As we continue to babble on
They said, ‘Now let’s build a city with a tower that reaches the sky, so that we can make a name for ourselves and not be scattered all over the earth’.
Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which they had built, and he said, ‘Now then, these are all one people and they speak one language; this is just the beginning of what they are going to do. Soon they will be able to do anything they want! Let us go down and mix up their language so that they will not understand each other.’ (verses 4-7)
Read Genesis 11:1-9
If it wasn’t serious, this would be quite a funny story. A group of proud, self-satisfied people decide to build a tower ‘that reaches the sky’, and it falls so far short of the mark that God has to come down to see it. Their aim was to get an impressive name for themselves and to guarantee they didn’t get scattered all over the earth. The result: a tower that God is not impressed with; the mixing up of their language, so that this proud group of people is reduced to not understanding each other; and they are scattered all over the earth. .
Today proud and self-satisfied people admire the magnificent and minute skills they have developed over the ages, and they declare that God is irrelevant, if not dead. His power and grace are no longer needed.
There is a sequel to this story. Over a millennium later, people of many languages heard and understood a group of simple men proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. So, despite the huge variety of languages that still exist, the one thing needed is accessible to everyone.
Father, thank you for your message, which transcends languages and bridges the gap between nations. Amen.
by Robert Turnbull, in ‘God’s Promises for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 1999)
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