do we, as individuals or communities, undertake projects or pursue goals without really seeking God's guidance? I think so many times you know, I've been involved in ministries and different things like that and we pray, but we're praying about what we've already decided to do, we're not praying about what to do, and that is sort of potentially a form of this problem. We've already done the analysis of what we can pull off, what we think we've got in front of us, and some of that is appropriate, because God does give us these gifts to use them. But I think there's also this sort of moment where we sit back and we start to assume things because of what God's given us, and I think this narrative reminds us that we should be humble and dependent on the creator, who gave us our capacities in the first place. Now in the narrative, I think, uh, you sort of return to the narrative.

24:08
I think God's response to the building is actually pretty striking he number one. I think this is one of those moments where, uh, we see irony in scripture. So we were. We're presented with this picture of the, of the people who are going to build this grand city and tower, and they're going to make their name great with it, and this tower is going to reach to the heavens, right. And what does God have to do? Well, he's got to come down to see it. And so it sort of speaks to the dichotomy of what we consider to be grand and great and majestic and possibly tall, and God's still coming down to see it. And so God comes down to see their city and their tower, and he's emphasizing this. I think it emphasized this vast gap between human ambition and divine reality. And the image is ironic the builders aimed to reach the heavens, yet God still had to come down to inspect their work. It's this vivid reminder no matter how high we climb, we never actually reach the divine on our terms.

25:10
Now, by confusing their language and scattering them, god wasn't really thwarting their plans. He wasn't only thwarting their plans, he was also intervening to prevent further self-destruction. He doesn't want people to be left acting in ignorance, living on their own capacities and dealing with a broken world independent of him. And so the scattering isn't purely punitive, it's also in some ways, protective. Humanity's capacity for prideful innovation has reached a dangerous level when God's intervention was an act of mercy as well as judgment. And I think the scattering also sets the stage for God's redemptive plan.

25:54
When humanity sought to exalt itself, god steps in to ensure that his purposes would prevail. This is, you know, framed as all the people, all the people, could speak the same language. So now he's scattering all of humanity. He's no longer going to work through everyone anymore. The diversity of languages and cultures that result from Babel isn't a curse in itself. It becomes part of the rich tapestry of human existence. But I think we should also recognize that that curse, that scattering, the changing of the language, the confusing of the language, is intended to make sure that humans can't all come back together at some point and do what they tried to do at Babel. God is trying to get this sort of separated out, to create these distinctions, so that, hopefully, people will learn to depend on him as opposed to be independent from him. So I think God's intervention at Babel serves as a reminder of his sovereignty and his commitment to guiding humanity toward his purposes. And I would also say that, you know, in the sort of, I guess, spirit of the punishment fits the crime.

26:59
You know, we talked a little bit about this in Genesis 6. These boundary distinctions that the sons of God and the daughters have been that boundary crossing, the collapsing of distinctions results in what it results in a decreation event, and this decreation event is essentially the collapsing of boundaries and the elimination of these distinctions. The water and the land are no longer separate. There's now a flood, and so in this narrative, what we have is we have the tower builders coming together. They have the same language so they can coordinate together well, and they're trying to build this city and this tower to avoid being scattered.

27:41
So what does God do? God comes in and says look, if I leave them alone, they're going to be able to accomplish this and much more. Their capacity is actually that great. Now, what God is not saying is that the assault on heaven will be unstoppable. That's not what he means. I think that's part of why he you know the, the narrative pictures of him is coming down from heaven to see what's going on. Um, it's, it's uh. It's meant to convey the fact that, even if these folks are planning some sort of assault on heaven, they're trying to get to God through this tower that there's no way they're even close, and so I think that's not what's being said. But what is being said is look, these people can make themselves sufficiently independent that they're never really going to recognize that they need me, and so the way I read it is God is going to. Now he sees this capacity and he's got to break that capacity apart. So what does he do? He takes away their ability to coordinate by confusing their languages and he ends up scattering them across the face of the earth so that they are separated from one another, that they can't coordinate quite as well. So, finally, that's where I see this, and I would just throw this in there Part of the reason I don't think the tower is as significant.

29:01
So a lot of times what you'll hear is the tower babble. It's these people trying to reach heaven, and you'll notice I didn't ignore that in part of my analysis it's there, it's just secondary. But I think when people hold that primary, one of the things they missed is at the end of the narrative. The narrative says that the people left off building the city. Now, the two other times that city is used in this narrative, it's actually used in coordination with tower. It's always the city and the tower, the city and the tower. So the first two references are city and tower. The third references is just the city. And so I think if this were about the tower, if this were really about the tower and the tower was going to be prominent, I think at least you see city and tower in that last line. Maybe you just see tower in that last line, but as it is, you only see city. And so even if we argued that city is metonymy, you know it sort of refers to both the city and the tower. I think if this narrative is going to be about the tower, that sort of collapsing, that sort of metonymy wouldn't occur there.

30:10
Highlight of all this, and I think just the way the narrative flows, we actually read it what God is addressing is not the tower, he's addressing the capacity to build the tower. He's addressing the capacity to build the city and to coordinate one with another, and that's what he corrects for. So this near-term problem of the Tower of Babel is now solved in chapter 11, but there's still a bigger problem, like what do you do? How do you really keep humans? Now, even you know you're going to have all these different breakoffs and they're going to be able to speak their own languages and they're going to be able to do something relatively similar to Babel, right? So what happens? Well, genesis 12 happens. Genesis 12 is going to follow pretty immediately after the Tower of Babel narrative, and there's this juxtaposition between the two narratives.

31:00
Where Babel's builders sought to make their own name great, god tells Abraham I will make your name great. The contrast is just sort of stark. Babel demonstrates the futility of self-reliance, while Abraham's story introduces the centrality of faith and dependence on God. God's promise to Abraham isn't just about personal blessing. It's about the redemption of all nations, including those scattered at Babel. So through Abram, god would demonstrate what it looks like to live a life aligned with his purposes, and Abram's obedience becomes this model for us, showing us that true greatness, a greatness from God, comes not from self-promotion but from walking humbly with God. It comes as we are dependent on, not independent from, god, and I think that connection between Babel and Abram highlights this overarching narrative of scripture when human efforts fail, god's faithfulness will prevail. Abram's call marks the beginning of God's covenant relationship with his people, a relation that ultimately finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

32:03
So what does the Tower of Babel narrative really teach us about our modern context. Well, I think it challenges our assumptions about progress and achievement, and, in a culture that prizes innovation and independence, we often forget that not all progress is good. Progress, technology, knowledge, collaboration they're all tools, and tools need direction, and without God's guidance, our greatest achievements can become monuments to our pride, to our independence, our self-reliance, rather than expressions of God's glory. And so I think this narrative really does invite us to reflect on how we approach community and identity. Babel's builders sought unity, but it was a unity built on human ambition. It was a unity built on just on human flourishing, as they saw it. But I think true unity, the kind that reflects God's kingdom, has to be grounded in dependence on him, not in our own plans and our own desires, and so that has profound implications for how we actually go about engaging in relationships, building institutions or pursuing collective goals. I also think that the story reminds us of God's sovereignty Even when humanity's plans go awry, god's purposes remain firm. Babel's scattering wasn't the end of the story. It was part of a larger narrative that finds its fulfillment in Christ, who brings people from every tongue, tribe and nation together in his name.

33:23
So, for us today, the question becomes, you know, are we building towers or altars? Are we striving for our own glory? Are we really operating in dependence on God or are we operating independently from God? And I think that answer is really significant. So, as we wrap up, I just want to leave you with this thought the story of Babel challenges us to examine our own ambitions and align them with God's purposes. Are we building lives that glorify him, or are we focused on making a name for ourselves?

33:54
That's really, I think, where the point of the narrative comes in. Are we directing our capacities? Are we so dependent on God that, as we exercise our capacities, they are appropriately restrained and appropriately guided, or are we seeking to take the capacities that God has given us to build a life that is relatively self-reliant and independent from God, fooling ourselves that we don't need God in our lives, that being independent of him is what we're actually shooting for? That's the real challenge, I think, that the Tower of Babel narrative presents to us, and so we need to learn to exercise our capacities within the context of God's wisdom. And as we move forward in Genesis, what we're going to find is that Abram's life, jacob's life, you know the lives of the patriarchs, even the teachings of, you know, leviticus, deuteronomy, numbers, all these other books. What they're going to push us back toward is look, humanity flourishes. Independence on God, not independent from God, that's what it's pushing us toward.

34:59
And so these two narratives, I think particularly Tower of Babel, 11, 1 through 9, and the call of Abraham in Genesis, 12 through 4, but then off the elite, continuing forward. This is where that starts to really show itself, and I think that fits very well with what we've seen in Genesis 1 through 10, the portions of it that we've covered, that, this idea that we need to be dependent on God, and part of that dependence involves obedience. Part of that dependence involves trust. A lot of that obedience now involves restraining the gifts and capacities that God has given us in order to serve him with those capacities as opposed to serving ourselves, being dependent on him and serving his purposes as opposed to being independent from him and trying to serve our own purposes.

35:45
Hey, thanks for listening to the PREPPED podcast today. If you're enjoying these episodes, please share them with a friend or at least leave a review, and don't forget to check out our resources for further study at usefultogod.com. That's www.usefultogod.com, You can join me next time as we explore Genesis 14 and continue unpacking what it means to live faithfully in a broken world. Until then, take care and stay grounded in God's word.

36:12 - Speaker 2 (None)
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