VIC – Genesis 11 – The Tower of Babel picks up on a continuing series of short studies on Very Important Chapters of the Bible.
There was a time when the population of the earth all spoke the same language. God has told the crown of his creation that there were suppose to scatter across the world, fill the world, and subdue it. These people didn’t want to. They thought it would be a better idea to make a name for themselves. Some people call this humanism – the worship of self. This idea is everywhere in our day. It can be hidden in the language of self-esteem, but the reality is that we need to find our identity in God – in his plan our for lives.
God, of course, saw what these people were doing so he decided to frustrate their efforts. In a very early witness to the trinity, God said – Let us go down and confuse their languages. That let us is a fascinating look at the Godhead have a conversation among himself. Our God is triune – Father, Son, and Spirit. That means that all of the languages that you hear on the world today were created by God. There isn’t a language that is necessarily better than another. The result was that the tower stopped and the people were scattered.
This Genesis 11 account shows up infrequently in the pulpits across our church body on Pentecost Sunday. This is because on Pentecost God the Holy Spirit undid Babel and everyone heard the gospel in his or her native language. Glossolalia – or speaking in the tongues – still happens today, although the practice is abused in some Christian churches.
Want to hear more? Watch this week’s study from our series VIC – Genesis 11 – The Tower of Babel.
Please click HERE for the Bible class slides.