Reading the Bible Together

The Passage for the Day

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that they were building. 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Points of interest:

•  ‘one language and a common speech’—in yesterday’s passage, we noticed the vast variety of land animals.  God didn’t simply fill the world with one kind of animal—golden retrievers, for instance—but with all kinds: sheep, goats, pigs, deer, snakes, lizards, panda bears, koala bears, polar bears, giraffes, chimpanzees, chipmunks, and on and on and on.  It was the same with plants, fish, and birds.  From the get-go, the natural world was a teeming diversity.  That’s not the case here with the human beings, though; they’re all golden retrievers, as it were.  They’re in the same place, speaking the same language, and doing the same thing—making bricks.  Initially, there’s definitely something alluring about this singularity.  It feels like Utopia: they’re all together, with a common purpose, accomplishing great things.  And yet, I can’t help but wonder if something’s gone wrong.  With the rest of the world presenting such an amazing variety, why would human beings be so monolithic? There are indeed signs that this isn’t how it was meant to be.  In the chapter just before this one (which didn’t make the cut into the top 42 because, while on topic, it’s a bit dull), we read of various clans, peoples, and nations spreading out into their own territories with their own languages; it’s the ‘according to their kinds’ list for human beings.  Yet, here we’re back to one language and one place.  It’s as if the potential for a diversity of cultures is there, but it’s being suppressed or held back.
•  ‘and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth’—in yesterday’s passage, God had commissioned the human beings to multiply, spread out, and fill the earth.  He repeats almost the same commission to Noah in chapter nine.  In both places, the Bible calls this mission a blessing.  Apparently, the people of Babel disagree.  They devise this entire tower-building project as a way to resist God’s call to multiply and fill the earth.
•  ‘But the LORD came down’—the tower is impressive enough that it gets God’s attention, but the Babylonians aren’t entirely successful in building a tower that reaches heaven: God has to come down in order to get a closer look. 
•  ‘So the LORD scattered them’—God will not be thwarted in this regard.  Since they will not spread out and fill the earth of their own accord, he forces them to scatter.  Spreading out into a variety of nations and languages is so important that God is willing to force it to happen.
•  ‘the LORD confused the language of the whole world’—in a way, God is merely setting things back on course.  There was always supposed to be a diversity of human cultures, but the Babylonians had put a barrier in the way of that natural progression.  God simply removes that barrier.  However, because God has to force it to happen, what was meant to be a blessing is tinged with curse: spreading becomes scattering, and the resulting diversity is marked by confusion and misunderstanding.

Taking it home:

•  For you: Has confusion been plaguing your communication with your family, friends, or workmates recently?  Ask God to help you bridge the communication gap.
•  For your six: At bottom, the whole Tower Affair happens to the Babylonians because they suspect that God means them harm instead of good.  Are any of your six angry with or suspicious of God?  Pray that God would somehow communicate to them his good intentions toward them.
• For America: Yesterday, we took a moment to enjoy the diversity our nation experiences.  I think it is indeed one of our highest ideals to be the kind of place where anyone, from anywhere, can belong and thrive.   In many ways, we’ve been able to accomplish a pretty amazing diversity.  In just as many ways, we often fall far short of our own ideal; we can end up behaving a lot more like Genesis 11 than Genesis 10.  Pray that God would forgive us for the ways we reject or mistreat those who don’t seem to fit in; and ask God to give us the ability to live up to our ideal of honoring diversity.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 4:00 am and is filed under God and the Nations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.