Hi there! Welcome to your weekly amalgamation of songs and spirituality! It's Tuesday's Musical Notes!!! Featuring the continuing story of musical exploits combined with Message examinations. Today we join ancient mankind at one of its most unified moments! That's a good thing right?
In the scope of most of the acts that we discuss here at Tuesday's Musical Notes, Mumford and Sons are new to the scene. The British band began in 2007 and in a decade have become one of the hottest musical groups on the planet. Their debut album, Sigh No More, peaked at #2 in the UK Albums chart as well as Billboard's Hot 100.
They are one of a few bands who did not suffer from a sophomore slump as their second album, 2012's Babel, soared all the way to #1 on both charts and became one of the fastest-selling albums ever. It also received the Best Album Grammy that same year and came in at #7 for 2012 at Billboard's end of the year album charts as well as #11 at Rolling Stone's similar countdown.
Babel featured 4 singles. "I Will Wait", "Lover of the Light" (peaked at #97 on Billboard's Hot 100), "Whispers in the Dark" (peaked at #81), and today's featured song, "Babel" (peaked at #60). All of the songs were released as digital downloads. Despite the success of the album, as you can see, none of its singles were dramatic successes. Seems that the songs of this album needed to be united to achieve the 3x Platinum sales history recorded so far.
We often hear about unity among folks being a good thing. Tuesday's Musical Notes agrees wholeheartedly. Much can be accomplished when folks of differing cultural backgrounds (1 race, the human race, everything else is melanin and culture) work together towards a common effort. One only need look at recent history to realize that wars can be won, the oppressed can be released from domination and evil can be defeated. But what does it look like when unity spawns a goal that is not a righteous one?
In reading this story about what is commonly known as "The Tower of Babel", you might wonder what is the big deal? Why is God upset that folks are united in everything, including building a structure to reach Him? Why would He seemingly punish the descendants of Noah as they worked together?
To put Babel in context, we must remember a few things. First, God is Holy, Righteous and Perfect. He expects righteousness and obedience from His people. When Noah's descendants reached the Valley of Shinar, they stopped doing what God had commanded. God had told Noah and his descendants to go forth, multiply, and fill the earth. (Genesis 9:1 NASB/The Message/KJV) For them to stop at the Valley of Shinar was disobedience to God's command. Since leaving the ark, they had stayed all together. No one was attempting to "fill the earth" which would have required venturing out on their own.
Secondly, their lives quickly became about making a name for themselves. I confess I really don't understand this one. They were the only ones on the planet. Who were they trying to impress? Certainly not God. They were disobeying Him. That's not a way to make an impression.
"Like the city that nurtured my greed and my pride,
I stretched my arms into the sky
I cry Babel, Babel, look at me now
For the walls of my tower, they come crumbling down"
I stretched my arms into the sky
I cry Babel, Babel, look at me now
For the walls of my tower, they come crumbling down"
It seems that their pride in their building skills got in the way of their worship of God. That's the way pride works. It replaces appropriate God-honoring worship. They seemed to be more impressed with their construction skills than God's supply causing them to become prideful. Pride says, "You've got this accomplished all on your own. You don't need anyone else." Worship becomes about the pronouns. "I", "Me", "My" replace Father, Son, and Spirit. Self-reliance replaces Creator God's provision. According to the Bible...this never ends well.
Finally, they were attempting to subvert God's plan. "Let's make a tower big enough we can all stay together forever!" That's the simple paraphrase of Genesis 11:4 NASB/The Message/KJV The fallacy that these folks faced was that their security and safety could be found in a building, albeit a massive one, or sheer numbers of people, rather than the guidance of the Almighty.
The point? Unity can be a very good thing. Good unity finds its foundation in righteousness and obedience to God. Loving God and loving others should be the foremost unifying principle of any movement. Unity cannot be founded on anything manmade. Unity cannot cause stagnation or disobedience. Unity based on pride in anything that does not honor God is not a sustainable unity. Unity like this just leads to a bunch of...well...babble!
"'Cause I know my weakness, know my voice
And I'll believe in grace and choice..."
And I'll believe in grace and choice..."
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
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