The city according to man (1)

"Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch ; And built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch." Genesis 4: 17

After killing his brother Abel and refusing the grace of God, which led him to repent, Cain wanders on earth, according to God's judgment : "When you plow the ground, it will not give you its strength any more; Thou shalt be a wanderer and a vagabond on the earth "(Gen. 4: 11). To get rid of this curse, Cain regroups with his descendants and builds the first city. Cain gives him the name of his son : "Enoch", which means "dedicated, initiated, consecrated" ! It becomes a center of activity and culture, but God is excluded from it (v.21, 22).

After the flood, God blessed Noah and reiterated his order to fill the earth : "Fruit and multiply and fill the earth" (Gen. 1: 28; 9.1). But the passion for making a name is perpetuated : "The men said," Come, let us build a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the heavens ; And make us a name, lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth "(Gen. 11: 4). It is Babel and its tower, a monument to the glory of rebellion and false religion. Babel will become "Babylon the Great" under Nebuchadnezzar (Dan.4: 30) and will represent the whole world, the political, economic and religious realm in the coming reign of the Antichrist.

Today, Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, is the tallest human structure ever built (829 m). The Jeddah Tower, under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is expected to reach 1,001 m in 2018.

And what about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which represented a concentration of evil that we see in our cities ? Yet the thought of the city, of the city, belongs to the council of God. We'll see him tomorrow.

For us today it is a place of testimony :

- like the Lord Jesus passing through the cities and the villages preaching and announcing the kingdom of God "(Luke 8: 1)

Or of Philip, who went down into a city of Samaria, who "preached unto them the Christ" (Acts 8: 5)

- or Paul and Barnabas who "having evangelized that city" (Derbe), "made many disciples" (Acts 14:21) ... let us be witnesses in ours.

Source (To pleasing the Lord)