Tyranny (Pt. 1)

Welcome back, everyone. Today is Monday, November the 21st. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abhinanshal, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, you can send us a text at Clearview5825028, or you can send us an email at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

Of course, follow along with Dr. Shah on his blog, Abhinanshal.com, and you can support us financially on our website, ClearviewTodayShow.com. Every contribution that you make goes not only to supporting this show, but countless other ministries for the building up of the kingdom of God. That's right, and you guys can help us keep the conversation in the airwaves by supporting this podcast. You can like it. Well, of course, you like it. I hope you like it. You can also give us a like online. You can share it online, like us on Facebook, leave us a good review on iTunes, and just help us keep the discussion alive. That's right, absolutely.

Follow us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, all the social media where you can keep up with what's going on here on the show. That's right. You ready for the rest of the day? Yeah, man, hit them with that verse.

All right. The verse of the day today comes from Psalm 103, verse 19. The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. That's a good Monday verse. It's established. There's some security there.

I can face the rest of the week. You know why? Because the Lord has established his throne in heaven. That's right, and it's not going anywhere.

That ain't going nowhere, man. No power of... What is it? No power of hell? No scheme of man? No scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand. That's right, that's right. You're getting like old school on me.

You caught in hams. You know, I opened for the Gettys one time. I sure did. In college, we did a little brass ensemble right before them, and I remember... Oh, that's right. I remember you telling me that.

That's right. They came in and I was like, who are those guys? And they were like, that's the Gettys. I was like, that's the Gettys? I was like, oh, wow. Cool. I thought you were pulling my leg for a second, but then I remembered that you actually did tell me that story.

I didn't meet them or nothing, but I saw them. It was kind of cool. I tried something new in the kitchen. I was sending stuff over Snapchat. I was sending people pics and like kind of bragging a little bit because I am such a... I mean, I'm a master at the kitchen. I'm not gonna lie.

Chef extraordinaire. Yeah. I watched Ratatouille at least three times, so I know what's up. Now the question is, do you have a small rodent directing your movement? You do.

Okay. I actually do have little Funko Pops of Alfredo and Remy and they sit on my kitchen stove and they kind of watch me cook. That's a great movie. It was a fantastic film.

Love that movie. I made hummus spaghetti. Basically what that is, it's spaghetti, but instead of a tomato sauce, you just put hummus. So basically I took a pan, I took olive oil, I took some spinach, I cooked the spinach in there, basil, what else? Hummus, paprika, all that stuff. Took some of the pasta water, put it in there, kind of livened it up a little bit, and then just put the pasta in there. Whole grain pasta because we're about this healthy life over here. We healthy out here.

Yeah. It looked delicious. It was smelling good. It did look very good on Snapchat.

It was looking good. Did not like the taste at all. Did not like it.

Oh, that was gonna be my question. No, it was not good. I love hummus.

I love spaghetti. Something about mixing those two did not work. Not a fan. It's a vegan meal, which I'm not vegan, but I was like, hey, I'll try it.

Sure. Now I see why people pick on vegan so much. That was not good. It was just not good.

I'm sorry to hear that. Do you feel like, was it the hummus? Was it the pasta? Was it... See, I tried again, not with hummus, but I tried whole grain pasta with turkey and spinach. I basically did the whole same recipe except with tomato sauce instead of the...

I liked the whole grain pasta. Okay. So maybe the hummus. They just don't go together.

They don't go together. I love hummus and I love spaghetti, but I don't think those are two that are made to be... But you see all these people on Tik Tok and all these YouTubers and they're trying it and they're making it look so good and they're like, the secret to my pasta is hummus.

And I was like, all right, I'll try some of your hummus. It did not taste... The secret is we don't actually see them eat it on camera.

No. Well, we see them eat it, but they're like... You remember when Rachel on Friends, when Rachel tried to make that shepherd's pie half custard? You remember how Ross's mom just stood up and was like, it did not taste good. I just heard her looking at me from across the room. I looked into Ross's mom's eyes and she was like, this does not taste good.

Truly so sorry. I was like, Ms. Geller, you're right. You're right, Ms. Geller.

I just need to... So I had to take the walk of shame after I bragged about it to Ellie. I was like, oh man, I'm so creative.

This is gonna taste so good. I had to take the walk of shame while she watched and dumped the whole thing in the trash. I was like, I cannot eat it. I'm so sorry. Well, good on you for trying something new though.

I tried it new. Yeah. Yeah. Well, in today's episode, we are talking about something that... Actually, Dr. Shah preached on this a little while ago with the... We're walking through the book of Genesis. We're walking through the accounts it contained there and we came to the Tower of Babel. Many people are familiar with that story, but what people may not realize is that it holds a lot of truth for us today, especially where we are as a country, as a nation. So we're gonna talk a little bit more about that today from Dr. Shah's message, Tyranny.

But before we do that, if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, make sure you text us at 252-582-5028 or you can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. We're gonna go get Dr. Shah and we'll be right back. Hey there, listeners. My name is Jon.

And I'm David. And we just wanna take a second and talk to you about Dr. Shah and Nicole's new book, 30 Days to a New Beginning, Daily Devotionals to Help You Move Forward. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're gonna get stuck. You're gonna have goals that you just can't seem to reach and you're gonna be looking for some new way to start over. Unfortunately, life does not have a restart button, but here's the good news. God's mercy is new every day, right? And so that means every day is a new chance for you to start over. Dr. Shah and his wife, Nicole, have written a new 30-day devotional in their 30-day series designed to give you practical tools for starting over. No matter where you are in life's journey or what pitfalls you've encountered, this devotional is going to help you move forward, refocus your mind on God's truth, and meditate on His Word. And you guys can pick up a copy right this second on Amazon.com.

Unless you're driving. Yeah, don't shop and drive unless you're driving, in which case, wait till you get home. But we're gonna leave a link for you right here in the description of this podcast, so it'll be waiting for you when you get home. That's 30 Days to a New Beginning Daily Devotionals to help you move forward. And for the remainder of November and all through December, we'll be sending a free copy to anyone who supports the podcast by visiting us online and donating to the show at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That is a very, very good incentive, gang. That's 30 Days to a New Beginning Daily Devotions to help you move forward by Abaddon and Nicole Shah. Thank you guys so much for listening. David, you want to jump back into the show? Let's go.

All right. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abaddon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com, or you can send us a text at 252-582-5028. Dr. Shah, welcome to the studio this morning. How are you doing today? I'm doing very well.

This is Monday. Had a great weekend. Had a wonderful weekend. And it's good to be back in the studio. Very cool sermon last week, might I say. Thank you.

We had a lot of good responses. Oh, yeah. Yeah, especially from people who have heard it all the time.

But you know what? You may not have heard it, or you may have never even heard the show before. If that's the case, we want to introduce you to Dr. Abaddon Shah. He's a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University. He's an author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's episode.

That's right. And on today's episode, we are talking about something that you talked about from the pulpit a little while ago. We're walking through, of course, in our series on apologetics on content, we're walking through the book of Genesis, and we came to the account of the Tower of Babel. And this is something that, you know, people who have grown up in church are familiar with the Bible. They're familiar with that account. But there's so much that you brought out of that account that we haven't considered, especially where we are, you know, as believers today, in our nation today, and even how it impacted the events throughout history. Right. So tell us a little bit about how you began to prepare that message, and in your study, how it sort of changed into more than just a retelling of the Tower of Babel.

Okay, sure. So we're going to begin with where we are in America today, and then I will kind of get a flashback, right? Or like the old movie, Total Recall. We're going to go back in time, I guess. Well, where we are in America today is not a good place. There are a lot of things happening that people have warned us about, and we're seeing them happening before our eyes, where our freedoms are now being compromised. So we as Americans should understand that this nation was founded on that principle that we are the kings, right? We are the kings in a democratically elected system, where we elect representatives who are then bound by the Constitution and the Ten Amendments to do what we expect them to do. That is what our founders created.

Now, the Total Recall, let's go back in time. You're talking about the Tower of Babel, because that's where the people came together. God had told them after the flood, after Noah came out of the ark, the commandment was the same as the Garden of Eden, which is, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth.

It means spread out, go everywhere. And if you study the accounts carefully, what you see is that the people stayed by Mount Ararat, or somewhere in the mountain range of Ararat, for almost a year. And then finally, they began to move from Mount Ararat, and they moved down into the plain of Shinar, which is Mesopotamia, right, which later became Mesopotamia, which today is modern day Iraq, between those two rivers, Tigris and Euphrates. So they moved down there, and they decided to build themselves a city, a metropolis, and a tower, which was so tall that it almost was into the heavens, means it was piercing the clouds. And their goal was twofold, actually. One goal was that we will make a name for ourselves, that posterity will come and just stand there in awe of this immense structure, and just marvel at how their ancestors did something so incredible, built something so incredible.

So number one was awe, or admiration. But secondly, they did that so they wouldn't be scattered. Now God had told them to go spread out, multiply, fill the earth, and they said, no, but we're going to stay together, hang together, because if that flood comes back, we need to be together. We cannot be people scattered in some valleys, or some mountains, or some plain somewhere.

If we're together, we can quickly get on top of this tower, or we can find ways to help each other. We cannot trust God. God's promise may or may not happen.

It's a very enlightening way of looking at it, because typically, when you tell the story of the Tower of Babel, it's still a dishonor to God, but it's like, we just want to make a good name for ourselves, which is your first point. But it's also direct disobedience. It's not just a passive, making yourself bigger than God. It's directly disobeying His word to spread out.

Absolutely. And I love that you brought out, this is not that far removed from the flood. We're not very far from that major event in world history, so people are still thinking, I know God has said this, but what if the flood comes back? You think about the Tower of Babel as sort of a free-standing thing, but these are descendants of the people of Noah's family who came through the flood. I think that's the thing about your sermons, Dr. Shaw, that I like, is that there's always context. We see these stories as, this is Noah's flood, and then this is the Tower of Babel, and this is Adam and Eve, but these stories depend on one another. There's context that goes between all of them.

Absolutely. I mean, Shem, Ham, Japheth are still there. This has just been a year since they came out of the ark. Barely a year since God made the covenant with them, the covenant that He will never again destroy the world with water. But I don't believe these people trust God, because they still want to hang together. They want to build a tower. One reason I believe the tower was built was so they can quickly climb up there and protect themselves.

Just in case God goes back on His word or something. Right. I mean, think about the kind of bricks they were making. They were using, the phrase there is very interesting. It's nisfrah, lisfrah, which means let us burn them to a burning. So these are not going to be sun-dried bricks.

These will be put into a burning, fiery oven, heated to who knows what temperature, and then so hard that no amount of floodwater can ever damage this tower. Wow. That was their goal. It's like they're going out of their way to almost prevent themselves from falling under God's wrath or something. When He said, I'm not going to do this, I give you my word.

They're like, just in case you do, I want to make sure I'm ready. Well, and even in that, there's elements of disobedience to God. There's elements of pride because you're not, I mean, God has said this, but you're not believing in what God has said. You're not taking Him at His word.

It's okay. I know you've said that, God, but what if this happens? We've got to have our backup plan.

Yeah, we cannot trust this God. We have to take care of each other. I mean, humanism was born not in the Renaissance.

It was born at the Tower of Babel. Very true. Very true. It's one of those weird things where, I mean, I guess it's not weird. It's all in God's plan, but He specifically wiped out all of humanity, save for Noah, and yet this sin still creeps in.

Not even a single year after that happened, human nature is showing itself again. Right. And so God did not take it lightly because the Bible says there was a discussion in the Trinity. Although the word Trinity is not used, not even the fact that God is one in three persons was used, it's simply that it says, let us go down and there confuse their language.

Let us. It means God is speaking, and it's not a royal we. Some people think that is not just the way kings talk. No, we shall come and see what we need to do.

No, it's not a royal we. This is God having a discussion within Himself in the plurality of the Godhead. And He came down.

I don't know how that happened, but the languages were confused. Man asked for a hammer and he gets, I don't know, a feather. Like a level? A level. And somebody tells the guy, you know, hey, step back.

You're about to fall. He said, well, go forward. And, you know, I don't know how that confusion happened, but they abandoned the project. But now it seems almost like God is sort of, you know, intimidated by people. That He sees humanity coming together in solidarity and God is like all threatened and said, we got to go over there and disperse them.

I don't think that's happening here. What is happening here is that God is actually protecting humanity from itself. And the way we know that is if we go back to Genesis chapter 10, it tells us about a certain person more than anybody else in that genealogy.

It's a long genealogy that is given in chapter 10, but the one person who is mentioned in detail is a guy by the name of Nimrod. Is there any foreshadowing to what we typically think of a Nimrod? Is that on the table at all? No.

Not at all. Yeah. When we call somebody a Nimrod, what do we mean? We mean like a foolish person. Not bright. I'll clean my language up for the radio, but it's a foolish person. Yeah. A foolish person.

But not here. Here, the word Nimrod, according to some Hebrew grammarians is actually coming from the word marad. And again, we don't know for sure.

This is just conjecture, which in essence means let's do as we please or let's rebel or the rebellious one. And he is described as a hunter before God. Now don't think of him as a hunter just as hunting animals.

Maybe he did that. Maybe he was a very good archer or hunter or whatever. But I believe it's also the way his name is and the fact that he hunted and then he founded cities. I believe he hunted for people in the sense of being such a enigmatic personality that people were drawn to him, that he had a way of motivating people.

He had the sense of dynamism that people were attracted to him and they would do anything that he would tell them to do. We're talking about like an anti-Christ. Yeah. He sounds like a dictator. Right.

Right. And spiritually speaking, like an anti-Christ. So Nimrod was that kind of a person. So he was not some dimwitted person.

He was actually a dynamic personality that knew how to move people. I mean, he built so many cities. I mean, if you read Genesis chapter 10 verse 10, it says, and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, but that's not it. Erek, from which we get our modern Iraq, Akkad, Akkadia, Calna in the land of Shinar, but it's not over. From that land, he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, same Nineveh that Jonah. Same city. Right. You know, before the sermon, I did not, I had no clue. I had no clue that that was the same city Nineveh that, because you read it and you're like, oh, Nineveh, that's kind of like, you know, where Jonah went.

Same exact place. And it all came from him. Right. And I keep in mind that Nineveh that Jonah went to reluctantly is coming out of the Neo Assyrian empire. So Assyria was a power, but then it went away and then it came back just like Babylon went away. There's a Neo Babylonian empire. Right. So also this is the old Nineveh.

And then also it's not over yet. His kingdom keeps going Rehoboth, Iyir, Cala, and Rezin between Nineveh and Cala. That is the principle city. It means that was like the hub of his power. Wow.

So did he use this crisis at Babel, this confusion to kind of consolidate that power for himself? Yes. Wow. Yes.

He, I don't believe he is the one who started this. Just looking at the generations that came, but I believe he was poised and ready. In a sense, I can just picture this, this massive structure is going up. And I believe there were not like hundreds of thousands of people by now, because it's only been one year, but hundreds and hundreds of people all around because it's been a hundred years, right?

A hundred years. So hundreds of people all around building this massive city, this massive tower. But very quickly, this man Nimrod becomes a very influential person. Everybody looks up to him.

Everybody turns to him for questions. Oh, Mr. Nimrod, we're thinking about this. What do you suggest? We're having this festival. What do you suggest we do? Who would be the guest of honor? Would you like to be the guest of honor?

Because we feel like, you know, you're so, so important and integral to this task. We want, and okay. All right. I'll be there. I will.

I'm honored that you would ask me to come. Anything for the people, but inside that's his plan all along. Let me ask you this Dr. Shah, cause I'm kind of putting pieces together in my head and I'm starting to see clearly things that I didn't see even when I listened to the sermon. So you've got Adam and Eve and then all of their descendants down to Noah. And then that's about 1500 some years.

Right. And then Noah goes through the flood and then his family. And then we get to the tower of Babel and now we're seeing, is this the first central, is this the first instance that we see in human history of centralized power? Oh yes, absolutely. So Nimrod is literally the first, not leader in the spiritual sense, but like the first like secular worldly leader or authority power. And think about how powerful he is.

Okay. Noah is still alive. Noah still has about three, 400 years to live.

Wow. So Noah is not building kingdoms. Shemham and Japheth are not building kingdoms, but one of Ham's grandsons Nimrod is.

Yeah. We don't hear about human powers in Adam and Eve's day or in Noah's day. It's all like relationship between human and God. But now this guy Nimrod comes on the scene and now human beings are starting to elevate themselves. I guess that it really comes full circle when you think about tower of Babel and the theme of it is humans are elevating themselves, but you don't think about it on this depth.

Yeah. I have to wonder, you know, what Noah who remained faithful to God in spite of the wickedness around him, what did old man Noah think as the world, as you can see the world around him changing? You know, if you, if you read Genesis chapter, you know, eight, nine, he's not doing well.

I mean, if you know some of the things that happened in his own family, but with his own son, right. And maybe that's, that's a topic for another time, something very degrading, like an abomination happened. And so he's not doing well. Yeah. And, you know, for one comes out of the ark and he plans himself a vineyard and gets drunk. So I mean, we're not doing well. You come off the ark and that's your first thing.

Literally zero generations removed from the flood and things are not headed to the pub. Yeah. Yeah.

That's not a smart thing to do. But I love that about the Bible though. And I appreciate that not everything has that Sunday school happy ending.

And because at the same, like I want that happy Sunday school ending at the same time, man, the Bible is so truthful and it deals with human elements and human things that happen to human beings. Right. Right.

It does not glorify its heroes. Right. Right.

You know, it lays them out as bare and as flawed as possible. And that, that's why the Bible is like no other book in history, no religious book, no document, no dissertation, no bestseller can ever compare to the Bible because it does not glorify its heroes. That's right. That's right.

And you think about the truth of that and you think about the reliability of it. Because if I was writing the Bible, like, yeah, I would say these are the dudes you, you, you know, you follow. These are the dudes that you model yourselves after. But the Bible is literally pointing out all of these flaws, all of these shortcomings and pointing only back to God. That's right. There's only one perfect person and that's Jesus Christ.

That's right. And I love how you brought out, you know, we, we think about God coming down and confusing the people's languages as a, you know, an act of judgment or even like God was intimidated about what the people could accomplish if they put their minds together and set toward accomplishing something. But God was protecting humanity from itself.

Absolutely. And how many times throughout history has God had to protect humanity from itself? You know, Bill Federer, one of my favorite speakers and thinkers, even historian, in his two volume work on, you know, how this, this, this Nimrod like people have come throughout history. He divides the world history.

I love it. He divides the world history into three parts based on power. And it is concentrated power, separated power, and power concentrated. So power, concentrated power as in a Nimrod is going to come along and try to bring power together under his control and try to dominate the world, to dominate every human life. And then through God's intervention, his providence, power separated means just the way he did at the Tower of Babel, he comes down and he just thumps humanity and scatters them. But then power concentrated.

Somehow the next Nimrod will come and bring power back under his control. If you use that lens to study history, it makes a lot of sense. Wow. Wow.

I appreciate Bill Federer's work in this regard because it really helped me through the years. It's such a fleeting thing, power, because ultimately we know at the end of the day, and you pointed this out in your sermon, that there's only one who actually has any real lasting power and that's Jesus Christ. He's the only ruler that's never going to disappoint us. That's right. Yeah.

That's right. Amen. What a great discussion. If you guys enjoyed today's topic, make sure you text us at 252-582-5028. Or if you have any questions about anything we talked about, questions for Dr. Shah, or suggestions for future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. You can also email us at contact at clearviewtodayshow.com. Don't forget, you can visit our website clearviewtodayshow.com and support us financially. We're so thankful for all of your partnership. We're thankful for those of you who have already given, and we really want to push forward this idea of us being partners. That's language we use intentionally, us being teammates, standing together shoulder to shoulder as we seek to reach as many people as possible for the gospel, for the kingdom of God. That's right. John. Yes.

Do you have any last minute advice for our listeners today? Invest in a firm, thick pillow. A nice, like a really nice pillow. Even if you got to pay upwards of like what?

I don't know. What would you pay for a normal just pillow at Walmart or something? Just a regular, basic pillow? You'd probably find one for $15, $20.

Yeah. I would say pay $50 for a nice pillow. Pay $50 to $55 for a nice good pillow because the reason why is you get one of those nice, thick pillows that kind of envelops your head. I'm not talking about like a hotel pillow that's super, super fluffy feathery and just you sink right into it. I'm talking about like a nice, good pillow with neck support.

You lay down at night. If you sleep on your back or whatever, you're going to be thankful because it's going to last. There are some things that you just got to invest in and I feel like mattresses, pillows, stuff like that.

You know what? I'm with you on that one because I went the route of like, yeah, just it's a pillow, you know, whatever, just a cheap pillow. And I would have just neck pain, just tension waking up. But then I, I did well invest in a pillow. We haven't, we, Elizabeth and I both have the same kind of pillow. It's a memory foam pillow and it has a kind of a cutout for your neck. So you, you sort of lay in, lay in the pillow and it literally like you're laying in the pillow, but it still supports you.

Oh man. And for all you young cloud offer young dudes out there, if you're gonna, you may as well get a few of them because when you get married and your wife gets pregnant and she's, she's, she's, you know, pregnant, she's going to take your pillows. Those are all her pillows now. Go on ahead and stock up on them because I had, I had like two or three pillows that were mine that I would put up under my neck. I've got one for my like side, one for like under my head. Those are all hers now. So I didn't invest in enough. You, you had pillows and now you have no pillows. Now I've got no pillows. So one thing that I've noticed is I, you and I, I think you and I both have this problem.

We're typically, we have broad shoulders. Yeah. So if you lay on your side, does your head like lean to one side and I always got to put my arm underneath and then after a while it falls asleep and I've got like the tinglies in my arm as I'm trying to fall asleep. I used to do the double pillow. Yeah. Just two pillows at once. That's too much. Maybe we'll consider just a rock, like a stone like that support.

It may be helpful. He even had dreams. Remember that Jacob had dreams. He was sleeping good enough on a rock to actually dream. The first Tempur-Pedic pillow.

That's right. Well, let us know about your pillow situation at home. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview Today.