Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the Lord said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:1-9, NRSV)
I often wonder about this story…
Everyone on earth spoke the same language because they all descended from Adam and Eve. So they could all understand each other. So they thought they would build a tower and get to heaven. But why did they want to get to heaven? And why were they worried about being spread abroad?
And why did God not want them to get to heaven?
And why did God confuse their language?
And who is the us, when God says let us go down?
There are a lot of questions…
But my take on this story is it is a way to get from all of the people descending from Adam and Eve and there being so many different languages on the earth.
And we as a people need to know the answers. Just ask any parent what the most asked question by a kid is, and they will tell you why. We want to know why things happen or are done a certain way. We want to know.
So take it as a story to tell something. Maybe it is the formation of the languages, maybe it is a delay in us being with God fully in His kingdom, maybe it is a lot of things we don’t know.
But know this, the story shows us that God is present in the lives of the people He has created.
aSacredRebel 