God’s Divine Will v/s God’s Submissive Will

Matthew 3:13-17
The Baptism of Jesus
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for **us** to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
16 **As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”**

THE TOWER OF BABEL

Genesis 11:1-9

**Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.** 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The LORD said, “If **as one people speaking the same language** they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let **us** go down and **confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”**
8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because **there the LORD confused the language of the whole world.** From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Notice in verse 9 above, it says this is where the Lord confused the language of the whole world. But in Genesis 10:5, BEFORE the Tower of Babel, we see that each nation ALREADY had its own language:

Genesis 10:5 (From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own **language.)**

The word used for language here is actually translated as **’tongue.’** Meaning each had their own tongue.

Now look at Genesis 11:7 again.

Genesis 11:7 Come, let us go down and confuse their **language** so they will not understand each other.”

The word used for language here is actually translated as **’cause.’** Meaning each was turned over to his own cause (will).

The one language and common speech that man had described in Genesis 10:1 was tongues of the Holy Spirit! The ‘confusion’ was caused by the pulling of the tongues of the Holy Spirit from man here to allow them to follow their own cause; or in other words, to allow them to follow their own will.

Remember when the Lord said this before the flood:

Genesis 6:3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

This appears to show it was 120 years from this instance to when the Deity pulled the Holy Spirit at the Tower of Babel.

After the Deity pulled the Holy Spirit, this remained man’s condition until Jesus came on the scene at His baptism in preparation for the New Covenant (Matthew 3 above). Pay close attention to how the Holy Spirit was not given back directly to man but was instead given to Jesus to give to us, the first of this outpouring upon man we later see in Acts 2. Man must now go through Christ to get it because man could not be trusted with it! This REALLY gives depth to God’s love for us as well as His intimate desire to reconnect with us!!!!

In these two instances of Scripture, the presence of the Deity denotes a change in the Holy Spirit (God’s submissive will (allowing man to follow his own will) v/s God’s divine will) as it relates to man; either by giving or removing this gift of tongues, or rather, the Holy Spirit. This is deep…because it shows why man struggles with his own will (God’s submissive will) over God’s divine will in relation to lacking the baptism of the Holy Spirit.