Containment



Genesis 11:1-9
1Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
2And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
3And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
4Then 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, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
5And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.
6And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
7Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
8So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
9Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

When Satan tempted Adam and Eve he used the phrase “you will be like God.” Our story for today happens a few thousand years later and the exact same temptation is primary. The people have decided that if they can build a tower that is high enough they will be just like God. They want to “make a name for themselves.” Verse 5 is funny if you imagine it in your mind. Their great tower was so puny in the eyes of our almighty and powerful God that He actually had to “come down” to see it. Verse 6 makes it sound like God was actually concerned that they might succeed in becoming like Him. That is not the case. It means that God knew that should they be allowed to continue together their evil ways would increase even more. None of their evil plans would be impossible to them.

One cannot read this story without thinking of the antithesis of this event that happened in Jerusalem after the resurrection and ascension of Christ. The Disciples were given the gift of being able to speak languages they didn’t know when they came to the people to preach the Good News of salvation through Jesus. (Acts 2) In that moment, the Holy Spirit enables them to speak some of those languages that God gave the people back at the Tower of Babel. A world that had been divided is now reunited to hear of Jesus. Ravi Zacharias has commented recently that the divisions between us because of language have become even less significant with the birth of video. A picture requires no language yet communicates with clarity. In His mercy, God separated us so that evil would not take over completely. But He brings us back together to hear of His grace. Every day, the Gospel goes into places it has never been due to the work of missionary and linguists. God wants us all to know!

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